System Image Backup

[grndprix]

Does anyone know: is the actual backup image created during a system image backup available to be viewed in a directory tree structure anywhere ?

My interest stems from having executed the backup (successfully) onto an external drive from within a 2 500 GB disk RAID 0 environment, comprising several partitions striped across the disks.

Would the disk 0 image have been copied in its entirety, or would all system info as striped across both disks have been copied ?

Likewise, what will the restore operation actually write back, and to where ?

 

[Jonathan_King]

Welcome!

I am by no means the expert on RAID, but I know a bit.

I believe it depends on whether you have a hardware RAID controller or you are using a mirror from Windows. If you have a hardware array, the OS views it as one drive. If not, then you might run into issues.

Hope someone else can come along and correct/add to this.

~JK

 

[grndprix]

Hardware RAID controller

Thanks JK, yes the RAID architecture is run by:

Intel(R) ICH7R/DH SATA RAID Controller

I'm guessing that if I have a successful (C) partition image backup, along with the associated system & registry critical info that has been automatically selected, a restore to 2 naked disks would reproduce an operable system.

This ignores, of course, all other personal files, apps, etc.

 

[grndprix]

Backup software

Hi CC:

The system image backup was created using the Win7 system imaging feature.

I also have the Win7 backup run on a regular basis to capture normal files, etc.

My primary backup procedure however uses StorageCraft's Shadow Protect package. It'a a very capable package that can do in the home what normally occurs in the office. I do a weekly full backup of selected partitions, and a daily incremental of those partitions which reflects changes only. Layered on top of that, I do a separate monthly full backup. In this fashion, I can go back anywhere from 1 day to 6 months to find, retrieve, recover, etc. And yes, this package provides the mount/dismount to provide visibility of the saved partitions. It's all fully automatic, and set to run after midnight when I'm usually on the pillow and not on the keyboard.

These daily/weekly/monthly backups go onto external WD 500GB MyBook drives.

As a note of caution, while backups are of paramount importance, there is also a risk of being too backed-up. Lacking a structured hierarchy to the backup environment (as described above) can lead to having a backup library that is too current, resulting in the inability to retrieve a dataset that is old enough to not contain the undesirable that is causing the search for a backup copy to begin with.

 

[SIW2]

Go to Disk Management, Click Action>Attach Vhd>browse to the backup image.

It should be mounted as a virtual hard drive - you can view like any other drive.

 

[mlevy]

Go to Disk Management, Click Action>Attach Vhd>browse to the backup image.

It should be mounted as a virtual hard drive - you can view like any other drive.

I never knew that, great info!

 

[grndprix]

Quote: Originally Posted by SIW2

Thanks for the tip SIW2.
Worked just fine.

 

[gregrocker]

Si, when I browse to the Win7 backup image on my laptop I'm traveling with now, I get this:



I noticed earlier that file compression was enabled on Recov partition properties. I unchecked it and cannot see that the files are compressed. But they are strangely showing in blue in explorer:



Any suggestions?