Bullet points makes it a lot easier to understandkwk1 wrote: ↑So would I just use windows built in or like macrium to do this? And, is an image on a hd still requiring windows 10 usb stick to start up? I'm not sure how it all works.
The new ssd is 2tb so I'd prefer to use the new 2tb WD external for backups. and the new 1tb WD external for the image/clone.
Depends on your imaging software. Let’s say the something happens to your existing hard drive and renders it non bootable. If you use Windows’ built in back up software, you will need a new drive, install Windows, and then run the restore.
If you use something like Clonezilla, you install the new drive, and just boot up a USB key with Clonezilla and restore the image to the new hard drive.
If the software was installed in Windows (Not a fan), then you would need to install a fresh copy of Windows and re-install the imaging software before you can restore it. If the imaging software can run independently of Windows (Bootable USB Key) then you can restore the image without re-installing Windows
With regards to your external WD drives, you don’t really need a two terabyte drive to create images.
1. You would never completely fill your existing 2 terabyte drive in your computer
2. When images are created, they are usually compressed, the images are considerably smaller than the space it occupies.
I would assume 50% compression unless you have a lot of images (jpeg) or music on your computer. These files are already compressed and would not compress any further.