| How reliable is Windows 7 imaging? Nothing fancy, just imaging my entire single drive to an external drive. I made the recovery CD, booted to it and got a message 'windows found problem with your startup options'. I ignored that and went ahead through the process but stopped at the end, just testing.
Could that be a problem if I had to do a restore? Can I rely on this in an emergency? I have Acronis and use that but can the built in W7 imaging replace Acronis?
Anything mission critical Microsoft makes me nervous, don't ask me why 
You experiences? |
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| I've used it without issues in the past. The 2 drawbacks I see are that the image size is quite large, and it's very slow compared to other solutions. But it gets the job done.
Don't know what that msg means that you got when you booted the recovery disk. I had no such msg... |
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 CudniLa Merma - VigiladoPremium,MVM
join:2003-12-20
Someshire
kudos:13 | reply to grreyeyezz
Used it half a dozen times on different comps. Not failed once, systems restored fully. Good stuff
Cudni |
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 KramerPremium,Mod
join:2000-08-03
Richmond, VA
kudos:2
 ·GoDaddy Hosting
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| reply to grreyeyezz
I've used it 3 or 4 times. It works quite well. I'd trust it. Any retail WIN7 disk can be used as a recovery disk. Dell OS recovery DVDs work well too. I recently used it to upgrade hard drive size with a RAID 1 array on a desktop. It restored the original partition size, but I was able to expand it. It images all the partitions on a drive, so if you have a recovery partition, it grabs that too. |
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 DustynPremium
join:2003-02-26
Ontario, CAN
kudos:10 | reply to grreyeyezz
Works very well.
One point to remember is that it usualy will NOT perform a backup to any drive that may require a chkdsk run on it. I've had drives in the past that stopped backing up Windows 7 images to because I needed to run a chkdsk /f on it. After I did that backups resumed as normal. Makes sense, but most other 3rd party backup utilities can get around this. |
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 dib22
join:2002-01-27
Kansas City, MO | reply to grreyeyezz
The times I've used it was reliable... but the problem I had with it is the way it auto-manages the images. I also could never find a way to browse the images without a full restore (if anyone has any ideas let me know!).
I ran across and started using Macrium Reflect eventually. If you are worried about the image you made you might make a reflect image for safe keeping, then you will have 2 images.. the MS one and the MR one:
»www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
Some advise with Macrium... after you make the image, jump to the restore tab and have it verify the image.
Since you already have Acronis why not just keep dual images... one with Acronis and one with the MS built in until you are certain? |
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Indy SabreSabre Rider From Indianapolis
join:2003-10-02 | reply to grreyeyezz
I tried it and didn't like that it creates the image on the root of the backup drive, you can't create folders for different PC backups.
I usually use Acronis but have one newer ASUS system where it can create images but takes a very long time to verify the image.
Thinking of trying Macrium on the ASUS PC to learn, I think I want to have a backup solution that boots easily off of USB since some newer laptops are starting to come without DVD drives. |
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 SueSPremium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO
kudos:2 | reply to Cudni
I have two questions. What do you put your image on, DVDs or external drives? Do you need to image the hard-drive for every user? Thanks |
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KramerPremium,Mod
join:2000-08-03
Richmond, VA
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| said by SueS:I have two questions. What do you put your image on, DVDs or external drives? Do you need to image the hard-drive for every user? Thanks
Either, although it can be very slow going with DVDs. External hard drives are much faster and easier. By definition an image captures everything, all user accounts, all files, all of everything. When you restore an image successfully, you basically return your hard drive to the way it was when you captured the image. |
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| reply to grreyeyezz
I have used it hundreds of times without problems. I have never found it to be slow.
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Certs: CCNA, GPEN, GCIH, GCFW, GSEC, GCIA, GCFA, GCWN |
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| reply to SueS
I would never use DVD's. Tried a restore with acronis and on disk #4 it had a read error leaving my system half restored and toast. |
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SueSPremium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO
kudos:2 | reply to Kramer
said by Kramer:said by SueS:I have two questions. What do you put your image on, DVDs or external drives? Do you need to image the hard-drive for every user? Thanks
Either, although it can be very slow going with DVDs. External hard drives are much faster and easier. By definition an image captures everything, all user accounts, all files, all of everything. When you restore an image successfully, you basically return your hard drive to the way it was when you captured the image. Thanks and another question. Is is necessary to make a recovery disk also when you image the hard-drive? |
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KramerPremium,Mod
join:2000-08-03
Richmond, VA
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| It is a recovery CD. It may or may not be necessary, but it can't hurt to make at least one. It simply boots to a very scaled down version of Windows 7 that then allows you to start the image restore from whatever media you used. You can do the same thing by booting from any retail DVD of a Windows 7 version that has the capability. I know Pro and Ultimate have the imaging software, but I'm not sure about Home versions. You can even boot off a Dell OS DVD. I'd still make the recovery CD. Like I said... it can't hurt. |
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 Sindows 7
join:2006-09-13
Chilliwack, BC
kudos:2
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| I use seagate diskwizard boot CD.
re-image takes less than 4 minutes.
back-up takes about the same.
Version 11.0 is the best |
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SueSPremium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO
kudos:2 | reply to Kramer
Thank you |
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