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Win 7 OS partition restore via files and folders?
For Windows XP, I wrote a program that does the equivalent of a file and folder copy of the OS partition to a folder on another hard drive is sufficient for backup. I have to run this backup from another instance of Windows (I use XP 64 bit to backup XP 32 bit and vice versa). The OS partition can be quick formatted, the volume serial number restored (this avoids activation issues due to volume serial number changing, you can download a volume serial number utility), and file and folder copy from the backup folder to the XP OS partition will work (except for an issue with \windows\installer directory that will require a second restore).
For Windows 7, this process doesn't work One issue is seems to be the digital certificates. The other seems to be related to the junction points (reparse points). After a restore, the system will boot, but nothing has a digital signature, and you get various errors. It appears I need to add the ability to backup and restore reparse points in my utility, I'll investigate this later.
The reason I prefer a file and folder oriented backup to an image backup is that a format / restore can be used to defrag and sequentialize the files (so all files in each folder are adjacent to each other, which speeds up the system, and also the backup / verify process). It also allows me to selectively look at or restore individual files.
Is there a backup utility that does something similar?
The alternative would be a defrag utility that also sequentializes file and folder order. (The order is process all files in current directory, then process each sub-directory recursively, in the same fashion). In this case I would use this to "clean" up the OS partition, and image backup restore.
I haven't tested the file and folder backup / format / restore on non-os partitions, such as a partition where I've installed applications. Hopefully a non OS partition won't have certificate or junction point issues.
Last edited by rcgldr; 12 Jan 2012 at 07:23.