Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
Looks like I should be able to create a system ISO file of my entire C: drive and save it directly to the Ext HD.
An ISO is not a bit for bit copy of a hard drive. It's optical media only. I'd be curious as to what is in that ISO and what can read it.
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Only thing is, if you restore from the original system discs, you won't have all the 100s of Windows Updates, etc. You've have to build it all up from the initial load again. With an ISO file "snap-shot" of the entire C: drive, you'd have an exact copy of your system at the time the ISO file was created.
Sure but you could also have an image with that exact same corruption, trojan, ransomware, etc. With a restore from system disks, you know what you have will be free of junk. And Windows updates can be run overnight or whatnot as long as you have high speed Internet. Most updates are cumulative now a days so it helps to lessen the downloads.
Backups are a personal thing - I'd rather reload the OS from a known good state (factory image) and update and just pop my data on the computer rather than worrying about managing a system clone. I also ship all my backups of all data offsite with CrashPlan as the drive in a box was always outdated as I'd forget to get it and backup and then take offsite. I've got 2TB out there now and, yes it would take forever to restore but at least it's safe. Or they will send you a disk with your files.
But think about the worst recovery you can do where most of it fails and plan for that.