That is, of course, completely correct in the general sense. But on my laptops I have a backup partition on the same drive (because there is only 1 drive) where I make daily images when I log on. That is just to keep me safe during the day. Then I image once per week to an external drive to be prepared for a drive failure.
I found this the most practical setup where I do not have to attach the external disk every day.
I thought I was all self-contained on my laptop by storing a Win7 backup image in a primary partition where it is autodetected by reimaging app.
Then one day I am out on the beach and lock up, hard restart, won't start, F8 into 100mb Sys Reserved WinRE to run SysRestore (won't work) and Startup Repair x3. Nothing works.
So I am almost giddy that I get to use my home-made Recovery partition, boot back into F8 "Recover Using An Image" - immediately getting a message that Win7 cannot reimage from WinRE on the HD (as it is) and I must reboot from DVD or Repair CD.
Even the best laid plans....
There might be a way around this which was posted here a few months ago. Guy added WinRE to stored backup image and set it to Dual Boot using EasyBCD. We need to find and test it for sure, then make it a tutorial.
Greg, that does not sound very good. Makes you think about the Windows facilities. But I use Macrium and do not have that sort of problem. As long as my image on my private recovery partition is not corrupted, the recovery works 100%. Macrium is very rugged and robust.
But you still gotta use the rescue CD to run the reimaging app, which I thought I had cut out of the picture using WinRE supplied by 100mb Sys Reserved partition.
Turns out the Repair My Computer at F8 may list "Recover Using a System Image" but you cannot actually do it unless you use the disk, since I guess WinRE cannot run from the same HD it is reimaging.
Only WileyCoyote can erase and then redraw himself.
LOLOnly WileyCoyote can erase and then redraw himself
Greg,
I'm trying to understand. I have used a WinRE CD that I made using the WinRe.WIM and WAIK. I have used a System Repair Disk. Oh yes, I do not have a recovery partition. I eliminated that since I don't need it.
I change the bios to boot from the CD. I put the the CD into the drive, power down the unit. Power up the unit. WinRE loads into a ram drive (X:), thus I can remove the cd from the drive at this point if I desire. I choose system restore from the system recovery menu and everything runs like clock work. I've also put the RE onto a USB stick, booted from the USB stick.
It is true that you can't erase yourself from the harddrive by booting from harddrive and trying to recover that way, but I've never had any problem running anything and everything from the ramdrive created either by the PE or the RE. I've put utilities onto my PEs and REs.
But like I said, maybe I've misunderstood.
Wasn't using a DVD or CD, Karl, just the WinRE placed on F8 Advanced Boot Options menu when the 100mb System Reserved partition is installed.
I had assumed since it was in the Recov Tools list, that it could "Recover Using an Image" but it prompted me to restart with DVD or Repair CD which was the surprise.
I just noticed that x colon ) put a smiley in. I was trying to indicate drive X.
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