Windows's System Image Resto How Flexible?

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Ed Cryer
writes:
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
[]
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
[]
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)

I think that was written for people who store all their data files on
the same partition as their system, and basically was warning you that
you can't restore an individual file from such an image. I think,
reading further (including what's been posted here in this thread), it's
basically an image of the C: partition (and possibly the hidden ones
too), though does seem to eliminate unused space.

"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...covery-in-wind
ows-7-8/)

If true, that would be unambiguous. But a lot of people (mis)use "drive"
and "partition" interchangeably; what my experiment seems to have shown
is that (possibly only providing the partition _arrangements_ [at least
size, possibly more] haven't been changed since the image was made),
then only the partition(s) that were imaged are restored, without
corrupting others. (And yes, I did check that it had actually restored!
I made a trivial change - changed the background slideshow settings
between creating the image and doing the restore - and it did indeed
restore to how they had been.)

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.
[]

If you run System Image, and find some .vhd files on your
computer, those can be mounted for random access. Some
other, file by file backup tools I've seen, store things
in limited size ZIP files, and those too can be accessed.
In fact, it would be more interesting, to search for
backup formats that *don't* have a random access option
of some kind. Even NTBackup, I think I found a utility
that will convert the backup into a tar file, and from
there, 7ZIP could open it.

I don't know which OS does it, but one of them mounts
..vhd files natively, as well as .iso files (for a virtual
CD using only the OS and no third-party tool). It's possibly
Windows 8 that does that. But a .vhd file can be mounted
in OSes as early as WinXP, using tools such as VHDMount.
It's just not a very smooth or easy process. I usually
load .vhd files here, by just popping them into a virtual
machine environment, and extracting any files there. I've done
that, using file sets from my Windows 7 laptop, saved as
..vhd files. If I need to see files from my laptop, I just
load a recent .vhd and leave the laptop turned off.

Paul

On 2/02/2014, Ed Cryer posted:
Gene E. Bloch wrote:
On 2/01/2014, Ed Cryer posted:
Ed Cryer wrote:
Ed Cryer wrote:
Ed Cryer wrote:
Ken Blake wrote:
On Sat, 01 Feb 2014 14:30:58 +0000, Ed Cryer

wrote:


I'm retired too. But some how or other I've taken on so much
to do
that
I can't figure how I ever had time to go to work.


LOL! Same here, and I've even cut back on a lot of volunteer
things I
used to do.


I was hoping that when I retired I might become a spokesman for
humanity; a bit like Bono, who tells us all about the rising
Tiger
economy, how Africa and India are on the rise, and other such
stuff of
international importance.
Instead I appear to have become humanity's workhorse. Everybody
who
knows me and the skills I have comes along and asks me to do
this,
that
and the other. So I mend computers, do gardens, teach languages
and
history on the Net, and a million other such things.
(-:

Ed




Or maybe I could astound the scientific world by discovering how
the
brain generates mind. And get a Nobel Prize. Me there, alongside
Peter
Higgs.
But no.

Ed


Or maybe write a novel from a God's-eye point of view, like
Tolstoy and
Dostoevsky.
Or create a political ideology like Marx; give the world
something to
aim for, restore Eden.
Or set an example like Che Guevara.

Ed


Or win Wimbledon for a Brit, after 70 years.
Or bring the planets into alignment with music, like Bill and Ted.
Or create something new, like a cuckoo clock.

Ed

Now I understand your problem!

You spend so much time and energy on ideas that there's nothing
left for
implementation.

I've got lots of time for implementation. All I need is an idea...
:-)


It's modern life.

Imagine Leonardo Da Vinci in retirement; and a lady reporter keeps
knocking on his door. "Is it true, Senr. Da V, that you dissected
human corpses? Is it true that your Gioconda smile was induced with
wine? Is it true that you designed murderous war-weapons?"

Ed

The smile was induced with wine? Oh, the humanity!

Anyway, thanks for the nice irony. Food for thought.

What would Snowden have done with that info back in the day?

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)