Macrium Reflect - Backup Complete Computer

Hi,

I have Vista Home Premium so i don't have the in-built complete back up option.

I have just clean installed vista again after getting fed up with how slow it is and now after having to do all the driver/service pack updates i thought there must be a better way of doing this....hey presto!

Think it makes sense to make a backup after i have got all my windows updates and service packs back on.

I see you have recommended Macrium Reflect FREE Edition

Question 1: I intend to create a complete backup onto an external HDD. I have a 500 GB HD that has a load of stuff on it. Can i backup to this HD or does it need to be reformatted and completely clean/empty? The HD is currently in FAT32

Question 2: Is the backup image an exact copy/image i.e. if i backed up my windows drive onto a SSD would i then be able to swap out my slow HDD for the SSD and be able to boot from the new faster SSD or is the backup image wrapped up in a backup 'sweetie wrapper' meaning you have to go through a 'restore' process?

Hellp Cookstein,

Q1) The HDD that you are saving the backup image to doesn't need to be empty. It would be better if the HDD was formatted as NTFS instead of FAT32 though since FAT32 has a max single file size limit of 4GB. Because of FAT32 limitations Reflect will create multiple 4Gb images sequentially, rather than one larger image as it would with NTFS. Either way will work though.

Q2) Yes, an image or clone would be an exact copy. You will be able to restore the image to the SSD, but you may need to use Macrium ReDeploy to do so.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

I think macrium can do cloning - not sure about the free one. I am posting this from Vista. Took a while, but have finally managed to update the installation media. Windows update is only offering the latest defender definitions, everything else is in here. Quite a job to do. My own Vista SP3.