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#Best flash drive for computer backup update
#Best flash drive for computer backup windows 10
#Best flash drive for computer backup Pc
#Best flash drive for computer backup windows

Use these to restore accidentally deleted or damaged files. Most capable image backup utilities (see next section) include file-by-file restore capabilities. Backing up even my storage-laden production PC, from which I make a daily 60-plus GB backup image that includes two data drives as well as my system/boot drive, takes less than 20 minutes to back up (5 minutes longer to restore, give or take).

#Best flash drive for computer backup windows

I routinely create backups of my test Windows PCs in under 4 minutes on such devices restoring such backups takes a little longer (5-6 minutes uncompressed backup size 6-10 GB). Why do this? Because such a device is at least 100X faster than a flash drive, 40X faster than a hard disk, and between 20 and 30X faster than older SSDs (e.g. In fact, I strongly recommend using an NVMe SSD enclosure that is USB4 or Thunderbolt 4 capable of housing a PCIe x3 (or better) SSD of at least 512GB capacity as your backup device (see our list of best SSD enclosures).

#Best flash drive for computer backup Pc

Then, even if your PC becomes completely unusable, you can simply detach the external backup device and restore your chosen image to another PC. Choosing the Right Backup Targetįor maximum portability, it’s most sensible to use an external storage device for backups. Modern image backup tools are fast and efficient and can work with speedy external media. This can be a lifesaver when a downed or damaged PC can be used, but its image backup can still be installed and run on another machine.Ĭreating an image backup essentially means making a snapshot of each partition on the boot/system drive, then recording that snapshot in some heavily compressed (and possibly even encrypted) format on a storage device of some kind. This is a way to take a formerly running installation from a PC that’s no longer usable or available, and get it running on a different PC.

“Bare metal restore” means you can take an image backup and restore it onto a PC that has no OS currently installed.

This lets you open and navigate the contents of the backup as if it were another Windows drive, or run the image as just another Windows VM to explore, work on, or retrieve some or all of its contents. Many good image backup utilities will let you mount an image backup in the form of one or more virtual drives (one for each disk partition in the image).

Mount an image as a virtual drive or even as a virtual machine (VM).

The same approach also works to support a so-called “clean install” of Windows which involves wiping the existing boot/system disk, repartitioning and reformatting, and then creating an entirely new (“clean”) Windows boot\system drive partition structure and contents. You’ll boot your PC to the alternate media, and then perform rescue or restore operations on the primary but wonky version of Windows you want to fix (or replace). Thus most good image backup utilities include some kind of “rescue media” or “bootable recovery” capability. This usually involves booting to alternate media, and running rescue and repair from there.

Performing repair and recovery operations on a broken or questionable Windows installation.

But there’s a lot more one can do with such images, including: The most basic and important use for a whole-drive image is to replace a balky, damaged or non-working Windows installation (and its supporting boot/system disk infrastructure) in one simple, relatively speedy operation.

#Best flash drive for computer backup update

It supports command-line access via Command Prompt, and can incorporate a variety of Windows applications and repair tools – such as boot repair utilities, disk or driver scanners, partition managers, data recovery tools, anti-virus programs, update and install/uninstall utilities, and a whole lot more – to run against a damaged or inoperable Windows installation. The Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE, as you might expect) is a specialized runtime environment that boots a slimmed-down version of Windows. The Recovery Partition (3rd from left on Figure 1, 1st from left on Figure 2) provides an alternate boot environment for Windows based on Microsoft’s Windows Pre-installation Environment (WinPE) runtime used for the Windows installer and for other purposes.

A whole drive image can also be turned into a virtual disk, or even a virtual machine. Imaging the entire boot/system drive means the whole contents of that drive can be wiped out, and restored from a backup. (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) What Is a “Whole-Drive” Image Good For?

#Best flash drive for computer backup windows 10

Figure 2: This older Windows 10 layout has 3 Recovery partitions, only one of which is used (left).