Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

Brink said:

Hello betaupsilon,

That is correct. The Vol Shdw service needs to be enabled and running to create a system image. :)

Should I have gotten the error message at the time of the system image creation instead?

Hi Shawn,
Another curiosity question about the WIN7 backup utility:
To create a system image is it ABSOLUTELY necessary to have fully booted into WINDOWS? The reason I ask is that you can do a SYSTEM IMAGE recovery by booting from a WINDOWS CD. Can an image be created as well, but the CMD prompt is probably the only avenue to do so. I do not know if the necessary commands exist to execute this task.

Brink said:

Hello betaupsilon,

Yes, you should be able to create a system image in a command prompt at boot. The link below is a discussion on this that should help. :)

Wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:L: -include:C: -quiet


Wbadmin from cmd of a recovery disk

I read the thread you linked to above & it seems to me that this would not work from a recovery CD or DVD, but the WinPE disk probably can. I have one of those. Perhaps I will give it a shot.

Well I tried it & got the message "START BACKUP command is not supported in Windows Recovery Environment." I thought my disk was a WinPE disk, perhaps not.

Brink said:

Please let us know how it went if you give it a play.

Brink said:

Hello betaupsilon,

Yeah, you'll need to create the backup from within Windows.

May as well use the BACKUP utility if I am in WINDOWS. I would have thought there might have been some demand to use the CMD prompt to create an image outside of booting into WINDOWS itself.

Hi! This has been really helpful. I have done it in my computer twice.

Have 2 question though.

1) Would it be the same if I just backup the Windows partition after installing and then copying it back to a clean partition or disk whenever I want?

2) Can I use the backup (this method or backup partition) in another computer than the one I created it with?


Thanks :)