WHAT is Win7 Builtin Backup program really Good for?

Provided your PC system configuration does not cause problems with Windows imaging then restoring a system image to a new HDD is very simple. Exactly the way you describe.
The only constraint is that you must restore to a HDD the same size or larger than the HDD your image was made from.
Why: Because Windows imaging automatically replaces the MBR from the original HDD. The MBR contains the partition structure of the "old" HDD and Windows reimaging will require this partition structure on the new HDD.

It is best to make Windows images individually using the "Create a system image" button.

makes sense.
I sure hope it works, because I hate to tell someone 'this is the way' and then the only time they actually need the 'insurance policy', it fails on the restore.

for myself, every migration I can see for the future is from bigger to smaller, as the world moves to offline storage of multi-types. for that, Paragon freebie is supposed to work, but last attempt I tried, it did not do well with a Crucial SSD.

it will be interesting to see if win8 includes a migration tool that contemplates the obvious downsizing implication

thanks for your input folks
z

mjf said:

Provided your PC system configuration does not cause problems with Windows imaging then restoring a system image to a new HDD is very simple. Exactly the way you describe.
The only constraint is that you must restore to a HDD the same size or larger than the HDD your image was made from.
Why: Because Windows imaging automatically replaces the MBR from the original HDD. The MBR contains the partition structure of the "old" HDD and Windows reimaging will require this partition structure on the new HDD.

It is best to make Windows images individually using the "Create a system image" button.

I don't think restoring an image to a smaller drive is likely with win sys img GUI in the near future.

It is just there to provide the basic job.

zapp22 said:

makes sense.
I sure hope it works, because I hate to tell someone 'this is the way' and then the only time they actually need the 'insurance policy', it fails on the restore.

mjf said:

Provided your PC system configuration does not cause problems with Windows imaging then restoring a system image to a new HDD is very simple. Exactly the way you describe.
The only constraint is that you must restore to a HDD the same size or larger than the HDD your image was made from.
Why: Because Windows imaging automatically replaces the MBR from the original HDD. The MBR contains the partition structure of the "old" HDD and Windows reimaging will require this partition structure on the new HDD.

It is best to make Windows images individually using the "Create a system image" button.

The fact that it is simple for me and many others doesn't guarantee success in your specific situation. You will only know it works for you when you try it.
As I've said on numerous occassions the way to be sure is buy a relatively cheap internal HDD and try it.

Downsizing involves a little bit of extra work and Windows imaging isn't the tool I'd use for the job.