Re-installing activated system from image backup

Can a Windows 7 Install that is already activated be reinstalled from a OS Image backup?

I often reinstall the OS after a couple of months. So I want to Install Windows 7, activate it and then make an OS image backup with Acronis True Image.

If later on I reinstall back with the image, will Windows 7 still be activated?



Same machine, same parts.

Thanks for the input, i will try it out.

Yup, do it all the time. Everytime I swallow a virus from a warez site Acronis is a great product.

Win 7 has a hidden partition, that has no partition letter and holds boot files among other things.
Be prepared to experiment a little to see how your back up software handles re imaging.

I use Paragon DB10. It works perfectly. It allows backups of the 100mb partition without any problem.

I imagine your imaging app. will too.

You shouldn't need to reactivate after restoring an Image to the same hardware.

If you are restoring the image to completely different hardware - Paragon Adaptive retore will do that - but you would need to reactivate the Windows key, then.

jnetty99 said:

Can a Windows 7 Install that is already activated be reinstalled from a OS Image backup?

I often reinstall the OS after a couple of months. So I want to Install Windows 7, activate it and then make an OS image backup with Acronis True Image.

If later on I reinstall back with the image, will Windows 7 still be activated?



Same machine, same parts.

Windows 7 backup imaging is working flawlessly here. I create a primary formatted partition where I save the backup image, then copy it to an external drive in case of HDD failure. It reimages all or any partitions in 15 minutes, even to a replacement HDD, or another computer's HDD.

I cannot see any difference with the 3rd party apps except that Paragon Hard Disk Manager 2009 has more compression, but not enough to make it better than the built in Win7 app that backs up my selected files AND image incrementally on a schedule when my machine is idle.

Nosmo said:

Win 7 has a hidden partition, that has no partition letter and holds boot files among other things.
Be prepared to experiment a little to see how your back up software handles re imaging.

Answering your post from a clone of my C: by Acronis. Done it several times flawlessly.

Hi Greg,

I am glad it suits you.

Each to their own. I vastly prefer the Paragon - more options more compression - much more flexible scheduling options, Differential imaging ( safer than incremental) more reliability, and other functions, too.

You may not use any of that.

If I need to make an image in a hurry - I will use Macrium - about twice the speed of Windows one and good compression too.

gregrocker said:

Windows 7 backup imaging is working flawlessly here. I create a primary formatted partition where I save the backup image, then copy it to an external drive in case of HDD failure. It reimages all or any partitions in 15 minutes, even to a replacement HDD, or another computer's HDD.

I cannot see any difference with the 3rd party apps except that Paragon Hard Disk Manager 2009 has more compression, but not enough to make it better than the built in Win7 app that backs up my selected files AND image incrementally on a schedule when my machine is idle.