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W7's system image feature...



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 18th 16, 02:24 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Ant[_2_]
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Posts: 554
Default W7's system image feature...

I see that one can use it to make and restore images IN a running
Windows 7, but what about outside of Windows like booting from discs,
flash drives, etc. like disk image programs (e.g., Symantec's Ghost)?
Also, do image viewers for these system images?

Thank you in advance.
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  #2  
Old December 18th 16, 01:38 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul[_32_]
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Posts: 11,873
Default W7's system image feature...

Ant wrote:
I see that one can use it to make and restore images IN a running
Windows 7, but what about outside of Windows like booting from discs,
flash drives, etc. like disk image programs (e.g., Symantec's Ghost)?
Also, do image viewers for these system images?

Thank you in advance.


There is a confusing array of options here for Restore.

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

This picture shows the System Image Recovery option available
from the recovery (boot) CD. The installer DVD offers the same
functions when you boot it.

http://www.sevenforums.com/attachmen...ry_options.jpg

But I can't in all honesty, recommend the built-in backup.
It's an option, but not the best option you could
possibly find.

In Win7, each partition is stored as a VHD. You can do random
access on a VHD, using a modern version of 7ZIP. You can "attach"
a VHD in Disk Management (OS version dependent). So VHDs have
some options. VHD files also are accessible in VirtualBox and
other hosting softwares.

You could even boot a LiveCD in VirtualBox, with the VHD in
question added as a "hard drive" to the virtual machine, and
gain access to a single Windows partition on a Win7 VHD.

The Windows 10 version of System Image, makes .vhdx files. These
files can hold more than 2TB of data, and that might be why the
format was selected. But there are reduced options for playing
with it later. 7ZIP won't open a .vhdx, Hyper-V of course would,
but not all computers can use Hyper-V. Out of my computer collection,
only the new one has EPT/SLAT for Hyper-V in the CPU. I specifically
shopped for that feature when buying it.

A conventional backup/restore program is marginally more
user friendly.

The Windows 7 backup, where it backs up to DVDs, the ecosystem
isn't smart enough to "format" the DVD before the write, requiring
a user to baby-sit, when the backup process throws an error, you
go back to the desktop and "format" the disc, then offer it to
the backup program. To do the most basic C: backup using DVDs with
it, took two hours, during which time I had to be on the lookout
for a DVD error.

Win7 backup doesn't have a "purpose-built" partition viewer for
the backups, but the format chosen is reasonably workable with more
than one other tool. Programs like Macrium Reflect or Acronis TIH,
they mount .mrimg or .tib using a mounter service they install in
Windows. Macrium Reflect can even convert its .mrimg file to .vhd,
which would then open up more tools for re-purposing afterwards.

But if you were a computer-phobe, hated computers, and "just
wanted the machine to work again", you would need a sedative
before you could complete one of these procedures :-) Just
enough of a sedative so you lacked the energy to "throw a
brick through the screen" :-)

*******

A perfect place to test this, is from within a VM. Install
a copy of Windows 7 into a new VM. When you set up the VM,
create two virtual hard drives. The second hard drive can
be used to store D:\WindowsImageBackup, as if D: was your
external drive. Then, boot the VM with your Recovery CD
or with the Windows 7 Installer DVD (an ISO of these
would work perfectly well and be fast). From the booted
optical media, you should then see the option in the picture
above, and you can restore from D:\WIndowsImageBackup over
top of C: and System Reserved. That's the best way to learn
how to do it, without endangering anything.

For VM Hosting softwa

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

For virtual machine appliance files, which you
can operate within VirtualBox (so you don't
need a Win7 installer DVD for Dell owners).
Microsoft has VMs ready to go (30 days, unlicensed).
You open these in VirtualBox, and one virtual disk would
be set up for you. You can add a second blank
virtual disk to hold the backup. Modern OS appliance
files are on the order of 4 to 5GB and download as
an OVA file. You don't have to use VirtualBox,
because multiple hosting solutions are supported.

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-u...vms/#downloads

And a program like this can be used on the VHD, if
you lack entertainment. You could install this within
the VM for example, navigate to D:\WindowsImageBackup
and find the VHD file, and examine it.

http://www.7-zip.org/

Virtual Machines do have some important limitations,
but if you lack the interest in plugging and unplugging
a lot of stuff on the machine, virtualizing the process
for testing might be an option.

Paul
 




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