How to backup only W7 bootdrive C and not D?

[joshua123]

Hi everyone,

I'm using Windows 7 Pro. 64 and the Windows backup worked always well until the day when I have put the virtual drive of the XP-Mode to drive D.

Since then the backup wanted to save the drives C and D, not only drive C.

I removed the virtual drive from D back to C and hoped that after that was done the backup only wanted to save drive C as before. Unfortunately it wanted to save C and D. :-(

I deinstalled the XP-Mode and booted my PC. Nothing changed. The backup wanted to save C and D.

I reinstalled the XP-Mode with installing the virtual drive on C, but this didn't help.
The backup wanted to save C and D. Drive D cannot be deselected! :-(

Does anyone has an idea how I could tell the windows backup only to backup drive C?

Thanks in advance,
Josh

 

[rbmorse]

I had the same thing happen to me. While it didn't involve installing XP mode the result was the same.

Windows Backup, when making a "system image," doesn't really work in terms of drive c: or drive d:. Rather it goes to the registry and includes any partition that holds a resource identified as having a "system" function. When you created the XP virtual machine on your drive d: the virtual machine manager created a number of entries in the registry identifying resources required to support the VM and some of these were located on drive d:. These references were not removed from the registry when you subsequently reconfigured XP mode. So, as far as Windows Backup is concerned, drive d: is still a system resource and will be included when it creates a "system image."

You'll never find _all_ the germane entries within the registry. They're identified in that wonderful 25 character alpha numeric UUID system and the resources involved are identified by their UUID rather than human readable references like c: or d:. Practically speaking, your choices are to live with the current situation, re-install Windows or find an alternative backup solution.

In my case, I switched my backup utility to Macrium Reflect. They have a free version for non-commercial users that will create and restore individual partition image(s). The feature matrix and download links can be found here. i recommend Macrium because I use it, but there are a number of other well regarded backup utilities that will do the job and are available either for free or for a nominal charge.