Running BACKUP usually is a dreaded task, many computer users neglect. And to make it worse, restoring data also isn't always easy. When your OS is damaged (or hijacked by ransomware), it isn't able to do its job and restoration may seem impossible. (Windows)-Tablets with their fewer IOs and small disk-space make backup even more challenging.
Unless you are prepared ....

PREPARATIONS : with new PCs & W10-tablets, manufacturers & Microsoft don't want you to be able to boot other software and you need to change BIOS-settings to disable that feature. Look in the UEFI settings -- there you may find a "legacy boot" and other security-options that currently lock you in.

PREPARATION #2 : Especially tablets lack USB IOs and a physical keyboard. You cannot press "F2" or "F12" or "DEL" to enter BIOS and make changes to the boot sequence. At that early stage, the touchpad or touchscreen also don't work. Instead you will need a USB-hub with at least 3 slots to connect a KBD, a mouse and one or more USB drives. If you add an Ethernet-port, you are able to download latest Antivirus definitions and other updates.

It is difficult to backup (or restore) the OS while it is running ==> therefore my suggestion is to avoid that hassle and save the status that is written onto the HDD. For that, I previously have used a (very) old version of DRIVECLONE V2.1 and it did a really great job of creating a snapshot of the any of the partitions (incl MBR, all partition-data & OS) and it only took a few minutes. (Note : my OS partition intentionally is small : ~35GB).
To backup the much larger DATA partitions, I use a different strategy -- there I don't have to worry about concurrent access, locked data and other access issues.

DRIVECLONE added a dual-boot loader and you could boot Windows by default or DC to backup or restore a partition. Recent changes to MS Windows (e.g. GPT boot) made DRIVECLONE incompatible and now I am looking for another, equally simple yet powerful backup tool to capture & restore a snapshot of the OS (*).
While old-fashion desktop PCs & BIOS have a lot of compatibility and often even can boot from physical CD/DVD, new laptops & tablets lack many features & USB-ports, making backup more complicated.
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Of course you first need to have a LARGE USB-drive. These drives already have been formatted and contain only a single partition. To perform both BOOT & BACKUP from a single USB-drive, we need 2 partitions on one drive.
Using DISKMGMT you can delete the original partition and create two new ones : one 500...1000MB FAT32 partition for the BOOT-image. Plus a large FAT32 or NTFS partition to store the backup data. Optional : create directories, one for each device. CLONEZILLA will create additional sub-directories with a timestamp -- but if you backup multiple devices, you cannot rely on timestamps alone.

CLONEZILLA : This is a well-known tool and it can create & restore SNAPSHOTS of partitions and entire hard-disks. The IMPORTANT detail is that CLONEZILLA cannot store the backup data on the same partition it is booting from ==> that's why I advise to reformat the USB-stick to use 2 partitions. New Linux releases can write to NTFS and that reduces issues with max size of files (e.g. FAT 32 has 2GB limit).
GPARTED : You don't want to repartition a drive without first running a backup and once repartitioning is done, you may need to restore data. Having CLONEZILLA & GPARTED in a single Linux-image seems like a natural fit. To my surprise, it wasn't easy to combine the tools into one build :-(( One uses GUI, the other is a text/console application.

DRBL-LIVE : This is the ONLY distribution which combines both GPARTED & CLONEZILLA & it can boot from a SD/USB-memory & it can store the backup images on a 2nd partition on that same USB-card (if you follow the instructions above). There are other releases combining GPARTED & CLONEZILLA but they don't get the job done for one reason or another (usually booting the tablet).


The combination of USB-drive, TUXBOOT & DRBL finally worked (GPARTED & CLONEZILLA) on all my PCs & W10-tablet.

• DOWNLOAD TUXBOOT EXE-file tuxboot.org
• DOWNLOAD DRBL-live ISO-image (Gparted & Clonezilla are included) : drbl.org
• RUN DISKMGMT & DELETE existing partition from USB stick
• CREATE new partition #1 on USB : choose FAT32 and 500....2000MB size and mark that partition as ACTIVE. This will hold LINUX OS
• CREATE new partition #2 on USB : choose FAT32 or NTSF -- I am using NTFS because Linux can read & write NTFS and you don't have 2GB size limitations per file and can use large drives.
  Microsoft officially doesn't support FAT32 partitions larger than 32GB (it works with W7 & W10 but not XP32). NTFS allows to creates files > 2GB while FAT32 has size limitations. exFAT is another option but lacks backward compatibility.
• NOTE TO XP32 USERS :
  It seems that having 2 partitions one physical USB-drive is not supported in some XP32 versions, especially mixing FAT32 & NTFS..
  On my old XP32 PC, I cannot always see all partitions. XP32 also has issues with drives > 32GB unless they are NTFS. No exFAT support.
• RUN TUXBOOT and install DRBL-live ISO on USB partition #1
• USB partition #1 as ACTIVE (it should be done, might need DISKMGMT to check or activate if necessary)
• optional : before your backup, create sub-directories on partition #2 -- e.g one for each device
• TESTING !!
  Booting from USB on a tablet is especially tricky -- e.g. none of the partitions created by YUMI would boot on the (W10)tablets while it worked on all other "real" PCs & laptops

There is only a small remark to this -- at times, DRBL's default setting resulted in an unreadable 640x480pi display. Upon boot you can choose "OTHER --> KBS" and with that selection, the OS-loader picks a higher resolution and so far I had no trouble with those.


The RUNNER UP : MultiBoot_USB (Pendrivelinux.com)

• MINUS : Doesn't boot on the W10 tablets. Boots on all other laptops & desktops
• PLUS : Installation is easier -- just install that ISO onto Partition #1. No need for extra TUXBOOT steps. You still need to create two or more partitions (or use 2 USB dries). You cannot save the BACKUP-images onto the boot partition.
• the ISO-image contains the more recent releases of GPARTED & CLONEZILLA.
• TBD : The SATA-drive with 2 partitions is recognized by XP32 while other USB-drives are not. Not sure why that is the case -- maybe SATA vs USB. Both drives combine FAT32 bootloader & NTFS data partition.

CAUTIONARY TALES :

• RUFUS will erase your ENTIRE USB-drive -- even when it contains multiple partitions. If you have multiple partitions, the checkbox "Quick Format" won't prevent deletion of the other partitions !!
• YUMI worked really well and it can combine different ISO-images into one boot partition. For reasons unknown (yet), the tablets refused to boot those images while desktops & laptops worked just fine !
• USB-drive & USB-hubs : It is unlikely to happen to a small USB-stick but when you use a USB-to-SATA adapter to backup larger drives, you better be aware of the POWER CONSUMPTION.
  A USB2-port can provide max 5V x 0.5A (2.5W). A single port may be able to provide more power, especially when all other ports are idle. A single SSD may need up to 10W (peak). Attaching a SSD behind a unpowered hub with a USB-KBD & USB-Mouse can cause the SSD to fail randomly (due to power failures).

ALTERNATE SOLUTIONS
Combining the OS-BOOT & STORAGE on the same USB-drive simplifies the handling as you can plug a single USB-stick into the tablet/laptop. If you have 2 or more USB-ports (or add a USB-hub), you can choose to use 2 USB-sticks and separate the OS-BOOT & STORAGE. .


OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
With a desktop and laptop, you always have a keyboard and can press "F11" or any other key to enter the BIOS or BOOT-menu. With a tablet, you may not have that many USB-ports and you need a hub to connect the KBD, maybe mouse plus 1...2 USB drives. From my observation, W10-tablets BIOS can boot from USB even if there is a hub -- YMMV.
Always be mindful of the power-consumption of USB-devices connected to the same port -- sporadic errors or unusual long access times are a signs of brief power-failures (which cause devices to reboot and likely loose data). A self-powered hub helps to avoid such issues.

INCOMPATIBLE BUILT-IN PERIPHERALS :
The tablet & laptops are designed to work with W10 after it has booted & loaded all required drivers. But not all peripherals work during bootup or have suitable Linux-drivers. Most commonly you will not be able to use the built-in (Micro) SD-card as a boot-device. It may not even work with Linux after booting.
In one extreme case, even the laptop's touchpad would not work after booting various Linux versions and I had to rely on external USB mouse.

SIZE & SPEED : The old DRIVECLONE V2.1 sure is fast -- both in terms of booting and saving data. If you enable compression, it is really slow because at the time, there were no multi-core processors to accelerate compression. Your compressed image will be approx 50...60% size of the original data but it take 3x times longer. CLONEZILLA's default-setting take advantage of modern multi-core processors to accelerate compression and as a result the image also is 50%...60% the original size (and SWAP-files are removed) and the backup time is longer but not dramatically.
The overhead of compressing the data can balance the time to write the extra data -- and that is especially true when you save to a slow medium like a USB-card.

SAFETY & SECURITY : The old DRIVECLONE did one task -- it copied the data. And AFAIK, it did not CHECK the written data. And there is no option to encrypt the backup image. Adding a verification step after writing the image to me is a worthwhile effort. And having the ability to encrypt the backup can be an important feature as well. CLONEZILLA has both of those options -- verify is on by default, encryption requires an extra step to define the passphrase. (I have not tested how encryption slows down the backup or restore)

EASE OF USE : When booted directly, CLONEZILLA can use mouse and keyboard. The GUI is text-based but you can use the mouse to set/reset the various options and click onto buttons. All the actions also can be done via keyboard, TAB will move the "cursor" forward to the net field, SPACE will toggle an option and ENTER will finish the entry and proceed to the next step. The DRBL image provides a working copy of CLONEZILLA but you must use it solely through the keyboard interface.


Having a backup & repair solution on one stick was the goal of this exercise. And for the most part, it succeeded. With a 64GB Micro-SD card in a tiny USB-stick, I can backup the OS-partition of all my PCs & tablets with the exception of the company-provided laptop. That partition and amount of data exceeds the 60GB available on that card. Backup of that laptop has worked fine using a USB-to-SATA adapter and a comparable SW-setup.


(*) WHY A SNAPSHOT and not a regular or incremental backup ? The answer lies inside Windows and the concurrently running tasks and the files that are locked to prevent interference. It gets worse when you attempt to restore files while the system is running.
When you capture or restore a snapshot of the OS while it is _NOT_ running, all of the above issues vanish.
A snapshot of the (saved) OS partition also can save & restore settings hidden from the user (e.g. hidden registry data). This method also is more resilient to virus attacks as the image and backup code can be independent of the OS & data.

(**) WHY A SNAPSHOT : After a virus or ransomware attack has damaged your OS, you cannot rely or trust the OS (if it still works). It is best to completely wipe it off the disk. Which coincidentally restoring the snapshot will do.
Sometimes Window OS refuses to boot to reasons other than virus -- restoring a recent snapshot often is the quickest fix.

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