Creating A System Image?
Nov 19, 2011
I just bought all the parts to build a new computer and I'm putting them together right now. Next step is gonna be installing Windows 7 Professional 64-bit and I'd like to make a backup copy of that fresh install, in case something goes wrong in the future or maybe if I just wanna go back to a clean Windows installation after a while.
Currently I'm thinking of using the "Create a system image" option in the Backup and Restore category from the Control Panel, right after I finish the installing Windows. I've read that this tool creates a .VHD backup of the disk where Windows is installed but I have a couple of questions about using this method:
How big is gonna be the resulting backup? If I installed Windows in a 120GB partition is the backup system image gonna be 120GB in size or is just gonna be ~30GB-ish i.e. the size of Windows system files and folders?
If I restore that system image after using the system for a while is it gonna wipe clean the whole partition and reset it to the state it was when I made the image or is it just gonna bring back the files and folders from the backup and leave alone any other files I had put in the partition?
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May 8, 2011
When i got my 500 gig internal HD, I messed up and the C: partition is too small. I can't move anything else outta the C partition into the much larger D partition. SO now I want to create a system image on my external HD, so I can re-install Win7 Pro, and not use any partitions. WELL, when i try to create a system image on this external, which sez only needs 396 gig,Windows tell me the external doesn't have enuff space for the shadow volume? There is nothing ON this external. Has 434 of 465 gig free. SO why is that NOT enuff space?
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Oct 16, 2012
After my problems reported elsewhere, I decided to make a system image after I got things working. This was recommended by inference by one of the gurus who responded to my questions.So I got the system up again and I needed to learn about system images. So I hit F1 and read about creating a system image. Clicked here, clicked there, specified by external hard drive and told it to only include my system drive C:. Whir, whir, whir . . .. system image created.Now, I've cleaned the system of any possible Malware, so I want to create a new image of my system drive. So, I click here, click there and specify my external hard drive but NOW it won't let me include only drive C:, it wants to include my data drive, E:. The check box for E: is greyed out so I can't uncheck it.
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Aug 31, 2012
I have a few quick questions regarding System Images...but first, let me give you a little background.
My HP Pavilion dm-4 has a bum hinge, so I'm sending it to HP for them to fix it. They told me that they typically test the computer before sending it back, and thus also perform a complete system recovery (to go back to factory settings). Obviously, they want me to backup my data.
So. It's question time:
1) Can I restore a "System Image" to get my computer back to its current state upon receiving my laptop back from HP? (is a system image just a duplicate of the hard drive?)
2) Are all hard drives capable of creating a System Image, or just some?
3a) Are there any Hard drives you guys recommend?
3b) My C: (local disk) capacity is 441GB (303GB Free) and my D: (RECOVERY) is 23.5GB (3.43GB Free). Does that mean I have to buy a Hard drive that is at least 465GB...or could I get one that's just 160-ish GB
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Sep 13, 2011
I was creating a system image with Windows built-in utility. It had been running for at least six hours and I think it may have been either finished or very close when my computer shut down due to a BSOD.
Is there any way to find out whether or not the image was finished and created successfully, or if not, is there a way to continue and finish writing the last little bit to salvage the image and have one that would work if I needed it to restore my computer?
The image was writing to an external HDD, and I think it had to erase/write over the previous image due to space considerations.
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Apr 12, 2011
I'm creating a system image on my laptop. Is it safe to use my computer while creating a system image?
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Sep 30, 2011
I am trying to create a system image ready for installing a larger HDD (WD20EARX), but when using the Windows 7 wizard, the drive, Buffalo 500 USB External HDD, is not in the drop down selection box. The drive is there OK and can use it OK for normal work and there is over 450GB available. My original HDD is 160GB.
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Oct 15, 2012
I am attemptin to make a backup image of my hard drive. The new Image will be complied on an external hard. The drive has a 1TB Capacity with 450 Gigs free. I am receiving an error code during the image compilation stating that there is a problem with the I/O device. I ran chkdsk and found no problems. I also switched USB ports just to rule that out. I have used this same external hard drive to image a different laptop with no issues last week. My next approach would be to try this in safe mode. When I am in safe mode, I cannot find the location of the software which windows uses to create the image. I typed the location into the address bar and it pulled up a link in the address bar which took me back to the control panel. Can anyone tell me if this is possible to do in safe mode and if not, what my next step would be. Windows error: The Operation failed due to a device error encountered with either the source or destination. If the source or destination volume is on a disk, run CHKDSK/R on the source or destination volume and then retry the operation. (0x8078012D) Additional Information: The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error (0x8007045D)?
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May 1, 2012
I want to create a system image on my NTFS formatted portable WesternD HDD. Now It has about 250GB of space left(the portable HDD), and the Laptop PC that i want to create the image of, tells me I need about 199GB for the system image.Then first time I created the image, it gave me a failure message saying I should run a CHKDSK /R and ty again. I ran a CHKDSK /R on the external drive and tried making a system image again, where it got about halfway and gave me the same message. What is going wrong every time?
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Jun 30, 2012
I have 3 identical PCs with 2 partitions: C and D.I created a system image for one PC, C only.But when I restore that system image into the other 2 PCs (using Wind7 DVD), it formats both C and D and restore.The problem is that I have data on D and I don't want it to be formatted. I only want to restore the C image.
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Sep 21, 2012
My laptop has been backing up once a week fine (except for an error about a missing file that is on the target drive, not the backup drive) for months. In the past few days, it has suddenly failed with repeated attempts to backup, it always stalls at 57% while creating a system image. I've tried a clean boot, same results. I'm backing up to a network drive (USB hard drive attached to the router), 274GB free of 458 total, and the total backup size has been pretty small as no heavy data is kept on the computer.
Lenovo SL510
Windows 7 Professional
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Dec 29, 2011
I was trying to make an system image of my Win 7 OS to my hard drive...all went well until it finally stopped with the following message: backup failed! System could not find file specified ( 0x80070002 ) close. Nothing else...how is one suppose to make sense of this? Does this mean i can never make an image file of my system? Prior to the backup, Win 7 said that it would check system to make sure its OK to make backup. After it did the checkup it gave me the go ahead to do it
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Sep 7, 2011
I work for a company which needs to make small specialized PCs running Windows so they can run a specific program, hopefully on an 8gb CF card. I'm in the process of stripping down a copy of Windows 7 to be small enough for that, but that's something else. I need to be able to install the reduced copy of Windows 7 and our own software and then probably use Norton Ghost to create an image that I can just apply to every one of these computers we make in the future. Is there a way of creating this image from within my main OS instead of just creating and booting to a separate partition?
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Jun 18, 2011
I recently installed an SSD in my laptop and moved the HDD to the secondary drive (I have room for two). I did a few of the prescribed steps for optimal SSD usage (moved user profiles to HDD, moved temp directory and page file, etc). Initially I was able to image only my C drive (about 30GB required). This was when I could still dual boot to my original partition on the HDD.
I've since removed the old Windows 7 install from the HDD and made it a single partition. However, now when I try to make a drive image I'm unable to deselect my HDD when creating an image. I'm given no option except to create an image for both drives with a resulting size of 209GB. I'm already backing up my user data already and don't want to include it in the image.
When I view the disk manager my HDD (drive E) is Disk 0 and my SSD (drive C) is Disk 1. I've run bcdboot c:windows /s c: to ensure I have the boot files on my SSD. I'm able to boot my machine on the SSD if I disconnect my HDD but it doesn' like that my profile isn't available. I've also tried to change the disk order in my laptop BIOS but I don't have the option of changing the order of the individual disks.
What I want to do is be able to do is image only my SSD and not the entire system. I also want to do it on a regular basis and avoid having to open up my laptop and disconnect the HDD.
Is this related to the order of my disks in the disk manager or is that just a red herring? How do I make it so I can only select the SSD when creating a disk image?
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Oct 1, 2012
I've been placed in charge of setting up new PCs at work.These are tablet PCs and the hardware in each is identical...I've now setup one PC to function EXACTLY how I want it.My question is, what's the best way to image the entire drive and then load it onto subsequent PCs (please nothing like PXE) the restore will be done from a USB thumb drive.
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May 16, 2011
Our small office has several laptops, some with Intel chips, some with AMD. I'm trying to find a way to create an image for each laptop type that would include Windows 7 and MS Office.
I've looked around a bit, and I'm finding plenty of info on creating the Windows 7 image, but can't really find anything in layman terms for also including MS Office and any other necessary programs (snagit, Adobe Reader, etc.) to include or how to include, in the image.
Obviously, free (shareware) software is good to do the job in order to keep the cost down. I think I might even have a copy of WinPE I inherited from the person that was there before me, unfortunately, no documentation....Like I said, I've never done this before and I could use a step-by-moron-proof-step process if one actually exists...
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Jan 4, 2013
I am replacing my HHD with a SSD and made a mirror image on my backup external drive. When I tried to do the system image recovery, it fails to find the recovery information. It says the no disk that can be used for recovering the system disk can be found.
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Sep 5, 2012
I have a workstation on a gaming rig. I work and play games on it. I wanted to ask if I could separate my work files and GAMES setups (installed files) so they don't harm my work data.I do play games with cheats/hacks and they mostly contain malicious files which can damage my operating system. I want to create a seperate DISK image like Vmware in which I can run games without being worried about any harmful files accessing my work partition.
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Sep 4, 2011
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit The windows system image backed up on my external hard drive (2TB WD USB3) is not showing while restoring the PC from an image.
The only option available is my hard drive partition on which i also had saved a system image. Though windows recommends External hard drive for backing up image when backing up the system.
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Jul 2, 2009
If I purchase the RETAIL Windows 7 Upgrade:
1. On a system with Windows XP, can I install the upgrade into a 2nd partition to create a multiboot Windows XP/Windows 7 system? I do have retail Windows XP Pro media full version.
2. On a system with Vista, can I install the upgrade into a 2nd partition to create a multiboot Vista/Windows 7 system? I do not have Vista on media, it was pre-installed on the system.
3. On a notebook computer running Vista, should I choose to do so, could I install Windows 7 over Vista? Might I get into trouble due to proprietary notebook drivers?
4. On a notebook computer running Vista, should I choose to do so, could I uninstall Vista and then install the Windows 7 upgrade? Might I get into trouble due to proprietary notebook drivers? Also, since I do not have Vista on media, how would I prove that I qualify for the Windows 7 Upgrade?
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Dec 28, 2009
just setting up a friends new dell laptop create system disks - no mention in the manual how to
s511016au dell inspiron 1545 laptop.
it only came with software application disks.
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Oct 2, 2012
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.
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Sep 14, 2010
Is there any downside to creating a system repair disc (is this the same as a recovery disc?). I have a disc with the operating system that came with the computer but this wouldn't restore the computer after a crash without going through other operations such as hard disk partitioning etc.
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Jun 2, 2009
I am running Windows 7 RC on my Samsung NC10 netbook. I would like to create a system restore disk to allow me to restire system images, etc. However being a netbook the NC10 doesn't have a CD/DVD drive and while I can use an external one, it would be much easier to have the repair disk on a Flash Pen Drive.
Can anyone help me to create a repair disk on my pen drive?
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Apr 8, 2012
I have an HP laptop with Windows 7 home premium. When using the HP Recovery manager to create system restore disks, everythong goes ok until I get through the point where it tells me that I will need 4 DVDs and that I should insert one. After inserting the disk, the drive spins for a coouple of seconds, then I get the messages:"There was a problem burning this disk.""There was an error burning this disk. The disk might no longer be usable."I retried several times, inserting different blank DVD-R disks, but always get the same result
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May 8, 2012
I want to make a recovery disc to reset my entire 4 partition dual boot hard drive back to its current state. the recovery would reset both xp and win 7 which i have dual booting. can i make one single image to do this without it screwing up my boot loaders etc? what should i use? 3rd party software?
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Feb 5, 2013
I am losing my system restore points and my computer is not creating them on its own.
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Sep 13, 2012
I'm about to install my new 256gb SSD. This will have 3 partitions;
100mb System reserved partition
80gb Windows OS partition
The rest will be used for VHDs
So, using disk part.. are these the correct commands in the correct sequence (Having unplugged my spinners first so diskpart only sees one drive
select disk 0
clean
create partition primary size=100 align=1024
create partition primary size=80000
select partition 1
format quick fs=ntfs
active
exit
Should I also be formatting the S/R partition? I will create the final partition via disk management when windows is installed. This will result in 3 partitions, all properly aligned etc. Yes? Or am I on some far off planet?
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Sep 4, 2010
I have one HDD C: with Windows 7 64bit and another HDD from my previous dual boot PC with two partitions C: and E:, both winX pro.How is it possible to combine both HDDs, creating a multi boot system having as C: my Windows 7 drive?
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Jan 15, 2013
On my system I have an SSD, so I have (Windows Restore) turned off. When I download a program and try to install it, it says creating a Restore Point and sits there for a while. A long while. I have found that I can go into Safe Mode and install things with no problem, fast. Even after it is satisfied with the restore point and says it is installing, it will just sit there and drag on. What can I do to get things to install without Safe Mode?
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Dec 6, 2011
I bought a new laptop yesterday and today decided to create a system repair disk. I inserted a blank DVD RW and started the process the progress bar went to about 60-70% (estimate, does not give actual progress %) in half an hour and has now been at that exact same point for the last 5 hours. I have had no errors and the window still says "creating disk..." and it still sounds as though the DVD drive is still writing onto the dvd. I Wouldn't think it would take this long to create especially with no progress.
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