Using System Image on New Hard disk

[Seventh Son]

I am changing to a new hard disk and here's my question. Can I just use the Windows 7 system image which I created from the old C drive to "restore" or image it into the new hard disk? Thanks for all replies.

 

[Tews]

As far as I know, yes you can do this...

 

[r600mura]

im not sure but i believe so......why else would they want you to copy the image on a seperate hard drive..........

 

[matt_0978]

I am changing to a new hard disk and here's my question. Can I just use the Windows 7 system image which I created from the old C drive to "restore" or image it into the new hard disk? Thanks for all replies.

in general that is the main use of the MS backup and restore utility, you will need to put your new HDD in the computer, boot from cd and select the repair option and point it in the direction of the image. so long as you haven't made any major hardware changes everything should go well.

on another note, not that i want to hijack this thread but if anyone has a backup from a compaq presario cq70-220em laptop, or could create me some rescue discs i would be most grateful. it's for my dad's laptop and somehow his d: got wiped so we can't use the HP restore utility.

 

[terrordaddy]

I've tried to make a system image and that works perfectly.
The image is about the size of my used space (50GB), total size is 150GB.

Then I've disconneceted my HDD and reconnected another empty HDD, this HDD is from another brand and is 120GB in total size. But since my backup is only 50GB it should fit without any problems.
So I reboot with the recovery disc in my drive and I select the repair option, I select the new drive as destination and the image as source.

... It doesn't work! I get an error. Can someone confirm that this isn't possible? A real problem I think, what if your HDD gets broken and you want to replace it without doing a blank install?

 

[pparks1]

I've restored images using the Windows 7 "system image" to other hard drives. However in my case, i backed up a C drive partition (150GB) on a 1TB drive. I then later moved the Seagate 1TB to my Linux machine and put a Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB drive in my box and restore that image.

However, when I moved from the 150GB C drive to my SSD drive, I was unable to restore the image because the drive was smaller.

So, I think as long as the drive is the same size or larger you are fine...but it cannot be smaller.

 

[gregrocker]

I am changing to a new hard disk and here's my question. Can I just use the Windows 7 system image which I created from the old C drive to "restore" or image it into the new hard disk? Thanks for all replies.

Yes, leave the new drive unpartitioned and unformatted

[
on another note, not that i want to hijack this thread but if anyone has a backup from a compaq presario cq70-220em laptop, or could create me some rescue discs i would be most grateful. it's for my dad's laptop and somehow his d: got wiped so we can't use the HP restore utility.

Since you answered the OP's question I will answer yours:

Just borrow a Vista disk since it doesn't have to be OEM (as with XP) to activate your Compaq OEM license. Then pull any needed apps or drivers off the support download page for that model.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
If you work with computers at all a decent robust backup system is a MUST and will save you hours and hours of time etc (and possibly money).

I really would recommend a commercial solution such as Acronis -- you can download the trial for 30 days or so - it's a FULL featured trial not a "Demo hobbled feature locked" version.

The whole program doesn't cost much - even in todays short money supply era. I must have used this program around 100 times last month backing up and restoring images.

The program can change the size of the partition you are restoring to as well and can work also from boot media (inc USB drives). Incremental backups etc are supported too.

As well as imaging it also supports DATA backups too.

While the title here says server - just click the home / office products section when you go to the site.

Server backup and disaster recovery solutions for Windows and Linux OSs, onsite system protection

so

1) create the boot media
2) backup old "C" drive (and any "system partition")
3) boot acronis bootable media on computer with new drive
3) restore - specifying new partition size if you want to change it.

(Note if your old system has a little system partition usually 100MB then you need to backup and restore that as well otherwise your new partition won't boot. This can be done in the same step as 2 as you get a graphical selection of what partitions to image.)

There are Free alternatives out there such as paragon (painfully slow) and Macrium - but Data backup is really important so you need to find one that is robust and reliable --I've found Acronis good over the years. There was one problem with some versions when W7 came out but just changing the name of the AcronisTrueImage.EXE file to TI.EXE worked fine.

Current versions all run on W7.

cheers
jimbo

 

[gregrocker]

I am using the new Windows 7 Backup Imaging, have no problems and have been able to reimage my HDD (and a replacement) on two computers flawlessly in 15 minutes.

This is the first time Windows has brought backup imaging to the masses. In the past, mostly only tech enthusiasts and businesses took this seriously.

I use Acronis on an XP computer here and the only differences I see are you can change the file name, it isn't built in and doesn't recover using the WIndows 7 installer/repair disk "Recover Using an Image", which is also available at F8 if you have the 100mb boot partition.

I formerly backed up to external in case of HD failure, but since my only HD failure has been the external during a reimaging operation, I now keep a primary partition on each computer where I first store the image, then copy it to external.

 

[pparks1]

I am using the new Windows 7 Backup Imaging, have no problems and have been able to reimage my HDD (and a replacement) on two computers flawlessly in 15 minutes.

Yeah, my experiences have been very solid with the built in system image. It does exactly what it is designed to do. Backup your hard drive and recover in the event of a disaster. I used it throghout all of my beta and rc1 testing and restored numerous times troughout the process.

 

[Seventh Son]

I have used system imaging 4 times since using Win7 for a month now. 3 times because of crashes and once for installing a new HDD. It saved me numerous hours of sitting in front of the computer. The Win7 system image is god sent, completes your imaging in 20 mins. Now I "enjoy crashing my computer"

 

[gregrocker]

If you have a drive you absolutely cannot afford to lose the image, then use two imaging programs to back up images.

Macrium Reflect is fine freeware so with that and Win7 Imaging you won't have to pay a dime and have a double backup which is failsafe.

 

[harpua]

Acronis TIH now has a new add on package for Acronis TIH called the "Plus Pack" which provides some additional functionality and integrates seamlessly with TIH (see screenshot below). Among other things, it adds the ability to restore a system image made on one machine to a different machine with different hardware. I haven't had an opportunity to test this function yet, however.

I use Acronis to make both scheduled compressed system images as well as clones of my laptop's hard drive to extra laptop hard drives in external USB enclosures. (The enclosures are available for about $15 from NewEgg.com.) So in the event of a disaster, I can attempt to restore from my compressed system backup, however, should the restore process fail (which has been known to happen from time to time), then I could just swap in one of my clones (takes a Phillips head screwdriver and two minutes on my Thinkpad) and be up an running again, almost immediately.

If the Windows Back Up and Restore utility works for you that's great. Unfortunately it didn't work with my particular external USB drive (Seagate FreeAgent Desk 1.5 TB). I successfully created an image on the external drive but when I tried to restore it, Windows saw the drive and backup image but simply would not restore from it. I was unable to figure out why. This was enough to put me off relying on this utility for mission critical backups. So I continue to use Acronis TIH 2010 which has proven itself to me over many years to be very reliable, and has a lot more features, including the ability to make sector by sector clones.

Another Acronis utility I have found surprisingly useful is the disk/file shredder which can completely wipe a hard drive (to US DOD standards or even higher, or lower; (lower is faster)) so the data on it can't ever be recovered using even the most advanced recovery methods. This is useful for protecting one's data (if it's not already encrypted) when disposing of or selling a machine or drive or sending it in for repair work. (Several other programs (e.g., TuneUp Utilities) offer this functionality as well.)

Btw, Acronis TIH 2010 can now read, convert and restore backup images made with the Windows Back Up and Restore utility.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Harpua;

I'd be interested to know what qualifies as "different hardware". If they mean "new hard drive", I would have assumed the standard product already had that capability. If it doesn't already have that capability, who needs Acronis? If they mean "new motherboard", I wouldn't put any faith in it. Advise if you learn any details.

 

[harpua]

No they don't mean new hard drive. They've always had that capability. In this case, they mean a different machine entirely. Could be a different brand, different specs, etc.

I think people have managed to use Acronis to restore to different machines in the past but it probably took a bit of work and manual loading of a lot of drivers and such. I would assume that Acronis has made it somewhat easier with this feature. But as I said, I haven't had an opportunity to actually test it yet, but it sounds like it could be very useful.

I know Paragon advertises a similar functionality in some of their products.

 

[harpua]

Acronis® True Image Home 2010 Plus Pack

Add-on for Acronis® True Image Home 2010 featuring enhanced backup and recovery functionality

Acronis® True Image Home 2010 Plus Pack is an add-on module for Acronis True Image Home 2010 featuring enhancements for advanced home users. It includes the flexibility to restore files, applications and an operating system to dissimilar hardware as well as providing support for dynamic disks and Microsoft® Windows Preinstallation Environments (WinPE).
These three powerful features, originally only available in the Acronis corporate product line, are now accessible to technical home users. The optional Acronis True Image Home 2010 Plus Pack integrates seamlessly within the Acronis True Image Home 2010 standard version*, and leverages its intuitive graphical interface.

• Restore to Dissimilar Hardware Restore a computer to dissimilar hardware regardless of make, model, or installed components, or to a virtual machine.
• Dynamic Disk Support Back up and restore dynamic volumes easily, taking advantage of dynamic disk capabilities including multi-partition and fault tolerant volumes as well as partition size adjustment.
• Microsoft® Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) Support Speed up your recovery process with easy and quick integration of the latest Microsoft drivers, customized scripts, applications and plug-ins to your rescue or boot media.

*Acronis True Image Plus Pack works with the Acronis True Image 2010 standard edition, but not with the Acronis True Image Netbook Edition or previous editions of Acronis True Image Home.
Supported Systems

• Storage Media
  • Hard Disk Drives
  • Networked Storage Devices
  • FTP servers
  • CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, BD-R (NEW! Blu-ray)
  • ZIP®, REV® and other removable media
  • PATA (IDE), SATA, SCSI, SAS (NEW), IEEE1394 (FireWire), USB 1/2.0 drives
• Supported Operating Systems
  • Windows 7 all Editions (x32/x64)
  • Windows Vista all Editions(x32/x64 SP2)
  • Windows XP (x32 SP3/x64 SP2)
  • Windows XP Professional(x32 SP3/x64 SP2)
• Supported File Systems
  • FAT16/32, NTFS
  • Raw Images support
• 
  
  (Emphasis added.) Source: Complete hard disk recovery solution, backup, drive copy, clone and image computer software
  
  Price direct from Acronis is $29.99
  

If this works as advertised, it would make migrating to a new machine a lot easier.

 

[lolpsy]

I am changing to a new hard disk and here's my question. Can I just use the Windows 7 system image which I created from the old C drive to "restore" or image it into the new hard disk? Thanks for all replies.

Yes, leave the new drive unpartitioned and unformatted





Sorry for the Necro Post revival here but, How would I take an old drive with existing data and turn it into an unpartitioned, unformatted drive?

Thanks in advance.