Question Backup Windows 10 before Windows 11 Flyby11 update ?

[alphason]

I was first thinking I was going to change to Linux Zorin on my Win 10 HP laptop, moving my HDD to the DVD slot and putting a small SSD as the primary boot drive for Zorin (now have doubts over how well a HDD works in the old DVD slot) but I use uTorrent and Plex and there are questions around if they will work.
Flyby11 says I have high probability that it will work on my PC when I run the check, so I am thinking this may be a better option, but before trying I think I should make a backup of Win 10 in case things go wrong.

I have a single 1TB HDD, consisting of
c: NTFS Primary drive, boot drive with Windows 10 Pro 199.71GB, 68.50GB free
e: NTFS logical drive contains only media files 730.93GB, 87.03GB free
Disk 0 partition 2 recovery partition 889MB, 889GB free

I also have an External HDD 1TB 344GB used and 587 GB free, I would like to use this as the backup drive.

Can I just make a backup, system image of c: onto the external HDD, without erasing the existing content of the EXT HDD (I read that some backups erase the content on the whole source drive), I don't have the space to backup the whole drive and although annoying it wouldn't be the end of the word if I lost the media on E:

What is the recommended (Free) software to do this prior to trying a Flyby11 update, I've looked at Aomei backupper but is this the best solution?

-- Thanks.

 

[Lafong]

You should be able to make a backup image file of C onto the external drive without over-writing anything on the external.

Standard application to do that would be Macrium Reflect, but others will work also. Macrium will generate one big .MRIMG file.

Space required on the external: somewhere near half of the current occupied space on C.

You have 243 GB free on the external.

C occupies 200; A full image of that would be maybe 80 to 100 gb.

E occupies about 650; an image won't fit on the external.

 

[alphason]

You should be able to make a backup image file of C onto the external drive without over-writing anything on the external.

Standard application to do that would be Macrium Reflect, but others will work also. Macrium will generate one big .MRIMG file.

Space required on the external: somewhere near half of the current occupied space on C.

You have 243 GB free on the external.

C occupies 200; A full image of that would be maybe 80 to 100 gb.

E occupies about 650; an image won't fit on the external.

Thank you.

I didn't know that the backup was compressed to around half the original size, that's useful.
I've looked at Macrium and I think this is a paid program, are there any free alternatives that work well e.g. Aoemi Backupper?

Actually, my Ext HDD has around 587GB Free space (of 1TB 344 is used/ 587 free), does the source drive c need to back up the full partition size 199GB rather than just the used space c is 199.7GB with 68.50GB free space, so around 130GB used).

Also I was reading that after a Win 11 install, you have 10 days to go back, where it restores the pc back to the previous windows 10. Could this be an option, safe and reliable enough when attempting a fly by 11 upgrade?

Thanks.

 

[Lafong]

Your stated figures confuse me.

"the used space c is 199.7GB with 68.50GB free space, so around 130GB used".

Used space is both 199.7 and 130?

"Used space" means "occupied space"?

"Used space" means partition size?

I could speculate what you mean, but it's not clear.

Best thing you can do is post a screen shot of Windows Disk Management that shows all partitions and all the details. ALL partitions, partition sizes, occupied space, unoccupied space, etc.

If you have a logical drive, that may come into play. I have no familiarity with how they would affect images. Maybe not at all?

Imaging is done on a partition by partition basis. You choose which partitions to include in the image file. Maybe C alone; maybe not. Maybe all partitions on the drive. Maybe not. Your choice.

If the occupied space on C is 200 gb, an image file of it will be circa 100 gb; if the occupied space on C is 130, an image file of it will be 60 to 70 gb. The free (unused, unoccupied) space has no bearing on the size of the image file.

Exact size depends on how compressible the files are and that varies. That's using Macrium's standard "medium" compression. There is a high compression setting, but in my experience it doesn't reduce size by much.

Aomei Backupper: I have no experience, but I have seen good comments on it years ago.

Another to consider is Hasleo. I think it is free? There has been quite a lot of discussion about it on these forums in the last few months.

I have no idea how reliable the "10 days to go back" feature of Windows 11 is. I do know I would not rely on it alone.

 

[alphason]

Sorry, for confusion, I meant partition size in my last post.

HDD is 1TB, (Disk 0 931.51GB)
From Disk Management, Partition sizes are... (can't seem to post an image it wants http://)
(C 199.71GB capacity, of which 68.50GB is free
(E 730.93GB capacity, of which 87.03GB is free
(Disk 0 partition 2) 889MB capacity, of which 889MB s free.

I think I am fine with just making an image of C, I might do E if there is enough space after.

I'll look into Hasleo as an alternative, thanks for the tip. Yes, I think unwise to rely on the go back feature of windows.

Thanks