System Backup vs Disk Backup, not sure which one to choose

Artur

For about 2 years now, Windows has been acting up on my PC, boot times have been atrocious, and as far as I can tell it's down to my WD Green 240 GB SSD, which, as was unknown to me at the time of buying, has quite the reputation for being slow as a boot drive due to cut corners such as lack of cache memory. Problem is that drive has now been in my PC for 2 years, and as such it has my OS, as well as all other things associated with C: drives such as program files, documents etc.
I have recently bought a new SSD, a Samsung 860 EVO 500 GB, and want to basically image (or whatever the technical term for transferring all the files from one drive to another without changing anything is) my OS as well as the other C: drive files onto the new SSD, and as such I am unsure of which option is more suited; system backup or disk backup. System backup seems the intuitive option, but then again, I don't only want the system to copy over, but all the other associated files.

Additionally, from the few videos I watched on imaging files, it seems that the source disks tend to be wiped clean. Is that the case with system backups? I assume not since it would be counterintuitive to wipe the OS from a PC while you're using it, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

vbbritt

Essentially you have three options.  1.) you can elect to choose the option to clone the disc.  With this option the operating system, all of the files, serial numbers and registry entries are copied from the source disk to the destination disc.  When the operation is completed then you would need to remove the source disc (WD 240 Green SSD) from the computer and replace it with the 860 EVO Disc.  Once the disc is replaced then you can boot up your machine on the new disc.  2.) In most cases computers manufactured within the last several years have a EFI operating system and GPT file system.  At a minimum you have a small EFI partition, a MSR partition, a Windows partition, and a Recovery partition.  It has been my experience that it is best to create a WinPE rescue media before proceeding with your restoral   If you choose to perform a system backup the Aomei Backupper software will identify any and all system partitions and copy them to the backup.  Once you have your backup created then you would power down your machine and replace your original Green SSD with your 860 EVO SSD drive and then boot up your machine on the WinPE rescue media.  From the WinPE rescue disc you would select the option to perform a system restore.  You would locate the backup that you had previously made and restore it to the 860 EVO SSD disc.  Once you have restored the backup to the 860 EVO SSD disc then you would power down the machine and reboot it.  If things go well then the machine will boot up on the new disc and everything will be as you expected.  3.)  A disk backup is very similar to a system backup except you specify which partitions to include in the backup.  If you had divided up your disc so that you had a drive C and a drive D then you would have to choose a disc backup to copy the entire drive.  A system backup would simply copy the the EFI partition, MSR partition, drive C partition, and recovery partition, but not your drive D partition.  Once you have created the disc backup then you would restore it with a disc restore and boot up the machine after the restore is completed.  Here is a link that should help https://www.ubackup.com/help/

Merrick

For transferring all files from one drive to another without altering anything, a disk backup would be the appropriate choice. It captures the entire contents of the disk, including the OS and all associated files.

Merrick

You've outlined three options for disk cloning, emphasizing the need for caution and preparation, especially regarding EFI and GPT systems.
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