Difference between System Backup and Disk Backup
I have read the AOMEI discussion and am still confused. My C drive has my windows files (boot partition of course) and my other program files. All my data etc is on D drive. Does a system backup of C include all data on the C drive including all my programs? If that is the case what is the difference between a C drive disk backup and a C drive sytem backup?? (my C drive is a ssd drive). The discussion at the AOMEI implies that only windows boot and windows system files would be backedup with system backup whereas disk backup would back up everything on that drive (including boot partition?). When i checked the size of the backup shown for the system backup of C drive it seems like it was backing up the entire drive including all my other miscel programs loaded.
Comments
If you only have C: on your boot drive and is on another, then both will do the same thing. A DISK backup is for people that have one drive with multiple partitions on it... ie, C: and etc. then both will be backed up. Or for a second data drive without the OS on it.
This is an FYI... I've made multiple test (and actual) restores from both a SYSTEM backup and a DISK backup for a drive with just one main partition (C:) on it.
A SYSTEM backup will backup your System Reserved Partition, EFI partition (if you are using GPT) and C: partition (and all files and programs on it) but will NOT backup your System Recovery Partition. They say this is so you can expand the C: partition (on the right side) if the replacement drive is larger. You don't need this partition (if you have a Windows Boot CD or USB or the Windows install iso on a USB) and it's a good way to get rid of a factory installed recovery section which also would do you no good if your drive had failed.
A DISK backup will restore ALL partitions on the disk but it has a glitch that will put a drive letter on your System Recovery partition (which you can remove in Disk Management). Support says they are aware of this glitch, but in the year I've been using the product, they have not fixed the problem. Maybe in the next version???? Giving it a drive letter will make it's contents visible in your File Explorer.
What's the size of your system backup? A screenshot of Disk Management would be better.
Thanks Flyer, that answered my question
I have a SSD and a HDD.
My SSD shows five partitions:
OS (C:)
EFI System Partition
OEM partition
DellSupport partition
Image partition
My Data HDD has one partition
Also, AFAIK when having software RAID configured in Windows which isn't technically a RAID array, this should have no bearing on which method I choose to backup the SSD (either System or Drive). Is this correct?
So if I wanted to create a backup of the SSD so that I can restore all partitions, I would perform a Disk Backup. Correct?
The AOMEI article titled "create SSD backup image using AOMEI Backupper" says to use the Disk backup method. But @Flyer said that Backupper will create a drive letter for the System Recovery partition. Did this issue ever get fixed since that thread was posted ?
The confusion about System backup is the terminology used to describe that backup, i.e, "System"
@Flyer said this type of backup will backup everything, but NOT the factory installed System Recovery Partition. Would the "System Recovery Partition" that @Flyer is referring to actually be my DellSupport partition ?
Or possibly you narrowed down in your multiple tests those glitches only happening if backups are "scheduled".. I'm not sure if that's what you found to be your issue.
So just to be on the safe side, I'm going to take heed and think about a System backup. Although not knowing what potential surprises could be in store running a System backup, it wouldn't hurt exploring other means of doing a clean re-install of Windows that'll still keep my files on the SSD...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h7pt5r8sudzIg_IZdBrWqcT5VfK4B6SW/view?usp=drivesdk