Backing up System

[scoobydog]

Howdy

Just recently I did a fresh install on my friends system for him. It was a very nice install because you guys helped me with the details. Anyway I want to back his entire system to an external drive. The reason I want to do this is because the current drive It is installed to is a few years old and I want to be able to restore the system in case of hard drive or Windows failure. He has Windows 7 x86.

The primary drive is 465 Gig drive that is where Windows is installed on. His 2nd internal drive is 1TB which is used as a data drive. He also has an external drive.

So the plan would be to back up the current OS on the 465G drive to his external drive and in case of failure then restore it to his back to the TB drive should there be failure. Is it possible to restore to the TB drive even though it is a different drive and all?. Can you tell me what the best software is for this?

Thanks

 

[AddRAM]

Acronis or Macrium. I have not been succesful transferring to another drive using windows imaging, you may have to use sys prep to do that. Greg will know more about it.

 

[scoobydog]

System prep?

 

[Britton30]

Sysprep remove all hardware IDs from an OS to put in another computer. I would recommend using Macrium as well to make an image of the OS drive which can be restored to any other drive and it should work fine. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html#post648001

 

[scoobydog]

Hypothetically how would I do the whole process. Sorry to be demanding.

Thanks

 

[gregrocker]

You'd only need SysPrep if you were changing to different mobo or other major hardware changes. Just a HD itself is usually not a problem when reimaging to it from either Win7 backup imaging or one of the other more favored apps like Macrium which is probably the favorite around here.

For many the fact that you can change the partitioning layout when using Macrium is enough reason to use it, since Win7 backup imaging requires you to keep the same offsets.

How it's run is in the Manual at the Download link Gary provided above.

 

[Britton30]

The link I posted has all the steps plus a link to download the WinPE bootable recovery iso.

 

[AddRAM]

In my experiments, with windows imaging, to another hard drive, it always says it can not find the original drive to put the image back on.

That is, doing the image with no changes. No sysprep etc.

 

[gregrocker]

Thanks, Brian.

Then I'd not use Win7 backup imaging based on Brian's report.

 

[AddRAM]

Although, I just found this, but haven`t read it yet.

How to move windows 7 to a new or larger hard drive using Backup and Restore

Oh boy, another experiment.

 

[gregrocker]

I've not seen other reports that Win7 backup imaging fails to another HD on the same system, but it has so many other deficiencies it's prob best not to take a chance.

Besides free Macrium, Paragon, there is the premium Acronis imaging/cloning app which comes free with any WD or Seagate HD in the mix. That is likely the best option if it applies. The Manual is on the WD or Seagate downloads page and easy to understand.

 

[AddRAM]

Update:

Installed windows HP to a 40 GB drive
Put windows backup image on 80 GB drive
removed 40 put in 160
tried to restore image to 160
this is the error message I get

This is when trying to do the restore from the same flashdrive I used to do the install, If I use the dvd it seems to be restoring it just fine.

And success !

 

[gregrocker]

You're saying that the error is only encountered trying to re-image to separate HD using bootable flash stick installer, but using Win7 DVD the re-imaging succeeds?

Someone in Backup like Michael may know the reason why.

 

[AddRAM]

Yes, that exactly what I`m saying.