Windows 7 - Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

Hello Buzz, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Yes, that would all be correct. However, you will need to have your RAID drivers on a USB flash drive, formated as FAT32, to load the RAID drivers to be able to restore to the RAID drive.

Ah indeed, thx for reminding me.. i bet i would have forgotten about them till i got to the screen

You're welcome. I hope it goes smoothly for you.

Could you please clarify if the product of "System Image" is exactly the same with that of "Windows Backup" + "Include a System Image of Drives"?
Do both deliver a full disk clone (incl. programs, settings, files etc.)?

As far as I have understood from the tutorial, the second option ("Windows Backup" + "Include a System Image of Drives") can use the full capacity of an external backup disk, instead of 30%.

Hello Abax, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Yes, this is the same as the "Include a System Image of Drives" option in Windows Backup, but it only creates a System Image backup of the selected disks instead and uses less disk space.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hi Shawn,
thnx for fast reply.
Just to be sure (as I face problems that can lead to reinstall and these backups are crucial for me):
both methods deliver a fully restorable disk clone (as the late Norton Ghost did) that can be loaded in a new disk (through right options in Windows 7 installation disk) and get your disk and system back (programs, program files, settings, user files etc included)?
How can I save different System Images (I understood that each time you use System Image it overwrites the previous backup)?

Cheers

Abax,

The best method is to create only a system image backup for that purpose. The only way to keep multiple image backups is to save them to different drive locations, or create a new folder on the drive and move the entire WindowsImageBackup folder inside the new folder so that you can create a new backup on that drive.

A good free program alternative that will allow you to do this easier is Macrium Reflect.

Brink,

thnx again, got that.

I have a series of reported errors "event id 11". So far they were sourced to Device\ide\ideport2. I had also some BSOD's that seemed to damaged the file system, but I repaired through standard repair functionality on Windows 7 and the Windows 7 installation disk.
I changed all my SATA cables (as I have found that this a common reason for this error).
It was ok for 1 or 2 days but then I had again sporadic instances of the same fault and one BSOD again.
And now I got "event id 11" sourced to Device\cdrom0.

Any ideas?

I have my drives set to AHCI (mobo is P5W DH Deluxe with chipset 975X). When I originally installed Windows 7 (4 months ago) I did not use any intel software (chipset software and/or matrix). Just used the default Windows 7 drivers.
Do you think that I should update the system with Intel software?
If further systems details would be needed, I will be happy to provide.

It's my understanding, which came from another thread here on Seven, that the only folder that needs moved/copied to elsewhere is the one inside of the folder which has ones user name and is prefixed with Backup. Is that incorrect?

Hello Greg,

It's just easier to copy the entire folder to avoid accidentally not copying over a needed file, but yes you could still copy only the subfolder with the computer name on it instead though.