backup date on windows 7 box with software need insight

[scripttron75]

Backup setup on windows 7 box with software need insight

Hello,
I need some insight on how to backup my windows 7 ultimate box. windows 7 is on C:\ drive by itself some apps installed it is a 200gig sata drive. then i have as drive I:\ applications as a seperate drive as a RAID 0 800gig. these drives are not completely full. I need to know how i can do a image backup for these Two drives C and I together so that if both fail or one fails i can restore. for drive c:\ its OS and some apps then on drive I:\ it is games on this drive. so the games are installed on I:\ drive. how can i keep the integrity of both drives as a backup so that i dont have to reinstall all the games i have installed again ( takes too long) ?

 

[whs]

I would image C and I seperately and use free Macrium for that. That is a very reliable, easy to use and fast imaging program.

If you image C with Windows 7 imaging, then 'I' will be imaged automatically because it is considered part of the system. However, I would warn you. Windows 7 imaging is highly unreliable and you really cannot be certain whether you ever be able to recover with your image(s).

 

[kado897]

I would differ from whs on that. It's probable that your games create registry entries which are in C. To ensure that they are in line with your games you should make an image of both at the same time. As whs says Macrium is a good choice for this. If you have the small System reserved partition you must also image that.

 

[whs]

Keith, making the images together is certainly important. I did not mean to make them at seperate times - just one after another. What is important though is to restore them together.

 

[kado897]

Yes that is true Wolfgang. With Macrium you can chose what partitions to include in the image so you might as well create them as a single image file. If necessary you can chose which to restore from the image file unlike with Windows Backup.

 

[scripttron75]

Kado i thought the same thing with the registry.

 

[kado897]

I don't know if you spotted the link whs posted to his tutorial on Macrium. It was buried in the text. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html?filter[2]=Backup%20Restore

 

[scripttron75]

yes i saw it and i saw that it was indicated. I usually use Acronis true image. thank you guys for the input

 

[kado897]

No problem scripttron.

 

[scripttron75]

I am going to try backup you indicated. Acronis has been a blessing as well as Symantec 2010 on my server. I just want to make sure that i do not have to redo everything. it was such a pain in the arse to do. thank u all.

 

[kado897]

If you use Macrium make sure you use the WinPE recovery disk. whs has put a link in the tutorial to a pre-built iso so you just have to burn it to a CD.