Windows 7 - restoring image to a different created location

ive created an image on a second drive, i now want to use that image on my main drive over writing my OS as it is at the moment.
but when i go throught the restore nothing happens to my main drives OS it stays the same, i think what is happening is the restore is happening on the drive it was created from.
i dont get an option during restore of which drive to choose to restore too.
how do i go about this?

thanks

Hi there, have a look at this tutorial: System Image Recovery

thanks Dinesh thats what ive working from that tut, the only thing that is different is step
6. Check Format and repartition disks, and click on Next. (see screenshot below)

the option to do that is grayed out

Seems like Windows cant find your stored backup.

i let it find it the first time which it had no probs doing, the second time i tried it i found it myself with no probs,
it says its restoring :C which i think when my pc boots up normally is actually

Not sure I follow what you are asking.

I assume you used Windows Image program.

It will restore to the same drive that was imaged. I don't know any way of pointing the GUI at a different drive.

thats pretty much it m8, so to restore to a different drive other than the one it was created from im going to need a 3rd party app?

Acronis has a feature that will convert between a windows image and an Acronis image. I have never used that feature, but theoretically you could convert your Windows image into an Acronis image and then restore that image to a new location.

There are a couple of ways of doing it.

The simplest is to mount the vhd in Disk Management, give it a drive letter obviously - it only takes a couple of seconds.

This tutorial shows how to mount the vhd - it is very easy System Image - Extract Files Using Disk Management

Then make an image of the mounted drive - you can see it in windows like any other drive and you can also make an image of it like any other drive.

LOL - no need to buy Acronis for that.

Just d/l the very small fast and efficient Macrium Reflect FREE Edition .

Macrium will make an image at twice the speed of Windows system image app, and it will be almost half the size.

You can point it at any drive you like to restore the Macrium image.


Paragon has a fancy feature to mount the vhd inside the paragon app itself - you can partition, copy out individual files, make a paragon image of it, etc. That doesn't come in the free versions , though.

that Macrium sonds good i'll have a look thanks