Solved How much space do I need on a micro sd card to do a backup of my SP3? Micro SD reccomendations?

[Zog1971]

Hi again. I have been looking through past threads and can't find an answer so far. How much space does a backup of the SP3 require? I am wanting to buy a micro sd to backup to and also save some movies and music. I only have about 12gb of stuff right now that I want to save so not sure if a 32gb is good or if I should go ahead and go for the 64gb. Also, looks like the Samsung Pro cards have 90mbs speed cards. Should I opt for that or are the 48mbs Sandisk and Samsung cards sufficient to watch HD movies from?

As always, thanks for the great advice!

 

[Liam2349]

Backup? If you want to back up files, then just look to see how much space they consume. If you want to create an image of your SP3, then look at your C drive to see how much space you need.

 

[Zog1971]

Sorry, I am completely ignorant on the whole subject. I guess I am meaning a recovery image if the SP3 had to be replaced. I didn't know if the image was as big as the whole c:drive or if it creates a smaller file.

 

[Liam2349]

Sorry, I am completely ignorant on the whole subject. I guess I am meaning a recovery image if the SP3 had to be replaced. I didn't know if the image was as big as the whole c:drive or if it creates a smaller file.

You can create an image of the Surface. This is a complete copy of your SP3 - if you got a new one, installed from this image, you would have the exact same setup. Settings, registry, files - everything. I believe they are compressed but their size will depend on how much stuff you have, and can still be big. I've never done this, so I'm not entirely sure how it works but it's in the backup options for Win 8.

Personally I think most people are better off just backing up their files by copying them to other storage media or your favourite cloud provider.

 

[malberttoo]

Sorry, I am completely ignorant on the whole subject. I guess I am meaning a recovery image if the SP3 had to be replaced. I didn't know if the image was as big as the whole c:drive or if it creates a smaller file.

My recovery USB drive is using about 9GB.

The recovery drive only creates a Windows recovery, to get you back to factory. It doesn't include your personal files or programs.

If you DO want to make something includes your files and programs as well, then you want Macrium.

 

[Liam2349]

My recovery USB drive is using about 9GB.

The recovery drive only creates a Windows recovery, to get you back to factory. It doesn't include your personal files or programs.

If you DO want to make something includes your files and programs as well, then you want Macrium.

I was under the impression that Windows allowed you to create custom recover drives?

 

[malberttoo]

I was under the impression that Windows allowed you to create custom recover drives?

There are other methods of doing that. But the built-in method only creates a bootable USB drive, and then copies the recovery partition onto it.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-usb-recovery-drive

 

[Zog1971]

Maybe I am worrying about nothing. I read a thread on here (that I can't find now) about someone having to replace their SP3 and if they would have backed up their image to the micro sd it would have saved them a bunch of headache. I have never worried much about backing my computers up to another drive, but figured since I had the micro sd drive I might just give it a shot. I'm not sure I understand the point if the image just takes you back to factory settings. Doesn't a full restore of the system do that anyway? I'm confused..... Maybe I don't need to worry after all?

 

[Liam2349]

There are other methods of doing that. But the built-in method only creates a bootable USB drive, and then copies the recovery partition onto it.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-usb-recovery-drive

Well then I guess you may have to use custom software to create a proper image.

Maybe I am worrying about nothing. I read a thread on here (that I can't find now) about someone having to replace their SP3 and if they would have backed up their image to the micro sd it would have saved them a bunch of headache. I have never worried much about backing my computers up to another drive, but figured since I had the micro sd drive I might just give it a shot. I'm not sure I understand the point if the image just takes you back to factory settings. Doesn't a full restore of the system do that anyway? I'm confused..... Maybe I don't need to worry after all?

The main point of a bootable USB is for recovery from serious issues. E.g. Surface does not turn on.

My SP2 wouldn't turn on because it got stuck on an update, but since I had a bootable recovery drive, I plugged it in and managed to boot to it, reinstall Windows and fixed it.

 

[malberttoo]

Maybe I am worrying about nothing. I read a thread on here (that I can't find now) about someone having to replace their SP3 and if they would have backed up their image to the micro sd it would have saved them a bunch of headache. I have never worried much about backing my computers up to another drive, but figured since I had the micro sd drive I might just give it a shot. I'm not sure I understand the point if the image just takes you back to factory settings. Doesn't a full restore of the system do that anyway? I'm confused..... Maybe I don't need to worry after all?

The point of the generic Recovery drive that you make from within Windows, is so that you can have a recovery method on-hand. Also, some people prefer to delete the recovery partition from their SSD after they make the recovery USB drive, thereby freeing up the 9 or 10GB or whatever it is.

So the built-in Recovery USB utility is to get you back in business if Windows ever gets too hosed to be usable. You could also use it for just doing a clean install.

There is a way however that you can make an "image" file of your current installation, and it would include everything as-is-- your folders, files, software, everything, just as it now. Macrium is the software I'd use for that. You would install the software, and then use it to make an image of your SP3, and it would put that image on a USB flash drive, hard drive, etc. Some people do this once a week, once a month, etc. I do it on my own systems every time I'm about to make a major change, or install software I'm not 100% sure about. Of course if you use your SP3 a lot and are always making changes, then it won't be long before the image you last made is out of date. So you have to ask yourself, if my SP3 goes up in flames and I have to recover from an image, how far back am I willing to go?

So TL;DR- The built in utility gets you back to factory. Which is nice. But you would use a utility like Macrium to make a custom image, that would get you back in business, exactly as your SP3 was the moment you made the image.

Hope it helps.

 

[Zog1971]

Thanks for the clarification. Sounds like the recovery image on a separate drive is a good idea for those emergency situations where it wont boot back up. I will take a look at Macrium as suggested and see if it would further protect me.

 

[Telstar1948]

And... please correct me on this if needed... the image would only be used on the same device the image came from, or an exact duplicate device: correct?