Solved Backup & Recovery of Windows 7

[thejourneynext]

I have an old laptop of Compaq which did not come with any one touch OS recovery key and features like that..
Now I want to create a recovery OS drive so that if ever I face any problem with OS I can use that recovery drive (which would be on the HDD itself) in that time..
Friends can you please suggest me Software(s) which will serve the same purpose..

 

[marsmimar]

Hello thejourneynext and welcome to Seven Forums.

You could create a new partition (volume) on the existing hard drive and assign a new drive letter.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2674-partition-volume-create-new.html

You could then use free imaging software like Macrium Reflect free to create an image of C: drive (or wherever the operating system and everything else is now residing) and put that image on the newly created partition. One of the Forum members created a tutorial.

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html

However, my personal opinion is to keep the image on a separate, external hard drive - not on the same internal hard drive. If that internal hard drive ever fails, you probably won't be able to access the image so it will be useless. But if the image is on an external drive, you could replace the internal drive and still access the image. Just a thought.

 

[thejourneynext]

Hello marsmimar,
Thank you very much for your reply.
I will surely try Macrium Reflect, I googled a bit about all this and found Paragon & Acronis True Image in the same genre.
My Focus is on creating a backup of OS which can be used when the Default OS fails to load for any reason And knowing the fact that my Optical Drive is not working so I do not have any support of Backup disks or any kind of optical material, therefore a one key backup residing on the HDD will be very useful for me in such cases. I totally agree with your idea of keeping the image on a separate, external hard drive. Thank you very much.

 

[marsmimar]

You're very welcome. Paragon and Acronis have good reputations. So does EaseUS Todo Backup Free. The nice thing about free products is you can try them all, see which one suits your needs, is easiest to use, etc and go with that one.

Free download EaseUS Todo Backup Freeware to complete backup & restore Windows system - EaseUS Todo Backup Free

 

[thejourneynext]

Agreed Thank you

 

[karlsnooks]

thejourneynext,

You do need to download or purchase anything.

Use Windows 7 Backup and Recovery.

A marvelous tool that comes with your Win 7.

This is the only program i use for this purpose and the program has saved the bacon a couple of times.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html

 

[thejourneynext]

Hi karlsnooks,
I am thankful to your reply & totally understand your suggestion.
But I am facing a condition where I dont have access to Optical Media support and therefore the Image created by the default Windows 7 Backup and Recovery wont be of any use to me as it can be used only with the help of a Windows 7 disk.
Thank you for your reply.

 

[karlsnooks]

Put the System Repair "disc" onto a USB.

 

[thejourneynext]

A 3 year old Laptop is (in my case) not having a motherboard compatible of booting from USB
And No Risks can be taken by flashing the BIOS to make it USB-Bootable-Compatible.

 

[karlsnooks]

well let's see if I understand correctly.

You can not boot from USB.

You can not boot from an optical drive.

Is that correct?

 

[thejourneynext]

Yes Sir .. Totally
Optical drive is not working and USB Boot is not supported..
These are the challenging and entertaining facts of this laptop..
Recently, the WinLoad.exe file got corrupted ( Error name: MissingOSLoader) and I was in a good set of troubles resolving the issue because of the Optical & USB Constraints.
Anyhow I managed the repair task with the help of a DVD Writer and an external kit of SATA/PATA to USB but its not feasible everytime, so this quest of having a backup & One Key Recovery aroused in me.
Windows default manager is pretty awesome but needs some sort of bootable media.
I tried Acronis and it worked very well.

 

[karlsnooks]

I don't care what program you use, but:
If you are going to restore from an external device then you must have an external device and you must a means of using that device.

If your hard disk crashes, then your hard disk is useless to boot from and to access any form or fashion.

Optical units are cheap!

I wish you good luck, if you do not plan to put your backup on an external device.

I wish you good luck, if you do not have a bootable restore program on an external device.

Karl

 

[mjf]

I agree with Karlsnooks. I would get a new Optical drive (I think we are talking in the $30 range??). You will need this as your image restore boot device if you cannot do a USB boot. Assuming you can access a USB external HDD then this is where you should store your images and not on DVD disks.
I use both Windows inbuilt imaging software and free Macrium Reflect. Both work great for me.

 

[thejourneynext]

Thank You All