back up new HP computer and usb 3

[ron3033]

Hi

I bought this computer in Dec. 2016 but was unable to set it up until June 18, 2017.  That said i got the McAffee removal tool to completely uninstall McAffee and it s' bits and pieces, and installed Eset.

Other new computers I have bought you always  were prompted to make a back up cd/dvd, but not this time.  What and how  do i make a recovery back up in case something ever went wacky? 

Secondly, my Seagate back up slim which is usb 3 will not be seen by the blue usb port on this computer??  But it will be seen by the usb port?  Other flash drive work on the usb 3 port.  Any suggestions?

Thanks

ron3033

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

@ron3033

Regarding the system backup ... I personally prefer to use third-party Recovery solutions as they tend to be both more flexible and more reliable than any built-in solutions.

Macrium Reflect (MR) provides a FREE version that can be used to image and restore partitions or entire drives: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR)
2) Run MR and choose the option: "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows" to write a full backup to an external drive or USB stick
3) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

My experience is that MR, when using the High Compression option, typically can compress the saved image file to about 50% of the USED space in the OS partition. This means if you have an 80GB OS partition, and 40GB is used, MR only needs about 20GB to store the image file.

I use this all the time and it typically takes less than 15 minutes to do the image backup and about the same time or less to do a restore.

Plus, MR has the option to Add a Recovery Boot Menu entry. This allows you then to boot into WinRE, and you can then use that to do a restore -- when you can't boot into Windows!

NOW, you have the means to restore a full working system from the external drive or USB stick in only a few minutes.

Regarding the Seagate problem, after you connect the drive, open Drive Management (use Search to find this) and then scroll down through that window to see if the drive is listed.  IF it is, it may simply be a matter of assigning a drive letter -- which you can do in that tool.  IF it shows "raw" as the partition type, that means the filesystem has been damaged and you would have to use data recovery tools to retrieve anything from it, and after that, would have to reformat it to restore a working filesystem.

Good Luck