System Image on a USB flash drive


  1. Qaseer
    Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
       New #1

    System Image on a USB flash drive


    Hi guys,

    I just bought a laptop that has no DVD drive, and I'm trying to create a system image of my HDD on a USB flash drive.

    I've managed to create the System Image on the USB stick, by sharing the USB stick as a network drive, and then selected the network drive as the backup location -- it's 128 gb, and formatted as NTFS.

    My question is, do you think that trying to restore the system image from the USB stick, if I wasn't able to boot into windows 7, would work?

    Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

    Many thanks,
    Mohammad.
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  3. ThrashZone
    Posts : 20,583
    Win-7-Pro64bit 7-H-Prem-64bit
       New #2

    Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
    Macrium can do that and the flash doesn't have to be really mounted as you did,
    Just as a removable device
    You would also need a smaller flash drive to boot to for the recovery WinPE media too 1gb is fine
    Imaging with free Macrium

    An image that is always connected is an image that is just as corruptible as the os it's self
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  4. Qaseer
    Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    Thank you very much, ThrashZone for your timely response!

    I totally agree with you, I've always thought an image that is always connected is an image that is just as corruptible as the os it's self!

    As for the booting stick, I got that covered already. but I guess I'm just wondering if the System Image Recovery would recognize my USB stick as the network drive for my system image -- which is how I saved my system image onto the USB flash drive.
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  6. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       New #4

    With free Macrium there is no need to make that network detour. You can store the image directly on the stick.
      My Computer
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  7. ThrashZone
    Posts : 20,583
    Win-7-Pro64bit 7-H-Prem-64bit
       New #5

    Hi,
    As long as the winpe recovery flash drive was created by Macrium it will work
    If created by windows.... probably won't.
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  8. Qaseer
    Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       New #6

    Thank you very much, ThrashZone and whs!
    I'll give this Macrium a try! :)
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  10. ThrashZone
    Posts : 20,583
    Win-7-Pro64bit 7-H-Prem-64bit
       New #7

    Hi
    You'll most likely never use anything else :)
    I'm thinking of getting the 4 license bundle for about 140.us I believe there is a little coupon for 10% off

    Each machine needs it's own WinPE recovery media.
      My Computer
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