Help with file backups

[Storm Crow]

Can I just get an external HDD and copy paste my c drive and my factory image drive into it to serve as a backup?

 

[JobCreator]

No.

You can copy/paste "data." i.e. documents, pictures, movies, music, app data like Turbotax stuff and Quicken stuff, etc.

To copy and paste a whole hard drive you need an imagine software like Acronis.

 

[USAFRet]

Can I just get an external HDD and copy paste my c drive and my factory image drive into it to serve as a backup?

No, not really. There is no real way to use that 'copy' of your C drive as a 'backup'.

There are multiple ways to do this, though. If you want, we can go into detail on this.

 

[Storm Crow]

I was going to get a western digital HDD. And I heard about acronis before how it clones your current drive to you new WD HDD. I basically just want to make a copy of my HDD so would using WD and acronis be the best route?

 

[ronintexas]

I would suggest doing a disk image of your system (programs, operating system) - this can be restored to a hard drive and it would be fully functional.

As for data, I would suggest a daily backup routine using something like syncback free (it is free) to backup your data (the "users" folders).