How to back up my windows 7 partition?

[craney5]

Hi everyone im a new boy so im posting a few threads on a few issues i have, i have red through the forum and its fab so much info, just want to make sure on 1 thing tho, i keep getting a notification to back up my machine so im going to do it, i have a 500gb hd spilt into 4 partitons, they are windows on C, Apps on H, Games on J and Music & Pictures on I. I plan to back up to an external 300gb hd, my main question is do i need to back up all the partitons or just the one with windows on?
Have not got the space for all the partitions so i thought i would go for the main one.

many thanks everyone

Craney

 

[Jonathan_King]

Welcome!

All you need to back up is your main partition (C). All the rest is your choice.

After typing that, I am unsure. I do not know how to answer that. If you backup your OS partition, that is what you can restore. Same with all the other partitions.

Hope this helps,
~Jonathan

 

[Cato]

In your case, if it were me, I would back up C: and H: so you would at least have a system running in case of failure.

 

[Pauly]

Windows backup will give you the option of what you want to backup.
The c drive and 100MB system reserved partition are included by default ie you cant deselect them but the other partitions you can select whether to backup or not

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html

Hope this helps

 

[gregrocker]

I would back up externally a Win7 System Image of C: and then backup files on all partitions by dragging them to external, or select them for scheduled backup in Backup Center.

In case of failure of OS, you can then reimage C: from Win7 DVD Repair>Recover Using An Image.

In case of HD failure, you can reimage C: and copy back files to partitions.

 

[craney5]

thanks so much everyone thats a great help! i will deffo backup my C drive for sure

 

[craney5]

I just backed up my C drive which is 70gb in size and my apps drive which is 100gb in size and after it transfered to my external HD i have a file which is liam-desktop which i take is the image and a mediaid.bin file. The image is only showing as 1.8gb is that right? and will that 1 image contain both the C drive and the app drive H in it?

thanks again sorry for being a bit stupid

 

[SIW2]

You won't be able to see the full size as it is protected - probably to prevent people deleting it.

From memory ( I don't use Windows backup as a rule ) you need to take ownership to see it.

 

[Cato]

As you go deeper into the folders you should have a folder that that is named Backup with the date and time. When you click on it you should see several .xml files, and in your case from backing up two partitions you will see two .vhd files. Those are the ones that will more closely show you how large they are.

It may say you have to have admin rights to click on those folders, but just click it again.

 

[GINTER]

Hi everyone im a new boy so im posting a few threads on a few issues i have, i have red through the forum and its fab so much info, just want to make sure on 1 thing tho, i keep getting a notification to back up my machine so im going to do it, i have a 500gb hd spilt into 4 partitons, they are windows on C, Apps on H, Games on J and Music & Pictures on I. I plan to back up to an external 300gb hd, my main question is do i need to back up all the partitons or just the one with windows on?
Have not got the space for all the partitions so i thought i would go for the main one.

many thanks everyone

Craney

From CMD (must be run as Administrator):

wbadmin start backup -backuptarget:x: -include:c:

where x: is the destination drive, c: is your boot drive. Enjoy.

It creates an image of your C: drive, which, you can also mount from Disk Management. Useful if you create backups every once in a while and need to go back to one, to retrieve a file or check on something.

 

[craney5]

Thanks so much everyone for all your help!! i think i am going to create the image again cos the file sizes dont seem to look right. When i go to create the image it automatticly highlights my C partition which is windows 7 and my H partition which has my apps on but its also highlights my D partition on my other HD which has XP installed on it cos i have a dual boot setup but there is no way of unticking it!! i dont want a system image of that just windows 7.

If i was to use the image i created without the dam D partition of course when i restore it on my windows 7 hd will my hd now only have these 2 partitions on it or will i still have my other 2 partitons as well that i did not backup within that image i created?

sorry if i sound confusing kinda hard to put it into words

thanks again

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Do you have an over-riding reason to use the Windows imaging tool?

It "works" if you know how to work it, but I found the interface confusing.

There are free options that (to me) are considerably easier to operate and more flexible, such as Macrium Reflect Free Edition:

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download