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    How to backup entire drive using image?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by seiyafan, Nov 24, 2011.

  1. seiyafan

    seiyafan Notebook Evangelist

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    I decide to install a second hard drive (it's a 750GB Advanced Format HDD) on my laptop, it currently has a 128 GB SSD as the main drive. Instead of going through the hassle of installing Win 7 then all the apps on the new hard drive, is there a way to transfer an image of SSD directly to HDD? So in case the SSD dies someday I can just plug the HDD into the main drive and continue using the laptop. =)
     
    seiyafan, Nov 24, 2011
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  2. Duct Tape Dude

    Duct Tape Dude Duct Tape Dude

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    You could use the Windows Backup and Restore and check the box that says "Create a system image of C:" which will save a .vhd file of your hard drive.

    Since it's a .vhd file you can use a program like 7-Zip (Open source version of WinRAR but infinitely better) to read the file like a normal archive (ie: browse through it and grab what you want).

    To restore it you can use any Windows installation media or a recovery CD to restore Windows to a previous image file. I've done this several times while testing a few things, helps me keep snapshots of my entire system partition without touching the rest of my hard drive.

    There are other programs from companies like Acronis, someone here can probably suggest something better. But if you have Win7 this feature is kind of built into Windows. The only downside is you can't just swap it in, you'd have to run the restore from file first.
     
    Duct Tape Dude, Nov 24, 2011
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  3. makaveli72

    makaveli72 Eat.My.Shorts

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    ^ What was said above.

    I personally use Acronis to do my images. You'll need to create an Acronis Boot Disc.
     
    makaveli72, Nov 24, 2011
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  4. mtneer

    mtneer Notebook Consultant

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    Can you just swap in the new drive with Acronis? Or do you have to extract from a file like was said earlier with the Windows Imager?
     
    mtneer, Nov 24, 2011
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  5. AMATX

    AMATX Notebook Consultant

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    +1 on Acronis. Easy to use, once you've been through it a few times. Very fast on both the backups and restores.

    As noted above, for the restore, be sure you use the standalone, bootable DVD version. Somewhere inside Acronis is an option to burn the DVD, so no big deal getting it going.

    Acronis is very popular on this board, for good reason.
     
    AMATX, Nov 24, 2011
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  6. makaveli72

    makaveli72 Eat.My.Shorts

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    What dtd mentioned was just an option. You don't have to do that. You can restore like normal using the Windows Restore Disc.

    With Acronis you install the program on the current HDD/SSD that needs to be backed up. You then back it up to an ext. usb hdd for example, insert the new drive and then use the Acronis Boot Disc to do the restore from the ext. usb hdd image.

    You can also boot using the Acronis Boot Disc and perform an offline type backup.
     
    makaveli72, Nov 25, 2011
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