Creating my own install dvd

[Highlander]

I apologize in advance if this subject had already been addressed.

As you all know, most new PCs come with a "RESTORE TO FACTORY IMAGE" set of DVDs, so when you are in trouble you use those DVDs and have a brand new system.

However, these "IMAGES" come full of junk.

What I want is to create my OWN IMAGE so, after instaling all my softwares and twicking WIN7 to my taste, if I ever want to reinstall i would get back to MY ORIGINAL image...

can you please help me?

Thanks in advance

 

[Barman58]

Although not perhaps exactly what you are looking for the simplest way to achieve this is to make a system image of your running system.

This may be done via win7's own backup system or by use of one of many available 3rd party applications, both commercial and free.

Some of the 3rd party solutions will allow you to create this image directly to DVD or to transfer to DVD manually

 

[ccatlett1984]

Creating a System Recovery Disk in Windows 7: A step-by-step tutorial


Brien M. Posey
11.09.2009
Rating: -3.50- (out of 5)

Storage technology learning materials

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In a corporate environment, the IT staff isn't always responsible for backing up individual desktop computers. Even so, you may be able to benefit from creating a Windows 7 System Repair Disk. This disk, which is created through the Backup and Restore Center can be used to perform a bare-metal restore, and it can also be used for other diagnostic tasks. In this article, I will show you how to create and use a Windows 7 System Repair Disk that can be used for all of your Windows 7 systems.
The Backup and Restore Center
When you open the Backup and Restore Center, you will notice that the pane on the left contains options to create a system image (a system image is a type of backup that you can use to perform a bare-metal restore of Windows 7) and to create a System Repair Disk, as shown in Figure 1 below (click on image for full size).
Figure 1: The Backup and Restore Center
Windows Backup allows you to create a system image by clicking on the "Create System Image" link shown in Figure 1, but you can also include a system image within a regular backup. If you look at Figure 2 below (click on image for full size), you will notice that there is a checkbox at the bottom of the screen that you can use to include a system image as a part of your backup.
Figure 2: Including a system image within a regular backup
Windows Backup makes it easy to create either a standalone system image or to include a system image with a regular backup. But having a system image does you no good if you can't restore it. The reason why the option to create a system repair disk is located just below the option to create a system image (in Figure 1) is because you can use the system repair disk to restore your system image. There are actually several other things that you can use the system repair disk for. But before I show you what the system repair disk can be used for, let me show you how to create one. Ideally, it is good to have both a system image and a regular backup. You can use the regular backup to restore individual files and folders, while the system image is used for bare-metal recovery.
Creating a System Repair Disk
To create a system repair disk, insert a blank DVD into your computer, and then click the "Create a System Repair Disk" option found in the Backup and Restore Center. When you do, Windows will display the dialog box shown in Figure 3 below (click on image for full size). To complete the process, just select your DVD drive from the drop-down list and click the "Create Disc" button.
Figure 3: Creating a System Repair Disk
Using the System Repair Disk
As I mentioned earlier, the system repair disk is designed to facilitate a bare-metal recovery. Windows 7 gives you the option of creating a system image as a part of the backup process. You can't restore that system image without a repair disk. Therefore, you don't even have to have Windows installed in order to use it. Simply insert the disk into a PC and boot from it. When you do, you will be taken to the System Recovery Options screen, shown in Figure 4 below (click on image for full size).
Figure 4: The System Recovery Options screen
Obviously, the option on this screen that tends to draw the most attention is the System Image Recovery option. This is the option that you would use if you wanted to restore a system image. In a corporate environment, however, it is much more likely that you would benefit from the other optionsbecause it is rare for corporations to back up individual workstations. Most of the time if a failure occurs, the workstation is simply re-imaged rather than restored.
The first option available to you is the Startup Repair option. Clicking on this option causes Windows to attempts to detect and repair any boot problems that may prevent Windows 7 from loading properly.
The second option on the list is the System Restore option. The system restore feature periodically takes snapshots of the Windows operating system. Snapshots are also automatically created prior to performing some tasks that make major changes to the operating system, such as installing a service pack. The idea is that if problems occur, you can roll the system back to an earlier point in time before the problem occurred. Sometimes though, when a problem does occur, it may be severe enough to prevent Windows from booting. Using the System Repair Disk gives you access to any available recovery points from outside of the Windows operating system.
For these three options, none of these disks need to be created beforehand. System recovery points are an internal Windows mechanism. The System Repair Disk just helps you to get to those recovery points if the system won't boot.
The second to the last option on the System Recovery Options screen is the Windows Memory Diagnostic option. My experience has been that if users suddenly start receiving the Blue Screen of Death, and no changes have recently been made to the operating system, then the problem is almost always caused by memory errors. Having a diagnostic utility that you can run from outside of the Windows operating system makes memory errors much easier to detect.
The last option is the Command Prompt option. Those who are familiar with DOS commands can use the Command Prompt to assess the state of the file system, extract data, or make repairs to the operating system.
Although the System Repair Disk is primarily thought of as a mechanism for restoring system image backups, it can also be used as a mechanism for diagnosing and repairing problems with the Windows operating system. This is especially useful when no system image exists or when you do not want to overwrite the operating system's current configuration with a previous system image.
About the author: Brien M. Posey, MCSE, has previously received Microsoft's MVP award for Exchange Server, Windows Server and Internet Information Server (IIS). Brien has served as CIO for a nationwide chain of hospitals and was once responsible for the Department of Information Management at Fort Knox. You can visit Brien's personal website at www.brienposey.com.

 

[Product FRED]

Perform a clean installation of Windows using those discs.

Then run PC Decrapifier to automatically seek and out and delete all bundleware. You can use Revo Uninstaller to remove all traces (registry and leftover files) of unwanted applications. Then, use Ninite or FreeNew to set up your most commonly-used applications in one fell swoop. When you're done customizing everything to your taste, you can backup everything using a System Image or any other desired method.

Windows 7: How to Create a System Image of a Hard Disk Partition or Windows 7 Partition

- Fred

 

[MilesAhead]

A guy on another board who builds his own systems takes this approach. He does an image backup using Macrium Reflect. He puts a new HD in a USB docking station that is the same as the internal HD in his PC. He restores the Macrium image to the drive in the dock.

If his HD fails he opens the box and puts in the one from the docking station.

Of course since he built his own PC it's easy to R&R the HD. But if you have a spare optical drive bay you could put in one of the quick drive trays that lets you take 3 1/2" HD out and put a new one in with just latches.

 

[Highlander]

wow, thank you all for such speedy replies I will now see what works best for me.

Thanks again!

 

[MilesAhead]

wow, thank you all for such speedy replies I will now see what works best for me.

Thanks again!

When you get set up please post what you did and how it came out so others can learn from your experience.

 

[whs]

In case you want to use Macrium, here is a little starter tutorial that I had posted for the purpose. If you choose DVDs for your image, Macrium creates them directly. You will see it is extra simple to do.
When you want to restore, you first insert the recovery CD which you should burn asap. Once the recovery program is loaded, the CD/DVD reader is opened and you can insert your image DVD(s). This does not always seem to work with the Windows7 native facility as some people have reported - so then you are stuck and cannot recover.
In any case, regardless which approach you choose, I recommend to test the whole cycle (image creation > recovery) on a small partition that you can easily create and copy some data into it. I usually just create a temporary 3GB partition for the purpose and copy any set of folders into it. After I took the image, I delete a couple of folders and proceed with the recovery. If the folders are back after the recovery, I know it has worked correctly. Just make sure you do NOT mark the partition as "active" during the recovery process ( the recovery program will ask the question).

 

[Highlander]

Hi guys, I am now ready but before I proceed let me ask you one last naive question, these will be BOOTABLE dvds right? All I have to do is to use delete my partitions and restart the computer, is that correct?

 

[whs]

Hi guys, I am now ready but before I proceed let me ask you one last naive question, these will be BOOTABLE dvds right? All I have to do is to use delete my partitions and restart the computer, is that correct?

If you refer to images, that's not how it works. The image will be written to an external disk, another internal disk, another internal disk partition or DVDs. When you want to recover, you load the CD with the recovery program that you burnt from the imaging program and tell it where the image resides. In case you burnt the image to DVDs, you give the DVD reader as reference. It will then load the recovery program from the CD, release the CD/DVD reader when it's done loading (takes only a minute or so) for you to put in the first DVD with the image (you will most likely have several image DVDs because of the size of the image). The recovery program then copies your image back to the partition that you told it to copy to. No need to delete that partition beforehand. The recovery program will ask you a few more questions like whether you want the image to be verified, whether you want to copy the MBR (recommended), etc. But it is no rocket science.
As I said before, try it out with a test partition so that you have no surprises with the real thing.

 

[Highlander]

WOW!!!!

Hi guys, here I am, typing from my brand new image, lol...
Well, i took a few sensible steps first as i wanted it to be more of a long term solution.

I have reformated mu PC, and installed all I needed, then I ran the windows update etc...
Once my system was smoth and up to date i did the following:

1- made a system repair disk
2- made a system image disk (included data only from C:\)
3- to make sure there would be "no cheating" i deleted my C partition using my WIN7 install DVD
4- Reboted the PC with the SYS REPAIR disk wich asked me to insert the IMAGE disk.
5- the Image Disk was "copied" and the pc restarted as it was previously...

NEAT!

So far worked extremelly well and faster than a fresh install and saved me from going through all trouble customising to my taste, with my software, etc....
Actually this was so effective that i did no use ANY 3rd patry software. I had try the first optin and I must say that's all I needed!

THANK YOU ALL!!!

 

[Highlander]

I just forgot to mention, so good it was my Firefox opened here at this page.... lol

 

[whs]

Well, congratulations. Do I understand that you used Windows7 imaging? And how many DVDs did you need for the image?

 

[gregrocker]

In removing the crapware from your original installation, use Revo Uninstaller to get the hidden registry entries and files which uninstall sometimes leaves behind.

Most tech enthusiasts find a clean-copy installer with their version Win7 to clean reinstall without the crapware corruption which can occur even by uninstalling it. Activate using the OEM key on the WIN7 COA sticker on the computer.

The standard to use for whether you need a clean reinstall might be whether Win7 is instantaneous and never hangs, as we have come to expect after over a year's experience.

Any missing drivers or favorite apps can be found on the Support Downloads webpage for your model computer. Back up installed Drivers file in Windows>System32 to be sure.

This doesn't all need to be done overnight, it is a process that evolves as your knowledge and skills evolve. You are off to a very good start.

 

[Product FRED]

Congrats dude The fact you did it with no third party software is awesome. How did you remove all the crapware that came on the original disc?

 

[valtonray]

if you want to trim some of the bloat out of the created disk i believe vlite vLite - Windows Vista configuration tool will work with those as well.

 

[Highlander]

I used both PC decrapifier and Revo Uninstall....
My image had one DVD and another one for the SYS repaier.
My C drive ghad only 21 GB

 

[Product FRED]

I used both PC decrapifier and Revo Uninstall....
My image had one DVD and another one for the SYS repaier.
My C drive ghad only 21 GB

Awesome. I'm glad it all worked out for you
Enjoy your cleaner, faster system.

- Fred

 

[gregrocker]

For those with HP, here is a way to extract favorite apps from the HP recovery disk. It might be adaptable to others as well:

http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...are-after-clean-win-7-install.html#post488270