Win7 system image backup advanced format compatibility

cyanna said:

If you have not ticked the box to create a system image "All files in known system folders (folders that contain files that Windows needs to run), and known program files (files that define themselves as part of a program in the registry when the program is installed) will not be backed up even if they are in a selected folder."

Where would this tick box be located? See attached screen pix.

Layback Bear said:

By Brink:

Backup User and System Files

Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

Hi.

I was just pointing out that Microsoft uses the word "backup" also for the process of creating an image of the system partitions only (no user data) (neither of the above 2 options).

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cyanna said:

Bohr, if you plan to use Windows Backup for a backup and restore solution for your current system I strongly suggest you familiarize yourself with the options as well as the limitations of the software. Whether Microsoft has misnamed things or not is going to be very cold comfort if you need to restore your computer and realize that your backup contains all the Windows and installed programs but not your user files (Or viceversa: your personal files are there but windows and all programs need to be reinstalled.)

Thanks for your concern but I am fully aware of this. The drive has been partitioned into separate OS and Data drives. The user data will be backed up independently and far more often.

The system image backup (Microsoft is correct: it is a backup... of the system) is for recovery from OS corruption. It's a whole lot easier to restore the system from a system image than to re-install Windows from scratch or to restore from the factory image and then have to remove all the foistware again and reload all the programs. Been there, done that.

As for the limitations of the software, nobody seems to be 100% confident about that. I can't get an authoritative answer about compatibility of system image backups with 512e disks. So I've also made system image backups using Clonezilla and Macrium.

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