Gigabyte Smart USB Backup - does it wipe the whole drive?

I've noticed Smart USB Backup appearing in my Smart Update list of programs available for a while. It sounds useful, especially since I've never been able to use the built in File History system image creation tool in Windows 8/8.1 (can't deselect the factory recovery and EFI partitions, which have no free space, so it can't create the backup image).

When a backup image is made with Smart USB Backup does it format/wipe the drive, or does it create the system backup alongside other data on the drive? Or something else entirely?

 

- It does not format or wipe the drive when the backup image is created.
- It does format and wipe your USB flash drive.
- It does not make any changes to your system, it simply read the hidden factory image and transfer to the USB flash drive.
- It does format and wipe your OS drive when you perform system image recovery from the USB backup.

 

Wow, I'm surprised to hear that. So the purpose of the tool is just to make a copy of the factory partition? It can't actually create a current system image?

Bought my P34 from you guys by the way. Love GenTech.

 

Correct, the tool only reads the factory backup image from the hidden partition, it transfer the image to the USB and make it bootable that's pretty much it. The backup image does not contains any Windows or drivers update, it's just a image that was created from the factory when it was manufactured.

The image backup is just like DVDs, it can't be update or modify unless a new image was created or made at the time. Like drivers DVD that was shipped with the laptop, if the nVidia drivers version was 355.60 on the DVD then it will always remains at 355.60 unless you download new version and burn a new DVD.

Thank you for your kind words and hope you enjoy the new laptop.