Tomorrow my new Samsung netbook will be delivered, Windows 7 Starter is preinstalled. I haven't had a netbook before, and I haven't used Windows 7 before.
I'd like to make an image of the HDD immediately after unpacking. I need to play around with Windows 7 and I probably want to remove bloatware. I may even want to install Ubuntu Netbook Edition. But in any case, I'd like to able to restore the original, clean HDD image.
What would be the best strategy to do this? Make an image (using eg. Partition Image) before even starting up Windows 7? Make an image after running Windows 7 once (perhaps it needs to register / validate / activate)? I do not want to get into trouble with multiple activation.
I created an image using the Microsoft Backup and Restore tool in Windows 7. I saved the image on a network shared folder.I then went to the Advanced Recovery Methods in Windows to restore my image...that I just created. It restarts the computer and goes into recovery mode, I point to where the image is located, I entered the network credentials and it give me an error. "The Specified network resource or device is no longer available. (0x80070037)"
I need a little help figuring this out. I made a backup image a while back on my network. Now that I want to re-image, I reboot as requested, wait for it to load, and Windows says it can't find my backup, "if it is on a network, close this window , type the network location."Putting in the network location does nothing, I'm just returned to the screen where it would list the backup image if it had found it, but there's nothing there.Thinking perhaps my NAS was the problem I copied the image onto a portable hard drive, but after rebooting into the restore program, Windows 7 doesn't find the USB drive.
I have a drive that was using PGP that has become damaged and will not boot despite trying 3 days of different fixes and repairs. I have a complete drive backup that will restore but when I try and boot after my PGP password I get 'Missing operating system'. Again I have tried decrypting and fixing but to no end.
I have another disk with a working and booting install of Windows 7 (same architecture etc) on. I have the entire contents of the non-booting system disk that I can access from the image of it.
If I booted into something like Windows Recovery or Live Linux environment, can I copy the entire contents of the non-working Windows 7 drive over the working one and expect it to work and then boot?
I have got a license for Acronis True Image Home 2010. To my surprise, I don't like it unlike many other folks who swear on this software.Acronis creates a backup image in .tib or .zip format whereas Windows 7 Backup and Restore creates system image in an encrypted folder (with all files and folders NOT formatted). In either case, backup image becomes ready for "restore". So why keep Acronis? Well, Acronis can backup custom files and folders unlike Windows 7 default program (and, Windows 7 does it, too), however, Acronis does "Create full path (includes drive letter)" which I simply dislike. Fbackup4 (free license), on the other hand, does not do it but does the job the way I want, i.e., creates files and folders the way they are organized (without including drive letter, and without zipping or making some unusual file format). So for data backup, Fbackup4 is better, IMO. I remember, WinXP creates crazy backup file format like Acronis does.Paragon Migrate OS to SSD SE (I have license for this, too) is special in the sense that it can copy the entire OS drive/partition to a blank drive. Very good for drive upgrade.
We are a small office, 5 or 6 computers. Only 3 are every day computers, other 3 are "server", admin and extra computer. The three in use every day are new win7pro x64 machines. Our server is xp pro (32bit) with a shared drive as our "server" drive. We access this for all our job related materials, etc. There is no network setup, just shared folders among our workgroup. we just got the new win7pro machines setup and are using Windows Backup function to create system images to the "server" computer in a shared folder. We've got the images created on 2 computers, and can see the .vhd files and associated folder structure. When testing to see if we could restore from these images, we got the error "Cannot locate backup sets on machine, etc."I moved the backup folder to the root of the drive, and made sure it was WindowsImageBackup or whatever the default is, but still could not find it.
I need a backup utility that will recognize that a file has changed and over-write the existing backup version if there is one already. Looking at cobian backup. Time and time again I see talk of an image backup. Why do I need that? I am given to understand win 7 has a restore point so if stuff fails one can go to the last restore point without losing too much. Why is this restore point not sufficient? Why do I need an image - how is it better/what exactly does that do? How large is it likely to get?
Has anyone tried to burn a System Image (with Windows Backup and Restore) onto a BD-R disk?I have 52.5 GB used on my C drive (Windows 7 x64). I have a clean install, with windows updates, and it would be phenomenal if I could use my WH12LS30 (LG) internal blu-ray burner for the System Image creation, since I only have 1 harddrive.When I try a BD-R (and this is my 1st try at System Image burn) , I see "The media needs to be formatted before it can be used...". Just didn't sound right to procede.
I made a backup image a couple of weeks ago using Paragon Backup & Recovery ,but since that time I have deleted about 80GB of files.
I don't want those files put back on my C drive if I need to do a restore from image.So I want to start fresh with a clean image and then do my scheduled differential back ups.
I can't remember how to wipe the info off the ext.Can't find an answer in the Paragon program.
I have a compac (HP) laptop (CQ61-41us notebook), running WIN7 home premium, 64 bit. Aside from the normal file backup via the western digital software, I have several windows 7 generated iso images of my laptop stored on my external WD drive. Using windows repair disk, my computer does not recognize the external drive to access the disk images. It just asks to insert the last disk into optical drive. My images are on a folder on my external drive. There is no option to navigate to it! This is the first time I've needed to restore an image, and I can't access them! This should be an easy operation that could be started in a few minutes. I have been screwing around with this for more than 24 hours!
when I have had the PC on to update or back it up it has rebooted itself. No one else uses this computer but me so I am unsure what is going on with it. Can someone give me some kind of idea where to stat on this problem?
I was reading yesterday that if I want to restore a file, I need to go to the file and right click and select restore. If the file does not exist anymore then one would go to the directory where the file originally was and select restore (or something to that effect). I have two disks and I want to save some important files from one disk to the other. I have always used Windows 7 Backup but now I am not sure I am doing the right thing. What would happen if my main disk crashed and there was absolutely no hope of salvaging it? Could I still restore from the back up made by Windows 7 Backup? I won't know the file names or directory structure if one disk goes down completely.
When I try to back up and restore (my files) it does not complete. I get the message disk full. I tried to uncheck the (shut off and delte all files from system restore) but that does not help. When I check the amount of space available on the D drive, it shows as full, but system restore seems to work; any suggestions?
I was trying to restore my OS from a back up I made but when I run it, it comes up with this message: "restore failed because a disk which was critical at backup is excluded. to continue you need to either remove the disk from exclusion list or detach it from machine or clean it using diskpart utility, and then retry restore. if you cannot clean or detach it then change the disk signature".
I am wondering if it is possible to restore a backup disk image taken from a laptop running Windows 7 32-bit to a different laptop running Windows 7 64-bit and I haven't been able to find anything about this. Does anyone know if this is possible? The machine that I need to backup is a Dell XPS M1330 (upgraded to W7 32-bit), and the machine that I would be restoring the image to is a Dell Latitude E5430 (brand new, running W7 64-bit). I found a program called EaseUS Todo Backup, and purchasing the "Workstation" or higher version would include support for a "Restore to dissimilar hardware" feature.
Using preinstalled Win 7 Home Premium 64bit on an HP 6813w Pavilion. The original hard drive, a Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 1Tb crashed.1) System Recovery discs was made along with a System Recovery with System Image disc.2) A more current System Image was made on an external hard drive.The Hitachi was replaced with the same model. Checked bios to make sure it was installed correctly.Under System Recovery, Image Restore, Select a System Image Backup there is nothing in the table to choose from as far as a source (disc drive or external drive).A) System Recovery (3 discs) has the HP preinstall file folder on the 3rd disc but is not read by the System Recovery program.B) Under System Restore, Image Restore, Advanced, it asks for a network or driver to be installed. That opens up the directory of C: which is the external hard drive. Under WindowsImageBackup the computer name is identified followed by three entries:[CODE]It seems to me the Recovery and System Restore discs are not functional. Am not a technical person but I have taken this as far as I know how at this point.Printed out all the instructions from HP and Microsoft to follow step by step but the failed discs will not allow me to move forward.
When you wish to recover your system using this utility, do you use the Windows program at desktop or the rescue disc I created from the program?The reasn I ask is because I used to have better luck using Acronis' disc rather than the program and wonderd if the same applied here.Also, does the backup remove the existing one so that you only have one at a time or can you have more than one.
I currently use Vista Ultimate. I am preparing to move to Windows 7. Is it possible to restore files from Vista Backup and Restore Center to Windows 7 after a clean install?
It's time for me to change HDD. I wanto to go for a fresh Windows 7 x64ultimate instal. Now, I wonder, Can I backup and load something like "control panel settings"? That way I could load them after. On the new Windows 7 installation. Something like:
1) Backup settings 2) Change HDD 3) Mount new HDD 4) Fresh install 5) Load settings.
I have an old HD that I used to use for backups in a different PC setup, and though I deleted those backups when I moved on to a different HD, the backups were recoverable using Pandora and I believe intact since I never used the drive in question after that time. So specifically, I now have a folder called "Backup Set 2011-02-13 190024" that contains a 84 zipped folders worth 13.1GB that comprise that backup, and I want to restore them in some automatic fashion to see what's actually worth salvaging. (I assume this doesn't have to be done one-folder-at-a-time, drilling down through five layers of branches in the folder-tree, and almost immediately forgetting where I am...) But when I look at "Backup and Restore," I can't bring up this or any target folders - the link "Select another backup to restore files from" produces a blank set of choices, and there doesn't appear to be any way to 'load' a particular folder to restore, as I would have expected.
I'm running Windows 7 64x Home Premium on a Toshiba Qosmio X505 laptop. I just got it back from the warranty repair center, where they replaced the hard drive and graphics fan & heatsink, and reloaded the factory windows version. Before I sent it out for repair, I used Windows Backup to create a backup of all my files on a Toshiba casio 500GB external USB drive (I had over 300 GB of files, so it was easier to use Windows Backup than drag and drop all the files, at least at the time). Now that I have the laptop back, I'm having trouble restoring my files. When I go to Control Panel-> Backup & Restore, a message appears in the restore section, saying "Windows could not find a backup for this computer." I've tried reconnecting the drive as well as restarting my computer, but to no avail. I can see and explore the files in My Computer, so I know the hard drive is properly connected.
OK, so a couple of days ago, my HP desktop crashed and then went through the whole System Recovery loop(I couldn't login to Safe mode, wouldn't let me past the System Recovery Screen). Well I backed up the entire C drive using Backup your files in the menu. Then it shows you all the file types it will back up; i.e photos, videos, e-mails and bookmarks. So I did that to an external hard drive and it comes out to 143GB.Now comes my problem. I've been able to copy everything from the external hard drive using RecoveryMgr.exe which opens the WIM files and saves them to my C: hard drive under System Recovery Files. However it does not seem to work when it comes to putting in my old Thunderbird e-mails, contacts and such or in Firefox to restore my bookmarks, saved passwords.
They used to have more of a 'restore disk' but lately I haven't been seeing that anymore. What are users left to do when you need to do a fresh install of Windows? If its for someone else, could I use my windows install disc and use their product key (sticker on bottom)? I've heard that it doesn't always work that way? Does Microsoft have any official documentation about this and if possible, could you share your experiences?
Is there any way to do a fresh install without a disk that my key is for? I have a pc with no backup copies of Windows 7 Pro OA that came on it. I only have a Windows 7 Home Prem disk that I bought for my laptop. Is there anyway to make it work? Will my Pro OA key from the site of the box work with the Home Prem disk I have? Or is there somewhere at Microsoft that I can download a copy of Pro OA that I have paid for?
I'm having an issue with my tower that I built and I'm wondering if starting with a fresh OS installation will do the trick. My current setup is one hard drive for nothing but the OS and programs and multiple other drives to save files to. My issue is that I use the Windows Backup utility to backup the drives that contain important information. If I were to install a fresh copy of the OS, I imagine that the system wouldn't realize that I've performed a backup on the other drives before and would want to do a complete backup all over again rather than being able to do an incremental backup. Is there a way to backup the settings and log files of the Windows Backup utility to move to the new OS? The drive letters and everything else will be the exact same as they are right now. This also makes me curios of how other backup programs behave when the OS has to be reinstalled.
I am going to upgrade to Windows 8 Consumer Preview, so before doing so I backed up Windows 7 as a system image to my external hard drive. In doing so, I forgot that a system image includes all the files on the drive, which means it backed up about 700 GB worth of data. That's OK except I already had those files backed up individually, so now my external drive is basically out of space for future use. Instead, what I'd like to do, is do a system image of factory state without having to lose the files already on my drive. Is that possible? I could always go back to factory condition, and save the system image, but then I'd have to re-add all my programs and files after I get the Windows 8 upgrade completed. I'd rather not have to do that unless it's an emergency.
