Backing up C:\ to Western Digital My Book E:\ —will it work?
Posted Sunday, June 6, 2010 by admin
I am trying to make an exact copy of my C drive onto a western digital my book essential edition 500GB external hard drive.
What I would like to do is make it so it can boot from the external hard drive.
Or should I just use it as a backup to my files, and buy a backup program that will mirror or synchronize my files onto the external HD, and not worry about the booting?
What the REAL question is——>Will synchronizing my hard drive with an external drive be smart? Or should I copy and paste the C drive into the E drive or directory.
Sorry if it’s alot of questions, I’m kind of new at this.
I have used a number of programs to backup my files but more importantly my system state and the Windows installed programs and files that make up the system.
While you can (easily) backup your own files, it’s tough to backup Windows in modern systems to create set of files that can be used to reconstitute the system. For this reason, Ghost, Acronis and other applications have evolved to do an IMAGE backup of the hard drive. These can be used to restore a new hard drive when a system is lost or stolen or when the hard drive fails. This is the approach I use IN ADDITION to regular backups of important pictures, the books I’ve written and the programs I’ve created. While the image backups can restore individual files, I find it easier to restore these from less complex means.
hth
It would take along time and wouldnt be wise, just run a windows back up wizard found in the systems tools section of the start menu, copying the c drive would not work if you would want to recover the hard drive.