Paul wrote:
Ed Cryer wrote:
Gene E. Bloch wrote:
On 1/31/2014, Ed Cryer posted:
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Ed Cryer
writes:
(PeteCresswell) wrote:
I'm taking an image of somebody's laptop as I write this - using 7's
built-in imaging utility.

The Question:

If/when the worst happens, how flexible is the restore process
going to
be? The drive is partitioned: about 50 gigs for the system and the
rest for D: Data.

At restore time, does the target partition have to be precisely the
same
size as the imaged system's partition? Obviously it cannot be
smaller,
but can it be a few gigs larger?


It'll restore onto any HD not smaller than the original.

When you do a restore the entire target drive is overwritten.
If the drive contains, say, partitions C, D and E, and only C is on
the image, then only C will be there after the restore.
[]
Eeek, are you sure about that? The process doesn't give any warning
about that.

Actually, come to think of it, I don't think it's so: I created a 50G
C:, 400-odd D:, and 50 Z, and did a system image create (to Z) -
specifying only C and the hidden etc. bits - and actually did a
restore,
booting from a system restore disc, just to be sure I could. After the
restore, D: and Z: were definitely still there.

I got the _impression_ it wasn't too bothered about sizes: it told me
how much space the image would take (thirtysomething G IIRR at that
point).

(Yes, I know "backing up" to another partition on the same HD is
unwise
- the image creation process actually warns you of that fact anyway;
this was [a] just a proof-of-concept, to verify that the restore
process
does actually work, [b] for a person for whom the most likely
situation
is that she "breaks" the system, rather than the HD dying.)

I found the process - from making the system image through to booting
from the restore CD (even the making of that; wish I'd known it was
under 200M, as I'd have made it on a mini-CD for ease of
identification)
and restoring - reasonably straightforward, and it looked as if it
would
have been almost as straightforward using say an external USB HD. I am
somewhat curious as to what Macrium, Todo, etc. offer that the
included
process doesn't. (Apart from maybe incremental/differential, which I
didn't intend he the idea was to backup the system and
programs-including-their-settings, not the data, which we'll do by
other
means.)

(The one thing I found was that the page - I think it was a Microsoft
one - describing the process which I'd printed out said, was that you
could instigate the restore process by booting from the W7
installation
DVD; when I tried to do that, I didn't succeed - I can't remember
now, I
think it said something like this image isn't accessible, usable, or
something like that. But making and then using a Restore Disk was
fine.)

Hhhmm! I always include all the partitions on an image because I
thought that was what occurred. I base it on warnings like these.

"When you restore your computer from a system image, it's a complete
restoration—you can't choose individual items to restore, and all of
your current programs, system settings, and files are replaced with
the contents of the system image."
(http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/w...a-system-image)

"In the event that you are unable to start Windows or wish to restore
your hard drives to a previous backup you can use the System Image
Recovery program from the Windows 7 or Windows 8 Recovery Environment.
This process will overwrite the entire contents of your hard drives
with the contents of a previously created system image. It is
important to note that all of your data will be removed and replaced
with the contents of the system image. Therefore, please backup any
new data that has been since you created the system image that you
plan to restore."
(http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tuto...n-windows-7-8/)



I've often restored from an image. But (a personal quirk) I only ever
use a C partition on my internal HD. More often than not it comes with
a "D for data" one too, but I leave that empty, and include it in the
saved image.
All of which leaves me unable to put a stamp of "tried and proven" on
my theory.

I used to use Paragon backup but while commissioning a new Win8 box
recently I found problems with it. So, for the first time, I installed
Macrium Reflect. I was pleasantly surprised. It's good; smaller than
Paragon, better GUI, and did its stuff well. The only downside I found
was that to make a rescue boot disc it had to download a file about
1/2GB in size.

Ed

I wold say that the Microsoft description is ambiguous (thank, MS!), but
to me it seems to agree with what John experienced.

OTOH, Bleping Computer is not the official document. Maybe it is just
wrong, given John's report, or maybe it tacitly assumes that the image
was set up by the user as a complete image of the drive.


Well, it wouldn't work in the case of a disk replacement; and that's
my major concern when I take sys images.
I use the term "sys image" very loosely. In practice I look upon it as
a backup of the C drive.
For other fails I have the sys restore option running.

I hate leaving this in the air. I could easily solve it for myself; thus.
1. Keep my established backup system running.
2 Take a sys image with only the C partition on it.
3. Restore and see what's there.

I would if I had the time; and that I don't.

Ed

Underneath, System Image is the equivalent of "wbadmin"
command line utility. And I can't see any evidence there
of a resizing capability.

wbadmin

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc754015.aspx

wbadmin start sysrecovery

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc742118.aspx

The question would be, does the presence or absence of
-recreateDisks, imply resizing ?

Paul


http://www.pagestart.com/win7bckuprstrnhd072610.html

Ed