Image backups

[SIW2]

Not a single partition . The "system" partition.

If your Win 7 HD is first in bios boot order, mark the win7 partition Active.

Boot the 7 dvd , run startup repair 3 times.

When you reboot after that, your Win7 partition will be the "system" partition.

You can then image and restore only the win7 partition, as it is is bootable without needing the 100mb one .

 

[Night Hawk]

When creating a new image in the Backup % Restore you'll find both C and the 100mb system partition already checked off by default. The image shows one of the first images made with the system partition checked off. You won't have to worry about assigning a drive letter to it.

For seeing an image restored you don't need to boot off of the 7 dvd either. Once you start the restoration and select the image to be restored the system will automatically restart where the restoration tool then takes over. Note any files added inbetween the time the image was first created and the restoration will be lost if not backed up manually before beginning.

 

[SIW2]

LOL, NH.

Bill wants to use the commands to make images, not the GUI.

 

[Night Hawk]

That may be true but first you would want to have at least one image onhand known to be good. The rest will come in time.

 

[blockie]

Not a single partition . The "system" partition.

If your Win 7 HD is first in bios boot order, mark the win7 partition Active.

Boot the 7 dvd , run startup repair 3 times.

When you reboot after that, your Win7 partition will be the "system" partition.

You can then image and restore only the win7 partition, as it is is bootable without needing the 100mb one .

My cdom is first in boot order,
I assume by "7 dvd" you mean the Windows 7 "Repair Disk" I created.
Attached is a screen shot from my disk management panel.

I have made an image from the GUI and I can see it with the GUI. Cannot see it from the "repair disk".

 

[SIW2]

Hi Bill,

The repair disc gui doesn't find the image? It doesn't seem very reliable.

Does the repair disc find it if you use the command

wbadmin get versions -backuptarget:z:

( replace z with the letter of the drive you saved the image on - remember it needs to be the letter as senn from WinRe , not as seen from within windows).


If you want to make your main Win 7 partition ( C in the screenshot ) into the system partition to simplify backup and restore:

rt clik C in disk management and mark it active.

Boot the repair cd and run startup repair 3 times.

 

[blockie]

Gotta do this yet.
wbadmin get versions -backuptarget:z:

Screen shot of Disk Management after doing the 3 times with the repair disk thing. Am I supposed to see a change here?

 

[blockie]

I attempt to Create an image from the Backup and Restore page. I include the system partition and the backup fails because trhere is not enough room in the system reserve partition for a shadow copy. So I reduce the size of the C: partition by one GB, thereby creating a 1gb of unallocated space. This with the idea that I would use this space to extend the partition for system reserve, thereby having enough space for the shadow copy. The extend button wasd grayed out and I could't extend the space.
If I could merge the system reserve with C; drive the problem would be solved. That's what you asked me to do with the 3 repair startups, I think.
Getting tired and beginning to ramble so will quit for now.

 

[SIW2]

Hi Bill,

If you check that screenie you posted, you can see C is now the system partition.

It says Healthy (System, Boot, Pagefile, Active)

You only need to make a backup image of C.

You don't need to backup the 100mb partition. It is not being used for anything.

What may be confusing is the label on the 100mb partition , System Reserved. That doesn't mean anything in itself, you can change it - just like the name on a folder .

 

[blockie]

Now, I think, I understand. I made an image from W7. It went where it was supposed to, D: drive. Made an Acronis image in case I screwed up on the next step.
The next step was to re-image C: drive. That did NOT work. W7 could NOT find the image. SO went to the "Repair Disk". Booted from it and it couldn't find the image. Went to the command prompt and entered "WBADMIN get versions -backuptarget:". That did NOT work. Got a syntax error. Went to a website concerning WBADMIN commands and tried all that seemed pertinent. Still didn't work.
SUMMARY:
I was able to create an image in the correct drive.
I was unable to re-image from it in W7 or the Repair Disk.

Can I delete the 100 MB partition now?
Thanks for your patience, SIW2

 

[Night Hawk]

When using GParted to prep the drives here for 7 installs there was no 100mb partition to see. This is how the 7 installer itself reserves the space while still not required for 7 to run.

 

[blockie]

I can use the bat file to create a backup to the D: drive. The problem was a sharing & permission problem. However, from Backup/ Restore....Restore in the program could not find the backup although I was able to browse to the correct drive,D:. Same foe Repair Disk on boot.

 

[blockie]

Summary:
1. I am able to create an image on the backup drive, D: via the scheduler using the following batch file "WBADMIN START BACKUP -backupTarget: -include:c: -quiet ".
2. I am able to extract individual file from that image using the "attach VHD method".
3. I am having trouble finding the image when I try to re-image.
I used the CP----ALL CP ITEMS---- RECOVERY-----ADVANCED -----SYSTEM IMAGE -----SKIP-----RESTART-----NEXT-----SKIP------CANCEL------put a dot in SELECT SYSTEM IMAGE-----NEXT------empty grid------ADVANCED-------SEARCH------network folder = WILLIAM-PC-----OK-------user name = WILLIAM----pw = xxxxxx -----OK---A msg that said "Internal error 0x80070043.
I know that I put in the proper network and user name (checked with NET VIEW an NET USER.
I am at a loss.

 

[blockie]

Just occurred to me. Proves I am slow.
Why can I browse all of my drives, including my 2nd internal HHD, and manipulate files using Windows Explorer and the W7 Restore Image has such great difficulty and must access the image via the network. Is there a way to make all attached hardware easy to access?