Creating a system image with Windows 7

[Steve]

A system image can be used to restore your computer to the state it was in when the image was made. This is useful if your machine ever gets infected with viruses/spyware, system files get damaged, your hard drive physically dies, you want to upgrade to a bigger hard drive or SSD etc. Once you've got your system running nicely and with all of the software you need installed, that's a good point to create a system image.

 

Ideally, this is best done when you're using separate drives or partitions, so your OS or OS + apps are installed on just one drive/partition, otherwise you'll be making an image of all of your data files as well. I think it's better to use regular incremental backups for data files as you can't restore individual files from a system image.

 

To create a system image, you will need 2 things - somewhere to store the image (another hard drive is best) and a blank CD or DVD. Don't store the image on the same physical hard drive where your OS is already installed, because then if your hard drive physically fails, you won't be able to use the image to get your system back up and running.

 

To start the process, click Start and choose Control Panel, then click on Backup and Restore. If you're using an external hard drive to store the image, make sure it's connected, then click "Create a system image", top left. You can now choose where to store your image - on a hard drive, on optical discs (not really recommended as unless you have a Blu-Ray burner, you'll have to span the image across many discs and if one can't be read or gets damaged, you're screwed), or a network location. Select the appropriate option and hit Next to start the process.

 

The second thing you need to do is to create a system repair disc. Put a blank CD/DVD in your burner and hit "Create a system repair disc", top left. If you have multiple burners, you'll be asked to select which drive to use, then just click "Create disc" to burn the disc. Once it's done, label it and keep it safe.

 

If you ever need to use the system image to restore your system, you can boot from the system repair disc and restore the image from there.

 

For backing up data files, you can use Windows 7's backup facility, but I prefer to use a third party app called Cobian Backup 10. It's free and you can find info and a download link for it here: -

 

http://www.digitalvertigo.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=27516

 

A lot of people don't bother with backups, system images etc. but it's something you should do whenever possible, no matter which operating system you use!

[Tbtf]

Hey steve how do you back up data??? I have two extrnal HDS with a lot of data and dont want to lose my ish... What would you recommend for data only?

 

 

-EDIT nm I should rad the entire post before posting