Win 7 System Images - incremental or not?

This is more of a personal preference than anything else:
If I ever had problems in the distant past with Windows backup it was by giving it automatic control.
I always make one new image manually. If I want to keep it I rename it to say
WindowsImageBackup_12_5_11 or move it into a folder. Of course moving within partition boundaries is just a directory change and "instant". When I no longer want the image I shift delete it.
Maybe I'm lucky, but by following this approach I have never had a problem after many imaging operations.

My experience as well with Acronis.

I believe the only thing Windows 7 lets you manage is the user area backups , not the image backups.

Macrium is an alternative. I am making both. I have successfully restored from Windows 7 backup, but have not tried a Macrium restore yet.

My Approach:

I manually manage windows image backups in as much as it lets you. Under the general "Backup & Restore" I use the let me choose option in backup settings and untick the automatic make an image option.
I select the manual "Create a system image" when I want to make an image. Windows will allow you to select any available partition with sufficient space to store the image except (system, active, boot). I always make fresh images by either deleting an old image beforehand or by renaming and/or moving an existing image.
Windows will force imaging of partition(s) containing (system active, Boot). If you have a separate 100-200MB system reserved partition this will be included along with the OS (MS call Boot) partition. You can add additional letter assigned partitions if you like.

My personal preference is to use Windows imaging for (system,active,Boot) plus the odd Macrium for safety. For non (system,active,boot) I use Macrium because of it's greater flexibility in choosing individual partitions.

I did the tests with Windows 7 *scheduled* backup (not interactively) with system image, this morning, twice.
NO, system image backup IS NOT INCREMENTAL.

Which tests?

hw360 said:

I did the tests with Windows 7 *scheduled* backup (not interactively) with system image, this morning, twice.
NO, system image backup IS NOT INCREMENTAL.

Also - no need to SHOUT. LOL

Which test?
C: Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit, 9GB.
E: Empty 100GB.

In Backup and Restore, set:
Backup Destination E:
What do you want to back up? Let Windows choose (Backup Summary: All users, System Image)

Capital words here means emphasis, not shout. LOL

It still only offers 1 image to restore when you boot to system recovery options?

Dang - the storage team are telling porkies, then.

Save a bit of time and at cmd type

wbadmin get versions -backuptarget:e:

see what it says