Creating a Windows image for recovery

Devo

Devo

Devo

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For a long time now I've always reinstalled Windows and then spent time after that downloading drivers and reinstalling all the software programs I want. I've no idea why I've not looked into this before but is there a way (once I have reinstalled Windows, installed all the necessary drivers & programs) to create a backup image from which I can restore from in future :confused:

Any advice on programs and methods would be greatly appreciated...:o
 
What OS are you using? Windows Vista onwards has a built in program that can create such backups. You can also get 3rd party apps which do this.
 
Well I'll shortly be installing Windows 7 Home Premium. I wanted to make the backup image once that was all cleanly installed :D
 
Devo said:
Lovely :)

Can I just backup my whole system partition to a DVD then?
Click to expand...

Yup, take your pick:

- The system image can be saved on different hard disk partition.
- You can save the system image on DVDs. The no of DVDs required will be equal to the size of the partition that you are backing up.
- The system image can also be stored in a network location or drive.

You can also backup any other partition along with that.

Just Go to Start Menu >> Control Panel >> System & Security >> Backup and Restore >> Create System Image.

It works very well. I've saved a system partition from an SSD for a firmware upgrade and put it back again. Very easy to do.
 
simulatorman said:
Yup, take your pick:

- The system image can be saved on different hard disk partition.
- You can save the system image on DVDs. The no of DVDs required will be equal to the size of the partition that you are backing up.
- The system image can also be stored in a network location or drive.

You can also backup any other partition along with that.

Just Go to Start Menu >> Control Panel >> System & Security >> Backup and Restore >> Create System Image.

It works very well. I've saved a system partition from an SSD for a firmware upgrade and put it back again. Very easy to do.
Click to expand...

That sounds great! I'd better make the system partition pretty small then if I want to back it up to DVDs :p
 
Backup to network is only available in the Pro upwards editions. My advice, rather than mess around with DVDs if you're going to end up using a bunch of them, would be to just use/buy an external disk drive or even a large USB stick and back up to that.
 
theheyes said:
Backup to network is only available in the Pro upwards editions. My advice, rather than mess around with DVDs if you're going to end up using a bunch of them, would be to just use/buy an external disk drive or even a large USB stick and back up to that.
Click to expand...

I've got an 80gb portable hdd so could use that?!
 
Perfect.

What I would do is once you've set up and run the backup, format the disk and recover from the backup so you know how it works.
 
Actually I would mount the .vhd in Disk Management first and see if a) it isn't broken and b) check everything is there [i.e. no obvious folders missing]. - I wouldn't nukerfy your partition before you know the backup process worked, no matter how reliable Windows 7 Backup is.
 
What size system partitions do people tend to have with Windows 7? Obviously don't want this backup image to be enormous!
 
Last question (I promise) - should I literally just install Windows, all hw drivers etc, htfixes and the take the image or would people install all their 'must have' programs as well. I was thinking of the latter but then thought that if I restore from backup in 6 months many of the programs will have newer versions etc :confused:
 
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