Can I set up multiple hard drives to boot from

Recently I have been trying to back up my computer by creating a system image and saving it to an external hard drive. I first tried boot up the drive directly from BIOS; however, that did not work. I then made a special recovery drive on a different USB which I was able to boot from. I was about to restore using 'system image recovery' but I stopped when I realized that doing so would overwrite my C: drive. So essentially my question is this: is it possible to create a system image backup that I can freely boot from while still having my main drive for primary use?

Yes you can, but not from external drives.

axe0 said:

Yes you can, but not from external drives.

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Are you sure there is no program that I can use that will recognize a USB drive as an internal drive?

You can't use a USB as drive at all, but you can use it as recovery media.

axe0 said:

You can't use a USB as drive at all, but you can use it as recovery media.

Click to expand...

I'm selling my old PC and wiping all of my personal data data. What software would you recommend I use to backup my Windows 8 files so that I can still have access to them on my new computer. I tried Marcrium Reflect however it corrupted several of my video files to the point that .mov files only played sound. Just want your ideas.

I use Macrium
Macrium only saved me a few times.