Copying Complete Hard Drive to an external hard drive as a back up

[edgengnc]

I currently am running windows 8.1 x64 bit, and I am thinking of copying my entire hard drive (consisting of C & D drives using a total of 929.2 GB of space.  And wanting to get a Western Digital External Hard Drive with 1.5 TB of space.  I have been led to believe that windows 8.1 has a utility called System Image Back Up Utility (located in the Control Panel).  I have also been led to believe that this can be done completely using a bit by bit copy of the entire hard drive (programs, files, drivers, apps, utilities, etc),  But I can not fine enough info on doing this. And there are still questions, such as How do you transfer the copy from the external hard drive back onto the PC if it should completely crash? (I do have a five disk recovery set I made when I purchased my PC, but still want an additional source of a back up system.)  I can not find the procedures for copying the copy from the external hard drive to the crashed PC, and are ther better and safer programs out there to use instead of the windows system Image back up utility?  I would add that I am somewhat of an intermediate user, useing PCs since windows 95. but there are obviously issues that I need to research before attempting something this complicated and advanced.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in Advance !

[wb2001 · Accepted solution]

A description of System Image Backup can be found here.  If you want both C and D, I would suggest a clone program. Both Seagate and WD offer a free Disk Wizard Program. With the cloning process, you use an external case to perform the clone.  When disaster strikes, you swap out the drives, and continue. Personally, I make clones of my primary desktops every 30-45 days.

[edgengnc]

nks for the Information, and I'm glad to see that I am not being "abnormal" or "paranoid" about backing up my system.  I wish Microsoft wopuld let you make multiple recover disc sets, not just the initial set upon your initial startup after purchase>  Thanks again for getting back on my question so quickly.

[Personal Information Removed]

[edgengnc]

Thanks for the Info, appreciate it very much

[wb2001]

It is not abnormal to create an efficient backup plan. What is paraniod is the mindset when disaster happens, and no plan was ever instituted to simply continue on as IF nothing was wrong.

PS> Thanks for comments and the Solution and the Kudo flags.   It helps others know your inquiry was handled, and your satisified.   Deeply appreciate that.