Solved New PC: Is Making a Disk Image No Longer Necessary?

Greetings Everyone,

I traded in my 2009 HP Pavilion PC (Win10) last month for a new HP OmniDesk PC. Since the new PC automatically backs up all user files to OneDrive, and there appears to be 3 ways to reinstall Windows-11 if this PC can't boot to the Operating System, or the OS gets screwed up, is it still necessary to create a "Disk Image" on a separate drive? Internet forums contain numerous recommendations for Disk Imaging software, but no discussions on whether its really needed in a Windows-11 home environment.

I've always received stellar advice and guidance when posing questions to TenForum or ElevenForum. What is your advice regarding the need for making a disk image, if all user files are backed up? Are there still advantages to doing so? What about the USB "Recovery" boot thumb drive? I assume it's still highly recommended?

As always, thanks in advance!

-Allen near Chicago

It depends upon what your goals are. If you want quick recovery of a system including all your installed apps, Windows customizations, personal files - literally everything, then a disk image simply cannot be beat. If you really don't care about all that and would prefer to install the OS and all apps along with performing all your Windows customizations normally, then all you need is the backups of your personal files.

hsehestedt said:

It depends upon what your goals are. If you want quick recovery of a system including all your installed apps, Windows customizations, personal files - literally everything, then a disk image simply cannot be beat. If you really don't care about all that and would prefer to install the OS and all apps along with performing all your Windows customizations normally, then all you need is the backups of your personal files.

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Thankyou for the quick reply! I'm a basic Windows user with minimal needs. At idle, my PC only uses 17% RAM. I guess a simple back up of files to Google Drive should be fine. (Changing from OneDrive to Google, since that's what my phone uses.). But I'll wait to see if there are other points of view before marking this thread as "solved". Thanks again HseHesTedt! -Allen

IMO, one should make regular images no matter whether his files are backed up to any cloud or not.

I'll vote for making system image backups.

System image, hands down.

AllenChicago said:

What about the USB "Recovery" boot thumb drive? I assume it's still highly recommended?

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Yes, a recovery drive is good to make.

But seriously, a system image could save your bacon where nothing else can.

Try Hasleo, free version 5.6.2.0


Also, Recovery Drive.

This is Windows 11. A Windows Update could kill your OS.
That means Backup Software.

One paid, two free...

You must use reliable third party imaging to recover a fully working PC. Like many here I use Macrium Reflect which has never let me down and is developed in the UK not China.

@Steve C - not completely true. BTW reading about some of the chaos coming out of the UK currently I wouldn't necessarily agree that software developed in the UK is any better / worse than that developed in China !!

A lot of so called I.T hacks actually aren't hacks at all -- just a convenient excuse for poor or sloppy I.T upgrade management. Some deliberate hacking does occur on behalf of various "rogue parties" whether country sponsored or individuals but not that much actually that gets through.

If you use physical vhdx files to install windows then you don't even need specialized backup software. Simply boot the Windows install media and choose repair system->command prompt and copy a backup vhdx file back to disk with the copy command -- standard windows. To create the backup file in the first place simply copy with file explorer to any device.

If for any reason you have to re-install the bootloader simply do it via DISM. All 100% native windows commands.

The only reason I see these days for any sort of 3rd party backup software is for DATA backup, saving multi-media files e.g music or Archiving which you only need to do once since stuff rarely if ever changes and as everybody has different needs that's far too big a topic to give a simple answer on. I simply use the built in Linux command from a NAS server rsync using a GUI front end grsync. This handles windows NTFS stuff with no problems -- and I use the cloud for really important stuff too.

A lot of practices and software were designed back for C20 systems both hardware and software especially things like 3rd party A/V stuff and backup suites. For DOMESTIC computers things have moved on hugely now. Corporate / Work places have different issues but I assume most on these Forums are domestic users (who may be professionaly involved in I.T - but still also have home type machines too).

Cheers
jimbo

AllenChicago said:

I guess a simple back up of files to Google Drive should be fine.

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Make sure that the Drive backup operates as a backup, and not just as a sync tool: if it just syncs, then files deleted from the main store (perhaps in error) will be cleared from the synced drive in the cloud. That may not be what you want.

There's no way I'd trust Microsoft and One Drive to be my only backup! Hell, I don't even trust One Drive at all.

AllenChicago said:

I'm a basic Windows user with minimal needs

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That does not change the amount of time, effort & aggravation you would save by having a system image ready in case of disaster.


Denis

I'm just going to add a summary here: It sounds like most people agree that having a full image backup is a good thing and I'll simply add that I agree with that as well. Bear in mind that I reinstall Windows every single day sometimes more than five times in one day. This is largely because I do an inordinate amount of testing. So even with all my automated processes for installation I still use image backups on my daily use machines because it makes recovery so much easier. Remember that with a full disk image backup you can not only restore your entire system to the exact state that it was in when the backup was created but you also have the versatility of being able to go and pull individual files which is basically what you would be doing if you backed up your files to a service like Onedrive.

In my opinion I think that a full disk image backup is even more important for users with simpler needs. This is because such users often don't want to go through the hassle of setting up windows completely from scratch. Remember that after you install Windows you still need to install all your drivers. Then you need to customize all the Windows settings to suit your needs. You also need to install all your applications and programs again and possibly do a whole bunch of updating not only of Windows but other things as well. So, there's a good amount of work involved in setting up windows from scratch. Yes, all your important data may be saved some place like OneDrive but if your whole system goes boom then you're going to have a lot more work to do than just restoring files from OneDrive and that's where a complete disk image can really save your bacon as one of the other respondents noted.

Try3 said:

That does not change the amount of time, effort & aggravation you would save by having a system image ready in case of disaster.


Denis

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LOL, while I was typing you said basically the same thing I did but in a much more digestible and compact form. Well done!

Hi Allen,

I am with the majority. Saving my time and energy reinstalling applications is a must.

Kind regards,

I have an automated image backup every week using Acronis True Image, and my data is backed up every day.

Guesstimation here as I have never timed it all. The last time I clean installed, it was unavoidable since getting tp 25h2 forced me to do. It took all day. :
Install windows - 15 min
set up personal preferences - 15-30 min.
tweaks - if you don't have them all written down or in a reg file, even using Bink's tutorials could still take hours to find the exact ones you want.
install apps, preferences, and other stuff- hours. OMG this part was brutal, irritating, and time consuming.

restore an image- 10 minutes. No muss, no fuss and you're back in business.

glasskuter said:

Guesstimation here as I have never timed it all. The last time I clean installed, it was unavoidable since getting tp 25h2 forced me to do. It took all day. :
Install windows - 15 min
set up personal preferences - 15-30 min.
tweaks - if you don't have them all written down or in a reg file, even using Bink's tutorials could still take hours to find the exact ones you want.
install apps, preferences, and other stuff- hours. OMG this part was brutal, irritating, and time consuming.

Click to expand...

All that work is making me feel tired.

AllenChicago said:

Since the new PC automatically backs up all user files to OneDrive, and there appears to be 3 ways to reinstall Windows-11 if this PC can't boot to the Operating System, or the OS gets screwed up, is it still necessary to create a "Disk Image" on a separate drive?

Click to expand...

AllenChicago said:

I'm a basic Windows user with minimal needs. At idle, my PC only uses 17% RAM. I guess a simple back up of files to Google Drive should be fine.

Click to expand...

What sort of user files? What software did you use to make them?

Its not just about restoring Windows and your files. If you have paid for software like Office you'd also have to reinstall/reconfigure that too. Do you even have all you licence keys to hand? A system image puts them all back and working without worrying about stuff like that.

I have a half-way house approach. I make a full system image once a month, after the Patch Tuesday updates. For the rest of the month I just back up any changed/new user files twice a week to a local network drive. Should I ever need to restore a system image it's a simple task to copy back any user files that had changed since the image was made. I've had to do that a very few times, but a system image saves a lot of time reinstalling all my software.