Best Way To Clone My Laptop?

I just did a fresh install of Windows on a brand new laptop. I wiped the HDD (to get rid of all the bloatware that comes pre-installed) then spent the last week or so reconfiguring things exactly how I like it. Now it's pretty much perfect (or atleast my version of it). Now I'd REALLY like not having to do this again. But I know something could happen where I might have to wipe the HDD again or it could fail.

My question is, what's the best method of making a cloned copy of the HDD in its exact state, right down to each byte and bit? I don't even want to restinall Windows if I don't have to. I'd love to be able to partition a drive and just copy one version over to the other and be done, restoring everyting to it's previous state.

Can that be done, and if so with what program? If not, what's the next best thing?

Thanks as always for the help!

 

I recommend Paragon Backup & Recovery 16 Free Edition.
https://www.paragon-software.com/ufsdhome/br-free/

 

2018 Update:

Hey folks, I'm back again with a similar question but I figured instead of creating a new thread I'd just tack it onto the end of this one (in case it might help someone else in the future).

So I'm finishing up some work on my desktop, which is my primary machine. When done, I want to back up the entire partition to guard against failures in the future. I have years worth of software installation and configuration on this baby and I'd hate to have to start all over. I'd like to do something similar here that I did with my laptop. I want to take my entire partition and make an exact, 1:1 clone of it for safe keeping. That way, if this hard drive fails for any reason, I can literally go buy a new one at my local store, copy my cloned partition back over and boot it up as if nothing ever happened and have everything be exactly the same. I don't want to do any new installing or setup.

I helpful fellow above recombined Paragon for my laptop, which I did buy and install. However, I don't think it did exactly what I'm talking about. The backup I ended up with was like 30gigs or less. I'm in dire need of a program that will make restoring everything a drag n' drop procedure (more or less). I'm willing to pay, so please recommend the best program that will accomplish this goal.

And thanks!

 

I'll give it a try, thanks!

 

My favorite is "Casper" (the friendly Ghost). This is an easy to use title, and they offer a free trial. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! https://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/trial/

 

There are two differing approaches to this question of how best to completely protect all the time and effort you have invested in your system - cloning and disk imaging. I strongly recommend you do a bit of reading on both before committing to either approach, starting HERE. Most of the regulars here back up their systems on a fairly regular basis rather than taking one perfect copy and keeping it until needed, by which time it will probably be seriously out of date. The backup you have already made, which at 30GB you believe must be incomplete, is not incomplete, it is a compressed image and that is the method most of us now use rather than cloning.

There are several free programs available to reliably accomplish what you want and paying is completely unnecessary.

 

I just ran a test using Macrium Reflect FREE Edition on my laptop and it seemed to have worked pretty well. I originally did a forensic image of the partition, which ended up being too big (I guess because it was backing up all the unused gigs of space instead of just the used files). It ended up being an image of about 161gigs of a 167gig partition.

I'd like to try it on my desktop now, but I do have one question. I turned the compression off as I figured that might somehow harm or compromise the backup. I don't mind taking up extra drive space, as this will go on its own drive I don't use. Is it better to turn compression off, if I can afford the space?

 

I use Macrium Reflect to create a monthly compressed disk image and have done so for many years. I have never had a failure.

 

I have found that XXClone has worked quite well also, but Macrium is pretty good. I have used both with all my computers.