Can System Recovery be used to recover after an OS upgrade?

[dkarni]

My organization is preparing to upgrade all of our computers from Windows 7 to 10. This process involves essentially wiping the computer, installing the new OS, and starting from scratch. Part of our procedure involves backing up all of our files manually so they can be copied back later.

I am currently using Symantec System Recovery 2013 R2 to keep a running incremental backup of my system (C:/). Will this be able to restore all of my files when the new OS is installed?

[criley]

Yes, this can be done.

However, if you are backing up your system partition, what data do you actually need to restore considering that you are upgrading the operating system? Or are you saying that you have 'end user data' stored on the system partition?

[dkarni]

I'm mainly just concerned with documents and things located in my home directory, which does include a lot of code. I don't believe I am storing any user data on the system partition. I don't have admin rights, so it's doubtful I'd be able to do it accidentally.

[criley]

I would recommend doing a full volume-level backup rather than the file/folder level backups that are available with System Recovery. Volume level backups give you more functionality when it comes to restores.