Windows 7: System Image Recovery

Bilvihur,

If you are wanting to have the same OS on more than one drive, then you would also need to have a separate product key number for each one to activate with as well. Otherwise it would violate the EULA.

That's not going to be a real easy task using System Image Recovery since you would basically have to disconnect HDD 0, restore to HDD 3 which would be formatted first, when finished connect HDD 0 back, then use something like the free program "EasyBCD" to fix the MBR to be able to have both OS's listed at boot to select which on you wanted to boot to. If you don't fix the MBR, then you would have to use the Boot Menu at startup to select to startup to the other HDD instead of the default one.

Now we're cooking! I don't boot that often, so I wouldn't mind using BIOS to select the Primary Boot disk at startup. I just want to have an exact copy of my system available to boot from in the event of catastrophic problems (already described). This would allow me to get back online quickly, and retrieve data from the Primary boot disk before using System Image Recovery to format and repartition it (which thankfully worked well). I hope I'm being clear. I don't want to propagate copies of Windows 7, just have a working copy of my Windows 7 system available for use. Thanks

You're most welcome Bilvihur. Glad we could help.

Hi just about to go to the shop to buy DVDs so I can do a system image.

Anything I should know before I go?

i.e. what DVDs to look for?

around 22GB and hard drive isn't an option etc...

prefer disks tbh as more likely to work (hard drive files can get deleted etc...)

Hello Mangoh,

I wouldn't recommend using DVDs to save a system image to. It would take to many, and would have a high chance of corruption or a bad burn. It would be bad to find out if the DVDs were bad when you needed them. If you must, DVD-R or DVD+R are good to use, but you will need to check to make sure that your DVD burner supports them. Most do these days though.

Instead, I would recommend to save a system image to another internal or external HDD than the one you have included in the system image. Another HDD is a lot more reliable.

This is where I get a little confused

"save a system image to another internal or external HDD"

so internal HDD I assume means make another partition?

external hdd I assume means external hard drive, USB etc...? HDD standing for hard disk drive so anything that can hold the data? If so I don't get how a USB falls into that category when it doesn't have a hard disk tray?

Let me google that for you

It can be a normal HDD connected internally in the computer case, or externally via a HDD case.

thanks understood

Is that Google link a hint to tell me to stop being lazy

Nope, just to provide more information.

Quick question if someone doesn't mind answering

*Insert example to explain*

1) I install Windows 7 last month on drive ( C: )
2) I decide to create a system image on the same day
3) I have finished creating an system image and have had it created on another partition but on the same Hard Disk Drive ( D: )
4) A week after creating a system image I decide to do some work and I save a word document in the "My Documents" folder
5) I decide to restore the system image that I had created last month.

Now when restoring the system image does that mean I will have to backup the word document (step 4) as I had created & saved it AFTER step 3?

Surely when I restore the system image it will erase all my documents etc... and then restore w/e was in the my documents folder before I had finished creating a system image?