Creating system image questions.

I've restored images before using the built in create system image option and saw each one have positive results while the last image made with Acronis must have been bad for some reason and stalled when trying to restore it. Others have come right back and of course could also be mounted and why Acronis was a good choice for a secondary program.

Images made by more then one resource do provide more insurance of seeing good results. But keep in mind the images here go onto 1tb drives not the 500gb model you have there offering twice the drive space. Even with twice as much images are typically over the 100gb mark when you are working with systems filled with data. Add that to any other files stored and drive space is taken up fast! Just be sure to allow some extra space.

Anomaly said:

Night Hawk said:

I've restored images before using the built in create system image option and saw each one have positive results while the last image made with Acronis must have been bad for some reason and stalled when trying to restore it. Others have come right back and of course could also be mounted and why Acronis was a good choice for a secondary program.

Images made by more then one resource do provide more insurance of seeing good results. But keep in mind the images here go onto 1tb drives not the 500gb model you have there offering twice the drive space. Even with twice as much images are typically over the 100gb mark when you are working with systems filled with data. Add that to any other files stored and drive space is taken up fast! Just be sure to allow some extra space.

My images are no where near 100gb in size. In fact my Windows 7 image is only 3.5 gb after being compressed with Macrium Reflect.

My systems never have large amounts of data on them. It's the OS and my programs. Data is kept on external drives.

Your compression rate wouldn't be anywhere near as high as it would be seen here with a large volume of various types of files as well as the programs installed. Another item not mentioned was temporary video files being added in as well ending up with a much larger image.

Those only account for just under 27gb untile removed prior to seeing the next image created. Acronis is what I prefer for creating images of secondary drives however since you can mount the images as drives in order to extract what you want when going to lighten things up a bit!

Duplicate or no longer needed files are omitted from restoration once a drive is wiped and the files/dolders are then hand picked for restoration. That's done when a drive gets filled up too fast.

Your #2 item is the actual folder name the backup tool creates for storing the image found in the sub folder with the name of the user account seen there.

The best place for an image is not locally on the C primary/drive but kept safe on another internal or regularly plugged in external HD. The restoration first reformats the existing content before unpacking the image during the restoration process.

As far as restore points each one is dated and is automatically deleted after so long. When Windows is working the best and you create a good image restore points are nothing to worry about until newer ones are created as you go along. Leaving the system restore feature on can save restoring an image when only a minor registry problem from a bad install is seen in order to avoid any loss of new files added since the image was first made.

Be sure to rename any needed multiple-stored image to WindowsImageBackup and place it in the external's root or it won't be detected by the booted Win7 DVD/Repair CD reimaging utility.

I keep multiple images renamed slightly but seem to always go back to the original image which is more pristine since it was made before corruption gradually begins creeping in. This always seems closer to clean-reinstall.

One thing the restorations have seen here with same day images stored on different drives is the detection of the "recommended" latest image found while the one on another drive not the first location wasn't pointed to. The recovery tool when booted live from the tool not from the 7 dvd does that when used.

gregrocker said:

Be sure to rename any needed multiple-stored image to WindowsImageBackup and place it in the external's root or it won't be detected by the booted Win7 DVD/Repair CD reimaging utility.

I keep multiple images renamed slightly but seem to always go back to the original image which is more pristine since it was made before corruption gradually begins creeping in. This always seems closer to clean-reinstall.

Have you tried to restore a renamed image to verify this?

One thing I noticed with renaming the image. I have a couple images on my external hard drive and simply added the month to the name of the image as recommended to me in this thread. When I launch the image feature in Windows 7 to make another image I get a message indicating where the most recent image I made is. That image is renamed and windows still detects it. So I wonder why it wouldn't when booted from the recovery CD as you suggested?