Using internal hard drive for cloning/image.

[Bruce_22]

I wanted to create a back up of my boot drive in the case of an issue arising. I don't really want to go out and buy external hard drives and realized I had some unused hard drives already inside the computer. I was wondering if it was possible or "good" practice/recommened if I were to use it to image or clone my boot drive?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, @Bruce_22!

This is not an efficient way to use this HDD. I'd suggest you consider putting it in an external enclosure if you plan to use it as a backup/image drive. Remember that "backup" means that you have your data stored in at least two (2) locations. Moving data from your system drive to another internal HDD or an external hard drive is not a backup, unless there is already a duplicate of the file on a different drive. Meaning that keep you files on your system and copy them somewhere off-site as well to prevent potential data loss.

It's not a common practice to keep backups on a different HDD inside your computer because it's not efficient. For example, in an unfortunate situation where your whole system fails or gets fried, you will lose the data from both drives anyway.

If you don't have enough space on your system drive, I'd simply use the secondary one as a massive storage drive for big media files or other less demanding software tools (in case your primary drive is an SSD).

Let me know if you have more questions. I hope this helps you, though.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[Bruce_22]

Hey there, @Bruce_22!

This is not an efficient way to use this HDD. I'd suggest you consider putting it in an external enclosure if you plan to use it as a backup/image drive. Remember that "backup" means that you have your data stored in at least two (2) locations. Moving data from your system drive to another internal HDD or an external hard drive is not a backup, unless there is already a duplicate of the file on a different drive. Meaning that keep you files on your system and copy them somewhere off-site as well to prevent potential data loss.

It's not a common practice to keep backups on a different HDD inside your computer because it's not efficient. For example, in an unfortunate situation where your whole system fails or gets fried, you will lose the data from both drives anyway.

If you don't have enough space on your system drive, I'd simply use the secondary one as a massive storage drive for big media files or other less demanding software tools (in case your primary drive is an SSD).

Let me know if you have more questions. I hope this helps you, though.
SuperSoph_WD

Thanks, I was just wondering because last time I reinstalled Windows I realized that other HDD/SSD's in the computer don't get reset, and was thinking maybe I could use an unused one for an image/clone!

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there again, @Bruce_22!

Since you have more than one SATA drive connected to the system. Make sure you always unplug the secondary drive from it while clean installing Windows! Otherwise, it's highly possible that you will encounter an OS confusion that basically scatters all the system files across the storage drives and you could end up having some pretty bad booting issues. When fresh installing Windows, make sure you have only the installation media drive and the SSD (or the booting/primary drive) connected to the PC.

If you want to have a system image backup of your primary drive somewhere else as well, make sure it's stored outside the PC (off-site). Having two identical drives inside your PC is not an efficient solution for managing your storage or keeping your files safe.
Here's an interesting tutorial, you might find useful Windows Install & Optimization for SSDs & HDDs. It explains how to manage both the SSD & the HDD best inside your computer.

Good luck! Let me know if you have more questions!
SuperSoph_WD