[Axelion]

Does anyone know how to make an OS backup?(without external data which has no association with windows files)

I think it would be very safe for me if I could just backup my OS because if my hard drive fails.....I'm doomed....
Yes, just the OS. I don't need the data because I don't do business and usually I make a backup of my project spreadsheet into a flash drive. Backuping the whole thing(OS + Data) would take a lot of space.
I want my second hard drive to be my backup drive.

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Not realistically feasible. Programs intertwine with Windows so tightly it's almost impossible to unpick it all.
Your best bet is to simply clone the drive to your second drive. Then if your main drive does die, all you do is clone it back to the new one. Yes it takes up more space but it's the easiest option. A program such as Norton Ghost will do what you want.

[Neil Jones]

Not realistically feasible. Programs intertwine with Windows so tightly it's almost impossible to unpick it all.
Your best bet is to simply clone the drive to your second drive. Then if your main drive does die, all you do is clone it back to the new one. Yes it takes up more space but it's the easiest option. A program such as Norton Ghost will do what you want.

[phillipcorcoran]

Just to second what Neil has told you. For 'cloning' or creating an 'image' of your system drive on to another hard drive I personally use 'Paragon Drive Backup' and it's never let me down. I've used it to create a drive image of the system drive for all four laptops in our family after we've removed all the pre-installed 'junk' you get on new computers these days.

Even though each laptop has it's own set of recovery discs, using them would take longer than restoring from an image and would just put all the pre-installed 'junk' back that we spent hours getting rid of!

A disk image is so much easier and faster.

Paragon Drive Backup is available as a free edition, whereas Norton Ghost will cost you money.
It's a no-nonsense drive imaging program whose only restriction is that it won't let you create images on CD or DVD. It creates backup images on another hard drive, and it can be an internal hard drive or an external usb hard drive. I swear by it, I've never had to swear at it!

Get it here:
http://www.paragon-s...s/download.html

Edited by phillipcorcoran, 02 January 2010 - 06:46 AM.