System Image/Mirror Image

[Jacko439]

I have recently purchased a 500gb External Hard drive to back up my computer and then store it safely away. I believe I have read somewhere that you can produce a mirror image of your system however on checking on the windows restore site they are inviting you to back up using a system Image. My query is this, is system Image the same as Mirror image as I would like to copy every thing on Drive C incuding my Windows 7 operating system.

[VHG]

A system image and a mirror image are slightly different things, however both back up everything on the computer.

In your case you need to create a system image which you can do with features built in to Windows 7 (which I assume you have).

[Jacko439]

Many thanks VHG for your answer I will be guided by what you suggest

[VHG]

Just to explain the difference between system image and mirror image.

System Image: When you create a system image you are taking a "backup" of your hard disk.

It takes all the files on your computer and "packs" them up into one huge file. It also probably compresses them at the same time.

But the only thing you can do with this huge "image" is to restore it back to a hard disk. The image is unpacked and put back onto your original hard disk, putting the disk back to the way it was when you took the image.

Mirror Image: Lets assume you have a 200Gb hard drive in your computer. You want change this for a 500Gb drive.

You use software to create a mirror image of your 200Gb hard disk onto your 500Gb hard disk. This copies everything on the 200Gb drive bit by bit onto the 50Gb drive.

It makes no changes to the files and does not pack them up into an image file. It leaves the file and folder structure exactly as it was on the 200Gb hard drive.

You then take the 200Gb drive out of the PC, put in the 500Gb drive, and the computer will boot from this 500Gb drive.

So basicaly your 500Gb drive now "looks" like your 200Gb drive, but it is a fully bootable hard drive.

You normally only need to create a mirror image if you are changing the main hard disk in your computer (for either a bigger one or smaller one).

[Jacko439]

Thanks for your explanation VHG I was hoping that the answer would be something along these lines as I recently had a complete computer breakdown and when I did a mirror image on that occaision it took something like 15 hours to complete and then had to be transfered to drive C

Again my thanks for help received.