Windows 7: Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

Ah, I see...I needed to click that link on the left to get to the full backup. Thanks for your help.

You're welcome Ben.

Brink

I have read a great deal of documentation on Windows backup but I am still not sure if I understand something very basic correctly. It has been my impression that when I select "Create a System Image" from the "Backup and restore screeen" that absolutly every file on my local hard drive ( my boot drive) is being backed up. I say, this has been my understanding, but I'm beginning to wonder if my understanding is correct.

My hope would be that if I create a system image, and needed to do a restore, and had not added any files since creating the image (of course this is a hypothetical scenario), I say, my hope is that if I did the restore I would have every file on my boot hard drive, not just files related to the registry, but every file, data, installed programs, the whole hard drive. Is this correct?

Hi,

I don't use the Windows System Image - but 3rd party imaging apps. do exactly what you say .

Some allow you to exclude things if you wish - you need to specifically choose to do so.


Windows Image is of the complete boot partition - and the system partition by default - you can add others if you like.

If you are concerned about your image backups - you may find 3rd party apps. ( including many free ones ) will suit you better.

Thank you for responding, but if you don't use system image...

I have used both Ghost and Acronis. I am beginning to think they are no longer needed for what I do. Windows 7 system image does indeed seem to back up everything. I mean a total clone. I just proved this to myself by attaching to the VHD file after doing a system image and all files are there.

The reason I doubted was because Windows system image is so fast. It took me about 20 minutes to backup my entire C drive. The same thing a few days ago in Acronis 2010 took an hour and 10 minutes.

It is beginning to appear that a periodic system image backup is about all I need. I changed a couple of files, deleted some others and did a second system image backup. This time it only took three minutes. When I reattached, the files I had changed were there with the latest time stamps, and the file I deleted was gone.

It sounds too good to be true but these are my findings. I'm hoping something doesn't come along to dampen my hopes about a tool that seems very good at present.

I have looked into it - decided against it . Hence I am not using it.

Wow - there's something wrong your copy of Acronis, maybe.

I don't use Acronis - again - tried it - others are better imo.

How much Used space was on the partition you backed up - 20gb ?

To my knowledge there's nothing wrong with my Acronis. I used to get similar times with Acronis 9. I am backing up 33.5 GB on my C drive.

Best Regards

There is something wrong if it takes that long. If your previous Acronis also took that long - there may be some incompatibility with your system . It happens .

Depending how big your pagefile and hibernation file are - and restore points - that may only be around 20gb - Acronis would be expected to do that in 20 mins or so .

Paragon does. Macrium would do it in 10.

From the sound of it - you may be better with Windows backup than the Acronis one - no extra charge - you already paid for it with the o/s.

Sounds good.

BTW - it won't be a clone - that requires backing up all sectors . System Image only backs up used sectors.

It seems to be very good for what you want - go for it.

I have different requirements from my imaging apps. - so I use Paragon and Macrium - I have tried a lot - those two are the best imo. You might not need that extra flexibility and functionality - stick with the Windows one.

Creating a system image will create basically a clone of the drives or partitions that you select to create a image of. If the image was restored at boot, then it will restore everything that was included at the time the image was created.

Shawn to be crystal clear,

My Windows 7 hard drive contains 3 partitions. If I create an image backup of "C"-drive (Windows 7 partition) and do a restore later on, will it wipe/delete the other partitions? In short will an image restore delete the other partitions. I'm still a little fuzzy about this issue.

Thanks.

To SIW2, Acronis is a little slow in creating backups, even on incrimentals. Don't know why, but it is. I have Acronis True Image Home 2009 that I used under Vista Ultimate x64 and it usually took about an hour to do an initial backup. Incrimentals usually took about 20-30 minutes.