Solved Can I move a HDD image to another HDD? And a few more questions...

[leuce]

Hello everyone

I used Windows 7 HP 64's built-in function to create an image of my system directly after a fresh install (after all updates were installed as well). The image was saved on my D drive, but I would really like it to have been saved to my F drive.

Is there a way to safely move the image over from D to F?

Also, is there a way to make a copy of the image onto e.g. an external drive? Can I simply copy all files, or must it be done using a special copy function?

And also: if I zip up the entire image folder into e.g. an ISO file, will the image still be usage if I want to restore from it?

Thanks
Samuel

==

Edited: [answer given at post #10.]

 

[AddRAM]

Just make another image.

 

[mitchell65]

I would recommend you use Macrium Reflect to create an image. I have found it more reliable. Definitely save the image to an external drive.

 

[leuce]

Just make another image.

Do you mean, I must make an image of the image? How does one do that? Windows only gives the option to add an entire drive's files to an image -- do other software allow more specific selection?

I saved an image directly after I installed all Windows updates. In the mean time, I have also started installing all my software. As soon as all my software is installed and set up, I'll create another image, but my question relates to what I can do with that first image that I created. Am I doomed to keep it on the drive where Windows created it?

I would recommend you use Macrium Reflect to create an image. I have found it more reliable.

In what way?

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
One way it's more reliable is it can be moved and even disconnected from the system entirely so it's safe from the same corruption as the os is.
You can also save an image to a large flash drive.

Macrium/ reflect uses a WinPE recovery cd or flash media to boot to and restore the image of the C drive... the WinPE recovery is only 500mb
You can also restore the image to a totally different hdd or ssd if the original hdd fails..

Yes M$ images can not be moved or disconnected making them just as corruptible as the os you imaged.

 

[leuce]

Yes M$ images can not be moved or disconnected, making them just as corruptible as the OS you imaged.

So, if I understand correctly, if I were to create an image on an external HDD, and I create a backup of that external HDD onto a second external HDD, then the image on the second external HDD is worthless, right (i.e. it can't be used to restore the image)?

 

[remm]

Leuce, don't know exactly why you are interested in doing it the way you are saying, but FTR Macrium Reflect is free and is an excellent program. Just install it on your main HDD, create an image of whatever you want, and configure Macrium Reflect to save that image wherever you want... on an external HDD. Within the MReflect interface you can also make recovery media, as ThrashZone stated, using a memory stick, which is more reliable than a CD. If your machine ever needs the image restored, you boot off the flash drive (or CD if you prefer that option), and into a mini-copy of MReflect, which will restore the image for you.

It's much easier than what you are trying to do.

 

[Bertison]

Leuce, don't know exactly why you are interested in doing it the way you are saying, but FTR Macrium Reflect is free and is an excellent program. Just install it on your main HDD, create an image of whatever you want, and configure Macrium Reflect to save that image wherever you want... on an external HDD. Within the MReflect interface you can also make recovery media, as ThrashZone stated, using a memory stick, which is more reliable than a CD. If your machine ever needs the image restored, you boot off the flash drive (or CD if you prefer that option), and into a mini-copy of MReflect, which will restore the image for you.

It's much easier than what you are trying to do.

That is exactly what I do. I have used Macrium for < 3 years now and I make regular images to my NAS as backups, each is backed up to an external Hdd. When I first setup a system after an upgrade, I also use Macrium to make a Repair disc, I use a CD but it can be done via a USB stick. Download Macrium here:
Macrium Software

And take time out to read and understand it, then use it to create an image and/or backup your system.

 

[leuce]

I don't know exactly why you are interested in doing it the way you are saying, but FTR Macrium Reflect is free and is an excellent program.

I'm 100% willing to install Macrium Reflect and use it, as you suggest, but how can I ensure that the image that I make today is an image of the state of the computer as it was yesterday, before I started installing all my programs? I'm surprised that this is so hard to understand.

It's much easier than what you are trying to do.

Well, unless Macrium Reflect is able to make a backup of the state of my computer as it was yesterday (not today), what you're suggesting is actually much harder: you're suggesting that I restore the image that I made yesterday (thus removing all the programs and settings that I spent the whole day today setting up) and then make a backup/image of that onto an external hard drive, and then re-install and re-setup all the stuff that I installed and setup today.

 

[whs]

Macrium images can be moved, Windows images can also be moved but you cannot find them any more because there is no browse function during the recovery. And you can make an image of an image. Just mount the VHD. See here how it's done:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/210195-system-image-recover-broken-windows-7-system-image.html

 

[Bertison]

When you make an image of the system, it makes that image as it is now.
If I understand what you are trying to do:

* You made an image of your system on Drive D, after a fresh install, and would like to move this image to Drive F.
* Then you would like to copy the image to an external drive, as a backup.

Are Drive D and Drive F actually separate Hard drives, or partitions on one disk?
If they are separate, I cannot see any reason why you cannot use the "Send To" function to move this image from D to F, but please wait for further information from others, as I have never done this myself.

I suggest that you go to the top of the Help and Support page, click "Tutorials" and read the following:

* "System Image - Extract Files Using Disk management"
* "Imaging With Free Macrium"
* "Backup Complete Computer"

The Tutorials are comprehensive and you should find the information you need there. They were very useful to me when I first began using Windows7.

EDIT: whs was posting whilst I was typing. Follow his advice.

 

[mitchell65]

No backup software will backup to a point before the actual time of the backup. Logic would dictate that that is not possible. How will the bsoftware know what state your disc was in at a point in the past? IMHO It is always best that you know exactly what you are doing before you embark on a new feature, that way you tend to avoid unnecessary pitfalls.

 

[remm]

I'm 100% willing to install Macrium Reflect and use it, as you suggest, but how can I ensure that the image that I make today is an image of the state of the computer as it was yesterday, before I started installing all my programs? I'm surprised that this is so hard to understand.

Sorry, it was not clear to me that your reason for wanting to manipulate the image you already made, was that it was too late to make another [of that point in time]. I just thought you were looking for a reliable BU strategy going forward.

EDIT: BTW it was smart to create a BU after all the W7 updates and the fresh install, but making another image AFTER installing all the programs would be the one to archive... as if anything ever went wrong you wouldn't want to restore to the fresh install then manually have to install all your programs again. You'd want the fresh install WITH all the programs. If there was a program you didn't want anymore, simply uninstall it. Faster than building from scratch. JMO. But the point is, if all your programs are installed now, and the system is working well, you don't need the image created earlier. Only one created now.... to be replaced as you continue to make BU images going forward. I usually keep 2 or 3 deep, in case the most recent BU is corrupt. But I would have no reason to keep the fresh install with the updates alone, beyond past the point of installing all the programs and making the newer BU. Of course everyone has a different system, but just saying...

 

[Brds7t7]

I've had no issues moving/copying Windows images to a different drive. They won't be picked up in the backup control panel if moved.
I would advise using robocopy instead of the basic Windows copy function when copying large files/images though.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I'm 100% willing to install Macrium Reflect and use it, as you suggest, but how can I ensure that the image that I make today is an image of the state of the computer as it was yesterday, before I started installing all my programs? I'm surprised that this is so hard to understand.

Macrium creates one file. It will have an mrimg extension. That file will be roughly half the size of the space occupied by the partitions contained in the images. If the imaged partition occupies 100 GB, the image file will be about 50 GB.

You can treat it like any other file---save it wherever it will fit. Move it at will.

Images can't go back in time, just as a photograph cannot. If I take a picture of you at noon, it will look as you were at noon, wearing your blue shirt--not as you were an hour before or later, wearing your red shirt.

Similarly, if you make an image of your C drive at noon when C contains no programs, that image file is stuck in time--that's what it will contain forevermore.

If you install some programs an hour later at 1 pm, you'd need to make a new image if you want to return to the 1 pm state. Restoring the noon image will take your PC back to when it had no programs--as it was at noon.

 

[mjf]

Do you mean, I must make an image of the image?

No.
You should be making another image of the OS on the drive/partition you wanted to copy to.

You can easily move Windows inbuilt images to folders within a partition then back again to the root for recovery (it just amounts to a directory change like moving any file). Physically moving the images across partitions or drives involves a physical move of GBs of data and is not recommended.

Macrium is a better option. Even with Macrium you don't want to be moving images across partitions or drives as normal practice.

 

[whs]

I've had no issues moving/copying Windows images to a different drive. They won't be picked up in the backup control panel if moved.
I would advise using robocopy instead of the basic Windows copy function when copying large files/images though.

I understand that it is easy to move these images. But what do you do with them if the recovery program cannot find them. You would have to bring them back and reissue their original name.

 

[Brds7t7]

When it goes through the "scanning for system image disks" process, does it not pick up system images in the folder named "WindowsImageBackup"?
I always thought that as long as you had that specific named folder it would be able to pick up the images.

 

[whs]

In principle you are right. But if that folder has a new address, it will not find it. And since there is no "Browse", you cannot direct it to the new location.

 

[mjf]

Provided the folder WindowsImageBackup is in the root of a partition (ie. not within some other folder) and the internal files have not been corrupted then Windows system image restore should find it. I used to be a heavy user of Windows inbuilt imaging and never had a problem renaming and or moving the WindowsImageBackup folder to other folders - provided you moved it back to the root with its original name.
I got lazy and dropped 2 imaging programs and settled for the more flexible Macrium.