How do i backup an SSD?

[Wayfall]

Hi Community

I have a Samsung EVO 850 250GB:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Solid-State-Drive/dp/B00P736UEU

I installed the SSD yesterday and install a copy of Windows 7 Home premium onto it then verified it online via control panel.
The only programs install at the moment are Drivers, Chrome, Steams base program, Spotify, Battle-net with Hearthstone and of could the programs that came with my SSD and my MOBO driver disc. So I have used about 30-35Gb so far.

Now I would like to update the SSD's firmware but before doing that I would like to create a backup of it, preferably an image file as I only had a 1TB WCD HDD which I have plugged into the computer so to hold the big programs and files.

How would you recommend I go about creating a backup?

Also I'm right in saying the SDD won't be doing any writing while doing the image creating process?

Regards

 

[Kurz]

Honestly, you should just update the firmware. You have pretty much nothing to lose.
You could've updated the firmware 15 mins ago, realize that the firmware wiped your drive and be almost done with Windows 7 reinstall.

 

[ahnilated]

You could just use Clonezilla and make a backup of it and no, you won't be writing anything to the SSD if you backup the SSD to another drive.

 

[Wayfall]

Honestly, you should just update the firmware. You have pretty much nothing to lose.
You could've updated the firmware 15 mins ago, realize that the firmware wiped your drive and be almost done with Windows 7 reinstall.

Sorry but this is my computer and I don't want to loose any data that took me over 3 hours plus to get on there due to the install of the OS and MOBO drivers.

 

[Wayfall]

You could just use Clonezilla and make a backup of it and no, you won't be writing anything to the SSD if you backup the SSD to another drive.

Could I make a image file via the windows control panel as I searched 'image file' in the start bar and there was a setting to create image file/ create backup. Could I use that to create an image file and throw on my HDD as a 'just in case anything happens'

Does an image file take long to create?, also I am not at my home pc at the moment.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Just use the Windows backup and restore feature in the control panel. It will let you chose where you want to save the backup. You can save to an ssd, hard drive, an external drive, or a USB flash drive. It is your choice.

BTW - you can also use Windows backup and restore for automatic backups. I have mine set to perform a weekly backup to a second drive every Sunday morning. It runs automatically in the background. No muss! No fuss! No bother!

 

[Wayfall]

JohnnyLucky the automatic backups do they over right the previous ones or can you set how many backups you want.

And when the bad does happen how do I use the backup/s to get my system up and running again?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

The backups are not overwritten. A new backup is created each time it is used. Windows will keep creating backups and restore points as long as there is available space on the designated drive. Periodically I delete older backups and restore points.

Make a Winows 7 repair disc so that you are ready when something bad happens:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/create-a-system-repair-disc

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-create-a-system-repair-disc-for-windows-7.html

 

[jsmithepa]

I commend you for taking the time to perform this step. Often times people come crying and all we can offer is "only if you had a backup!" Even if that's not personal data, the time spent configuring the OS just the way you like it, make it worthwhile. I do this every time before a major update. The latest software may not be the greatest.

I personally use Macrium, it's free, it's fully GUI and friendly, and right on the menu, you create a recovery Flash (recovery DISC? who use disc anymore 😀) Takes about ~15 minutes to save my 35G partition and 10 minutes to restore. Use the highest compression to save space.

 

[Wayfall]

The backups are not overwritten. A new backup is created each time it is used. Windows will keep creating backups and restore points as long as there is available space on the designated drive. Periodically I delete older backups and restore points.

Make a Winows 7 repair disc so that you are ready when something bad happens:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/create-a-system-repair-disc

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-create-a-system-repair-disc-for-windows-7.html

How big does the CD have to be to hold the recovery software and windows data? What does the disc even do that saves a computer is it registry stuff or a bit like a restore point?

 

[Wayfall]

Just use the Windows backup and restore feature in the control panel. It will let you chose where you want to save the backup. You can save to an ssd, hard drive, an external drive, or a USB flash drive. It is your choice.

BTW - you can also use Windows backup and restore for automatic backups. I have mine set to perform a weekly backup to a second drive every Sunday morning. It runs automatically in the background. No muss! No fuss! No bother!

How would i use these backups when the main OS gets corrupt or the component holding the OS dies?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

I do not know what capacity or how many discs are required for a backup because I do not use discs for backups. My weekly backups are saved to a second internal drive. Use the Windows backup and restore feature located in the control panel. Follow on screen prompts. Very easy to do.

An emergency repair disc requires only one disc or USB Flash Drive. I use a usb flash drive. In the event of Windows failure, boot from the emergency repair disc and follow the on screen prompts. There is nothing difficult about it. Very easy to do.

 

[ArtPog]

You might want to consider using a disk-cloning program on a routine basis to create & maintain a comprehensive backup system

The beauty of using disk-cloning for comprehensive backup purposes is that one's ENTIRE system is backed up, including the OS, all programs & applications, the user's configurations, all personal data, etc. In short, the entire contents of one's source disk is copied on a bit-for-bit basis to a destination disk. All the cloned data is instantly accessible on the destination disk since there is no need for any "recovery-type process", and, of course, assuming you've cloned your boot drive, the destination drive will be similarly bootable & functional in all respects.

In your particular case since you're working with a 250 GB boot drive it could be feasible to create one partition of 250 GB on your 1 TB and use the remaining disk-space for your present purposes, i.e., other programs & storage. I'm assuming, of course, that the approx. 750 GB of disk-space on the 1 TB disk would be sufficient to contain the latter data. You would clone the contents of your SSD to that first partition so that the remaining data on the 1 TB destination disk would be untouched. Bear in mind that the destination drive can be either internally or externally connected in the system.

I want to emphasize that my suggestion is based on the presumption that you would like to maintain a reasonably up-to-date comprehensive backup of your system so that you would be utilizing the disk-cloning program at fairly frequent occasions. If you've only interested in a "one-shot" backup of your system or backing-up at rare intervals that's another matter.

Anyway, if you're interested in pursuing this issue, so indicate and I can provide you with my advice re an appropriate disk-cloning program.

 

[Wayfall]

I used windows to make a recovery disc and then I used windows to create an image file of my SSD onto my external HDD, this was all after I had installed all of the windows updates.

Pc is up and running and working fine

 

[jsmithepa]

I used windows to make a recovery disc and then I used windows to create an image file of my SSD onto my external HDD, this was all after I had installed all of the windows updates.

Pc is up and running and working fine

Perfect.

Now would you be brave enough to do a test restore to make sure things work the way you think it should work before you really need it to work? 😀