Guysakar

Edit: Do I need to do all of this to restore from an image? In other words, say I create an image of my system on my external HDD, can I just do an image restore from that, without all of the secure erasing and formatting? That would be a game changer.

Thank you for the reply Alan. Edit: I just re-read. Are you saying to not make an image of my SSD and back up on an external? If so, that is all that is on the PC, an SSD drive. How would I set the PC up, and then create a back up if not from the SSD? That sounds way over my head, but I will realistically reformat like every 6 months. Are you saying that if I just back up an image to an external HDD and then reformat/restore the C drive (XPS 13 has like 4-5 partitions)... you are saying that my SSD is going to slow way down? Re-Edit: Sorry. I keep reading and researching. So basically, is this what I would need to do? Use Reflect free and back up all partitions to external drive. Then use some third party software that uses the drive's secure erase function. Then, according to Macrium, I just plug my external drive in, select the "restore image" and select to replace all of my partitions. Macrium doesn't say anything about a boot disk in their restore instructions. Are they just assuming that you are smart enough to assume this step? if so, then I just make the boot USB from this thread, plug that in to my PC with a wiped HDD and follow instructions? Edit: Now I'm reading all of this stuff about alignment. So basically you need a 4 year college degree to properly reformat an SSD? I honestly think I may just sell the Ultrabook as soon as it gets here. My favorite thing to do when I get massive PC errors is just reformat. Everything I am reading on how to do this assumes you are an advanced user and understand the jargon, etc... I'm probably 5 hours in at this point. Below is the OP, which can mostly be ignored. Awesome! Thanks Alan. I think I finally am getting the message and am just going to buy an external closure for an old 60 Gig I have laying around, and back up to that. I am planning on showing some other family members how to do this as well (they all have ext HDD's). They almost never format and their PC's are always so bogged down. I am trying to find a simple and easily replicable way, so I am thinking of just going the Windows 7 route. What kind of problems have you heard with this method? My fear with Reflect is that it's too hands on, and lacks good instruction. For instance, on my Dell 1012, it is showing 3 drives: My main, recovery, and some Dell utility drive. Do I need to back them all up for a system recovery? (My XPS 13 will have 4-5 partitions from the factory.) And then how do I restore? And how do I restore without deleting other partitions? I know that 7 will only reformat the main c drive, and I know [think] that I don't need a third boot device (the USB). I can just go into "back up and restore", and select "restore from previously made image" as easily as doing a factory image restore...and so on... The tutorials that Macrium puts out are just so awful. I have read the entire help how to section and they assume that you know how to do most everything; I do not. Again, thanks Alan. You talked me out of possibly making a big mistake with the partition back up.

I just saw that. Looks like a great option, I just wish they didn't limit its use to DVD and HDD. I have an XPS Ultrabook on the way, which of course doesn't have a DVD drive. I reformat every several months and the idea of not having to re-install AVG, set up my Outlook accounts, etc... would make life so much easier for me. For a PC without a DVD drive - is this the best/most efficient free way? Using Macrium Reflect and the bootable USB? Basically, can I get my PC just the way I want it, and then back it up to a USB, install the Yumi pendrive linux thing on the same USB... ...and completely restore my PC from the one USB drive? If so, I am ecstatic. But just how in the heck do you use Macrium Reflect? I have been digging through tutorials for hours now and am not seeing anything concrete. Like do I select "clone this disk" or "image this disk"? What's the difference? I clicked image and it said "no disks available". Do I select "clone" and then select my USB drive and then save it to that? Then do the Yumi USB bootable thing on the same drive? Then how do you restore? I can't test any of this out until I buy a 16G USB. Any help will be greatly, enormously appreciated. Edit: It looks like I could create a separate partition on my already lacking 128 G SSD and use Windows 7 "Create System Image". Does anyone know if that backs up everything? Like will it save my outlook settings, AVG, installed codecs, etc..? Again, thank you.