Windows 7 - Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

Hello Greg,

Yes that would be the correct folder to best leave untouched.

Thank you!

Edit: Oh Brink from Texas, Longhorn fan?

You're welcome Greg. Nar, I really do not follow sports much.

When looking at the backup folder there notice how Windows dated it. The next backup if incremental will see a new date applied automatically.

Leaving that and any other progressive backups untouched to insure integrity is precisely correct as Brink pointed out there. System images as well as other backups are best placed in undisturbed locations for seeing the best results if needed.

hi brink,
i have made a clean install of windows 7 on my hard drive. now i have "c:" and "d: recovery of vista". I now want to make a system recovery of win 7. Will I be able to make a system image of win 7 and retain the system image of vista? one more thing, is it possible to make a system image in portable hard drive with my other files? thanks

Hello S7ven,

Yes, you can create a system image backup of all of the selected partitions and drives that you want included in the system image backup. Just do not select the drive or partition that you want to save the backup to. It can be saved to portable hard drive, but just make sure it's plugged in before creating the backup so it will be detected.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

thanks what would happen if i didn't select the recovery d: when i made a system image? and after that i tried to recover it,, what would happen to the d: recovery? will it stay on my hard drive or not? do i need to include it on making a system image? i still want to have that vista image around with me. thank you. also in that portable hard drive, is it okay to have some other files in it? thank you very much.

Hi,

You need to make an image of the Vista recovery partition as well. Otherwise, if you restore using Windows system image it will delete all the partitions on the drive.

It will only restore the partitions you have backed up.

In your situation , you are much better using a free 3rd party app. Much more flexible, quicker, smaller backup sizes - and most importantly - you can use them to restore just a single partition - leaving the others untouched.

thank you that really helped. that was the exact question in my mind, okay so all i have to do now is to include the vista image right? and when i recover my computer i will still have c: and d: recovery? what if i use the vista image to restore my computer? will i still have the d: recovery? thanks

Read all the way through these pages and no one else seems to have had this problem. Ran the System Image facility and saved the Image to a !TB Seagate external drive, so no problem with space. However when the Backup was almost complete, it came up with a message saying Corrupt sectors on Source disc not saved. Now this is a new machine and there should not be any corrupt sectors (will return it to the shop), but did my System Image save? Chkdsk found nothing wrong with the Drive and a Backup which included a Mirror Image did not returrn any errors. Am I worrying without needing to?