notes: i have tested the command line i mentioned above to create system image backup for my OS drive only, and it works well for me. (maybe it's because of my simple drive setup)

my laptop has 4 physical ssd drives: OS drive, apps drive, data drive, and then games drive. the OS drive contains only OS and everything that make it work (e.g. latest drivers), plus junctions that link to other folders in other drives (apps and data drives).

before i did the system image backup, i upgraded the whole OS, drivers, and apps in it, cleaned up (disk cleanup, system optimization, etc.), then issued trim command via disk optimization, and finally rebooted the system.

i formatted my games drive (after backup), and used the command to generate the system image backup consisting of c: only and saved it into that newly formatted drive. it backed up the OS partition, and relevant EFI system partitions also (i.e. everything in the OS drive).

finally i used windows install usb to format and restore the drive. (choose repair at the windows installation dialog)

everything i need is restored properly (in a few minutes only).

one caveat of this system image backup is that it will restore everything (including partition tables) if you chose to reformat via the restore dialog. so a better way to use it is to plan and create your partition layouts first, install windows freshly, install everything else, clean up and optimize the system, and finally create the system image backup.

this way you have created yourself a recovery option with everything in it that can be restored in a few minutes