Cloning Windows 7 Hard Drive

Using Windows 7 "Backup and Restore" can one clone the hard drive to a USB
Flash drive NTFS, large enough to handle the entire hard drive. My hard drive is using 48 GB and my flash drive is 65 GB. I keep getting the warning, "This
Drive is not a valid backup location."
Would someone have some suggestions? Thanks.

 

Thanks plodr for your reply. And...thanks for the site that explains this.
Gary

 

You can use a third-party software like Macrium Reflect or ToDo backup to create a system image and store it on the USB, both have free versions for home users.

Just to clarify, cloning is usually directly from one HD to another HD. An exact copy.
A system image is a compressed file that is stored for later. When you need it you use the same software that created it to decompress it and write it back to the original or a different HD.

 

Thanks sach2 for the info to enable me to use a usb flash drive to store a system
image. Thanks.
Gary

 

You're welcome.

Whichever program you choose (both are reliable) be sure to burn the boot CD from within the program. That way if your XP won't start you can boot your computer from the CD and run the program to restore the image.