How do you back up Windows itself?

[benali72]

G0ddard, thank you for explaining all this. 

To see if I understand it right -- MS Windows Backup and Restore will back up & restore your data, but can not be used for restoring Windows itself. Acronis can backup and recover Windows as well as data but only if you bought the Universal Restore option. However, even after using the Universal Restore option to restore MS software, you will still have to re-activate Windows and MS Office if you have it. 

I'm with you, RichardK, I bet few Windows users really understand this. I certainly didn't.  Thank you G0ddard.

[The Gorn]

Corrections:

... MS Windows Backup and Restore will back up & restore your data, but can not be used for restoring Windows itself. Acronis can backup and recover Windows as well as data. but only if you bought the Universal Restore option. However, even after using the Universal Restore option to restore MS software, you will still have to re-activate Windows and MS Office if you have it. if you are restoring to new and different hardware. Restoring to the original PC that generated the backup really should not trigger activation.

The strike-throughs are the few errors. Acronis backs up and restores all of Windows. Universal restore can restore to different hardware (that part is what makes it "universal".)

Windows Backup's biggest single failing is the lack of an incremental backup. That alone makes it pretty well useless for me. The data on my PC is just too huge to have to back up in entirety every time. Windows Backup is junk, just something for them to claim that they have backup but not designed for regular use.

[benali72]

Oops, poor wording on my part. Thanks for your correction. I get it now.