System image !!

[baxxter]

Hello,I created System image and i saved it in the hard disk,But when i tried to restore it its said there is no system image (boot from the DVD) in the disk ?!

 

[marsmimar]

I'm a little confused. You say you created the system image and saved it on the hard drive. Where on the hard drive was it saved? Windows 7 cannot include the partition or drive that you are saving the backup image to in the image. So if you tried to image your C: drive and then tried to save it on the C: drive, the image would fail.

Then you say, "But when i tried to restore it its said there is no system image (boot from the DVD) in the disk ?!" Were you trying to boot from an installation DVD, a rescue DVD, or something else? You might want to take a look at this tutorial for creating a system image. Personally, I think it's best to put the system image on an external hard drive.

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

 

[baxxter]

I'm a little confused. You say you created the system image and saved it on the hard drive. Where on the hard drive was it saved? Windows 7 cannot include the partition or drive that you are saving the backup image to in the image. So if you tried to image your C: drive and then tried to save it on the C: drive, the image would fail.

Then you say, "But when i tried to restore it its said there is no system image (boot from the DVD) in the disk ?!" Were you trying to boot from an installation DVD, a rescue DVD, or something else? You might want to take a look at this tutorial for creating a system image. Personally, I think it's best to put the system image on an external hard drive.

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

I mean i saved it on E. and I boot from an installation DVD.and i have another question,when i want to create a system image of D the C drive always selected ! cant i uncheck it ?

 

[marsmimar]

I'm not an expert on imaging but here's what I know. The system imaging tool that comes with Windows 7 is very basic. By that I mean it will make an image of everything on your hard drive. I've heard people say there are ways to select only certain drives or partitions but the failure rate is high. Also, the Windows 7 imaging tool doesn't like making images to DVDs even though that's one of the options.

Once you make your image with Windows 7 you have to use a special System Repair Disc in order to access that image. At the end of the imaging process you'll get a prompt "Do you want to create a system repair disc?" (See Step 9 in the tutorial.) You need to create that repair disc on a separate CD and that's the CD you'd use to boot your computer if you ever need to use the image.



If you want a better way to image your computer and be able to select or unselect different drives or partitions, there's a couple of free imaging tools that many people on this forum recommend. One is Macrium Reflect free and the other is Paragon. They will both allow you much more control over what is or isn't imaged. One of the forum members made a nice tutorial for Macrium here. And this is where you can find out more about free Paragon. (If you decide to use either Macrium or Paragon, they will also require that you create a repair disc so you can boot your computer and access their system image.) Hope this helps.

 

[mjf]

The windows system image requires you to have the image folder [WindowsImageBackup] in the root of a disk partition. It can easily renamed and moved to any folder (without risk) provide it's renamed back to [WindowsImageBackup] and moved back to a root partition position. See
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html
To restore see
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/675-system-image-recovery.html

Actually all other third party image programs require a special disk. Windows just requires either
- standard system repair DVD (which you should always make) or
- Windows installation DVD or
- F8 when the 100MB system reserved partition is present.

I also use Macrium Reflect and think a good product (good to have a second safeguard image).