Creating system image questions.

[Anomaly]

I made a system image with the built in feature of Windows 7 following this tutorial http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html

Today I made another but the first one made was erased and replaced with the new one. According to the tutorial Windows automatically erases older images once they take up more than 30% of the space on the back up location. I only had the one image on there and it was no where near 30% of the space. Why was my older image erased?

 

[richc46]

Welcome

It seems that it only makes one and deletes the other, always.

In any event this is what you do.

Make a system image, now. Put it on an external hard drive and forget about it.. Every month make a new one and keep it on the Hard Drive in the computer.

As time goes by you may need to use the image, because of a virus or your hard drive went down, either way you cannot or should not use the one on the internal. Wow, you have problems. Wait you made one and put it away.

You can use this for image.
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/

Good Luck

 

[Night Hawk]

One thing I do here for the builtin option before creating a second image is slightly rename the "WindowsImageBackup" folder to something like "WindowsImageBackup_FIrst" or perhaps June or the month in order to allow for the next one to sit side by side on a storage drive here without worry of one overwriting the other.

For incremental backups rather then one time images created the Acronis True Image software(retail) will actually mount an image once created where you can set it for read or read and write allowing you to add new files or even remove some. It will appear as a new drive with the eact same drive label with a different drive letter.

 

[Anomaly]

OK thanks. Changing the image name by adding the month worked. I made another image and it was saved to the external HDD along with the image that was already on there. I can keep as many as I want this way without the old ones being erased until I decide I want them erased.

 

[richc46]

Glad that it worked out. Have at least one on an external hard drive, in case of failure.

 

[Night Hawk]

Hope you have enough drive space for multiple images! There's one thing to know renaming to see more stored is that you have to total the size of each image created and compare that to the actual amount of disk space for any external hard drives used. The alternative is using removable media like dvd-rws with several set aside for each new image.

The images will show how it looked having more then one image on the main storage drive but with a price tag as seen when looking at fast drives filled up.

 

[pparks1]

I usually install my OS, windows update and activate and make 1 vanilla image right there. Then, about once per month I take another image of the drive. I usually only keep that vanilla image and the latest month. I don't see myself ever wanting or needed to go back to some point in the middle.

 

[Anomaly]

Hope you have enough drive space for multiple images! There's one thing to know renaming to see more stored is that you have to total the size of each image created and compare that to the actual amount of disk space for any external hard drives used. The alternative is using removable media like dvd-rws with several set aside for each new image.

The images will show how it looked having more then one image on the main storage drive but with a price tag as seen when looking at fast drives filled up.

I am using a 500 GB external drive that I also use to put back ups on for two other computers. So this drive has back ups for 3 computers on it. I use Macrium Reflect for all three plus I use Drive Image XML on the XP machine and the built in imaging feature on Windows 7. The result is each machine has back ups from two different imaging programs. I don't believe there is such a thing as too much back up. Macrium and Drive Image compress them pretty well so space is not an issue. I just start deleting old ones when space gets low.

 

[Anomaly]

I usually install my OS, windows update and activate and make 1 vanilla image right there. Then, about once per month I take another image of the drive. I usually only keep that vanilla image and the latest month. I don't see myself ever wanting or needed to go back to some point in the middle.

I also make the plain vanilla image and keep that. I also do the monthly back up but I keep them for a while. I have had it happen where my most recent back up would not work and I was glad to have older ones. I have also had situations where one imaging program failed but another worked so I always use two imaging programs and make two images just in case. Very redundant but worth it to me and the price of external HDD is so cheap cost is no issue.

 

[Night Hawk]

Speaking of image restore failures I just saw one with Acronis True Image last night after seeing the new Windows Live Essentials beta installed and act like a virus! Suddenly the tuner card shortcut pinned on the taskbar vanished as well as seeing the Start menu>All Programs folder greyed out and the av protection trashed as well.

When Acronis wouldn't restore an image made a few days ago I simply started up the restoration option in the Backup & Recovery to get everything back and working again. The tuner card app, av protection, and full version of WLM are all working now as they should. Something went wrong with the beta install for sure!

 

[Anomaly]

Speaking of image restore failures I just saw one with Acronis True Image last night after seeing the new Windows Live Essentials beta installed and act like a virus! Suddenly the tuner card shortcut pinned on the taskbar vanished as well as seeing the Start menu>All Programs folder greyed out and the av protection trashed as well.

When Acronis wouldn't restore an image made a few days ago I simply started up the restoration option in the Backup & Recovery to get everything back and working again. The tuner card app, av protection, and full version of WLM are all working now as they should. Something went wrong with the beta install for sure!

So you had an Acronis image and an image made with the Windows 7 built in image program? If so that extra back up payed off. Your situation is exactly why I use multiple imaging programs.

 

[Night Hawk]

I've restored images before using the built in create system image option and saw each one have positive results while the last image made with Acronis must have been bad for some reason and stalled when trying to restore it. Others have come right back and of course could also be mounted and why Acronis was a good choice for a secondary program.

Images made by more then one resource do provide more insurance of seeing good results. But keep in mind the images here go onto 1tb drives not the 500gb model you have there offering twice the drive space. Even with twice as much images are typically over the 100gb mark when you are working with systems filled with data. Add that to any other files stored and drive space is taken up fast! Just be sure to allow some extra space.

 

[Anomaly]

I've restored images before using the built in create system image option and saw each one have positive results while the last image made with Acronis must have been bad for some reason and stalled when trying to restore it. Others have come right back and of course could also be mounted and why Acronis was a good choice for a secondary program.

Images made by more then one resource do provide more insurance of seeing good results. But keep in mind the images here go onto 1tb drives not the 500gb model you have there offering twice the drive space. Even with twice as much images are typically over the 100gb mark when you are working with systems filled with data. Add that to any other files stored and drive space is taken up fast! Just be sure to allow some extra space.

My images are no where near 100gb in size. In fact my Windows 7 image is only 3.5 gb after being compressed with Macrium Reflect.

My systems never have large amounts of data on them. It's the OS and my programs. Data is kept on external drives.

 

[Night Hawk]

I've restored images before using the built in create system image option and saw each one have positive results while the last image made with Acronis must have been bad for some reason and stalled when trying to restore it. Others have come right back and of course could also be mounted and why Acronis was a good choice for a secondary program.

Images made by more then one resource do provide more insurance of seeing good results. But keep in mind the images here go onto 1tb drives not the 500gb model you have there offering twice the drive space. Even with twice as much images are typically over the 100gb mark when you are working with systems filled with data. Add that to any other files stored and drive space is taken up fast! Just be sure to allow some extra space.

My images are no where near 100gb in size. In fact my Windows 7 image is only 3.5 gb after being compressed with Macrium Reflect.

My systems never have large amounts of data on them. It's the OS and my programs. Data is kept on external drives.

Your compression rate wouldn't be anywhere near as high as it would be seen here with a large volume of various types of files as well as the programs installed. Another item not mentioned was temporary video files being added in as well ending up with a much larger image.

Those only account for just under 27gb untile removed prior to seeing the next image created. Acronis is what I prefer for creating images of secondary drives however since you can mount the images as drives in order to extract what you want when going to lighten things up a bit!

Duplicate or no longer needed files are omitted from restoration once a drive is wiped and the files/dolders are then hand picked for restoration. That's done when a drive gets filled up too fast.

 

[tcat7]

Built in Back up (several questions)

What is the file name when you do a W7 System back-up with image? I have 2 files on my 2nd internal drive (not sure if I need them both):
1. "User"-HOME
2. WindowsImageBackup
Does it make both, or is one from a previous image back up (by itself)?

If I back-up an image to an internal drive (seems to go MUCH faster), can that folder be copied to an external drive and maintain is capabilities (to restore from either location)? Or do I have to back up to one or both places separately?

I have "Syncback" backing up my data files (Libraries) from my internal to my external daily. I have Library files routed to the second drive, if I back up "C" does it automatically back up the links to the second drive (in users folders), or just data on the C drive? I would guess on the internal system back up I can do custom and just back up "C" (but do I need to uncheck the Users folder to prevent libraries from being backed up?)

Are Restore points worth turning on if I'm doing these back-ups?

 

[Night Hawk]

Your #2 item is the actual folder name the backup tool creates for storing the image found in the sub folder with the name of the user account seen there.

The best place for an image is not locally on the C primary/drive but kept safe on another internal or regularly plugged in external HD. The restoration first reformats the existing content before unpacking the image during the restoration process.

As far as restore points each one is dated and is automatically deleted after so long. When Windows is working the best and you create a good image restore points are nothing to worry about until newer ones are created as you go along. Leaving the system restore feature on can save restoring an image when only a minor registry problem from a bad install is seen in order to avoid any loss of new files added since the image was first made.

 

[gregrocker]

Be sure to rename any needed multiple-stored image to WindowsImageBackup and place it in the external's root or it won't be detected by the booted Win7 DVD/Repair CD reimaging utility.

I keep multiple images renamed slightly but seem to always go back to the original image which is more pristine since it was made before corruption gradually begins creeping in. This always seems closer to clean-reinstall.

 

[Night Hawk]

One thing the restorations have seen here with same day images stored on different drives is the detection of the "recommended" latest image found while the one on another drive not the first location wasn't pointed to. The recovery tool when booted live from the tool not from the 7 dvd does that when used.

 

[Anomaly]

Be sure to rename any needed multiple-stored image to WindowsImageBackup and place it in the external's root or it won't be detected by the booted Win7 DVD/Repair CD reimaging utility.

I keep multiple images renamed slightly but seem to always go back to the original image which is more pristine since it was made before corruption gradually begins creeping in. This always seems closer to clean-reinstall.

Have you tried to restore a renamed image to verify this?

One thing I noticed with renaming the image. I have a couple images on my external hard drive and simply added the month to the name of the image as recommended to me in this thread. When I launch the image feature in Windows 7 to make another image I get a message indicating where the most recent image I made is. That image is renamed and windows still detects it. So I wonder why it wouldn't when booted from the recovery CD as you suggested?

 

[mjf]

Very good questions Anomaly.

1) I rename images but never tried the acid test of recovery

2) Windows image recovery gets hung up with the size of the partition the image was made from so it may get hung up on date issues as well. I don't know that windows is recognising the renamed image but suspect that it keeps a record date of the most recent image it thinks was made. I also suspect that this date is changed when images are deleted through "Manage Space" under backup and restore. This date issue could also apply to simple manually deleting images.

2+) Dates of [WindowsImageBackup] is often different to dates of sub folders and files. If you go down to the vhd file and just mount it (looking but altering) its date modified will change to the date mounted. Will this affect its recovery?

You only have reliable images if you have the answer to these questions.