System Image Windows 7

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saas1980

saas1980

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Hi,

What I'd like to know is how the 'scheduled' system image backups work? Currently I understand the backup creates a system image and data backup in a separate folder. I have my scheduled backup set to 'weekly', how does Windows 7 handle the system images?

After the first full system image creation, via the weekly scheduled set up does windows then create a new system image which replaces the previous one? Or is it incremental based on changes? or Differential?

All these years I assumed it may be incremental giving the user the option to restore system images from a selection of weekly images. If this is not the case, is there a work around?
 
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Phillip Corcoran

Phillip Corcoran

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Scheduled system images are always complete images of your entire OS partition (plus the 'System Reserved' boot partition if it exists).

Whether or not the previous system image is overwritten by the new one I cannot say since I prefer to use third-party software for system backups.

I believe the Windows system images have a unique filename based on creation date, in which case older images would be preserved, but that's only an educated guess.
 
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saas1980

saas1980

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Thanks for the info.

I recently downloaded Cobian to backup all files and then a secondary manual monthly backup of the system image via Windows on an external HD. Guess that's the best option for me at the moment

If you don't mind me asking, which third party software do you use? and if it creates system images too, are better options available to schedule and save multiple images?


I ideally I prefer having
 
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Phillip Corcoran

Phillip Corcoran

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Let me first say I do not use any file backup software, only disk-image/cloning software, and it's called Active@ Disk Image Pro, for which I recently purchased a new licence for the latest version. It has never let me down. It's very user-friendly too.

For file & folder backups I do it manually, copying them to four external hard drives (the same data on each drive).
Doing it with file/folder backup software usually means the backups are in a compressed, proprietary format, and that can present accessibility problems further down the line if you upgrade the OS only to find the backup software isn't compatible, or a newer version of the backup software doesn't recognise old backups.

File backup software is convenient & easier than doing it manually, but the risks as outlined above are unacceptable to me.

I don't keep any of my files on the internal system drive, which means image-creation (and image-restore) is much faster than it would otherwise be.
 
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jsmithepa

jsmithepa

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That's totally up to how you have it configured. Just look at your FREE SPACE every week or so, if no deletion occurs then every week you should be losing like ~30G of space.

Windows' backup is an old school back up tool, and it still works for data, if you need to keep many generations, but to me is a poor tool for disaster recovery, there is a difference.

Many of us use a third party IMAGER, and the name precisely imply its purpose. When bad things happens, malware infestation, something someone made an undesirable change, unknown BSOD blah-blah, having an IMAGE backup that we can restore in 15 minutes and be back in business is great. To follow this methodology then, one should keep OS and data separate.
 
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saas1980

saas1980

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Philip,

I am definitely going to give third party applications a try for system imaging. One question though, does active@ system image restoration require a 'repair disk' or will the windows repair disk (which i currently have on a USB stick) work?


===============

Jsmithepa,
Sorry im always a curious benjamin, which system imager do you use?
I tend to check reviews online before attempting first try. So far Active@ looks pretty good but not free :(. Then again best to pay then lose valuable data.
 
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shipdog711

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Phillip Corcoran

Phillip Corcoran

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"does active@ system image restoration require a 'repair disk' or will the windows repair disk (which i currently have on a USB stick) work?"


Disk Image creation software includes a utility to create a bootable CD containing the software required to read and restore an existing disk image, you can even create a new disk image with the bootable CD (advisable if image will include the Windows partition).

Since third-party disk images are in a proprietary format, a "Windows system repair disc" is no good as it only recognises images created with Windows built-in disk imaging utility.
 
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