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Home Computer System Imaging for Newbies - My "Rules"
This is a quick post, and far from comprehensive. Just have the "urge" to write it down.
I've been making and restoring images on my home computers for many years. My success rate is 100%.
I'll just state what has worked for me. The important parts. Some may disagree with how I do it, and that's fine. This is mostly aimed at those with no experience, and can get them started well.
1. Get Macrium, Ghost 15, or other imaging software. I use Ghost 15, and have used Macrium. They work.
Macrium has a free version, which I tested out. It worked fine.
Don't use the Win 7 imaging utility. It does incremental images, which introduce complexity, and it has unacceptable weaknesses.
2. You MUST have either another internal drive, or an external drive to hold the images. The more the better.
Some might argue one drive with 2 partitions will do, and that's true. I don't recommend that.
Data drives are almost as cheap as dirt, so why open yourself to defeat if a sole drive fails?
3. Keep your system partition (we'll call it C) as small as practical for you. Install all registered and commonly used applications on C. This is your "core" system. This is what gets restored in as little as 5 minutes, with no reinstallations.
Do not put data on C. Back up data separately. My Documents, My Photos, My Downloads, and whatever else Win 7 or an application stores on C should be redirected to another partition. You HAVE to know where applications put your data, because when you restore an image to C, EVERYTHING on C gets overwritten.
That's the nature of restoring an image. To put everything to how it was when the image was made.
It will take some little study to know where your data is, but it's necessary, and not hard to do.
Since you never know in advance when a restore will be necessary, make it a habit to keep data in a safe place.
Here's a few examples I deal with.
a. Game saves. Commonly put in a Users directory. I don't consider games "core" apps, so install them on D.
They are easy to reinstall. But many games store saves to a User directory, with no other option.
b. Quicken. It's a core app, and keeps it data on C. I do a backup to D every time I change something.
c. Turbo Tax. Temporary core app. I store all work on D. You could make a case for installing on D.
d. C-Organizer Pro (PIM) Core app. Same as above.
(BTW, the main reasons for keeping C small are,
a. Makes imaging/restores fast. That's important, simply because if it takes a long time to do you won't want to do it. Just human nature. I shoot for 5-10 minutes, or 20-30gb.
b. Disk space taken by images. You're duplicating a lot with multiple system images. So dupe less.)
4. Take at least 2 images of your system with all core apps installed. That's simple redundancy safety.
Name the image as you please. I use ccyymmdd. Sometimes "temp" or "BeforeQuicken2013Install." Just make sure you know what's what.
Do this as soon as possible after setting up your system. You want it "clean."
5. Get familiar with the imaging software restore. You want to know it works, right?
This was a bit scary at first, even for me. The first thing restoring an image does is virtually delete everything on your C.
My solution was to put an extra drive in place of my C drive. My C drive wasn't touched when "testing" the software the first time. I can't say whether you need to be that cautious. Up to you. I will say what I did was unnecessary, because the first restore I did worked fine. After that, you should be totally comfortable.
6. NEVER restore without pausing to go over what you will lose on the C. A check list works fine. Did I back up data on the items I mentioned above. Quicken, save games, etc.? Or didn't I?
Those are the base points, and I hope enough to get anybody started. If anybody wants more info, just ask. I can talk about my experience, but only that.
Others here have there own experience, and can weigh in.
There's plenty more to it, some gotchas, some processes/methods I use. For example, I always do a restore before taking an image, etc.
My basic principle is KISS,
For any home user who doesn't want to lose data, and despises reinstalling Win 7 and retweaking everything, this is the place to ask how it can be done. Imaging is a bit of work, but it can really pay off.
I don't look at it as "insurance."
It's a a computing "lifestyle."