Windows 10: backup or clone entire C drive just in case the whole lot crashes

As stated in Question I would like to back up or clone entire C drive Windows 11 64 bit just in case, which would be better, I have read some info stating cloning is better. Do you recommend any Free programs that I could use not too complicated please or do I take it to computer store to get this done.

:)

 

Cloning Drive C:/

I bought a new hard drive so I could clone my main hard drive. The new drive was formatted after putting into an external hard drive bay connected using USB cable. I right clicked on my C:/ drive & chose copy. I then right clicked on my new hard drive F:/
and chose paste. It then started to copy C:/ to F:/, but it eventually failed saying I wasn't authorized to access certain files even though I'm the Administrator of my computer. It also said I had a bad sector on C:/ drive. I then reformatted C:/ & tried
to make a clone drive onto F:/. All that did was copy over ...

$RECYCLEBIN, Boot, Recovery, System Volume 1, bootmgr, BOOTNXT, BOOTSECT.BAK

It appears to me that all it did was make a boot disk in case C:/ drive failed to boot I could have the computer boot using drive F:/ which is not what I wanted. I already have drive E:/ for that in the same bay housing as F:/.

What I want is an exact clone of C:/ drive, every program & file on it!

Anyone got any suggestions?

 

Do window 10 offer a clone image feature for backup system?

Hi, oemSoft

I am sorry to tell you that there is no built-in clone feature in Windows 10. If you just create a system image backup, you can follow the steps below to create a system image in Windows 10.

Step 1. Open Control Panel, go to System and Security > File History, then click System Image Backup at the lower-left corner. Or you can directly type backup and restore in the search box and select it from the search result list.

Step 2. Connect the USB drive to your computer and select it as the destination path, then click Next.

Step 3. Confirm your backup settings and click Start Backup.

However, if you want to clone your system directly, you can choose a third-party software like AOMEI Backupper. This is a professional clone software that allows you to

clone system to different places such as external hard drive, USB drive or Network, etc. without booting problems. With it, you also can clone the entire disk to HDD or SSD.

 

Is it any possibility to clone BitLocker Encrypted Drive with Windows OS ?

Hi Jaspreet Singh

Let me explain why I would like to remove decryption and reencryption from cloning process. The idea is to use cloning process to prepare 1:1 backup of my master OS drive. It means that cloning process will be repeated as often as possible for the same source drive, so the time of whole cloning process is very important to me.

You say "it is highly recommended", from technical point of view it suggests that cloning process does not need decryption/reencryption. Your recommendation is to do 2 steps more because "sth can go wrong". It is not my case because I still have the source disk and can repeat cloning process and check cloned drive.

The question about tool like AOMEI backup is: the tool needs my bitlocker pin to perform decryption, copy and encryption operations on the fly ? (I do not need tools working this way) If no, does it mean that such tools make "simple" copy of encrypted sectors and that's all ? My experience is different, simple copy of encrypted drive does not work. So some more additional steps are needed, those steps are big ones (decryption and reencryption) or maybe some smaller steps ...

So, I must have or it is nice to have decryption and reencryption in cloning process ?

Do You know how exactly cloning encrypted drive works on AOMEI backup ?