restore from an image?

i have a laptop which i just finished configuring and i want to take an image of its disk so that if something happens, i can just restore the image to the disk and the laptop will be restored to its current state.

but what i am wondering is when i open acronis, do i need to go to "disc clone" or can i just go to "create image"? the thing is that i only have about 20gb of the 60 gb laptop hard drive full. so if i used disc clone i would need at least a 60 gb drive to store the clone. but if i use disc clone i woudl only need 20gb of storage to keep the image on.

any advice would be appreciated.

 

Hello bdee1,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We recommend that you use "Create Image" wizard as a backup strategy. The "Clone Diks" wizard is used mainly when you upgrade the hard drive and you need to transfer the system to another hard drive.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman