Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

I have put together a little app. that makes a Winpe cd/flash . It is intended for those using the free versions of Paragon products ( or the Special Edition giveaways , like PM Pro 9.5 SE - you do get a Linux cd with those, but not the WinPe one.)

It shouldn't be too hard for me to adapt that to put that Macrium d/l onto a WinPe 3 cd/flash.

All that is needed is to copy either the 32BIT Vista/Win7 install dvd OR the 32BIT Win 7 repair cd onto the HD.

Then just rt click and run as admin on the pecreator7.cmd that I put together - takes 2-3 mins in total , depending how many programs you decide to include on the boot disc. It makes the .iso and will even burn it for you.

SIW2 said:

I have put together a little app. that makes a Winpe cd/flash . It is intended for those using the free versions of Paragon products ( or the Special Edition giveaways , like PM Pro 9.5 SE - you do get a Linux cd with those, but not the WinPe one.)

It shouldn't be too hard for me to adapt that to put that Macrium d/l onto a WinPe 3 cd/flash.

All that is needed is to copy either the 32BIT Vista/Win7 install dvd OR the 32BIT Win 7 repair cd onto the HD.

Then just rt click and run as admin on the pecreator7.cmd that I put together - takes 2-3 mins in total , depending how many programs you decide to include on the boot disc. It makes the .iso and will even burn it for you.

That sounds like a nice piece of work. But I still fail to see the real advantage of a WinPe boot disk over a Linux version. Maybe you have more windows facilities, but does one need them at this moment where you are not e.g. trouble shooting.

Greg S said:

Brink said:

Ah, ok. Is that the default setting?

That is the only two options. The help file states that it will use up to 30 percent of the free space available on the drive it is writing the image to. .....

Sorry Brink, appears I mis-quoted or mis-understood. It should be 30 percent of total disk space. I've just swithced drives and calculated the space that Windows says that it will use and it is 30 percent of total space. Honestly, I'm thinking whoever wrote the Microsoft help file on this Backup/Image thingy hasn't got a clue either. It is so mis-leading! As mentioned, I rolled back a snapshot, reset all options including a different destination drive for the Images. I took the initial save settings and begin backup. I then went into the options > schedule, set the time so that it would start two hours after finishing the initial Backup/Image in an attempt to see if I could get the multiple saved Images and it still overwrites the image. My next course of action was creating a system image manually to see if that's how it's done even though I was sure that it would overwrite it and it did. I've tried again through the scheduler de-selecting all files/and folders from the data backup options and the image is overwritten. I tried checking files/folders in the backup options and the image is overwritten. I have the scheduler set for 3:00 AM my time for another backup/image and will check in the morning to see what I'm sure will be the result, overwritten,lol. I just can't understand why the help file states that multiple images can be saved and that windows will even maintain them and automatically delete older images when the disk becomes full when in fact it doesn't do that.

quoting Microsoft once again

By default, Windows automatically saves as many system images as it has space for without taking up more than 30 percent of space on the backup disk. Once the disk starts running out of room, Windows deletes older system images. You can set Windows to retain as many system images as it has space for on the backup disk

.

Hi whs,

The WinPe disc performs the Macrium restore in almost exactly the same way.

However, it also allows you to have a lot of extra tools all on the one cd - boot corrector, partitioning, password blanker, registry loader , bcd tool , an app. for rewriting the mbr and bootsector code, an app. for recovering MS Product keys from the HD ( essential if you can't boot in and you need the key to reinstall e.g Office, or whatever) internet browser , screen snapshot utility - so one can post on e.g. this Forum and provide screenshots to ask for advice. All from within WinPe.

If you need to load drivers so the HD can be seen , e.g if you are using raid or any other slightly unusual configuration , you can only do that from WinPe boot media.

The little utility I made lets you add such drivers permanently to the image while creating the boot media - so you don't need to load them every time you boot it up.

I also use it to Install NT6 Windows - by applying the selected image to the partition from the .wim and using bcdboot to create the boot critical files - much quicker way of installing.

SIW2 said:

Hi whs,

The WinPe disc performs the Macrium restore in almost exactly the same way.

However, it also allows you to have a lot of extra tools all on the one cd - boot corrector, partitioning, password blanker, registry loader , bcd tool , an app. for rewriting the mbr and bootsector code, an app. for recovering MS Product keys from the HD ( essential if you can't boot in and you need the key to reinstall e.g Office, or whatever) internet browser , screen snapshot utility - so one can post on e.g. this Forum and provide screenshots to ask for advice. All from within WinPe.

If you need to load drivers so the HD can be seen , e.g if you are using raid or any other slightly unusual configuration , you can only do that from WinPe boot media.

The little utility I made lets you add such drivers permanently to the image while creating the boot media - so you don't need to load them every time you boot it up.

I also use it to Install NT6 Windows - by applying the selected image to the partition from the .wim and using bcdboot to create the boot critical files - much quicker way of installing.

That sounds great. Let me try to tinker with it.

Brink said:

Hamlet,

They only had the same date since I created them back to back for testing purposes. It should have different dates when created on different days though.

Could you post a screenshot of these other image backup locations with the sizes displayed as well? This may help to see what may be happening.

No screenshots by now. Yesterday I blow away all the images to try something different. If I run into windows system image method again I will get screenshots

SIW2 said:

Hi Greg,

You can make as many System Images as you like and save them to different drives /folders like this:

Open an elevated command prompt and type:

WBADMIN START BACKUP -backupTarget:G: -include:C:,D: -quiet

That will save an image of C and D ( anything you specify after -include: remember to separate multiple sources by a colon and comma as above) to G partition.

If you want to save multiple System Images onto the same partition , e.g. onto G you can specify a different folder to save each one in, like this:

WBADMIN START BACKUP -backupTarget:G:/Backup1 -include:C:,D: -quiet

then next time :

WBADMIN START BACKUP -backupTarget:G:/Backup2 -include:C:,D: -quiet

where Backup1 and Backup2 are folders you have made on G.

(ooops nearly forgot the comma)

I think this will be my next test.
I really need to get different images of my drives. Thanks

SIW2 said:

Hi Greg,

You can make as many System Images as you like and save them to different drives /folders like this:

Open an elevated command prompt and type:

WBADMIN START BACKUP -backupTarget:G: -include:C:,D: -quiet

That will save an image of C and D ( anything you specify after -include: remember to separate multiple sources by a colon and comma as above) to G partition.

If you want to save multiple System Images onto the same partition , e.g. onto G you can specify a different folder to save each one in, like this:

WBADMIN START BACKUP -backupTarget:G:/Backup1 -include:C:,D: -quiet

then next time :

WBADMIN START BACKUP -backupTarget:G:/Backup2 -include:C:,D: -quiet

where Backup1 and Backup2 are folders you have made on G.

(ooops nearly forgot the comma)

Did not work. It only accepts the root location

Thank you Bring for your “Image backup in Win7” tutorial. I appreciate your work very much. I have Win7 x64. I created backup in disk “1” Local Disk (G :), (different that disk”0” where C: with Windows OS is). I get “WindowsImageBackup”—my computer name—and 4 files: Backup 2010-06-05 185755, Catalog, SPPMetadataCache, and MediaId.
Question 1
As I understand Image Backup is important when for some reason I cannot start my computer. And here I have question. How I can use “WindowsImageBackup” where something is wrong with my comp?
Question 2
Cannot understand how I can automatically update “WindowsImageBackup” let say every week or so?
Question 3
When open Control Panel--All Control Panel Items--Backup and Restore, have information "Windows could not find a backup for this computer" ?
Sorry of my naive question. Will appreciate your assistance.
With my best regards,
stasioau