How to Create a System Image in Windows 7 - How-To Geek

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www.bookmybootcamp.com/Exchange2010 How to Create a System Image in Windows 7
The new backup utilities in Windows 7 are actually pretty impressive and
creating an image will be possible in all versions. Today we take a look at
creating a backup image of your machine without the need for a third party
utility like Ghost or True Image.
You just just finished installing a fresh copy of Windows 7 on your computer and
have it set up to your liking. One of the first things you should do now is
create an image of the disc so in the event of a crash you will be able to
restore it to its current state. An image is an exact copy of everything on the
drive and will restore it back to its current state. It’s probably best to
create an image when everything is clean and organized on your system. This will
make the image file smaller and allows you to restore the system with a smooth
running set up.
Creating an Image in Windows 7
Click on Start go to Getting Started and then select Back up your files.
Next click on the Create a system image hyperlink.

Decide where you want to save the image. You can choose an external drive, burn
to multiple DVD’s, or store it on a network location.
You can include other drives if you want as well but remember that will add to
the size of the final image.
At the confirmation screen notice the amount of space the image may take. If
something doesn’t look right you can still go back from this point and make
adjustments.
A progress meter is displayed while the images is created and backed up. In this
example a disk of about 15GB in size took under 20 minutes backed up to an
external drive. Times will vary depending on your system and where you’re
backing it up to.
After the process is complete you get the option to create a system repair disc
which you should do and make sure to save it in a secure location.

When it comes time to restore the image, you will be able to use the System
Recovery Options to get the system back.
Image in Windows Vista
Vista Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise allow you to create an image, but Vista
Home and Home Premium users do not have the option. The process is similar in
Vista, type backup into the search bar and click on Backup and Restore Center.
Then click on Back up computer and the wizard will guide you through the
process.
Conclusion
This is a extremely handy feature and it actually works well. It is also nice
that the feature will be available in each edition of Windows 7 instead of just
the higher end versions. This will save you some money in not having to spend
$50-80 on a third party utility. You should create an image when everything is
fresh on your system so the image is not too large and the essentials of you
machine can quickly be restored. For instance I created an image after a fresh
install and putting Office 2007 and a few of my most commonly used programs. The
entire image came in around 10 GB which is easily stored on an external drive or
a few DVD’s.
This article was originally written on 09/24/09
Tagged with: Privacy and Security, System Administration, Windows 7
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Comments (29)
September 24, 2009 4:30 am InDiSent Awesome!!!September 24, 2009 7:06 am
GoodBytes This feature is only on Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate
edition.September 24, 2009 11:54 am Mysticgeek @GoodBytes:
The imaging feature was only available for the higher end versions of Vista,
However, all versions of Windows 7 include the imaging feature…even Starter
edition October 10, 2009 3:41 am Kathy Can the image then be restored to a
different computer (same model) as in a computer lab environment?October 14,
2009 6:58 am John Michaels On NeoSmart Technologies there is download for the
Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit recovery discs. You may want to put link in your
article, because I find helpful this download.
Download: http://neosmart.net/blog/2009/.....air-discs/November 10, 2009 3:56
am ajay I have tried to do a complete system image as well as a repair disk
with my Windows 7 Ultimate OS. But I am receiving ‘insert blank disk’ error
message. but i am using new disksNovember 25, 2009 12:27 pm Ernesto Very
usefull thanks!!!!!December 4, 2009 2:06 pm Onlooker You can only use a
network drive location for W7 professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise;
unfortunately.
I was bummed to find this out as I wanted to create an image for my laptop on
a external drive attached to my desktop.
Now I have to unhook it and hook it directly to my laptop. More work, less
convenient.December 17, 2009 11:26 am hooroy Excellent article! Have fun this
Friday…December 20, 2009 4:36 pm mark skinner hi love the article on creating
an image win,7 i may sound a bit thick or its late, can i/ or how do i get
some articles emailed to me or downloaded to my computer ..my bloody hands
killing me writing it all down yours in kind anticipation
m a skinner
ps, i have signed up for your email service, keep up the good work.December
22, 2009 7:47 pm JonMCC33 I can confirm Mysticgeek’s statement that the
imaging feature is available on all versions of Windows 7. I have Windows 7
Home Premium and it is available to me.December 31, 2009 10:40 am Rich I
recently installed Windows 7 Ultimate on my laptop. I also installed a NAS
(from Seagate) I went into Microsoft backup and restore to take my initial
backup. There is about 10gig of user files including a music library. The
backup started running and it looked like it was going to take about 6 hours.
The status screen showed the files being copied and then it changed to saying
Creating System Image of C. The whole process slowed down and after running 18
hours shows that it is 75% completed. Is this normal. My laptop is connected
wirelessly to the router and the NAS is connected into the back of the router
on a 10/100 port. Should it take this long? Any ideas what could be taking so
longDecember 31, 2009 1:54 pm philoso4 While it appears that Home Premium
edition will allow you to “setup backup”, it will not recognize any network
drives. Onlooker is correct.February 25, 2010 11:21 am Noah Is this
applicable to WinServer 2008r2? I’m using that as an OS and the one thing
missing is a native backup tool. Granted it is a server OS so I didn’t expect
it, but it had so much of Win7 already, I was curious if it was hidden
somewhere.May 2, 2010 3:36 pm SendMail Hi,
Can you pls tell me how can i make ‘System Image’ in Vista ? I have Vista Home
Basic, Everyone now and then i use to get BSOD. i am always scared of
Installing New Softwares, I am totally Frustrated with Vista.?
Regards,May 6, 2010 5:42 pm spencer when attempting to create a system image
I get a notice that says backup failed. The reason I am given is “there is not
enough disc space to create the volume shadow copy on the storage location.
Make sure that, for all volumes to be backup up, the minimum required disk
space for shadow copy creation is available. This applies to both the backup
storage destination and volumes included in the backup.” Explanation then goes
on to give examples of space needed. I have a external HD with 213.49 GB of
free space, this is certainly enough, can anyone advise? I have also gotten a
error code 0×81000033.May 19, 2010 5:25 am golfdude I have around 200 gb on
my main hd (RAID 1) and started a System Backup with System Image yesterday. I
am backing the data up to a 320 gb external hd. It has been running around 16
hours so far and is only 45% complete. Any ideas why this would take so long?
I have checked my power settings and the cpu hasn’t shut off.
Windows 7 Ultimate
Q6600 quad core
8 gb ramMay 21, 2010 10:47 pm Don Thanks Guys! another Save, kept this
computer out of the Landfill!!!!May 24, 2010 12:57 am A Thanks a bunchJune 9,
2010 8:13 am burt First disc went fairly rapidly and store 53% of the data.
Second disc slowed down when it got to the 79% spot it appears to have
stopped. It hasn’t moved or given an error report in 12 hours.June 9, 2010
8:20 am burt First disc went fairly rapidly and store 53% of the data. Second
disc slowed down, when it got to the 79% spot it appears to have stopped. It
hasn’t moved or given an error report in 12 hours.June 22, 2010 4:16 am
archie lukas Quote;
“This feature is only on Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate edition.”
bum bum bum bum bum….BUMJuly 21, 2010 6:30 pm fsarchiver I was able to backup
any partition of Windows or Linux with this article.August 5, 2010 9:42 pm
lokesh k.shm this article is very helpful for me. thanx for this articleAugust
16, 2010 10:45 pm julian casablancas If I have 3 partition in 1 hard drive
and only create a backup of my c: drive. When its time to
restore, will it delete my D & E partition? I dont want to backup my D&E
because they only hold movies and apps.August 31, 2010 5:29 am steve I just
upgraded a dell laptop from vista home premium to a windows 7 home premium
after, i resized a partition to 40 gigs, and found out the image wants to be
fifty gigs? is there any old windows folders i can delete to get this image
size down?? thanks!September 7, 2010 6:38 pm Jeff Can this be used image be
used on other computer that are identical, like Ghost or true image?September
 29, 2010 12:12 pm ken Thank you for addressing this topic so clearly. I found
it easy for anyone to follow. I previously made a restore disk and followed it
up by creating an image as well to a portable usb drive ($80 200G). This
article helped me know for sure that I made the right decisions in protecting
my wife’s new Dell laptop. Thanks so much!October 14, 2010 4:16 pm Brian What
would be useful would be for the imaging application to offer an extra option
for where to store the disk image – on the disk itself. Since it knows how
much space is needed, it could offer to automatically repartition the disk,
creaming off a separate lump for the disk copy.Leave a ReplyClick here to canc
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