Back up system?

[jonesnewton]

Hi
I will have to send my laptop off to the Acer service centre, I have a large amount of dead pixels and need to do a back up of my data.

It is Win 7 Home Premium.

I was told that they COULD wipe the drive even though it is a scren problem?

Is there a way I can do this as well as copying my data, but ALL of my settings as well, basically I want a complete image of my hard drive as it is today??

Thanks in a dvance.

 

[pparks1]

Yes, you can do this. Go into Start, Computer, Right click on C and choose Properties. Click on the Tools tab at top, click on Backup at the bottom, choose the option for Create a System Image.

Note, you will need an external hard drive to complete this...as you have to back it up somewhere.

 

[jonesnewton]

Hi,

so this will save all my settings, everything on my C drive, even down to the desktop items?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

It will if it works correctly when the time comes to restore. That is never guaranteed.

If I were you, I would make a separate file by file backup of my personal data to that external drive, above and beyond any image you might make. That way, if the image fails to restore, you still have copies of your personal files (mp3s, pictures, videos, Word and Excel files, etc).

 

[jonesnewton]

But I am not sure this way I would get all of the settings I would want?
Could I just copy C drive to the external HD?? Or is that what Back-Up basically does?

 

[Jonathan_King]

If you create a full system image, as recommended, it will save everything. If they wipe your drive, you could restore the whole thing in maybe 20 minutes or less.

As ignatzatsonic pointed out, there is a small chance something will fail. However, the chance of that happening is low.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

It won't do you any good to simply copy your entire C drive to the external drive. You couldn't then simply drag it back to your hard drive.

Imaging is the only way to avoid going through a new installation if you have to do that. But you can and should simply copy your PERSONAL files to the external as a fallback position if imaging won't work.

Imaging is a byte for byte replica of your entire C partition---that will include all settings, licenses, configurations, programs, etc--EVERYTHING on C.

 

[jonesnewton]

OK Thanks.

So I should do a Create an System Image and then back up my pictures, music, etc seperately, just in case?

How is Create an System Image and Create a New Full Back up differnet? Just for my info..

 

[Jonathan_King]

There is no Create Full Backup option in Windows backup; it is names Create a System Image.

The 2 separate backups are for your peace of mind only. In case the system image fails (unlikely), you will still have your most valuable data saved.

If you have the space and time, it never hurts to take extra precautions.

 

[pparks1]

The system image is an image of the whole machine. You can use that image to restore onto a clean hard drive that is blank and you will get back absolutely everything.

A full backup of those folders would back up the data in those folders. However, you could not put the whole system back in place with this type of update. With this, you would have to reinstall your operating system, reinstall your drivers, reinstall your applications and then restore your data files from the backup.

 

[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 .. or even accessible ???

I'd use Acronis just to be sure I had an Image backup that would work ...
And I could read to fetch any Data.

 

[pparks1]

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 ???

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.

 

[jonesnewton]

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.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

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.

 

[noyb]

Huh...I'm not following you.

That Handicap was in one of the Tutorials here ...
But I can't find it now ..

 

[pparks1]

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.

 

[jonesnewton]

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.

 

[noyb]

Ok, you are talking about physically moving the backup itself from one area to another...

Not sure .. But when I read it .. It was a show stopper.
This would mean that the system must remember where it is ???
What happens if the system fails or is replaced ???
Acronis has never failed me.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

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.

 

[pparks1]

Ok, you are talking about physically moving the backup itself from one area to another...

Not sure .. But when I read it .. It was a show stopper.
This would mean that the system must remember where it is ???
What happens if the system fails or is replaced ???
Acronis has never failed me.

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.