How to create a .iso image file of my pre installed windows 7?

Let you into a little secret.

If you are running win7 - you can easily make your own macrium pe and have the boot menu selection.

You don't need to download WAIK - you already have everything you need on your hard drive. You can do that with the free version macrium .

Well i have never used any image files till now. Are they just the same like .iso files? Can I use image files to burn them on a CD or make a bootable USB out of that image file, to install my win 7 OS?

sam9953 said:

Well i have never used any image files till now. Are they just the same like .iso files? Can I use image files to burn them on a CD or make a bootable USB out of that image file, to install my win 7 OS?

They are not like .iso files. You can copy the image to cd, but it would probably require quite a few of them. No, you can't make a bootable USB from an image. No it won't install just the OS.

You should take the time to digest the information provided. You are confusing an image file with an Operating System. They are not the same. OS's are just OS. They contain no other files, folders or additional data, just the OS. An image, as I explained in my previous post, is an exact copy of your system, including everything on it; all the files, folders, and programs you have added.

Think of it like this; Peanut butter is strictly peanut butter. A peaunt butter and jelly sandwich, has the peanut butter plus jelly and bread. So, peanut butter is the OS. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is the image.

HTH

I think you're still missing the point of an image file. They are similar to .isos, in the fact it is a disc's contents in a single file, except we're discussing a disk's contents, as in a hard disk. The image file is stored on a server or external drive. Should you need to restore it, you do so using the same software's restore process. It copies over whatever is on the hard drive with whatever is contained within the image file, for example, your entire C drive. When finished, and you reboot, your computer is back to the exact same stage it was in when you created the image of it. Consider it a snapshot of your entire drive.

Okay now I get it. But guys what if I want to copy just the OS part along with the softwares, nothing else. No Data, no movies and no media. Is that possible? Can I make an image of just that?

Most of us don't store those types of files on our system volume, aka C drive, anyway. If you had them stored elsewhere, they wouldn't be included in your image size. If they are on your C drive, contained within the "My" folders, then they will be included in a system image.

sam9953 said:

Okay now I get it. But guys what if I want to copy just the OS part along with the softwares, nothing else. No Data, no movies and no media. Is that possible? Can I make an image of just that?

I think you may only be able to select a certain partition if you have more than one OS installed.

Although, if you moved all your important non-system files onto a different physical hard-drive or external hard-drive/USB flash stick, and then imaged the hard-drive you will just have whatever is left on the hard-drive.

Okay so this is what I can do, I will remove all the data from my C drive and move it to D drive. Then the system image will have just the softwares and the OS without the data. Is that right?

Yes, that's correct. I keep all of my user data on a D drive, and then use a program like SyncToy to keep the entire D drive backed up to a server/external drive. The image will cover all of your C drive. Between the two processes, you'd have everything backed up.