amd catalyst software suite 19.50.02

[MarkL11]

I have not updated my laptop in quite some time with the lastest software. I am receiving prompts for amd catalyst software suite 19.50.02. Is it safe to update and what will this do to anything else I have on my laptop?

[WAWood]

@MarkL11 

Wish I could give you a guarantee -- but I can't.

When I first started doing AMD driver updates in Win10, nearly every one crashed my PC -- so I got into the habit of doing image backups BEFORE the driver update -- using Macrium Reflect (see below).

But over time, AMD has gotten a lot better and with the Adrenalin 2019 drivers and now the Adrenalin 2020 drivers, I can do an Express Upgrade (using the Radeon Software tool) with no issues at all.

So, my suggestion is to do the image backup using MR and THEN use the Radeon Software tool to do the driver update.

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I personally prefer to use third-party Backup 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.

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR) from here: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
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.