Have you used windows backup before? Is it practical?

[kado897]

System reserved is usually a small 100-200MB partition with no drive letter. If you have this you should image it as it contains boot files. On my HP laptop D is labelled Recovery and is used to restore the PC to factory settings. You should image it once as it does not change.

 

[netadict]

Many thanks kado897 for your quick answer

 

[kado897]

You are welcome netadict.

 

[whs]

To add a little caveat - as Keith has said, the 100MB system partition contains the bootmgr and never changes UNLESS you do a double boot with e.g. a Linux distro. Then the Linux bootmgr (Grub) is added into that 100MB partition. At that time you should make a new image of the 100MB partition because it has changed.

What is handy is that the day you want to get rid of the Linux double boot, you just restore the ORIGINAL image of that partition (the one without the Grub) and you have a single boot system again. Then you can just wipe the Linux partition.

 

[kado897]

True Wolfgang but I was talking about the recovery partition, if that is what his D partition is.

 

[whs]

True Wolfgang but I was talking about the recovery partition, if that is what his D partition is.

Oh sorry, I thought you meant both.

 

[kado897]

Yes. I generally add my System partition to the C image as it only adds seconds to the backup time and Macrium allows you to restore it separately if you need it.

 

[Gary]

I run Windows backup regularly and it helped me to recover a lost file or two. However, it didn't quite work to backup or restore the whole system or even an individual user account profile.

http://www.sevenforums.com/backup-restore/286937-windows-backup-does-not-save-my-ntuser-dat.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...ms-executables-after-full-system-restore.html

Looks good on paper, but seem pretty fragile IMO.

I do not know what Windows Backup saves but when yo Use The Imaging part of it, it images whatever is on the partition you chose to back up. It has never failed me.

 

[crankypenguin]

The best backup solution I came across in my years was a product made by Acronis. I think it was called Acronis True Image. I had zero problems with multiple backups and never had any errors restoring. Now this was back in the mid 2000 so I bet their software has only gotten better. That's what I would recommend if asked

 

[whs]

The best backup solution I came across in my years was a product made by Acronis. I think it was called Acronis True Image. I had zero problems with multiple backups and never had any errors restoring. Now this was back in the mid 2000 so I bet their software has only gotten better. That's what I would recommend if asked

Acronis is still a good product. But Macrium is easier to use. Both do the job reliably (which is the most important criterion).

Window's native imaging is iffy and you never know what it does. I had nothing but problems with it. But other people seem to manage with it. It has the advantage that it images all partitions that contain system files automatically. But that can sometimes be a pain also (e.g. if you moved the target location of your user files to another partition). The other downside is that it does not let you keep multiple images without going thru some gymnastics.

And finally, it seems to be pretty unreliable. Many people had asked for help to be able to recover with a broken Windows 7 image. There were so many with that problem that I wrote a tutorial on how to do that so that I did not have to explain that every time. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/210195-system-image-recover-broken-windows-7-system-image.html