How do I back up my Windows 7 and restore it after Reinstalling Win 7?

[zutokaza]

Hello,

How do I back up windows and completely restore it after Reinstallation? Can a system image do it when I reinstall windows? That is kinda what I am asking.

Basically, what I am doing is this:

-Backing up my Programs with a system image creation.
-Nuking my computer with Dban to get rid of important info. (Complete hard drive wipe)
-Reinstalling windows 7 with my disk
-Restoring back up system image

Can a system image do this or will the image not work on the reinstalled windows 7?

I kinda just wish I could .tar a back up like with Linux Ubuntu. I hope I don't have to reinstall everything again.

Sincerely,
Zuto

 

[ignatzatsonic]

-Backing up my Programs with a system image creation.
-Nuking my computer with Dban to get rid of important info. (Complete hard drive wipe)
-Reinstalling windows 7 with my disk
-Restoring back up system image

You're off the track.

If you reinstall Windows and then restore your backup system image, your Windows reinstall will be wiped out---and replaced by the restore of your image. Do one or the other, not both.

 

[zutokaza]

-Backing up my Programs with a system image creation.
-Nuking my computer with Dban to get rid of important info. (Complete hard drive wipe)
-Reinstalling windows 7 with my disk
-Restoring back up system image

You're off the track.

If you reinstall Windows and then restore your backup system image, your Windows reinstall will be wiped out---and replaced by the restore of your image. Do one or the other, not both.

Okay, not possible? Got it. I will just reinstall everything after installing my Windows 7 again.

 

[Alejandro85]

A system image is a copy of the whole thing, all configuration, installed programs, data, everything on the HD. Restoring it overwrites everything and gets the whole computer in the exactly same state as it was when the backup was taken.

If you want to reinstall Windows it makes no sense to restore an image backup (you can restore individual data files instead). Or just restore the image and keep everything as it previously was.