Forum Discussion
Can i make a system image on the same drive i want to restore it to?
Long story short, tried restarting the PC, couldn't boot it to windows, tried everything and couldn't boot/repair it. Seems to me that HDD is a goner.
I'm using a USB drive with Hiren's Boot installed and HDD seems to be accessible and there is a tool in Hiren's Boot to make system images. Planning to buy a new SSD at the same size as my HDD.
My question is, can i restore my windows on my new SSD if i were to create the system image on the SSD i want to restore it on? I don't have any drives large enough to store the image to and i don't want to risk putting it on my corrupt HDD (the current windows i am unable to boot is installed to)
I know i can use third party programs to do 1:1 image but
1- Not sure if the corruption will carry over and i'll end up with a windows i cannot boot to again (corrupt windows not the corruption on the drive)
2- I don't want to eat away the health of my new SSD by writing a whole 2 TB of "useless" data if it were to not work.
If the answer is no and i simply HAVE TO get a drive i want to store the image to, how much storage will i need for a 2 TB system image? I know the question might stupid but AFAIK system image file is not as large as the "image" itself.
2 Replies
For a 2TB drive, the image size will depend on how much data is actually used, not the total capacity. If you have, say, 200GB of data, the image might be roughly 200–250GB, sometimes a bit more because of system files and compression.
If you're trying to create a system image on the same HDD that is failing or has Windows installed, this is not recommended and likely not supported by most tools, including Hiren’s Boot tools or Windows Backup.
