Thanks again. I see that they also recommend Macrium Reflect.
Does this mean that if I clone my HD in its entirety then, if the HD is damaged in some way, I can plug my external HD into a USB port and boot up from that? Would it then be possible to copy the lot on to the internal HD assuming it is still working (or a replacement HD), or even a new laptop. I assume the latter would not be possible because the cloned Windows would not be happy with a different system(?).
I have restored an image and also cloned a 320 GB HDD to a 250 GB SSD without problems or 'insider knowledge'
Yes, when I copy to an external HD using my software, it automatically compresses everything. As I have a lot more space on my external HD than on my internal HD I think I'd feel happier without compression, even if it takes longer to back up. Is there any chance that compressing information can lead to problems or degrade some data?
Sorry. I can manage to get by using most things to do with computers, but I'm always willing to learn from a master!