disk backup vs. system backup
gents,
a newbie - so this question is perhaps trivial but i don't understand.
my laptop is a w7-64bit w/ssd having 148gb of storage wit 112gb 'used' and 36.2gb 'free'
i did a 'system backup' and then a 'disk backup'.
the 'system backup' tok 75,278,825kb
the 'disk backup' took 75,105,285kb
these numbers should be much different, yes? the 'disk backup' in general should be larger than the 'system backup', yes?
is there a way to compare the lists of the folders that were part of each of the backups? i took the backups using whatever aomei had as defaults - i made no changes - this was my first test. so i'm curious what aomei would back up in each case.
so, i apologize for the low level of the question; but i'm trying to learn.
please steer me to what i should read/research to come up the curve.
thanks,
rny1aomei
Comments
If you have a single hard drive and it's partitioned into two parts with individual letter designations, you might have Windows installed on the C partition along with your applications/programs and use the D drive (partition) for documents and data.
If the drive has two partitions (C and D) and you call for a system backup, you get everything on C.
If you call for a disk backup, it will select both partitions.
In my own case, I don't partition the hard drive, thus my system is on C and my disk backup is also C - both the same size.
system backup is the full c:\ and any hidden partitions needed to support c:\. Disk backup is the full c:\ and any hidden partitions needed to support c:\ and any other visible partition that could be there and any other invisible partition that could be there. In addition Disk backup includes the MBR (if disk is MBR style).
Since your disk seems to have only c:\, as visible partition, and no sizable invisible partitions, the size of the backup image is the same. There is no need to compare folders. So keep the disk backup, it is better in your case.
Your disk backup is smaller than the system backup, which means that there was some cleaning on c:\ in the amount of 160MB.
So just to clarify. I have a laptop with 1 harddrive that is going bad so I want to image it and then restore it to a new, larger drive. When I bring up My Computer, it shows a Local Disk (C:) and Recovery (D:). So if I want to have the exact thing I have now, just on a new harddrive, I should use disk backup, not system backup? The next question is since the program is on this harddrive and the backup on the external drive, when I put the new hard drive in, how do I restore it since the new hard drive is blank? I am thinking use the windows 7 repair disk, and then run the program from the external drive. Is that correct?
hi tthdoc
We suggest that you should do system backup. Coz sytem backup will back up your system drive completely, including applications, drivers, configuration settings, system files and boot files. We not sure your recovery partition is related to system.
You may can not use one key reconvery after restore while you did disk backup since our program may backup your D partition as normal data partion.
As for you another query, u can directly restore to your external disk while u can boot ur pc from Old HDD, if not ,you need to make a bootabl media via Backupper to restore .
Wouldn't the right choice be disk backup so the D drive would be included in the backup? I have to say this confusion between disk and system backup is going to steer me to use another product. I thought the system backup will only backup the C drive and related partitions but not the D partition because it is not required to boot the system.
"system backup will back up your system drive completely, including
applications, drivers, configuration settings, system files and boot
files"
Won't disk bckup do this also plus manufacturer recovery partition and any user creadted partitions?
yes
Hey guys.
I am also new to this.
I get what peter13feb said about disk vs system backup. They will also copy the Master Boot Record partition(s). But what about GPT/UEFI style disk?
I read some things about GPT partitions which cannot be backed up because of unique IDs or whatever. If you restore them back to your drive. The filerecords will be missing and you need to recreate them?
Will Aomei correctly restore a disk or aystem backup without the need to recreate the filerecords for partitions and files?
Silly question perhaps. But I wanted to make sure.
My laptop SSD is a GPT style with UEFI. It has Windows7 x64
100mb fat32 - system partition
128mb fat32 - ms system reserved
20gb ntfs - windows install
90gb ntfs - another partition
Thanks
@Seven_up Yes, it will restore correctly without the need to recreate the filerecords for partitions and files.