I bought a used W11/W10 laptop online and want to make an image of it before booting it up so that I can return the laptop to its exact state. It was probably manufactured between 2019 and 2021. Removing and connecting the old hard drive to a separate W11 computer is no problem. What is a problem is that I'm not sure what software to use to create the image, I want to backup unrelated data on the same larger hard drive but I want to maintain a clear separation, and I think it has an OEM W11 Pro license I might decide later that I want to keep.
Why not boot it up? I don't have a real concern about viruses. I just don't want to deal with whatever state it arrived in.
The goal of the backup is to:
- Recover to this exact state if a fresh install of Windows 11 doesn't work out. (Preserve drivers, any OEM software, etc.) I care about currently stored data, not recovering deleted data.
- Store unrelated things on the same hard drive that I store the image on without commingling unrelated data. (I'm assuming the image will be messy rather than a single large file, maybe I'm wrong?)
- Get the OEM W11 activation key or activated status if I really want to later.
Concerns:
- I don't know if I need to save any BIOS/UEFI data? I don't know how that stuff relates to W11 activation, if at all.
- A backup that requires a password to use would be catastrophic. I can manage any issues presented by Secure Boot and Bitlocker if they appear. I'll be checking the laptops status with that stuff after the backup and before I wipe it.
- I really don't want to test this backup because I don't care for any data already on the machine, but if a backup's worth keeping then it's worth testing.
My future plans for this laptop are to install a cut down version of W11 with a local admin account and dual boot Ubuntu. I apologize for not providing the laptop's detailed specs, it's just that I'm looking for a general solution.
I'm under the weather right now, so I hope I've made myself clear. Please feel free to ask any clarifying questions. I'll be checking this thread at least once a day until I finish this. I'm very savvy and somewhat frustrated I haven't solved this via searching online yet. Thank you for your time.
Question
Delly10 0
Why not boot it up? I don't have a real concern about viruses. I just don't want to deal with whatever state it arrived in.
The goal of the backup is to:
- Recover to this exact state if a fresh install of Windows 11 doesn't work out. (Preserve drivers, any OEM software, etc.) I care about currently stored data, not recovering deleted data.
- Store unrelated things on the same hard drive that I store the image on without commingling unrelated data. (I'm assuming the image will be messy rather than a single large file, maybe I'm wrong?)
- Get the OEM W11 activation key or activated status if I really want to later.
Concerns:
- I don't know if I need to save any BIOS/UEFI data? I don't know how that stuff relates to W11 activation, if at all.
- A backup that requires a password to use would be catastrophic. I can manage any issues presented by Secure Boot and Bitlocker if they appear. I'll be checking the laptops status with that stuff after the backup and before I wipe it.
- I really don't want to test this backup because I don't care for any data already on the machine, but if a backup's worth keeping then it's worth testing.
My future plans for this laptop are to install a cut down version of W11 with a local admin account and dual boot Ubuntu. I apologize for not providing the laptop's detailed specs, it's just that I'm looking for a general solution.
I'm under the weather right now, so I hope I've made myself clear. Please feel free to ask any clarifying questions. I'll be checking this thread at least once a day until I finish this. I'm very savvy and somewhat frustrated I haven't solved this via searching online yet. Thank you for your time.
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