Help with confusing backup options

[twentw]

I've had automatic backups setup for years, but because of a recent redo of my computer, I need some help with Windows' confusing options. I have 2 drives on my computer, the C: drive has the OS and program files, the D: drive has the libraries and other data. I want Windows to backup the C: and D: drives into separate vhd files. I prefer vhd because it can be mounted as a drive in Windows and I can easily pull off individual files from the backup.

Right now, in the "What do you want to back up?" box, no Data Files are selected, but under "Computer" I have both the C: and D: drive selected. I also have "Include a system image of drives: System Reserved, (C" selected.

The result is I get a vhd in the "WindowsImageBackup" folder that appears to include only the C: drive. In addition, I get a special folder (named after my computer) containing multiple "Backup Set" folders that contain numerous zip files. This backup appears to include the D: drive and some portion (not all) of the C: drive.

One of the problems is that the "Backup Set" folders proliferate, filling up the backup drive, thereby causing the "System Image" backup to fail. As I said, I want to get everything in the form of a vhd file that gets overwritten each backup so that my backup drive never gets overfull. Is there a way to do this?

 

[Phone Man]

I use Macrium Reflex Free version and it is very easy to make separate images of each drive or partition and with one click you can mount the image as a drive and use windows explorer to access the files. I keep multiple images and just erase the older ones when no longer needed.

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

Jim

 

[mjf]

This brief explanation may be useful:
http://www.sevenforums.com/backup-restore/168223-backup-restore-options.html#post1438257

With Windows imaging you can image C OS partition) and D: and choose to only replace C: or both. You cannot choose only to replace D:.
Macrium is much more flexible for multi partition backup and replacement. Mounting is just a double click on the image file. You can explore and extract with Windows Explorer.
If you want a vhd for VMs etc then Macrium has an Img2Vhd utility you can download.

 

[whs]

You could image your data partition with the wbadmin command. That give you a seperate VHD. The command is:

WBADMIN START BACKUP -backupTarget:x: -include:y:

Where "x" is the volume where you want to keep the image and "y" is the volume you want to image.

 

[mjf]

You could image your data partition with the wbadmin command. That give you a seperate VHD. The command is:

WBADMIN START BACKUP -backupTarget:x: -include:y:

Where "x" is the volume where you want to keep the image and "y" is the volume you want to image.

Windows imaging has been criticized as too involved
It may start to become a little involved if you start using command line scripts. You ultimately will need to restore an image.

 

[whs]

You could image your data partition with the wbadmin command. That give you a seperate VHD. The command is:

WBADMIN START BACKUP -backupTarget:x: -include:y:

Where "x" is the volume where you want to keep the image and "y" is the volume you want to image.

Windows imaging has been criticized as too involved
It may start to become a little involved if you start using command line scripts. You ultimately will need to restore an image.

I recommend that scipt only for data partition backup because you cannot restore it in Win7 (only in server) - you can only mount the VHD and recover your data that way. It is one way to get a VHD.

The advantage of the script is that I know what I am doing - which is not obvious if I use Win7 imaging.

 

[twentw]

Thanks for this. So, am I correct that the Windows 7 backup app is incapable of creating a non-system drive vhd? Also, am I correct that the wbadmin command that would backup both C: and D: is "wbadmin start backup -backuptarget:x: -include:c:d:"

 

[whs]

There is a comma missing. It should be: wbadmin start backup -backuptarget:x: -include:c:,d:

See command description:

-include Specifies the comma-delimited list of items to include in the
backup. You can include multiple volumes.

 

[mjf]

There is a comma missing. It should be: wbadmin start backup -backuptarget:x: -include:c:,d:

See command description:

-include Specifies the comma-delimited list of items to include in the
backup. You can include multiple volumes.

And for the system reserved partition with no letter assigned?
You need to identify and include the full (long) volume identifier.

I suggest you stick to the Windows GUI which uses the appropriate command line utilities. I've used wdadmin and see no advantage for the average user.

WHS you do confuse me. wbadmin is a part of windows imaging which you admit to strongly disliking. Yet, here is an OP wanting to do something ideally suited to Macrium - a program you greatly admire.

PS: I do consider this stuff interesting and much applies to Windows 7 and not just servers.
Have a look here for anyone interested:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Backup-and-recovery-strategies-for-IT-pros

 

[twentw]

I suggest you stick to the Windows GUI which uses the appropriate command line utilities. I've used wdadmin and see no advantage for the average user.

My problem is that the Windows GUI cannot create a vhd from a non-system drive. If it can, please tell me how. Otherwise I have no problem using wbadmin, which I've used before successfully. I see no reason to use 3rd party software, even free, if Windows can do what I need.

 

[mjf]

I see no problem with what you want to do as long as you're happy cherry picking the vhd for files and folders.

The reason I was pushing Macrium on this occasion was that you can cherry pick files and folders as well as replacing the whole imaged partition back to your current HDD or any other of your choosing.

Plus I already use both Macrium and Windows imaging. Many will know I'm an advocate of Windows imaging but I still don't trust it 100%.

 

[twentw]

On my old computer, I used the vhd file and the Windows restore function of the install disk to re-install the OS and all my files on the C: drive. Has something changed where that's no longer possible?

 

[mjf]

On my old computer, I used the vhd file and the Windows restore function of the install disk to re-install the OS and all my files on the C: drive. Has something changed where that's no longer possible?

No I do it all the time for my C: (Boot,...ie. OS) plus System reserved (System, active).
In my case I have 2 vhd files. One for each partition - ie. one for system reserved and one for C: (Boot,...). These are embedded in a specific folder structure under [WindowsImageBackup].

We were talking about a separate data partition, D:.

 

[whs]

mjf, you are right. I am not really a fan of Windows imaging. Reason is mainly because there are too few ways to control it and I never know what it is doing. Besides it played an act on me several times - although I was also successful a couple of times.

With wbadmin, however, I know exactly what I am doing. I use it only in it's simplest form to make an extra backup of my data partitions. I like that because it is fast - I guess because it uses the VSS services. But else I do everything with Macrium, sometimes Paragon.