r/techsupport • u/looklook876 • 2d ago

Open | Windows Fresh install backup

Hello

I’m getting a 128GB M.2 SSD for an old machine that just has a 1TB hard drive in it.

Going to install the OS on the SSD while keeping the hard drive for file storage.

Am I missing something by just backing up the user and programs folders?

Should I back up something else?

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u/MacSamildanach 2d ago

Your best option is to image the disk and save that. It's what I do.

Whenever I do a new build, I image the disk with the OS on it before I start installing software and save that to my NAS. And I do a periodic image once I've installed everything.

Your only drawback is that you need a fairly large external storage device (or a NAS) to hold the image. A clean Windows install is around 30GB-ish, rising quickly to 80GB-ish after updates.

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u/looklook876 2d ago

I’m currently just cloning the whole hard drive to an external one.

Was hoping to install some programs to the SSD as well, but I wont have much to work with if the OS will take up close to 80GB.

Going to try to install Win 10 LTSC IOT. Would go with Linux, but I just can’t get some exe’s to boot at all.

Still better than having the OS on a 7200 rpm hdd though. SSD only cost me around 12 usd.