System Imaging as Additional Protection

[dranfu]

This is a nice, usefull discussion, and hopefully it will stay up on the net for years to come. Let me add some great Open Source (Free) Backup solutions, some geared towards users, some towards IT, some both. App names in RED are geared towards IT. Apps in BLUE are geared towards users.

CloneZilla: Clonezilla, based on DRBL, Partclone and udpcast, allows you to do bare metal backup and recovery. Two types of Clonezilla are available, Clonezilla live and Clonezilla SE (server edition). Clonezilla live is suitable for single machine backup and restore. While Clonezilla SE is for massive deployment, it can clone many (40 plus!) computers simultaneously. Clonezilla saves and restores only used blocks in the harddisk. This increases the clone efficiency. At the NCHC's Classroom C, Clonezilla SE was used to clone 41 computers simultaneously. It took only about 10 minutes to clone a 5.6 GBytes system image to all 41 computers via multicasting!

Amanda Community Edition: Amanda is the most popular open source backup and recovery software in the world. Amanda protects more than half a million servers and desktops running various versions of Linux, UNIX, BSD, Mac OS-X and Microsoft Windows operating systems worldwide.

Redo Backup & Recovery: Redo Backup and Recovery is so simple that anyone can use it. It is the easiest, most complete disaster recovery solution available. It allows bare-metal restore, which means that even if your hard drive melts or gets completely erased by a virus, you can have a completely-functional system back up and running in as little as 10 minutes.

ODIN - Open Disk Imager In A Nutshell: ODIN is a utility for easy backup of hard drive volumes or complete hard drives under Windows. A disk image can be created or restored. Only used clusters can be backuped, compression on the fly is possible. It runs under 32-Bit Windows Operating Systems. How many hours did you spend in setting up your Windows system? Setting up the operating system, installing programs, customizing to your personal needs. Do you want to be protected against hard disk failures, viruses or other malware? Just restore your system within minutes. Why spend money for a commercial solution? ODIN supports snapshots can be run from command line or with a GUI and runs on 32-Bit and 46-Bit operating systems. (note, ODIN has a great CMD interface, for scripting).

UBCD4WIN - Ultimate Boot CD For Windows: BCD4Win is a bootable recovery CD that contains software used for repairing, restoring, or diagnosing almost any computer problem. Our goal is to be the most complete and easy to use free computer diagnostic tool. Almost all software included in UBCD4Win are freeware utilities for Windows®. Some of the tools inlcuded are "free for personal use" copies so users need to respect these licenses. A few of the tools included in UBCD4Win are paid for and licensed software owned by UBCD4win. (Have to include this, as it includes a free copy of Norton Ghost 8 )

 

[eldinv]

THIS NEEDS TO BE A STICKY!!! Macrium Reflect is my best friend!

 

[Maxxwire]

THIS NEEDS TO BE A STICKY!!! Macrium Reflect is my best friend!

Same here because Macrium Reflect is extremely reliable in that it has never failed me, its very simple to use, and its extremely fast at backing up the 22 GB on my C drive in 3 minutes and 35 seconds at speeds in excess of 650 Mbps!

~Maxx~

 

[Creer]

I use Shadow Protect Desktop from StorageCraft. It's very reliable, rock solid and one of the fastest image backup applications on the market, see this: 10 Commercial Disk Imaging Software Features and Backup/Restore Speed Comparison | Raymond.CC Blog

 

[dawiba]

Hi

First post here.

I've been browsing the forum for a wee while and I've got plenty of useful advice, particularly in regards to getting rid of McAfee and using MSE and MBAM instead.

I have a quick question as a Win7 noob about sytem images.

My computer is set to back up to an external drive once a week using Windows Backup and my understanding is that this includes a system image. I've attached a screenshot to show what I mean.

My question is, is this the same type of image as is being discussed in this thread and would this restore me to a current working system if needed?

Thanks

 

[whs]

It looks like you have 110GBs worth of images and another 36GBs worth of file backups. If those files reside on the OS partition, then seperate backups would not reall be required. They are part of the images. The only problem is that the Windows7 imaging facility makes it awkward to mount them. That is why I prefer free Macrium which is a lot easier to understand and to operate.
However, if your data is in a seperate data partition (which is highly recommended), then you need to backup that data seperately - either with data backup or with an image of the data partition.

To answer your question about restoration I always recommend to make at least one trial run to make sure it works correctly. For that I create a little test partition which I image and restore. That way I do not risk to srew up the system.

 

[dawiba]

It looks like you have 110GBs worth of images and another 36GBs worth of file backups. If those files reside on the OS partition, then seperate backups would not reall be required. They are part of the images. The only problem is that the Windows7 imaging facility makes it awkward to mount them. That is why I prefer free Macrium which is a lot easier to understand and to operate.
However, if your data is in a seperate data partition (which is highly recommended), then you need to backup that data seperately - either with data backup or with an image of the data partition.

To answer your question about restoration I always recommend to make at least one trial run to make sure it works correctly. For that I create a little test partition which I image and restore. That way I do not risk to srew up the system.

Thanks for the reply.

I've done a little bit of reading in the interim and it looks as though I do indeed have a system image and separate file backups beyond that. It seems to be set that way to allow me to restore all or some files without having to restore from a system image, which suits me fine.

Thanks again for the help, this thread has been very useful.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi all
OF COURSE you should always backup your system and data -- but be aware of a little problem which will catch the unwary out.

If you image the system (or at least the OS partition) using non MS software such as Acronis / Macrium etc. etc. there is often a hidden small SYSTEM partition.

On restore you might get a BSOD on booting up the system.

Don't panic however as booting from the OS install disk and running the REPAIR option will fix this.

The problem is caused by a change in W7 to the boot manager. Nothing to be worried about but if you DO get this symptom then it's easily fixed.

On installing W7 for the first time I would allocate THE WHOLE DISK to have a SINGLE partition so the OS install won't then t create this hidden system partition.

After I've installed the OS I would then use something like GPARTED to "shrink" the OS partition to say around 30 - 40 GB for W7 and then have my DATA on other partitions which I could then create from the free space released.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[severedsolo]

If you image the system (or at least the OS partition) using non MS software such as Acronis / Macrium etc. etc. there is often a hidden small SYSTEM partition.

Acronis can see the System Reserved Partition even if it doesn't have a drive letter. As long as you make sure you include it in the Image (when it asks you what to back up) then there shouldn't be any issues.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Even when you include this in the backup the system will sometimes BSOD on bootup after restore --so that's why I added the warning and how to avoid the problem altogether.

Of course if you DON'T experience the problem then fine -- but I've taken over 500 backups of various W7 versions types over the last few months so have experienced all sorts of "hiccups".

Better to be prepared than rely on a backup and then get stuck with no internet / google on how to fix.

Where the problem manifests itself frequently is if you are MOVING the OS to a different HDD (You've replaced a disk or you've altered the boot sequence to a new "C" drive) or you have adjusted the sizes of partitions before restoring.

The system partition as far as I can see contains some fixed physical pointers so if you've changed the partition geometry then these pointers are hosed up.

System Repair from the OS install DVD will fix these.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[severedsolo]

Ahh really? didn't know that Always good to know, I haven't had that particular issue

Thanks for the heads up jimbo

 

[whs]

If you have the little 100MB partition as active boot partition, you need to image that only once - for the case when the disk hardware itself goes south. But as long as the disk runs well, there is no need to restore this partition. You need to only restore the OS partition. Just make sure you select "Do not restore MBR" during the restoration. Like e.g. here in Macrium:

 

[pparks1]

Why would you only image the 100mb partition once? Why not do it every time? I understand it doesn't change much...but it's tiny, has next to nothing in it, and takes up about 0.000000001% of your total backup space.

 

[whs]

Why would you only image the 100mb partition once? Why not do it every time? I understand it doesn't change much...but it's tiny, has next to nothing in it, and takes up about 0.000000001% of your total backup space.

Because it never changes at all. It is an unneccesary additional step. I appreciate the minute space requirement, but why bother. The same goes for the system recovery partition - if you want to protect that from a hardware failure, image it once - and once only.

 

[Wishmaster]

Good tip Jimbo45.

I think the failure to boot issue may be due to Imaging just the OS partition?


I bring this up because, I have never had a boot issue w/Acronis personally.

But, My OS is on a 40GB SSD, and I do a complete disk Image of that drive..

This method images the entire disk as is:
All Partitions incl. the hidden 100MB, Alignment, Disk Signature, .. everything.

We all may have slightly different methods, but I find just doing the entire disc rather than partition is much easier.
Although this may not always be practical for all setups.


But I have seen the exact issue Jimbo45 describes if just the OS partition is imaged.
And as mentioned, easily remedied however.

 

[pparks1]

Because it never changes at all. It is an unneccesary additional step.

Maybe I am wrong, but don't you simply check 1 additional box when you create your backup set? So, the additional step is 2 clicks instead of one????

I appreciate the minute space requirement, but why bother.

Because in that rare case that you do need to restore your MBR or that partition does get whacked, you have it in your most recent backup already...rather than having to hunt down the backup which contains it. This way the screenshot shown above detailing what to do with the MBR is really no longer an issue. You can choose whichever option and all will be fine. So why??? Simplicity really.

 

[severedsolo]

Because it never changes at all. It is an unneccesary additional step.

For me at least, only doing it once is actually an "additional unneccesary step" I literally set up my backups once,
tell Acronis to image System Reserved along with C every Sunday at 19.00Hrs, make 3 incremental backups before deleting all backups and making a new full backup (so once a month I get a fresh backup).

For me, removing "System Reserved" from the drives to be imaged would actually be more effort, because once it's done, I just let it do its thing, and remind myself not to do anything particularly intensive on a Sunday evening.

Course we all have our own way of doing it, and whats right for me isn't right for everyone else.

Doesn't Windows built in imaging automatically image System Reserved too? its been a while since I used it, can't remember.

 

[jimbo45]

Although I do use system imaging from time to time, with as fast as it is to load an operating system these days and the fact that I keep my data backed up separately, I don't find that imaging is an absolute necessity. For most people though, who don't want to go through the hassle or put in the effort, this makes sense and should be strongly considered.

Hi there PParks
While it IS true that re-installing an OS is very fast these days the problem comes in re-installing your applications such as say Photoshop CS5 etc.

You have to go through the trouble of finding all your serial numbers and also ALL THE UPDATES to the product since you initially installed it.

My DATA is always on separate drives -- so are things like Database stuff but applications usually are installed within Windows so all the entries such as .exe, .dll and registry entries are on your "C" or OS drive. You don't want the registry to get out of sync with your application.

I suggest like the consensus on this thread that it IS a good idea to Image your system regularly -- and of course back up your OTHER data too.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[pparks1]

Yes, I do understand the benefits of imaging a machine. In fact, I use Acronis True Image Home 2010 at home myself and use a combination of Macrium and EaseUsToDo Backup for a couple of lab boxes that I use at work. But I also don't install much software and next to nothing is licensed (only Acronis and my games...everything else I use is open source or freeware)...so the setting back up part for me is relatively easy. Clearly this is a bit different than most other people and I did acknowledge that for most.....doing an image is a wise idea.

In retrospect, I guess I probably would have refrained from making that original post as I clearly was just debating the concept of necessity rather than good idea.

 

[Maxxwire]

If you have the little 100MB partition as active boot partition, you need to image that only once - for the case when the disk hardware itself goes south. But as long as the disk runs well, there is no need to restore this partition. You need to only restore the OS partition. Just make sure you select "Do not restore MBR" during the restoration.

This is the assumption I was going on because that is how I restored my Vista computer many times, but yesterday morning when I went to use Reflect v4.2.2866 x64 on my Win 7 x64 desktop for the first time I chose "Do not Restore MBR" and the restore went flawlessly as is usual until I went to restart the computer and I got this message which I took a photograph of...

After this frightful experience which is the very first time Macrium Reflect has ever failed me I am looking to the following advise from jimbo45 to avoid having this problem again which I am quite sure was because either I did not replace the MBR or did not include it when I created the backup image in Reflect.

Hi all
OF COURSE you should always backup your system and data -- but be aware of a little problem which will catch the unwary out.

If you image the system (or at least the OS partition) using non MS software such as Acronis / Macrium etc. etc. there is often a hidden small SYSTEM partition.

On restore you might get a BSOD on booting up the system.

Don't panic however as booting from the OS install disk and running the REPAIR option will fix this.

The problem is caused by a change in W7 to the boot manager. Nothing to be worried about but if you DO get this symptom then it's easily fixed.

Cheers
jimbo

In the end I successfully restored the computer from the 24 GB Win 7 System Image Backup that had been made just 2 days earlier and I was very impressed with how quickly and precisely the process went.

I am a little confused though over the disparity of opinions about how to successfully restore Win 7 from a Macrium Reflect Backup Image in that I have found out what doesn't work, but I am still unclear as to exactly what process does work. With Win 7 should I back up the 100 MB active boot partition along with the OS and restore them together, or can I simply select Restore MBR for a successful Image restore with Macruim Reflect???

~Maxx~