Huh...I'm not following you.
I've used the built-in system image backup to backup my 1TB Seagate hard drive (when I was using that as my OS drive) to a 400GB external Western Digital hard drive. I restored that image at least a dozen times trying to isolate a performance issue.
When I finally determined it was the Seagate 1TB drive, I went to the store and got a 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black and restored my existing system image from the external hard drive to this new hard drive without incident.
I also had to return an Acer once for a screen issue and mine came back with a new screen with the hard drive just as I left it. I just changed the password before sending it to them and left a note attached to the computer letting them know what the username/password was for them to test that display.
Hi,
here is a screen print of my options and there is an option of both, well thats what I think
Thanks for the info.
I think I will do Create a System Image. And the a back up of pics music, etc, just in case.
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noyb >> Windows Imaging will not work if the Image is moved.
I'm not sure if a new system was installed .. Would the Image be considered as Moved ???
How will it be moved? It would only be copied?
or am I missing something?
PParks1:
Not sure, but I think I recall some people having issues in this situation:
You use Windows 7 imaging to backup to folder X on drive Y.
You later move that image to folder Z on drive Y. Or to another drive entirely.
In such situations, I think some people have had a problem with a restore--the recommendation being to leave the image exactly where you first put it, and don't change the image file name.
Ok, you are talking about physically moving the backup itself from one area to another. In my case, it was always the same files from the same USB drive from the original system image being used. I never monkeyed with the actual backup files.
[QUOTE=pparks1
I also had to return an Acer once for a screen issue and mine came back with a new screen with the hard drive just as I left it. I just changed the password before sending it to them and left a note attached to the computer letting them know what the username/password was for them to test that display.[/QUOTE]
Another good idea
I currently do not have a username or password set, so could I do that and just give them a GUEST sign in?
I hope they dont have to wipe it, hopefully I will have the same results as you..
Here is my problem with the screen, see attachment.
Jonesnewton:
I don't use Win 7 backup and restore, but i think "create a system image" replicates all of C in an image file, including everything on C.
"Create a new full backup" is likely NOT an image, but a file by file backup intended to back up personal files, as opposed to Windows itself. You could not use this to restore your operating system and programs.
That's a guess. Someone else can confirm. That kind of non-intuitive wording is one reason why I use other programs for backup.
I think the issue would be either folder security or hidden files or something causing the issue. So, I think if you took the system and made the backup to an external drive like F:\, and then later copied it to G:\(which might be another physical drive) and then later moved it back to F:\ and tried to restore, it might not work.
However, if you left it right where it was on the external drive, it would have worked just fine if the system fails or is replaced. Like I said with mine, I changed the physical internal hard drive and restored with System Image just fine.
I know that the built-in "system image" gets a lot of bad press on these forums...but I have also found that many that spread the word about problems, have often just heard of these problems and haven't actually experienced them first hand. Or they have complex setups with multiple hard drives and multiple OS's and this tool doesn't have all of the functionality necessary to handle that. While a problem for a user here, for 95% of all Windows users...this would not be a problem.
I've since moved onto Acronis myself simply due to the "Try and Decide" mode. However, I found that the 1 time that I actually tried to "commit the changes" to disk rather than discard them (every other time I used it I did this), Acronis got about 80% done and crapped out. I had to actually restore the image entirely from a month back to get my system operational again. So, not everybody has perfect experiences with Acronis either. Note: From now on, I won't keep any changes from Try and Decide, I'll just discard them and perform the steps again manually if this arises again.
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