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Entire PC Backup

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I'm confused about the use of an Entire PC Backup for a restore. If Windows were to get corrupted somehow, can that backup be used to restore Windows and all other programs/data to the existing disk? And if my disk were to crash can the Entire PC Backup be used to restore to a new disk or do I have to have a clone backup for that?

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if you have an entire PC backup, you can restore it to a new/different disk (assuming it has enough space) and that new disk will be just like the original in terms of bootability, applications, settings (at least as of the point in time the backup was taekn).  Whatever the shape of your OS, applications and data are in at the time of backup is what will be restored.

Cloning is supposed to be an easier way of copying one disk to another "on the fly".  However, it provides no backup and only copies the contents of one disk to the other so that you have a copy of the original.  If the drive is already corrupted (or failed) then cloning offers no help.  Cloning is also more sensitive and has some restrictions (like disk sector size) that a full backup and restore does not.  

Personally, I would recommedn you take backups and restore them if you need to recover to an earlier point in time, or if you need to switch to a different disk for some reason.  If possible, test the behavior on a new/different hard drive and make sure the process works as expected.  By using a different disk, if anything should go wrong, you don't lose the original disk for the purpose of your test.

1) Take a full disk (or entire PC) backup and save it to a third location (network share or third drive).

2) Shutdown the PC, remove the original drive and put it somewhere safe.  Insert new or test drive for the purpose of recovery

3) boot your offline Acornis bootable media

4) restore the backup image to the new/test drive.

5) shutdown computer and remove Acronis bootalbe media.

6) boot the newly restored image 

If it works, you know your backup image is good and can continue to use the newly restored disk (especially if you wanted to change disk or upgrade to something bigger or faster).  Or, return the original drive and hold onto the test drive "as is" as a quick drive replacement or until you want to do another test recovery with a newer image later on.