System Image Recovery

How to Do a System Image Recovery in Windows 7​

   Information

This will show you how to restore your Windows 7 hard disk back to exactly how it was when you created a system image backup.

   Warning

• You can only do a system image recovery to a HDD that is the same size or larger than the one the system image was created from. You will not be able to do a system image recovery to a smaller HDD.
• When you restore your computer from a image backup, it is a complete restoration. You can't choose individual items to restore, and all of your current programs, system settings, and files are replaced.
• If your backup image is on a external device (ex: USB drive), then make sure it is connected before starting. If USB drive, then also make sure that you have your BIOS settings (ex: Legacy USB) set to allow USB devices at boot.
• A system image recovery will format everything on each hard drive that was included in a system image, and will only restore what is included (see steps 7-9 in STEP TWO below) in the system image back. Be sure to backup anything that you do not want to lose that is not included in the system image backup first.

STEP ONE

Only if You Renamed the "WindowsImageBackup" Folder

   Note

To be able to have multiple versions of system images saved on the same drive or partition, you would need to rename the older WindowsImageBackup folder from the previously created system image as described in the NOTE box at the top of this tutorial.

If you renamed the WindowsImageBackup folder for the system image version that you wanted to restore, then you will need to do the steps below before you will be able to restore that system image.

1. If you are "Able to Boot" into Windows 7 A) In Windows Explorer, navigate to the renamed (drive letter)\WindowsImageBackup folder location of the system image that you want to restore.

B) If you already have a folder named WindowsImageBackup that is not the system image version that you want to restore, then you will need to right click on it, click on Rename, and type in say WindowsImageBackup-Copy-2 as an example.

C) Now, right click on the renamed system image version (ex: WindowsImageBackup-Copy-1) that you did want to restore, click on Rename, type in WindowsImageBackup an press enter.

D) Go to the STEP TWO section below to do the System Image Recovery.
2. If you are "Not Able to Boot" into Windows 7 A) If you have the system image backup save to an external device, be sure that it is connected now.

B) Open a command prompt at boot.

C) In the command prompt, type diskpart and press enter. (see screenshot below)

D) In the command prompt, type list volume and press enter. (see screenshot below)

E) Make note of the drive letter (ex: E: ) that you have the system image backup saved to.

F) In the command prompt, type exit and press enter. (see screenshot below)

G) In the command prompt, type the E: and press enter. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: Subsititute E: for your actual drive letter at step 2E instead.

H) If you already have a folder named "WindowsImageBackup"

NOTE: This is if you already have a folder named WindowsImageBackup that is not the system image version that you want to restore. If so, you would need to rename it to say WindowsImageBackup-Copy-2 as an example.

• In the command prompt, type the command below and press enter. (see screenshot below)
  NOTE: Substitute WindowsImageBackup-Copy-2 in the command below with any name in quotes that you would like to rename it to instead.

[B]ren WindowsImageBackup "[COLOR=red]WindowsImageBackup-Copy-2[/COLOR]"[/B]

I) In the command prompt, type the command below and press enter. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: Substitute WindowsImageBackup-Copy-1 in the command below with the actual name of your renamed system image folder in quotes that you want to use to restore instead.

[B]ren "[COLOR=red]WindowsImageBackup-Copy-1[/COLOR]" WindowsImageBackup[/B]

J) Close the command prompt window. (see screenshot below)

K) Continue on to step 3B in the STEP TWO section below to do the System Image Recovery.

STEP TWO

To Do the System Image Recovery

1. If you have the system image backup save to an external device, be sure that it is connected and turned on (powered up) now.
A) Start with either step 2 or step 3 below first.
2. From "Backup and Restore" in the Control Panel while in Windows 7 A) Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click on Backup and Restore.

B) Click on the Recover system settings on your computer link. (see screenshot below)
C) Click on the Advanced recovery methods link. (see screenshot below)
D) Select the Use a system image you created earlier to recover your computer option. (see screenshot below)
E) Select to either create a Back up now, or to Skip it and continue the system image recovery without backing up any of your current files.
NOTE: If you select Back up now, it will take you to step 6 in this tutorial link to create a User and System File back up of your current files first before continuing to step 1F. (see screenshot below)
F) Click on Restart. (see screenshot below)



G) Select a languange to be used for your keyboard input and click on Next. (see screenshot below)
H) Go to step 4.
3. From the System Recovery Options Screen at Boot A) Boot to the System Recovery Options screen from your Windows 7 installation DVD/USB, or System Repair Disc.

B) Select the System Image Recovery option. (see screenshot below)
4. If you saved the system image backup to a set of DVDs, then insert the last DVD from the set when prompted. If not, go to step 5 for a system image backup on a hard drive. A) Go to step 7 below.
5. To Use the Latest System Image A) Select (dot) Use the latest available system image and click on Next. (see screenshot below)
B) Go to step 7.
6. To Select a System Image A) Select (dot) Select a system image, and click on Next. (see screenshot above)
NOTE: This is if the system image that you want to use is not listed here and is at another location that you wish to choose from instead.

B) Select the location of the backup image for the computer you want to restore from the list, and click on Next. (see screenshot below)

   Note

To add a image from a network location, click on the Advanced button, and on the Search for a system image on the network option.

If the drive cannot be seen to select a system image from, then you may need to use the tutorial below to load your SATA or RAID drivers before it will be seen. You would click on the Advanced button, and on the Install a driver option.

SATA Drivers - Load in Windows 8 System Image Recovery

C) Select the date and time of the system image to restore, and click on Next. (see screenshot below)
7. To Do a Full System Image Recovery
NOTE: This option will format everything on each hard disk drive that was included in the system image, then restore them as they were when the system image was created.

   Note

Format and repartition disks box:
NOTE: Special thanks to MJF for this addition. 1) Grayed out and selected
You are forced to have the whole disk formatted and repartitioned to match the partition structure of the disk the image was made from. This can occur when restoring an image to a new disk or the original disk with a modified partition structure. Data on other partitions on the disk you are restoring to will be lost.

2) Grayed out and unselected
You are not given the option to format and repartition the disk. This will occur if you are restoring Windows from a partition on the same disk.

3) Not grayed out and unselected
Here you have the option to select format the whole disk and repartition or not. In this case the disk the image was taken from has a matching partition structure to the disk you are restoring the image to. By not selecting the format and repartition option your image will be restored and other partitions untouched such as valuable data partitions.

A) Check the Format and repartition disks box (if not grayed out) and uncheck Only restore system drives box (if available), and click on Next. (see screenshots below)


B) Go to step 10.
8. To Only Restore System Drives in System Image Recovery
NOTE: When restoring to the same disk containing data partitions, the Format and repartition disks option may format the data partitions as well. If this is the case and you have the option to leave the Format and repartition disks box unchecked, then initially attempt your image recovery with the Format and repartition disks box unchecked. If recovery is unsuccessful, repeat the process with the format box ticked. A) If available, check the Only restore system drives box, and click on Next. (see screenshot below)
B) Go to step 10.
9. To Exclude Restoring Specific Drives in System Image Recovery
NOTE: Since a system image recovery will format everything on each hard disk drive that was included in a system image, this will allow you to exclude specific disks so that specific disk will not be formated or restored. A) Check the Format and repartition disks box , and click on the Exclude disks button (if not grayed out). (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If the Exclude disks button is grayed out, then the HDD that you are restoring to is empty, or you do not have any disks in the system image that are able to be excluded from being restored.
B) Unselect the drives that you want to exclude from being restored.

C) Click on Next.
10. Click on Finish. (see screenshot below)
11. Click on Yes. (See screenshot below)
12. You will now see this screenshot below.
NOTE: If you have the backup image on DVDs, have them ready. See step 4 above.
13. When it is through, click on Restart Now to finish. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: Your computer will restart and the backup image restoration will be done.
14. If you created a backup in step 1E, then you will now see this option to Restore my files after the computer restarts. (see screenshot below)
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Create a System Image Backup in Windows 7
• How to Create a "Create a System Image" Shortcut in Windows 7
• How to Restore Backup User and System Files in Windows 7
• How to Create a Windows 7 System Repair Disc
• How to Do a System Restore in Windows 7
• How to Backup and Restore the Windows 7 Registry
• How to Enable or Disable the Ability to Create a System Image in Windows 7
• How to Extract Files from Windows 7 System Image using Virtual PC
• How to Extract Windows 7 System Image Files Using Disk Management
• How to Restore your System with a Broken Windows 7 System Image
• How to Manually Extract Files from a Backup in Vista and Windows 7
• How to Create a System Recovery Shortcut in Windows 7
• How to Create a Windows 7 Backup and Restore Shortcut
• How to Restore a Partition Image From a HDD to a SSD
• How to Delete Windows 7 User Data and System Image Backup Files
• How to Load SATA Drivers in Windows System Image Recovery
• New Installation: How to Create a General System Image in Audit Mode

 

[Brink]

Thanks for the help. Sounds like I have some good options to work with.
Just for curiosity, can some one answer the question I had previously about Windows System Image Backup:
does it do incremental backups rather than a full one each time, or are System Image backups are created much like system backups where the folder name represents a 'backup period' and Windows decides when a full system image backup will be created.
John L.

Hello John,

When you create a system image, it will be saved as a backup period that is a new full system image each time created.

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

 

[SIW2]

It is both.

The vhd you can see does indeed contain a complete image of your drive(s) as at the time you made the image, as Shawn mentioned.

However, the way it does that is very clever.

During the first image, blocks containing data are copied into a .vhd file. VHD files do not support compression ( there is some compaction ) , so it will be big.

The next time a system image is created, only new and changed data is written to the .vhd file. Old data is moved out of the VHD and into the shadow copy storage area.

When restoring the latest image, blocks will be restored from the vhd to their original locations. When restoring from an earlier image, unchanged blocks are read and restored from the vhd and earlier versions ( changed blocks ) come from the shadow copy area.

So what it is really doing when you select an earlier image is fishing out the earlier versions ( only blocks that have changed ) from where it moved them to in shadow storage, and getting blocks that have not changed from the current visible vhd file.

That is clever, because the shadow storage takes less space, and that is how it can drop earlier versions without impacting on newer images.

Periodically it starts from scratch and makes a new complete image. I don't know how it decides when to do that.

 

[mjf]

A personal View for Windows System Images:
The use of shadow storage to store the difference images allows you to access (rebuild) older images as stated but I consider it a bit more risky because it relies on shadow storage. I prefer to make (pristine) once off images then
1) rename them (like in the tutorial)
and/or
2) Move them to a folder (within the same partition they were made)
or
3) delete them

 

[SIW2]

Yes, you can do that, takes quite a bit of space, though.

I had a bit of fun restoring images to different partitions via command line. It won't boot up if you do that, so you have to make a couple of adjustments. I was expecting them to get to the welcome screen before trouble, but strangely, I got autochk errors and bsods. Easy enough to fix.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

So Shawn as I am having a few well quite a lot of annoying issues - slowing down and losing posts in SF, Windows Explorer stopping, IE stopping / not responding etc etc with my main machine does the fact that the images are stored on an external 500GB drive mean I cannot do this to a 256GB SSD C: drive?

My alternative would be to do a complete clean reinstall and all that hanging around on updates and drivers galore.

I have thrown every scan and test I can think of at the thing but it seems like either it is a bad drive or something is toying with the machine. But if a clean install is the only answer then I'll do it just to be back to normal

 

[Brink]

May be best to bite the bullet and clean install.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

May be best to bite the bullet and clean install.

Ok mate I was rather thinking that would be the best thing to do rather than fiddle around the bits and pieces.
I suppose I can recover my programs and data stuff from the external anyway.
For example could I just copy / paste My Documents or the whole of Users form the external to the new install??

 

[Brink]

Yep, that wouldn't be a problem to do.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yep, that wouldn't be a problem to do.

Ok mate I will do that then

 

[Tegewaldt]

I dont know if this thread is dead, but i thought i'd ask before doing something dumb.

If my C:\ drive is the one i am restoring, and the image is stored on the D:\ drive, will the D:\ drive then be changed in any way after restoring the C:\ drive?

 

[Brink]

Hello Tegewaldt,

It depends if D is on a separate hard drive than C.

If not, then it could be wiped.

If it is, then you can use step 8 in the STEP TWO section to not have it wiped.

 

[mjf]

Further to Brink's comment. Although I generally use Macrium Reflect now I have used Windows inbuilt many times and restored many times. Provided I haven't altered the system disk partitions I seem to always get this:



In this case:
Usually never select the format and repartition option and you should be ok. If you do then the exclude disks option will become a selectable option. Then exclude the other drives. But you will probably lose data partitions if they exist on your system drive.

 

[betaupsilon]

Further to Brink's comment. Although I generally use Macrium Reflect now I have used Windows inbuilt many times and restored many times. Provided I haven't altered the system disk partitions I seem to always get this:

View attachment 367432

In this case:
Usually never select the format and repartition option and you should be ok. If you do then the exclude disks option will become a selectable option. Then exclude the other drives. But you will probably lose data partitions if they exist on your system drive.

OK guys,
I did a HORRIBLY clumsy mistake in my haste in recovering an image. Either 1 of 2 things happened, but my guess is the information is still on the SATA hard drive.

1) I may have forgotten to exclude the other internal hard drive that is separate from my SYSTEM hard drive.
2) After recovering the the image successfully I used the DISK CLEANUP utility to delete the RESTORE POINT created when doing the image recovery.

By the way I used the WIN 7 BACKUP & RESTORE utility. After completion of these 2 operations I noticed everything was gone from the other hard drive except that the 2 partitions on that drive still exists.

If I had made mistake #1 would those 2 partitions have been eliminated? I am speculating that operation #2 somehow eliminated the files on those 2 partitions. Even though I do not see the files in WINDOWS EXPLORER are the files still residing on those partitions?

It appears that the partitions somehow got reformatted. Having said that, can I still get the information from those 2 partitions since reformatting does not actually erase or wipe the disk?

I hope for some uplifting news!!

 

[Brink]

betaupsilon,

You might see if this may be able to recover the partitions on the drive.

Partition - Recover Deleted Partitions in Windows

 

[betaupsilon]

betaupsilon,

You might see if this may be able to recover the partitions on the drive.

Partition - Recover Deleted Partitions in Windows

The partitions still exist, but the files are gone. So is this utility still appropriate?

 

[Brink]

You could give it a try to see if it may be able to recover the files on the partition. If they are not listed in the program, then the files will most likely be gone for good.

 

[betaupsilon]

The 1st link on your tutorial to downloading the PARTITION RECOVERY utility is no longer valid. Fortunately, I already had PARTITION WIZARD. I did not know the RECOVERY utility is embedded until I read further into your tutorial.

I am running a full disk scan & a list is being generated. So I might be in luck.

Is there a system log I can access that might identify which operation caused the partitions to lose the contained files?

 

[Brink]

Thank you for letting me know. All updated now.

 

[betaupsilon]

PARTITION WIZARD found 1 of my lost partitions, but the 2nd is not listed. I assume this is a 1 shot deal at recovery, so if I recover the 1 partition now I won't have a chance at the other later? Is there another utility I should try?

 

[Brink]

You could see if the other programs in the tutorial may be able to recover more first.