Using Windows 7 Image Backup Tool
Posted December 24, 2008 – 4:51 pm in: Uncategorized, Windows 7, Windows 7 TweaksWe have been using third-party utilities like Acronis True Image and Macrium Reflect to create image backup of our installed Vista or any other drives. Gone are the days when you had to use third-party applications to create image backup.
But with Windows 7 everything is possible now. Just say good bye to Acronis True Image before we get into the innards of this post. We can now create image (clone) backup of drives easily using the in-built Image Backup feature. Though there are few limitations basic Windows user will find it very useful. So how to access and use this feature?
1. Open Control Panel, under System and Security open Backup your computer option.
2. In the lift pane, open the link “Create an image backup”.
3. Select the destination drive or Optical drive or network location to store backup files.
4.Click Next to include/exclude drives in the image backup.Note that the disk that Windows is installed on will always be included in the backup.You cannot include the disk that you are saving the backup to.
5.In the next step Windows 7 will give a last chance to confirm the backup settings you have chosen in the last step.Once you are agree with the backup settings just click Start backup button to start backup process.Backup process few minutes to hours depending on the size of the disk.
6.After finishing the backup process Windows 7 prompts you an option to create a recovery CD so that you can restore the created image using the bootable recovery disc.
Tags: backup disk, backup harddrive, disk clone, disk imaging, Windows 7 image back up
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6 Comments
I have created an image with success a few days ago with success.
In addition, I have used the restore function as well to test it, using the boot disc created by the application, and the restore has worked out very well without any problems!
However, it seems to be impossible to create ANOTHER image afterwards without destroying the first one!
It is apparently not possible to define a subfolder in which you can put all new images, This is a nice feature of for instance True Image: you can either create a complete new image or an incremental one.
Will this feature be available in the next versions of the backup-restore feature of W7?? I hope so…
For the rest I am quite enthusiastic about Windows 7: it is fast and seems to be quite stable!
Keep in mind that you can always rename the previous backup directory if you wish to create a 2nd image.
This Windows 7 Create Backup Image is causing the computer to run so slowly that the computer totally is unusable! Windows 7 by itself is totally unusable because it’s way too slow! This is not acceptable! Windows 7 Sync Center is also slowing down the system too much!
Used this is as well last night. It ran moderately quickly and backed up my system drive to my RAID drive without a hitch! All the while I was running Visual Studio, WMP + several other applications without any slowdown on my system.
If your system is slow, it could be due to your hardware. Don’t be quick to blame windows for that. My boot times are great and I have zero lag on my machine at all.
For those curious, my system specs are as follows:
ASUS M4A79 Deluxe Mobo (790FX and SB750)
AMD Phenom II 940 BE 3.0Ghz running at stock speed and voltage
Corsair Dominator DDRII 1066 8GB @ 4×2GB
ATI Radeon 9870 1GB GDDR5 (x1)
WD Raptor 10k RPM 75GB System Drive (x1)
WD 1TB Data/Backup Drive (x2 in RAID)
Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate
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Absolutely hums along without issue. Love this setup. Coming from Windows XP => Vista => Windows 7 and by far it’s the best yest IMO.
I installed 7 this evening and it took 30 minutes and I don’t have a single missing device in device manager after a clean install on an Nvidia motherboard!
I’m planning on getting the manufacturer Drivers installed and trying this out so I have a clean backup to start from while I test.
Thanks for this guide!
I would like for the Windows 7 Image Backup to be upgraded to support backing up to Blu-Ray discs. This would provide the ability to backup about 25 GB per disc.