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

 

[Brink]

I am sorry Brink,

Let me clarify....The system image is not going to be stored on the raid 0 drive..It is saved to an external usb hard drive.

The system image will contain the os hard drive plus the two drives that are set up as raid 0

Sorry about not saying this first,

Ron

Ah, ok. Sorry about that.

In that case, it makes no difference. The RAID 0 will be treated the same as any other hard drive that was included in the image, and can also be restored to any hard drive that is large enough for it.

 

[Ron5382]

Thanks

Thank you very much Brink,

That is all I needed to know..Was worried about restoring the raid as I had problems with Acronis years ago..Not detecting the raid volume..

Again sorry about steering you in the wrong direction...

Ron

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome. Don't worry about it. It gave me a chance to update the tutorial.

 

[travisj]

System recovery from image with new hardware other than drives

I rebuilt my computer with a new motherboard, CPU and RAM. I had created a system image onto an external hard drive. I installed the new hardware with the old HDD, configured in the same way (2x 1tb striped together, giving a usable vol of about 1.8 tb). When I start the restore (step 12), it errors out saying that my drive is too small. I've read that the image needs to be restored to a volume of equal or greater size than the volume that was imaged. I figured that it would work for me because I'm trying restore the image to EXACTLY the same drives configured in exactly the same way as before. The only difference now being the motherboard/cpu/RAM, which are about 5 years newer than what I had before. Here are the things I have tried, cleaning/formatting the drives in between, and which didn't work:

1. Open up diskpart in the command prompt and clean the drives, restripe them, format to ntfs and assign a name and drive letter and make active. Make the new drive as top boot priority, or second to the dvd in BIOS.
2. Use the motherboard RAID utility to stripe the drives, use diskpart and BIOS to do the appropriate steps in #1
3. Same as 2, except without doing any of the diskpart steps. This led to different errors, as one could imagine
4. Span the drives with a 500gb drive to make a larger volume using diskpart, creating the partition, making active, BIOS priority, etc
5. Create a stripe with the motherboard RAID utility and spanning that volume (2tb) with the 500gb in diskpart (the utility doesn't do spanning, probably because spanning isn't a great way to use multiple hard drives), then formatting and assigning a drive letter, etc.

These are the basic variations. Even when I created a larger volume and the computer finds it, (I verified that the computer is finding the new volume by looking for drivers to install to see if the volume shows up under My Computer, which it does), it still won't restore.

What am I missing? Is it the new hardware? Can I get around having to do a clean install?

 

[mjf]

Here are some guidelines
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html
Frankly I would not bother. I'd definitely do a clean install deactivating programs like Photoshop before a clean install. MS will take care of most of the basic drivers but for graphics drivers I'd download from the manufacturer's website (eg.Nvidia). I think you are starting clean and less likely to have follow on problems. For Windows 7 of course do an SP1 install. Unless you have a multi use retail OS package it can only be installed on one PC. Retail OSs can be transferred.
OEM OS's can't be legally transferred between motherboards.

 

[Paultx]

My wife's notebook has a keyboard problem I just can't fix. I will try some "extreme" solutions, but before I do I will create a system image backup.

The first solution I will try is to restore the system to the original factory settings. In case this doesn't work I will do the system image recovery covered here.

So I ask you: Will this restore the system to the state it was before, in spite of the original factory settings restoration?

TIA.

 

[Brink]

Hello Paul,

That's correct, doing a system image recovery will restore your complete system to how it was when the previously created system image was created.

 

[mjf]

The first solution I will try is to restore the system to the original factory settings. In case this doesn't work I will do the system image recovery covered here.

TIA.

I'm not sure of the logic here. I would normally suggest restoring a system image before a factory restore. Also, what has this to do with a keyboard problem? You may want to try and boot a light weight linux or even a system repair CD and see if your keyboard problem persists. If the problem persists then it's more than likely you have a hardware problem. Does the notebook allow connection of an external keyboard? - If so then give that a go.

 

[Paultx]

The first solution I will try is to restore the system to the original factory settings. In case this doesn't work I will do the system image recovery covered here.

TIA.

I'm not sure of the logic here. I would normally suggest restoring a system image before a factory restore. Also, what has this to do with a keyboard problem? You may want to try and boot a light weight linux or even a system repair CD and see if your keyboard problem persists. If the problem persists then it's more than likely you have a hardware problem. Does the notebook allow connection of an external keyboard? - If so then give that a go.

Oh, that was the advice LG's support gave me: restore to the factory settings to "remove drivers conflicts" (their words)...

 

[mjf]

Ok. But I assume you then go through the hassle of reinstalling your software which could be the source of any driver conflict.
I would still check the keyboard with a boot CD. The system repair cd should suffice.
Also, a safe mode boot will load minimal drivers and is worth a try. If the keyboard issue goes away then you have some justification for a driver conflict.

 

[pat222]

hi all just read all the post im new to sevenforrums very cood new to computers will be back thnk you all

 

[Britton30]

Welcome to Seven forums pat222.

 

[jgl6008]

Manual renaming of system image files

I'm not understanding the need/method for renaming the System Image files in order to save multiple versions on a given media. If Windows creates multiple System Images (based on size allocation in System Protection) and the recovery has an option to Select the System Image that I want (other than the latest), then why would I ever bother to manually rename the System Image files?

 

[Brink]

Hello JGL, and welcome to Seven Forums.

It's just another option to be able to use to keep multiple saved system images without worry about them being deleted if the set max space in system protection is reached.

It really depends on your needs and how often you create system images for what option may work best for you, but I just like to give as many options as possible for those that may need it.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[jgl6008]

Thanks for the reply.
While experimenting with a new W7 Home Premium machine, I'm finding that your proposed
'renaming' of SystemImage folders is (maybe) the only way to go. I've been doing System Image backups
for over a week and have yet to find more than one system image folder on the backup drive, so it appears
that Windows is doing an incremental backup when I want it to create multiple system images
OR
System Image backups are created much like system backups where the folder name represents a 'backup
period' and Windows decides when a full system image backup will be created. If this is true, then I'd like to
see some documentation on it.
What I want (in case I've not fully described it) is to have multiple System Image backups on a (large) external
drive, so that I could restore the complete installation (via a W7 Rescue CD boot) in case of a virus attack that
leaves Windows dead (which has happened twice: moneypak and pr?ss.dll corrupt). This would act much like a System Restore if Windows wasn't dead.
My guess is that I'll need 3rd party software to do this - any suggestions?
Thanks again for your help and direction.

 

[Brink]

JGL,

You could do that with System Image, but it may be easier to use Macrium Reflect Free instead though.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/218920-macrium-reflect-create-bootable-rescue-usb-drive.html

 

[Britton30]

I'll add my vote for Macrium too. You have much more control and makes a smaller image file.

 

[SIW2]

There are several free 3rd party programs for imaging. They all work fine.

I started popularising macrium some years ago on Vista Forums. There wasn't much around back then, and only the higher editions of Vista including an imaging fuction. It is still a good program , does the job fine.

Paragon also do backup and recovery free. It is bit bigger than most , and doesn't include a way to make winpe media, but it does come with linux bootable media, which seems to support bios and efi boot, secre boot too. Paragon has an unusual ability to exclude files/folders from images. If that is important to you, you could give that a go.

Free Backup Software: Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Edition - Overview

There is also a newer entrant called Aomei Backupper. It offers much more than other free versions, and is noticeably faster too. It is so good, I now use it for my normal backup images, instead of the fancy paid programs I have.

FREE Backup software for Windows 7, 8 and Server 2008 R2, 2012

 

[Britton30]

Yes, Aomei Backupper is a good one and seems to be more intuitive to use with a simpler interface.

 

[jgl6008]

Thanks for the help. Sounds like I have some good options to work with.
Just for curiosity, can some one answer the question I had previously about Windows System Image Backup:
does it do incremental backups rather than a full one each time, or are System Image backups are created much like system backups where the folder name represents a 'backup period' and Windows decides when a full system image backup will be created.
John L.