Windows's System Image Resto How Flexible?

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?
--
Pete Cresswell

"(PeteCresswell)" x y.Invalid 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?

Use Macrium Reflect.

On Thu, 30 Jan 2014 21:27:36 +0000 (UTC), John Doe wrote:

Use Macrium Reflect.

Use Macrium Reflect Free.

--
s|b

"s|b" me privacy.invalid wrote:

John Doe wrote:

Use Macrium Reflect.

Use Macrium Reflect Free.

Some people have money.

(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.

Ed

"(PeteCresswell)" wrote in message
...
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?
--
Pete Cresswell

I suspect that you will not have any control over partition sizes at all
using W7's image backup. You would have to be using imaging software like
Norton Ghost, or Aconis TrueImage, ...or Partition Magic, (I've imaged using
it but, never had to restore using it !)
.....and I suspect that you could even encounter problems restoring to a hard
disk of the same size but, a different brand, e.g. on some brand specific
hardaware e.g a DELL Laptop, or a Packard Bell Desktop :-)
.....and the restored partition sizes would be the same as the original
sizes.

regards, Richard

(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?

I don't see any resize options listed here.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tuto...n-windows-7-8/

When you have questions about Windows 7, you can use
a site specific search of the sevenforums.com site, which
has tutorials on it.

site:sevenforums.com system image restore

That gets me this tutorial.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...-recovery.html

The same guy owns several web sites:

site:vistax64.com
site:sevenforums.com
site:eightforums.com

That allows you to search for tutorials on the last
three Microsoft OSes.

HTH,
Paul

Paul wrote:
(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?

I don't see any resize options listed here.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tuto...n-windows-7-8/


When you have questions about Windows 7, you can use
a site specific search of the sevenforums.com site, which
has tutorials on it.

site:sevenforums.com system image restore

That gets me this tutorial.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...-recovery.html

The same guy owns several web sites:

site:vistax64.com
site:sevenforums.com
site:eightforums.com

That allows you to search for tutorials on the last
three Microsoft OSes.

HTH,
Paul
Correct, there are no resize options in Windows 7 included Backup and
Restore. IIrc, the destination drive needs to be equivalent to or larger
than the combined size of all the included imaged/backup partitions
(System Volume, Boot Volume, and other partitions).


--
....winston
msft mvp consumer apps

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.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Can you open your mind without it falling out?

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

On Thu, 30 Jan 2014 22:10:08 +0000 (UTC), John Doe wrote:

Use Macrium Reflect.
Use Macrium Reflect Free.

Some people have money.

What are you insinuating? I have money, but I'm not an idiot. I don't
want to pay for something if I can have it for free (legally).

--
s|b

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.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

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

On 1/31/2014, Ed Cryer posted:
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.

Or maybe "I would if it would be fun, but it won't" :-)

I tend to like experimentation, and being retired, I often can find the
time - but some experiments just aren't that much fun.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

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