Windows 7 backup utility - good!

Faustus

Faustus

Faustus

Soldato
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I'm not sure how many people are aware of this but Windows 7 HP now includes an option to do full image backups as well as data files.

Although I use Acronis for my backup solutions I was interested to see just how good or bad this utility was. I have done a full image backup using the one provided with Windows 7 this evening then bit the bullet and clicked to restore the full image. (well there's no point having backup software if you're not sure it will work when you need it)

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised - it doesn't have all the whistles and bells that you get with Acronis but to be honest all I want is to restore the entire image when things go badly wrong. The backup was pretty quick and the restore even quicker - around 35 minutes for an 85 gig image and the PC fired up without any hiccups whatsoever. :D
 
yeah, its pretty handy. been using it since it was integrated into vista ultimate. never had any probs restoring my backups, but have heard some horror stories from some who havent been so lucky.
 
Baked said:
yeah, its pretty handy. been using it since it was integrated into vista ultimate. never had any probs restoring my backups, but have heard some horror stories from some who havent been so lucky.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty impressed with the way W7 image creation works. I did have a bit of trouble with the Vista Ultimate version - it seemed to get confused if you changed partition sizes. However the W7 app works very well - better than True Image in fact - the version I've got, TI 11, doesn't seem to like SSD drives, whereas W7 backup is fine.
 
Ahh thats not good.

So if i have a drive with a 40gb partition and a 800gb partition with Win7 installed on the 40gb, i then have to backup both partitions or can i just save the smaller 40gb as a image?
 
^^

No, you don't have to backup both partitions. Pirate is wrong, the backup tool asks you what you want to backup, and then does it. I have 4 partitions with Win7 on the first, and have just done a restore on that partition after doing a bit of benching.
 
You can do individual partitions but if you try to restore them it will nuke the whole HDD. The system image is fine if you only have one partition but if you have more than one with a lot of data you risk losing it when restoring.

The last time I looked into this [very recently] this hadn't changed. If I am wrong please show me because this would be absolutely fantastic.
 
being noob here but what's the difference between this and system restore?

are these full size images? so backing up 1gb takes 2gb in total on the hard drive?
 
3t3P said:
being noob here but what's the difference between this and system restore?

are these full size images? so backing up 1gb takes 2gb in total on the hard drive?
Click to expand...

Disk imaging almost always has some degree of compression although you CAN tell it to not compress and have full sized images. The only time you would do this is trading less space for speed. I am not aware whether the Windows 7 implementation gives you this level of control however.

System restore is a flat file 'backup' method of critical System and Program Files, the registry etc. It's only useful for rolling back a currently working system to a previous state.

Imaging is used to effectively restore everything, as it was, even from a bare metal PC that has nothing on its drives.
 
Basically i will have:-

HDD no 1 with 1 partition;
C:/ - Win 7 Pro x64 installed

HDD no 2 with 2 partitions;
D:/ - Data (files.....pictures, documents, programs i've d/l etc) around 80Gb of data
E:/ - Recovery partition (Vista HP x64 factory recovery, as it came supplied)

I would want to backup C:/ and D:/ (not to bothered about E:/ but dont want to lose it if i dont have to as i dont have a Vista DVD).
So if i tick "include system image" would this create a single image containing both C:/ and D:/ if i have the drives ticked or does it just create an image of your Windows drive/partition?
Then to restore i would just pick "restore image" and C:/ and D:/ would be replaced so as to return my system to exactly as it was before with the E:/ Recovery partition still in place and not altered (assuming it wasnt corrupted etc if my system went bad).
 
I want to use this to backup my Media drive G: and noticed it also has the ability to clone my w7 install on the C: drive and D: games drive. Is it worth doing this?

I will be unplugging the backup HDD once complete to keep it separate from the PC, when i plug it in (1/month of so) will W7 recognise it as a backup drive and copy everything new/delete everything since gone? I used to just drag and drop everything from the media file and my docs and leave the rest.

Also if i plug it into a different PC will it be recognised?
 
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Bump: OK so i have made the backup and notice that it puts every folder into a rar/zip file rendering the information useless if i want to plug it into another PC.

However, i am still tempted to leave it like this as a sole backup rather than portable media disc but wanted to know if any 1 of my hard drives fail (C: OS, D: Games, E: media) can it restore just one of them or will it overwrite all three with a restore?
 
I thought the imaging backup system was only in Pro, not HP?

EDIT: On further investigation it appears I'm wrong and it is in HP. Apparently Pro lets you backup directly to non-local drives & HP doesn't.

Meh, I use Home Server for my backups anyway :)
 
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Well this sucks, i'm running backup for the second time and it isnt just looking at new files it's doing everything and taking hours :mad: going to have to leave PC on all night!
 
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