cloning OS to another hard drive and using hard drive os?

[henkkrakers]

can i clone my ssd to another hard drive and when i change the boot order in bios to that clones os on that hard drive will it boot into that clone OS?

if i do clone my ssd to hard drive can the hard drive have other files already exist on it or does it have to be an empty drive?

reason, i don't want to reinstall windows everytime, I would prefer to just have a standard backup ready to go with all my programs and a clean version of windows without the problems that come with a 1+ year old operating system (e.g. slow downs, weird bugs, etc)

I just reinstalled windows and all my programs and want to backup now while my OS is still fairly clean and doesn't have too much crap on it.

 

[velocityg4]

Let me get this straight. You want to do the following.
- Clone the SSD to your hard drive in your current state and have it bootable.
- Not continuously update that clone.
- Use that hard drive as a backup drive.
- Have that cloned drive be bootable.

In which case I would format that drive into two partitions. On Partition A. I would clone my drive. Then check it is bootable when you change the boot order. I would use Partition B for my backups. Use whichever software you prefer for backups and cloning. The reason for the separate partitions is so you don't risk screwing up your cloned OS.

I like to perform a manual mirrored sync via Freefilesync. For my backups. As long as you are good at remembering to do so. It uses far less system resources and performs a sync much more rapidly than backup software. I also find it is more reliable. I've seen too many automatic backup programs fail to trust them. Plus with a mirrored sync. When you throw files in the trash. They get removed from your backup after your next sync.

 

[henkkrakers]

Let me get this straight. You want to do the following.
- Clone the SSD to your hard drive in your current state and have it bootable.
- Not continuously update that clone.
- Use that hard drive as a backup drive.
- Have that cloned drive be bootable.

In which case I would format that drive into two partitions. On Partition A. I would clone my drive. Then check it is bootable when you change the boot order. I would use Partition B for my backups. Use whichever software you prefer for backups and cloning. The reason for the separate partitions is so you don't risk screwing up your cloned OS.

I like to perform a manual mirrored sync via Freefilesync. For my backups. As long as you are good at remembering to do so. It uses far less system resources and performs a sync much more rapidly than backup software. I also find it is more reliable. I've seen too many automatic backup programs fail to trust them. Plus with a mirrored sync. When you throw files in the trash. They get removed from your backup after your next sync.

thanks for the reply. I don't want to do a mirored sync or a backup because I already have the functionality of that in windows system restore. if something goes wrong i can just restore it too a few days before and it's fine. however the reason i'm doing a full reinstall of windows and want a clone of it is because there are many annoying problems with the system that going back with a system restore or a mirror sync or a backup will not fix. there are registry problems that can't be fixed, there are loose files everywhere taking up space it shouldnt be, there are annoying bugs i have just endured because they arent a big deal alone but having many of them gets annoying. I usually do a reinstall of windows like 1 or 2 times a year.

all i want is the be able to reinstall windows without the 30 minutes wait for it too happen and then the half a day spent trying to reinstall programs and change settings back to how i want it too be.

I want to have it so i can simply format my ssd, boot into my ''backup'' clone of the OS and then once im booted into that backup os I want to then clone my backup OS on to the formatted ssd so that i have a fresh start without the headache of spending a day setting it all up.

p.s. I was thinking of creating two partitions but i've had bad experiences with that in the past. for example creating a usb flash drive of windows 10 makes that device unusable for other purposes other than to be used for windows installation. I even tried installing windows on a 2 partition usb stick with 50gb on 1 partition and 70 ish on the other. both partitions became unusable and inaccessible. so i'm worried that a clone would do something similar. I don't want to use a 1TB hard drive just to hold my 50gb clone of my C drive.

 

[velocityg4]

thanks for the reply. I don't want to do a mirored sync or a backup because I already have the functionality of that in windows system restore. if something goes wrong i can just restore it too a few days before and it's fine. however the reason i'm doing a full reinstall of windows and want a clone of it is because there are many annoying problems with the system that going back with a system restore or a mirror sync or a backup will not fix. there are registry problems that can't be fixed, there are loose files everywhere taking up space it shouldnt be, there are annoying bugs i have just endured because they arent a big deal alone but having many of them gets annoying. I usually do a reinstall of windows like 1 or 2 times a year.

all i want is the be able to reinstall windows without the 30 minutes wait for it too happen and then the half a day spent trying to reinstall programs and change settings back to how i want it too be.

I want to have it so i can simply format my ssd, boot into my ''backup'' clone of the OS and then once im booted into that backup os I want to then clone my backup OS on to the formatted ssd so that i have a fresh start without the headache of spending a day setting it all up.

p.s. I was thinking of creating two partitions but i've had bad experiences with that in the past. for example creating a usb flash drive of windows 10 makes that device unusable for other purposes other than to be used for windows installation. I even tried installing windows on a 2 partition usb stick with 50gb on 1 partition and 70 ish on the other. both partitions became unusable and inaccessible. so i'm worried that a clone would do something similar. I don't want to use a 1TB hard drive just to hold my 50gb clone of my C drive.

I'm confused. You said you had a hard drive you wanted to use for the clone and backups. Now you are talking about flash drives and not wanting to use a hard drive for backups.

USB Flash Drives: They are far too unreliable for dependable backups. They make a nice secondary backup but not primary. Windows also does not play friendly with a USB Flash drive with multiple partitions. It only likes them to have one partition. Which is a problem as a bootable drive. Since there are invisible Recovery and System partitions. This was a choice Microsoft made in how it treats flash drives and hard drives differently. I don't know why they did this. Mac and Linux don't care if a Flash drive has one or five partitions.

HDD: To get done what you want to get accomplished. I would highly recommend using a hard drive. For ease and reliability. You only need to make a 50GB to 100GB partition for the bootable clone. This would accomplish your desire of having a ready to go clone to work off of. Windows won't put up a fuss if an external/internal hard drive has multiple partitions.

I mentioned multiple partitions to keep the clone clean. That you backup your data, by whatever means you choose, to the other partition. If you use and online backup service (better). Then use to remaining partition for data storage. I'd even go so far as to unmount the clone partition (in Computer Management). So, it isn't being use by anything or looked over by an AV scanner. You could even go nuts and encrypt the clone partition. Then it absolutely cannot be accessed unless you boot off it and enter the passcode.

Using multiple partitions is also cheaper. Since you only need one drive for a clone and backup or clone and data storage. Rather than two drives.

I'm not sure what else to suggest. Everything else sounds more complicated and expensive.