Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

How to Create a System Image Backup in Windows 7​

   Information

A system image is an exact copy of a drive. By default, a system image includes the drives required for Windows to run. A system image would include all NTFS formatted partitions with an operating system installed on it (ex: C ), as well as the System Reserved partition. These system partitions cannot be unselected. It also includes Windows and your system settings, programs, and files. You can use a system image to restore the contents of your computer if your hard disk or computer ever stops working. When you restore your computer from a system image, it's a complete restoration—you can't choose individual items to restore, and all of your current programs, system settings, and files are replaced with the contents of the system image.

This tutorial will show you how to create a system image (clone) backup of the entire hard drive or partition that Windows 7 is on, and any other selected drive or partition. You can use this image to be able to do a system image recovery to restore the hard drive or partition at boot back to the way it was at the time the backup image was created.

If you want to include additional drives in the system image, you can manually create a system image. If you manually create a system image, it can be saved on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or a hard drive.

If a system image was created through Windows Backup instead with the Include a System Image of Drives box checked, you can set Windows to retain as many system images as it has space for on the backup disk or to only keep the most recent system image.

   Note

Keeping different versions of system images

If you're saving your system images on an internal or external drive, or on CDs or DVDs, you can keep several versions of system images. On internal and external hard drives, older system images will be deleted when the drive runs out of space. To help conserve disk space, you can manually delete older system images.

Backup images are saved as backup periods in this format at the selected saved to location like the example below.

drive letter:\WindowsImageBackup\computer name\Backup YYYY-MM-DD HHMMSS

For example, if your computer name is Computer, your backup image location is on hard disk or partition (network or local) D: , and you backed up on 11/22/2008 at 1:00:50 PM (It uses 24 hour time), then that backup image would be located in the folder below.
D:\WindowsImageBackup\Computer\Backup 2008-11-22 130050
If you're saving your system images in a network location, you can only keep the most current system image for each computer. If you have an existing system image for a computer and are creating a new one for the same computer, the new system image will overwrite the existing one.

   Tip

If you want to keep multiple system image versions on the same drive or partition, then you can use either method below to do so.

METHOD ONE:
Change the maximum space used for system images on the drive letter you are saving the Windows Backup to by changing the maximum space used by System Protection for the same drive letter. This is the same setting.

You do not have to have System Protection turned on for the drive letter, but do need to adjust the maximum space to what you like.

The size of a system image can be quite large since it will include all system drives in the image by default plus any drives you have included. If you want to keep multiple system images, be sure to increase the max size accordingly.

METHOD TWO:

1. Navigate to the backup location above for where you saved a system image that you want to keep before creating a new system image.

2. Right click, or press and hold, on the WindowsImageBackup folder, and click/tap on Rename.

3. Rename it to something like WindowsImageBackup-Copy-1, press Enter, and click//tap on Yes if prompted by UAC.
NOTE: This way you can just easily change the 1 an the end of the name to 2, 3, 4, etc... for each new system image that you make a copy of.

4. You now have a different system image version that you can leave at this location to be able to keep multiple versions.

NOTE: When you want to restore a system image in a renamed WindowsImageBackup-Copy-1 folder in the future, then you must rename the current WindowsImageBackup folder first, then rename the WindowsImageBackup-Copy-1 folder back to WindowsImageBackup in order to be able to restore it. The WindowsImageBackup folder must be in the root directory of the drive, and not within another folder.

   Warning

• Windows 7 can only include drives formatted with the NTFS file system in the system image.
• Windows 7 cannot include the partition or drive that you are saving the backup image to in the image.
• All "system" or "boot" drives/partitions are included in the system image by default, so you will not be able to save the system image to a system or boot drive/partition.
• If you are saving the system image to a HDD or partition, then you can only save the system image on a separate hard drive (recommended) or partition than what Windows 7 is installed on. It cannot be saved to the C: drive.
• Only the Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions can backup to a network location.
• You cannot restore a 64-bit Windows 7 backup image on a 32-bit system.
• You cannot restore a 64-bit Windows 7 backup image with a 32 bit Windows 7 installation DVD or recovery partition, or the other way around. You must use the same 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 7 installation DVD or recovery partition as the backup image is.
• A system image that was created on a computer using EFI cannot be restored on a computer using BIOS. It can only be restored on a computer using EFI.
• When restoring a system image from a dynamic volume, the disks on your computer cannot be formatted to match the layout of the disks on the backup. To have full functionality, select a volume (partition) on a basic disk as your backup location instead.
• I would recommend to create a system image on a separate HDD, or a separate partition on a separate HDD, for the best reliability to restore from it. CDs or DVDs are just not as reliable. A scratch one just one of them could ruin the whole image.

Here's How:
1. Open the Control Panel (icons view).

2. Click on the Backup and Restore icon.

3. Click on the Create a system image link. (See screenshot below)

4. If prompted by UAC, click on Yes.

5. Select the location to where you would like to save the backup image at, and click on the Next button. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: See the Warning box at the top of the tutorial. Only the Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions can backup to a network location.

6. If available, check any additional hard drives or partitions (ex: Vista) that you would like to include in the backup image with the Windows 7 (System and C: ) partition or hard drive, and click on the Next button. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: See the WARNING box at the top of the tutorial. If you do not want to add any additional hard drives or partitions, then just leave the others unchecked. You will not see this, if you do not have any other OS installed other than Windows 7.

7. Click on the Start backup button. (See screenshot below)

8. You will now see this window. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: If you wish to stop creating the backup image during this point, click on the Stop backup, Stop, and Close buttons.

9. When it is finished you will see this create a System Repair disc pop-up window. Click on No. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: For how to always hide or show this message, see this tutorial.

10. Click on the Close button. (See screenshot below)

11. Close the Backup and Restore window. (See screenshot below step 3)
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Backup User and System Files in Windows 7
• How to Do a System Image Recovery 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
• Imaging with free Macrium
• 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 Enable or Disable Backing up to a CD or DVD in Windows 7
• How to Enable or Disable Backing up to Local Hard Disks in Windows 7
• How to Delete Windows 7 User Data and System Image Backup Files
• How to Create a "Create a System Image" Shortcut in Windows 7
• How to Hide or Show "Do you want to create a system repair disc?" Message
• How to Fix Backup Error 0x81000019 in Windows 7
• New Installation: How to Create a General System Image in Audit Mode

 

[Night Hawk]

The recovery option seen on the 7 recovery or installation disk would be able to browse to individual locations there since you are booting live from disk there.

What we had been wondering was on using the restoration option while booted in a totally new clean install of 7 to see how locating and restoring an image proceeds once the original backup information is no longer present such as the automatic reassigned drive letters and other changes seen.

 

[mcleod55]

What is the best/easiest zip program to use when doing a backup?

 

[74me]

night hawk,

I think what your asking (not 100% sure) is if the restore CD will find the backup image without the copy of windows 7 present that created the backup. I believe the answer to this is yes. I only tried it twice, but I performed the backup to an external hard disk, formatted and wiped the hard disk with the windows 7 installation, and restored from external hard disk. So it would seem that the backup is independent of the OS installation. I would ask everyone to verify this for themselves though as your situation might be different.

mcleod55,

7-Zip has a great command line version of the program (not the gui) for using it with batch files to automate things.

 

[Night Hawk]

Browsing while booted live from disk assumes there is no one location to reference since you are working fresh in a sense. The drive could emptry following a reformat or you could restoring an image if Windows simply won't start up or run long to restore the image prooperly.

The other guide there touches on what is seen following the restart when restoring an image when starting the restoration while booted in Windows there after you backup the present data. Instead of reaching the desktop the restoration tool takes over where you then apparently browse for the image.

 

[mcleod55]

Thanks! That's what I'm looking for. Something with not too many options.

 

[Night Hawk]

The Windows Easy Transfer tool in 7 works pretty the same way where the gui for that tool also picks up on a restart to restore files and settings. The idea is having something independent of Windows that runs live for restoring an image of an entire drive. On the resrart the recovery tool is simply loaded into ram leaving the drive free.

 

[Greg S]

Since the restoration option provides a browser option to locate "where" the backup imsge is.
.

That is what wasn't really clear in everything that I read and looked at. So it does have a browse option? The other thing that is not clear, why is one given the options to choose different dates if they exist, if the Image backup overwrites the previous backup? <---- That's what led to this question below

Just to be clear, Let's say that I have used System image 3 times on three different dates. During the recovery process are those 3 dates an option to choose from? I know that the files in WindowsImageBackup are overwritten. What I'm unsure about is if in overwriting the files are all 3 dates available for restoration or is it just the last, most recent date.

I keep 3 or 4 image backups. They all copy to a directory of my C: Drive root name. All I do after the backup I go and add a date to the directory or a statement like "All updated and clean" That way the next time I do an image it will backup with erasing anything.


Here is what my two backups are named.
Now the next image will be written to "Iggy-PC "

OK, just to clarify. The screenie shows the only image backup I have at the present time and it's named Seven-PC. I'm getting ready to do another. Is this the folder that I need to rename? I'm sure that it is but want to make for sure.

 

[Night Hawk]

Open that folder up and look inside. You should see a sub folder with your user account name. Inside that look for the one that says "backup" and open that one up to see a group of files similar to the image here.

 

[Greg S]

Open that folder up and look inside. You should see a sub folder with your user account name. Inside that look for the one that says "backup" and open that one up to see a group of files similar to the image here.

Ok, then the one with the date is the one that gets renamed, correct? For me, the Image backup process is fairly quick. Seems to me that the best option would be to copy that folder and paste it elsewhere for safekeeping whilst leaving the original in place to be added to incrementally.

 

[Night Hawk]

Windows will automatically create a new sub folder in the same Seven-PC main folder. The dates are seen on the root files in the sub folder of the sub folder if you follow that. The incremental backup will name the next folder accordingly once seeing the present one.

For backing up the backup(s) you could literally copy everything over to another partition or drive to restore later in the event of any loss. I'll probably doing that as well for the image here since that won't be incremental but the fast restore image copied onto the second storage drive for safekeeping there. Leaving the original location intact will insure the incremental backups go by without fuss.

 

[Greg S]

Windows will automatically create a new sub folder in the same Seven-PC main folder. The dates are seen on the root files in the sub folder of the sub folder if you follow that. The incremental backup will name the next folder accordingly once seeing the present one.

For backing up the backup(s) you could literally copy everything over to another partition or drive to restore later in the event of any loss. I'll probably doing that as well for the image here since that won't be incremental but the fast restore image copied onto the second storage drive for safekeeping there. Leaving the original location intact will insure the incremental backups go by without fuss.

Ok, same here. I'm leaving the original folder intact and copying the original for a dated backup. For my needs, it's the only way to go. I install, uninstall, modify and change way too much. Having dated multiple image backups would be best practice for me in the long run.

 

[Night Hawk]

That's one thing the restoration option will look for is the dates. Whatever goes into the Seven-PC folder there has to remain unchanged even with the backup to any work later.

When you look at the image I posted before on how the files are note the grouping of characters. Each grouping has it's own designation when Windows looks at it. Your backup to another location should look exactly the same as the original with the same number of files found in order to work once and if you ever have to copy back to original location.

 

[Greg S]

That's one thing the restoration option will look for is the dates. Whatever goes into the Seven-PC folder there has to remain unchanged even with the backup to any work later.

When you look at the image I posted before on how the files are note the grouping of characters. Each grouping has it's own designation when Windows looks at it. Your backup to another location should look exactly the same as the original with the same number of files found in order to work once and if you ever have to copy back to original location.

So what you are saying is, to just copy and paste the original and do not rename it, correct?

 

[Night Hawk]

The "Seven-PC" folder itself makes no difference as far as the name on another drive for example while the contents are the concern. You can easily backup those to a new folder on the same drive even called "Greg S" if you want.

Once you go to copy everything back to the original location the "Seven-PC" folder name will then have to be seen by Windows in order to display the contents or for further incremental backups you see going forward from that point. The backup of the backup is what has to be kept the same as well as verified all files are present in order to good for use if needed.

 

[strtcrchrn]

Hi Everyone,

I've looked through this thread but haven't seen anyone else post about my issue. I tried to create a system image. I put in the blank DVD disc and labelled it using the date and time that Windows suggested.

Windows formatted the disc and the progress bar continued. Then, I got the same message about putting in a storage device that was over 1GB in size and to label it with the same information as before.

This happened twice more and the progress bar never made it very far. I've since cancelled the backup to search online.

Could it be the discs that I am using? They are Verbatim, 4.8GB DVDs.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Brink]

Hello Strtcrchrn, and welcome to Seven Forums.

I'm not sure why you are not able to back up to your DVD's. If you are able to, you would be much better off backing up a system image to another separate hard drive or another partition on the same hard drive.

 

[strtcrchrn]

Hi Brink,

Thanks for the reply and the welcome.

I do have an external drive but I was worried that I would have to format it and then it would wipe everything that's currently on there.

 

[Night Hawk]

With about 147gb of data including the Windows installation on one drive here the total size of the system image was 131gb. If you have 200gb or more that will work for a one time image depending on the size of the external drive itself.

I didn't have about 11-15 blank dvd-rws onhand which the image tool asks for to see how that would go at the time. You need the rewriteable type of blank media for this.

 

[strtcrchrn]

Thanks Night Hawk. I definitely don't have that much room on the external drive, so I'll either have to make some room or buy a new drive.

Thanks again, I appreciate the feedback.

 

[Greg S]

Last question, I hope. In the pic below, is the folder that is circled in blue the one that is copied and pasted somewhere else for a backup of the image backup? Again for clarity, do I leave the folder circled in blue untouched?