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#11
Read the forum tutorial on the subject.
Read the forum tutorial on the subject.
Come on - it's not that messy.
But it is an answer to a specific question often asked - "Given I use the inbuilt MS imaging how do I create multiple images etc."
Don't use Windows imaging is not an answer to the question.
I use Macrium as well and admit it gives you the ability for flexible image placement but still uses obscure naming. It also gives you flexibility in partition choice and appears robust in locating images. However, reimaging can be much slower than Windows imaging when restoring a medium size image say 40GB to a large partition 450GB (by a factor of 4!). It appears that Macrium wants to write to the remainder of the partition.
The only imaging I tried and got rid of was Paragon.
After looking at many MS imaging problems, incorrect image folder and or name is a trivial one to fix. Could MS have made their product more flexible in this regard - of course they could. This is not the big issue with MS imaging. The big issue is it's lack of robustness in locating valid vhd files. Have one 16 byte MediaID file foul up and you've had it.
I find it interesting if you criticize MS imaging, that's ok (as it should be). Criticize MS indexed search and all the fans come out screaming (like MS imaging many have problems with it).
Move each one into a separate folder.
That's what I do with Acronis. I have 4 folders and a neat little gem called Chain2Gen which runs before Acronis starts it's backup. It manages the folders for me. The backup always goes into Set0 and Chain2Gen renames and deletes as needed so I always have 3-4 weeks worth of backups (I run mine every night).
I keep a backup folder for each of our computers on external, place the latest image backup in it until it needs to be used, then spill it into the root of the drive.
Besides the latest image backup, in each folder I keep an original baseline image from right after install and setup which I rename to WindowsImageBackup.Baseline, then rename it properly before placing it in root for reimaging. This is in case I discover the OS in the latest image is in any way corrupted.
Keeping an image [WindowsImageBackup] in the root is the way windows wants it. Step one of the Image Restore tutorial shows how you can easily move and rename the image after booting from the system repair disk. As long as it is a folder with valid image contents it can be named and located what and where you like. Even when you need to boot from the System Repair disk.
I'm not really sure what you are saying. I cannot comment on Chain2Gen - know nothing about it.
What I have tested is renaming a W7 Image folder, moving the folder (within a partition) and going back again to a root folder called WindowsImageBackup and it has worked. These are all as I understand it simply directory entry changes. If someone else has actually tried this and it hasn't worked let us know.
I am not advocating copying W7 images or moving across partition boundaries which involves a physical file movement. Why
1) you are moving large amounts of data. This would certainly not be a normal image file management practice. I would only consider this in exceptional circumstances.
2) I've never tried this so I couldn't comment on the risk.