System Image Recovery

How to Do a System Image Recovery in Windows 7​

   Information

This will show you how to restore your Windows 7 hard disk back to exactly how it was when you created a system image backup.

   Warning

• You can only do a system image recovery to a HDD that is the same size or larger than the one the system image was created from. You will not be able to do a system image recovery to a smaller HDD.
• When you restore your computer from a image backup, it is a complete restoration. You can't choose individual items to restore, and all of your current programs, system settings, and files are replaced.
• If your backup image is on a external device (ex: USB drive), then make sure it is connected before starting. If USB drive, then also make sure that you have your BIOS settings (ex: Legacy USB) set to allow USB devices at boot.
• A system image recovery will format everything on each hard drive that was included in a system image, and will only restore what is included (see steps 7-9 in STEP TWO below) in the system image back. Be sure to backup anything that you do not want to lose that is not included in the system image backup first.

STEP ONE

Only if You Renamed the "WindowsImageBackup" Folder

   Note

To be able to have multiple versions of system images saved on the same drive or partition, you would need to rename the older WindowsImageBackup folder from the previously created system image as described in the NOTE box at the top of this tutorial.

If you renamed the WindowsImageBackup folder for the system image version that you wanted to restore, then you will need to do the steps below before you will be able to restore that system image.

1. If you are "Able to Boot" into Windows 7 A) In Windows Explorer, navigate to the renamed (drive letter)\WindowsImageBackup folder location of the system image that you want to restore.

B) If you already have a folder named WindowsImageBackup that is not the system image version that you want to restore, then you will need to right click on it, click on Rename, and type in say WindowsImageBackup-Copy-2 as an example.

C) Now, right click on the renamed system image version (ex: WindowsImageBackup-Copy-1) that you did want to restore, click on Rename, type in WindowsImageBackup an press enter.

D) Go to the STEP TWO section below to do the System Image Recovery.
2. If you are "Not Able to Boot" into Windows 7 A) If you have the system image backup save to an external device, be sure that it is connected now.

B) Open a command prompt at boot.

C) In the command prompt, type diskpart and press enter. (see screenshot below)

D) In the command prompt, type list volume and press enter. (see screenshot below)

E) Make note of the drive letter (ex: E: ) that you have the system image backup saved to.

F) In the command prompt, type exit and press enter. (see screenshot below)

G) In the command prompt, type the E: and press enter. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: Subsititute E: for your actual drive letter at step 2E instead.

H) If you already have a folder named "WindowsImageBackup"

NOTE: This is if you already have a folder named WindowsImageBackup that is not the system image version that you want to restore. If so, you would need to rename it to say WindowsImageBackup-Copy-2 as an example.

• In the command prompt, type the command below and press enter. (see screenshot below)
  NOTE: Substitute WindowsImageBackup-Copy-2 in the command below with any name in quotes that you would like to rename it to instead.

[B]ren WindowsImageBackup "[COLOR=red]WindowsImageBackup-Copy-2[/COLOR]"[/B]

I) In the command prompt, type the command below and press enter. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: Substitute WindowsImageBackup-Copy-1 in the command below with the actual name of your renamed system image folder in quotes that you want to use to restore instead.

[B]ren "[COLOR=red]WindowsImageBackup-Copy-1[/COLOR]" WindowsImageBackup[/B]

J) Close the command prompt window. (see screenshot below)

K) Continue on to step 3B in the STEP TWO section below to do the System Image Recovery.

STEP TWO

To Do the System Image Recovery

1. If you have the system image backup save to an external device, be sure that it is connected and turned on (powered up) now.
A) Start with either step 2 or step 3 below first.
2. From "Backup and Restore" in the Control Panel while in Windows 7 A) Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click on Backup and Restore.

B) Click on the Recover system settings on your computer link. (see screenshot below)
C) Click on the Advanced recovery methods link. (see screenshot below)
D) Select the Use a system image you created earlier to recover your computer option. (see screenshot below)
E) Select to either create a Back up now, or to Skip it and continue the system image recovery without backing up any of your current files.
NOTE: If you select Back up now, it will take you to step 6 in this tutorial link to create a User and System File back up of your current files first before continuing to step 1F. (see screenshot below)
F) Click on Restart. (see screenshot below)



G) Select a languange to be used for your keyboard input and click on Next. (see screenshot below)
H) Go to step 4.
3. From the System Recovery Options Screen at Boot A) Boot to the System Recovery Options screen from your Windows 7 installation DVD/USB, or System Repair Disc.

B) Select the System Image Recovery option. (see screenshot below)
4. If you saved the system image backup to a set of DVDs, then insert the last DVD from the set when prompted. If not, go to step 5 for a system image backup on a hard drive. A) Go to step 7 below.
5. To Use the Latest System Image A) Select (dot) Use the latest available system image and click on Next. (see screenshot below)
B) Go to step 7.
6. To Select a System Image A) Select (dot) Select a system image, and click on Next. (see screenshot above)
NOTE: This is if the system image that you want to use is not listed here and is at another location that you wish to choose from instead.

B) Select the location of the backup image for the computer you want to restore from the list, and click on Next. (see screenshot below)

   Note

To add a image from a network location, click on the Advanced button, and on the Search for a system image on the network option.

If the drive cannot be seen to select a system image from, then you may need to use the tutorial below to load your SATA or RAID drivers before it will be seen. You would click on the Advanced button, and on the Install a driver option.

SATA Drivers - Load in Windows 8 System Image Recovery

C) Select the date and time of the system image to restore, and click on Next. (see screenshot below)
7. To Do a Full System Image Recovery
NOTE: This option will format everything on each hard disk drive that was included in the system image, then restore them as they were when the system image was created.

   Note

Format and repartition disks box:
NOTE: Special thanks to MJF for this addition. 1) Grayed out and selected
You are forced to have the whole disk formatted and repartitioned to match the partition structure of the disk the image was made from. This can occur when restoring an image to a new disk or the original disk with a modified partition structure. Data on other partitions on the disk you are restoring to will be lost.

2) Grayed out and unselected
You are not given the option to format and repartition the disk. This will occur if you are restoring Windows from a partition on the same disk.

3) Not grayed out and unselected
Here you have the option to select format the whole disk and repartition or not. In this case the disk the image was taken from has a matching partition structure to the disk you are restoring the image to. By not selecting the format and repartition option your image will be restored and other partitions untouched such as valuable data partitions.

A) Check the Format and repartition disks box (if not grayed out) and uncheck Only restore system drives box (if available), and click on Next. (see screenshots below)


B) Go to step 10.
8. To Only Restore System Drives in System Image Recovery
NOTE: When restoring to the same disk containing data partitions, the Format and repartition disks option may format the data partitions as well. If this is the case and you have the option to leave the Format and repartition disks box unchecked, then initially attempt your image recovery with the Format and repartition disks box unchecked. If recovery is unsuccessful, repeat the process with the format box ticked. A) If available, check the Only restore system drives box, and click on Next. (see screenshot below)
B) Go to step 10.
9. To Exclude Restoring Specific Drives in System Image Recovery
NOTE: Since a system image recovery will format everything on each hard disk drive that was included in a system image, this will allow you to exclude specific disks so that specific disk will not be formated or restored. A) Check the Format and repartition disks box , and click on the Exclude disks button (if not grayed out). (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If the Exclude disks button is grayed out, then the HDD that you are restoring to is empty, or you do not have any disks in the system image that are able to be excluded from being restored.
B) Unselect the drives that you want to exclude from being restored.

C) Click on Next.
10. Click on Finish. (see screenshot below)
11. Click on Yes. (See screenshot below)
12. You will now see this screenshot below.
NOTE: If you have the backup image on DVDs, have them ready. See step 4 above.
13. When it is through, click on Restart Now to finish. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: Your computer will restart and the backup image restoration will be done.
14. If you created a backup in step 1E, then you will now see this option to Restore my files after the computer restarts. (see screenshot below)
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Create a System Image Backup in Windows 7
• How to Create a "Create a System Image" Shortcut in Windows 7
• How to Restore Backup User and System Files in Windows 7
• How to Create a Windows 7 System Repair Disc
• How to Do a System Restore in Windows 7
• How to Backup and Restore the Windows 7 Registry
• How to Enable or Disable the Ability to Create a System Image in Windows 7
• How to Extract Files from Windows 7 System Image using Virtual PC
• How to Extract Windows 7 System Image Files Using Disk Management
• How to Restore your System with a Broken Windows 7 System Image
• How to Manually Extract Files from a Backup in Vista and Windows 7
• How to Create a System Recovery Shortcut in Windows 7
• How to Create a Windows 7 Backup and Restore Shortcut
• How to Restore a Partition Image From a HDD to a SSD
• How to Delete Windows 7 User Data and System Image Backup Files
• How to Load SATA Drivers in Windows System Image Recovery
• New Installation: How to Create a General System Image in Audit Mode

 

[mjf]

Unfortunately excluding D: which is the adjacent data partition to C: (boot,...) is not an option.

Note the wording "......exclude from the restore process....."
Disk 0 is the disk I'm restoring to, containing the 4 partitions
factory recovery; system reserved; C: , D:

It's not an issue for me because I don't tick the Format box and have never had a problem.
The only time it forced me to have it ticked was restoring to a new disk which is fine.

If for some reason I want to format partition C: before an image restore I'll do it manually.
So these are the sort of words I'm thinking of saying to people:
When restoring to the same disk containing data partitions. The format option may format data partitions as well. If this is the case and you have the option to leave the format box unticked then initially attempt your image recovery with the format box unticked. If recovery is unsuccessful, repeat the process with the format box ticked.

 

[Brink]

Added.

 

[slimer110]

So if any of this was covered in the previous 21 pages of this forum, I apologize as I did not read them all.

So I have a few questions, and they're probably all going to blend together, so I'll try to make this as organized as possible. I had a catastrophic SSD failure yesterday, and lost most of my data. I have been good about backing data up, just never really organized about it like creating images and such. So I decided to go out today and get a 2TB HDD purely for backup purposes. As I started testing and familiarizing myself with the Windows Image Recovery program, I left myself wondering a few things.

1. I have 4 physical drives that I use regularly. Five now with the 2TB, and that will only be for hosting my images (and hoping I never "clean" the wrong disk in DISKPART before restoring). I got my PC back up and running, and did a full system image backup using the utility. I understand that the drive(s) you are restoring to have to be the same size or bigger than the original. I'm wondering how the recovery program will determine which backed up drive is restored to which disk? For example, if you had one of each 250, 500, and 1000 GB hard drives, and replaced the 250 with another 500, how will it know which disk to restore the backed up drives to? I know that sounds redundant, but I want to be clear.

2. I know the response to this is more than likely going to be something like, "you're crazy, do a fresh install", but I like to live on the edge. So when I was setting up my system today, I wanted to prepare it so that when I get my SSD back from Kingston, (which if you have a Kingston SSD, check their site as there is a critical update out which could prevent it from bricking (certain models)), I can pop it in, do my restore and be up and running. So my two Storage drives and External drive are being left intact. However, I split my 500GB into two partitions. The OS is installed on a 60GB partition (which will be replaced by the 64GB SSD, hopefully), and the rest is for what the 500GB will be dedicated to when I get the SSD back (applications and programs). I would assume that if simply I put the SSD in with all the other drives before restoring, it will probably ignore it and repartion the 500GB like it was before I did the backup. So I was wondering if I could put the SSD drive in the machine by itself, disconnecting all the others or selecting to exclude them during the recovery, and just restore the system disk to the SSD via the checkbox option in the recovery utility, would that work? (Aside from the table structures of the drive being wacked) I could then use the command line in the repair utility to delete the 60GB partition, then expand the 440GB partition to the drive's full capacity once it is up and running and the OS is on the SSD. I think it sounds good in theory, but perhaps there is something I'm missing, and I would hate to be doing all this work only to have to reinstall from scratch. I have also read that there are some tools for fixing the table structures of SSDs that are imaged from a HDD. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Shadowjk]

Can I do the System Image from a Network Attached Drive?

 

[Brink]

Hello Josh,

Since you can backup to a network location in the Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions can, you should also be able to do a system image recovery from a network location. I have not tried this myself, so I do not know the exact steps for how to do so. I would imagine that you would need to use Select a system image and possibly have to type in the network path if not already listed.

 

[Brink]

Hello Slimer, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Answers inline.

1. I have 4 physical drives that I use regularly. Five now with the 2TB, and that will only be for hosting my images (and hoping I never "clean" the wrong disk in DISKPART before restoring). I got my PC back up and running, and did a full system image backup using the utility. I understand that the drive(s) you are restoring to have to be the same size or bigger than the original. I'm wondering how the recovery program will determine which backed up drive is restored to which disk? For example, if you had one of each 250, 500, and 1000 GB hard drives, and replaced the 250 with another 500, how will it know which disk to restore the backed up drives to? I know that sounds redundant, but I want to be clear.

Usually, it goes by the current driver letters and device ID number to know which drives to restore to. In a case where you replaced a HDD, you can use step 9 to exclude any HDD that you did not want to be included in the restore process, and/or just unplug any HDD that you do not want included to be extra safe.

2. I know the response to this is more than likely going to be something like, "you're crazy, do a fresh install", but I like to live on the edge. So when I was setting up my system today, I wanted to prepare it so that when I get my SSD back from Kingston, (which if you have a Kingston SSD, check their site as there is a critical update out which could prevent it from bricking (certain models)), I can pop it in, do my restore and be up and running. So my two Storage drives and External drive are being left intact. However, I split my 500GB into two partitions. The OS is installed on a 60GB partition (which will be replaced by the 64GB SSD, hopefully), and the rest is for what the 500GB will be dedicated to when I get the SSD back (applications and programs). I would assume that if simply I put the SSD in with all the other drives before restoring, it will probably ignore it and repartion the 500GB like it was before I did the backup. So I was wondering if I could put the SSD drive in the machine by itself, disconnecting all the others or selecting to exclude them during the recovery, and just restore the system disk to the SSD via the checkbox option in the recovery utility, would that work? (Aside from the table structures of the drive being wacked) I could then use the command line in the repair utility to delete the 60GB partition, then expand the 440GB partition to the drive's full capacity once it is up and running and the OS is on the SSD. I think it sounds good in theory, but perhaps there is something I'm missing, and I would hate to be doing all this work only to have to reinstall from scratch. I have also read that there are some tools for fixing the table structures of SSDs that are imaged from a HDD. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

That sounds perfectly fine. I would recommend to unplug all drives but your SSD and the HDD that contains the image backup before doing the restore though. Since the other partition was only 60GB, you will have 4GB of unallocated space left on the SSD when the restore is finished. When finished, you can then just extend the 60GB SSD partition into the 4GB unallocated space to recover that space to use all 64GB again.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[slimer110]

Hello Slimer, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Answers inline.

1. I have 4 physical drives that I use regularly. Five now with the 2TB, and that will only be for hosting my images (and hoping I never "clean" the wrong disk in DISKPART before restoring). I got my PC back up and running, and did a full system image backup using the utility. I understand that the drive(s) you are restoring to have to be the same size or bigger than the original. I'm wondering how the recovery program will determine which backed up drive is restored to which disk? For example, if you had one of each 250, 500, and 1000 GB hard drives, and replaced the 250 with another 500, how will it know which disk to restore the backed up drives to? I know that sounds redundant, but I want to be clear.

Usually, it goes by the current driver letters and device ID number to know which drives to restore to. In a case where you replaced a HDD, you can use step 9 to exclude any HDD that you did not want to be included in the restore process, and/or just unplug any HDD that you do not want included to be extra safe.

2. I know the response to this is more than likely going to be something like, "you're crazy, do a fresh install", but I like to live on the edge. So when I was setting up my system today, I wanted to prepare it so that when I get my SSD back from Kingston, (which if you have a Kingston SSD, check their site as there is a critical update out which could prevent it from bricking (certain models)), I can pop it in, do my restore and be up and running. So my two Storage drives and External drive are being left intact. However, I split my 500GB into two partitions. The OS is installed on a 60GB partition (which will be replaced by the 64GB SSD, hopefully), and the rest is for what the 500GB will be dedicated to when I get the SSD back (applications and programs). I would assume that if simply I put the SSD in with all the other drives before restoring, it will probably ignore it and repartion the 500GB like it was before I did the backup. So I was wondering if I could put the SSD drive in the machine by itself, disconnecting all the others or selecting to exclude them during the recovery, and just restore the system disk to the SSD via the checkbox option in the recovery utility, would that work? (Aside from the table structures of the drive being wacked) I could then use the command line in the repair utility to delete the 60GB partition, then expand the 440GB partition to the drive's full capacity once it is up and running and the OS is on the SSD. I think it sounds good in theory, but perhaps there is something I'm missing, and I would hate to be doing all this work only to have to reinstall from scratch. I have also read that there are some tools for fixing the table structures of SSDs that are imaged from a HDD. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

That sounds perfectly fine. I would recommend to unplug all drives but your SSD and the HDD that contains the image backup before doing the restore though. Since the other partition was only 60GB, you will have 4GB of unallocated space left on the SSD when the restore is finished. When finished, you can then just extend the 60GB SSD partition into the 4GB unallocated space to recover that space to use all 64GB again.
Hope this helps,
Shawn

Thanks Shawn, I appreciate your response. That is the reason I partitioned the drive at 60GB instead of 64GB, just to be sure that the image will fit on the SSD drive when I get it back. Still confused a little bit about my first question, but then again, perhaps I am making it difficult on myself. Will the recovery tool purely rely on the devices location on the SATA and IDE bus? For example, in that scenario in my original post, if I randomly swapped the 250GB (SATA0) and the 500GB (SATA1) and tried to restore from the 1TB (SATA2), would it only restore the original 250GB drive to the 500GB disk that is now where it used to be, and ignore the other 250GB drive because it is not big enough to host the 500GB image? If that is the case, sounds like I have to leave my drives where they are at as far as SATA location, and just make sure that if I ever replace something, that it is bigger or 'the same'* size. And to your second method, if i lost a drive, and disconnected all others except for the replacement drive and the drive hosting my image, when I restore it, the recovery program will not try to put the system drive image on the replacement if it is big enough, and rely on the Disk Location? Thanks again, sorry for the confusion.

 

[Brink]

When doing a system image recovery, it will restore to the exact same drives and partitions that were on the image unless you excluded or unplug the drives to have them restored to another drive instead.

It relies on the drive letter and drive's hardware ID (HID) to know which drive is which.

 

[Shadowjk]

I am still Cautious about this whole Process ...

My Main concern is Activation .. As I have a "Retail" OEM Which is Tied to the Motherboard etc...

If it formats my HDD Will I need to Re-activate and If so will it work or not?

Sorry for the Questions,
Josh

 

[SIW2]

No you should not need to reactivate.

 

[Brink]

No problem Josh.

When the image is restored, Windows 7 will be exactly the same as it was when the image was created. If activated when the image was created, then it will be activated afterwards.

 

[Shadowjk]

Okay Thanks Guys ,

Sorry about that I have had one of those "Blonde" Days today

 

[Brink]

Don't worry about it Josh. We all have our moments of brain lock.

 

[DBone]

"4. If you saved the system image backup on a set of multiple DVDs, then insert the last system image DVD from the set when prompted. If not, go to step 5 for a system image backup on a hard drive."

This may have been covered in this thread, and forgive me if it was, but I just want to make sure. I created a system image using 3 DVDs, I was prompted to label the first DVD "#1", the second DVD "#2" and the third disc "#3" during the imaging process.

"last system image DVD"............... When I do a restore with these 3 discs, do I insert disc #1 first and then #2 and #3, or is it backwards of my thinking, and do I insert disc #3, then #2 and #1??

I have never done this before and I hope it's not a totally stupid question, but "last system image DVD" wording has me confused!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Shadowjk]

You will have to insert the No. 3 Disk (In your Case) And then Windows will tell you which to enter next when it has finished with the 3rd Disk

Josh

 

[DBone]

Hey thanks Josh! I'm glad I asked, cause that's not what I would've done.

 

[Shadowjk]

It's okay

One who asks a question is only a fool for 5 minutes.

One who doesn't ask a question is a fool forever

 

[Airbot]

Step One 2-I saved my butt. Thanks.

I had forgot the desired backup needed to stay as "WindowsImageBackup". Couldn't figure out why it couldn't see the backup or any others like before, after I had wiped my system drive and didn't keep the current backup as "WindowsImageBackup".

 

[Brink]

Oops, good thing you were able ro recover it.

 

[Teerex]

It seems that I will have to back up my system and restore to a new laptop, same make, same model. The disks will be the same size - everything will be identical but not exactly the same. Should I expect any problems?