Multiple Disc Images ?

[mjf]

I renamed my previous image. When I went to create a new image the system searched & came back & said my last image was 6-3-2011, which is correct. But since it was renamed, how did the system find & recognize it?

Is this normal behavior? My concern is that since this image was found that it will get deleted when I create a new one.

Will you provide a screenshot showing the message.

 

[karlsnooks]

I renamed my previous image. When I went to create a new image the system searched & came back & said my last image was 6-3-2011, which is correct. But since it was renamed, how did the system find & recognize it?

Is this normal behavior? My concern is that since this image was found that it will get deleted when I create a new one.

If you followed the renaming approach, most recently nicely explained by Marsimar, then you will not overwrite the previous system image with a new system image.

At this point, I would suggest just doing it and being amazed when it works. I learned how to use the Win 7 Backup and Restore by ignoring all writeups and just doing it. I made some mistakes on the way, but now making, and restoring, are like taking candy from a baby.

 

[Mike99]

I renamed my previous image. When I went to create a new image the system searched & came back & said my last image was 6-3-2011, which is correct. But since it was renamed, how did the system find & recognize it?

Is this normal behavior? My concern is that since this image was found that it will get deleted when I create a new one.

Will you provide a screenshot showing the message.

I was not mixing the two multiple imaging strategies. I did the renaming method as suggested. It was j:\WindowsImageBackup. I changed it to j:\WIB 06032011. I did not rename any subfolders.

Obviously I was surprised when the system found it. Here's a screenshot as requested.

 

[karlsnooks]

Not real sure, but the main thing is that all works fine.

 

[mjf]

Here is an a partition of one of my ext HDDs. Note the renamed image dated 15/6/11.

If I rename any of the obvious Windows images to WindowsImageBackup it will be recognized and restored if I choose.
If I try to make a new image I get this

Windows recalls the date of the last image made to this partition. It will create a new WindowsImageBackup and ignore WindowsImageBackup_15_6_11.

 

[Mike99]

Thank you everyone for all your help.

I just did another image and everything looks good. My system shows both WindowsImageBackup and my re-named folder.

On my old PC I backed up data by copying it to the external HDD. And I had all the original discs to load programs if needed. However I never created an image. But now I have a larger HDD, both internal & external, and actually have room to make an image.

I read some tutorials before making images but do not recall seeing the one about renaming old images. Or maybe just forgot about it. But when I could not find my original image I became quite concerned.

During the last couple days I did read the sticky threads on imaging & on Macrium. I've previously heard about Macrium & others. In fact I have Norton Ghost but did not install it because there was a warning message when I started to install that it would disable a file's last date accessed property, or something similar to that. So I decided to use Windows 7 built in imaging. Since I thought about using Macrium at one time, is there any consensus of opinion if it is better/faster/more reliable than Windows 7?

Thanks again,
Mike

 

[kado897]

Free Macrium has a number of advantages over the Windows backup.

1. It is faster but the limitation on speed is likely to be the speed of your drive if it is USB connected.
2. It produces slightly smaller images but not enough to get it for that.
3. The image is easily mounted to recover individual files if required.
4. You don't have the difficulty of having to rename the image. Macrium generates its own name. It can also be in any folder not just the drive root.
5. You can chose the partitions to backup more freely than with Windows.

There are a couple of disadvantages also.

1. You need to create a Linux recover disk which some people have problems with.
2. The free version of Macrium does not do incremental or differential images.
3. I don't think the free Macrium lets you schedule backups.

The full version of Macrium get around these problems and adds other features but costs around $40 + tax.

 

[marsmimar]

Now that you are confident that Windows 7 imaging tool works, and you have a couple of system images to fall back on, I'd say give Macrium free a try and learn what it can do. It's also not a bad idea to keep separate images using 2 (or more) imaging tools. The logic (or paranoia ) being if the Win 7 image fails it's unlikely that the Macrium image will fail at the same time. And another free product that has received good reviews is Paragon.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html

Free Backup Software: Paragon Backup & Recovery (Advanced) Free Edition - Overview

 

[tsunamiBTP]

Let's suppose your external hard drive is empty. The first system image you create with the built in Windows 7 imaging tool will automatically be called WindowsImageBackup. If you want to store multiple images you can simply rename this first WindowsImageBackup to something distinctive like WIB-011511-InstalledAdobe. The second image will now be called WindowsImageBackup. On your external hard drive you will see two entries:

WIB-012511-InstalledAdobe
WindowsImageBackup

If you create a 3rd system image and leave the external hard drive exactly as above, the 3rd system image will over-write WindowsImageBackup. If you want to save the second image it too must be renamed to something like WIB-062611-InstalledJava. Then you can create the third image and your external drive would look like this:

WIB-011511-InstalledAdobe
WIB-062611-InstalledJava
WindowsImageBackup

Now let's say you want to restore your computer back to the very first system image. You would have to rename WIB-011511-InstalledAdobe back to WindowsImageBackup. Since the third image is also name WindowsImageBackup you can either rename it to something distinctive or, during the restore process you can select which one of the WindowsImageBackup files you want to use. Personally, as soon as I create a system image I immediately rename it so I can remember what prompted me to make the image in the first place. Hope this helps.

marsmimar,
My question is can you move the created image files from the partition from which they were created dto a different one? I did such a thing & experienced a restore image failure. I did not write down the error code.

jeff

 

[mjf]

My 2 cents worth...
I caution against moving images (be they Windows, Macrium or whatever) across partition boundaries. Different partitions have different filesystems and the move or copy is actually a physical move of GBs of data. Renaming or moving within a partition is just a filesystem/directory entry change. In this situation I have never experienced problems with Windows imaging provide you:
1) Make one image at a time only using "Create a System Image". Do not "over write" WindowsImageBackup before renaming, moving or deleting it. This way you are not relying on shadow storage.
2) Rename the image in a partition root to WindowsImageBackup prior to restore.

Over to Marsmimar.