windows 7 restore question

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  1. Posts : 8
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
       #1

    windows 7 restore question


    Am I able to burn a system image on to a cd? if so, how many gbs does the cd need to be able to store on it? Will I need to use more than 1 cd to burn a system image? Also, when using the system image back up, does that delete everything off your computer and then reinstalls everything from the system back up image? and when i say delete everything from the computer, I don't mean just disable programs, yet the programs are there still but uninstalled and can be installed later since they never got deleted. No i mean actually delete everything completely ( lets say for example I have yahoo messenger I downloaded and installed, but i use the system image back up and it deletes yahoo messenger off the computer completely. Not a single trace of it anywhere. I'm assuming its pretty similar or pretty much the same as a full restoration cd, which deletes everything off your computer and just reinstalls the OS system and nothing else right? except with this it does the same ( deletes everything ), but just installs whats on the back up system image right.?) or no.?
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  2. Posts : 6,292
    Windows 7 64 Bit Home Premium SP1
       #2

    Q1: No. A system image is usually somewhere in the vicinity of 10GB +/-. You need to use DVDs and you will most likely need 3 or more. This size can increase significantly depending on how many programs you have installed in addition to the OS. If you're going to keep system images it makes sense to invest in an external hard drive.

    Q2: Yes. A system image is just that: a snapshot of the data on the hard drive at that moment in time. When you restore the image everything is going to be just like it was when you took the snapshot. There are no options. By definition, this means that the hard drive is essentially formatted or "cleaned".
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  3. Posts : 8
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #3

    I actually have a 120 gb drive to use, but question


    I don't mind using the external drive for the system image as i barely ever use it and yes it still works. However, I worry about system image being re written by virus should i ever get on my external drive and then the viruses re enters my system everytime i use the system image. So my question is do you think if be the safer bet to just store the system image on none-rewritable cds? Perhaps this is not very convenient as i would need more than probably 3 cds, but would it be safer and would it let me install it on more than 1 cd? I think the system image is about 80 gbs. So i may need up to 9 cds to store 10 gbs each going from part 1 to part 11. Is it going to let me do that? Oh and i just might make an external back up just as emergency back up in the given case one or all my cds don't fully work or should one out of 11 fail.
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  4. Posts : 6,292
    Windows 7 64 Bit Home Premium SP1
       #4

    Where do you buy CDs that hold 10GB?
    A CD holds 700 MB of data. A DVD holds 4.7GB of data.

    The image file is compressed. usually 2 to 1 at standard settings. So 80GB of data will create about a 40GB image.

    Because the system image is just one big compressed file it is highly unlikely that the image would be infected by a virus or malware (unless you make a image that contains one). And you can scan your external drive with AV before you restored an image.

    But yes, your image on DVDs would be "safer".
    But way more inconvenient.
    And there can be issues with restoring an image that spans multiple DVDs. The more disks, the greater the possibility of error.

    EDIT: And please don't cross post!
    Last edited by TVeblen; 12 Oct 2010 at 08:30. Reason: Netiquette
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  5. Posts : 10,994
    Win 7 Pro 64-bit
       #5

    trent3111 said:
    I don't mind using the external drive for the system image as i barely ever use it and yes it still works. However, I worry about system image being re written by virus should i ever get on my external drive and then the viruses re enters my system everytime i use the system image. So my question is do you think if be the safer bet to just store the system image on none-rewritable cds? Perhaps this is not very convenient as i would need more than probably 3 cds, but would it be safer and would it let me install it on more than 1 cd? I think the system image is about 80 gbs. So i may need up to 9 cds to store 10 gbs each going from part 1 to part 11. Is it going to let me do that? Oh and i just might make an external back up just as emergency back up in the given case one or all my cds don't fully work or should one out of 11 fail.
    Couple of problems creating system image on CDs/DVDs if you're planning on using the built-in Windows 7 imaging tool. 7 seems to be highly unreliable when using disks. Reported problems include brand of disk, type of disk (+R, -R, +RW, -RW), burning speed, brand of burner, formatting disks during image process or separately before attempting to create the image, etc.

    Windows 7 "Create a System Image" problems

    If you must use disks people recommend the free Macrium Reflect as being more reliable.

    Imaging with free Macrium

    As long as your computer is malware free when you create the system image, the image will remain malware free whether on disk or external HD. If your computer gets infected you will not transfer any malware to the external HD during the system image recovery process.

    System Image Recovery
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  6. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #6

    DVDs are definitely no good option for system images - especially since you may want to image frequently, like once per week. Your best option is an external disk that you connect only when the image is being taken and disconnect thereafter.
    And if you use Win7 imaging, you may run into the problem that the recovery program does not release the CD/DVD reader after it has been loaded. That happened to some people. With Macrium, I have never observed that though.
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  7. Posts : 5,056
    Windows 7 x64 pro/ Windows 7 x86 Pro/ XP SP3 x86
       #7

    Spanning the backup across multiple dvds always gives me the jitters, I see so many instances of users never prompted to "please insert dvd no. 2".
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  8. Posts : 8
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #8

    Is it possible to just order the restore cd from the computer manufacturer?
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  9. Posts : 5,056
    Windows 7 x64 pro/ Windows 7 x86 Pro/ XP SP3 x86
       #9

    If you have an OEM computer, you can make a restore CD yourself. Otherwise, most OEMs will accept an online order for a small fee.
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  10. Posts : 8
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #10

    How do you know if u have a OEM computer
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