Backup and Restore In 7

DJG · 10 Jul 2009

I did some more playing around with the Windows backup. Unfortunately it will only do images of the system partition. Everything else is backed up as a file structure, which is way slower. So I may use it for the system portion. Backing up my data would take hours that way, whereas I can do a data image backup in less than 50 minutes. Good news for the average home user though.

Edit: It turns out if you select "Create a system image" link from the left side panel rather than click the main "Back up now" button you can create an image of the system partition plus any other additional partitions you select as a single backup. I'm doing that option now, and it is creating a VHD of the data partition too. Cool! Let's see how long it takes.

masterB · 10 Jul 2009

Is this image compressed and how much?
Thanks.

DJG · 10 Jul 2009

The actual image itself turns out to be a VHD, plus a bunch of supporting small files, and considering it's all 29GB out of the 42GB I'm using minus I assume the hiberfil.sys which is 9GB = 33GB, that''s not great, but at least it's some. And it was quick. My 3rd party BU creates a 26GB image using light / fast compression.

masterB · 10 Jul 2009

Ok thanks.
I am using Acronis for a few years and I like it. I can image my OS partition in 20 min, high compression and restore it in 10 min. Never had a problem restoring an image.
It is working good on build 7232. Couple builds before it did not work, some compatibility issues. Cheers.

DJG · 11 Jul 2009

DJG said:

I did some more playing around with the Windows backup. Unfortunately it will only do images of the system partition ...

See my edited comment on image backup options. Cool!