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#470
Hi Brink
I'm here to whine again.
I didn't notice anything about, how to verify if your backup image is valid.
A backup is no use if it's corrupted.
Perhaps a section could be added explaining that procedure (or a link to another tutorial, if one already exists). :)
The issue has just popped up on a thread I'm reading.
Hello Lehnerus,
You have the The backup completed successfully message (step 10) if the system image was successfully created. Unfortunately, there isn't any real way to verify if a system image is valid or works or not unless you actually do a system image recovery to test it.
However, if someone is not able to do a system image recovery with a system image, then one of the tutorials below would be a good workaround to either try and restore it or at least recover any needed files from the image.
From what I have seen I would say it is safe to assume that you can encounter difficulties when you want to recover from a Windows7 image. And a corrupted image may be the least of your worries.
Here you go !!!I use Macrium Reflect and it has a separate "Verify" function
The main thing about a Windows 7 system image backup is that when created, it should not be moved, renamed, touched, or looked at to funny. Doing so will most likely end with the system image getting corrupted and not being able to be fully restored.
Otherwise, they have always been reliable for me at least.
Yes me to.
But you never know regardless of the imaging program until you restore. Even then you may need to do some boot file fixes.
With Windows imaging you can "Attach" the image under Disk Manager. Browse your image and see if all looks well. At the very least you can pull files if you need to.
The bottom line is if you don't have confidence in an imaging utility then don't use it. There are a number of alternatives out there.
Shawn, apart from you I have only seen Karlsnooks and mjf say good things about Windows7 imaging. We were teaching Windows7 imaging as the preferred method at our computer club (over 800 members). There were so many complaints and systems that came to a screeching halt that we switched to Macrium. Have not seen a single complaint since. That tells me where to hang my hat.