Diskimage11 - Partial system image?

[harmand]

My system disk (C:) is a 256GB SSD which contains, together with Win10 and installed programs (almost 60GB), about 90GB of data.
I regularly make backups of those data and so I do not run the risk of loosing them in case of an SSD failure.
However, I can not obviously say the same for the Operating System itself.

So I'm looking for a way to "backup" just the Windows environment (without those data), so that I can, in case of an SSD failure, quickly restore it in another SSD disk, maybe bigger.
I know that most disk imaging programs easily allow to produce a single "image file" of the entire system disk partition, but that is not what I'd like to obtain. I then discovered that DiskImage11, if I'm not mistaken, allows the user to select one or more folders to be excluded from an image file. I did not understand, however, if such an image file can (or can not) be a system image file.

My question is:
supposing I exclude those data folder when launching the imaging of the C: system disk, am I sure that DiskImage11 will be able, from the resulting "partial" image file, to restore in a new SSD the very same bootable system partition (obviously without the excluded data)?

[Brigitte (O&O)]

Hello,

A partial system image like in your scenario is not a "clean" system image. For example: It does include all links in the Windows Registry to installed programs etc.

[harmand]

A partial system image like in your scenario is not a "clean" system image. For example: It does include all links in the Windows Registry to installed programs etc.

I thank you for you answer, but I'm afraid I don't understand it well.
I want the system image to "include all links in the Windows Registry to installed programs" (which in may scenario are quite few).
Those links are indeed needed to restore the OS environment.
I don't expect, however, the image to include links to portable programs, which are actually not "installed" and consequently are not present in the Registry. :]

The question remains: is such a "partial" image (done excluding some data folders) usable to restore the OS environment in a new disk?

[Brigitte (O&O)]

Hello,

as far as I understand you mean with "partial system image" a image of the whole Windows OS and installed programs minus some personal folders? Sure, that's possible.

[harmand]

... a image of the whole Windows OS and installed programs minus some personal folders? Sure, that's possible.

Thanks Brigitte, that's exactly what I meant and that's exactly the confirmation I was hoping to read. :]
I feared that such a "partial" imaging was not meant to be used with bootable system drives.

[Nemo_G]

Hi Harmand,

Although MS recommends no separate partions for OS&programs and indidividual data, my opinion and experience is not to merge them on C:.
Individual Data especially not in C:\Users\<username>\*.*. They have to be backupped separately.

Regards, Nemo

[harmand]

Hi Nemo,

I understand your point, so much so that I actually do not save my data inside C:\Users\<username> and store them in other folders and partitions, which get backupped separately. As a matter of fact I do even more than that, keeping also many programs "outside" the OS: all those that are available in "portable" form.

As to using C: only for the OS (and programs) I have to admit I don't like the idea of... wasting the space (and especially the speed) of my recently bought 256GB SSD drive leaving it empty for almost 75% of its capacity. So I decided to use some of that space for some data folders, including a few virtual machine which take big advantage from the SSD performance. That's why I need "partial" system images to backup just the OS environment. :]