[How-to] Make a full backup of your VAIO Z

I wrote up this short guide since there are so many people out here trying to image/clone/recover their Z’s RAIDed SSDs and fail because most drive imaging software and boot disks do not support or correctly recognize the RAID array used in the newer Z’s. Standard linux tools like dd work for sector-by-sector clone but not every user here is familiar with linux and this method is not very efficient. With this method you are able to fully backup your entire system with ease, making regular backups more comfortable.

What does that method do?
With this, you are able to make an image (complete backup) of all your data, partitions and boot records of your computer to an external USB drive. With that, you can revert back to your backed up system in minutes. After you restored your system back, you can just boot up again into your clean system. Reactivation of Windows, Office or stuff is not needed since you cloned your system to an image file and back. It is also possible to clone your device to another similar one. Especially when you need to send your laptop for repair, it is useful to backup your machine, wipe the drive due to privacy and security reasons and revert back on the repaired machine in order to have everything as it was before the repair again.

DISCLAIMER:
I do not provide any link of software mentioned in this post – google for it yourself. Use the software mentioned only when you have legal right to do so – you need a valid license for the contained software. Not having a license and using commercial software is illegal. I strongly refuse piracy and I am not responsible of anyone using illegal software. Last but not least I am also not responsible for damage caused by following my tips – use it on your own risk.

Here we go:

Prerequisites:
Get Hiren’s BootCD (I recommend Version 10.6) and burn on a CD-R or use the included scripts to prepare a flash drive from which you can boot up the system.

Prepare your laptop to boot from the BootCD/flashdrive:

• Restart your computer and go into your BIOS setup utility.
• Navigate to the “Boot” page
• For flashdrive set “external device boot” to enabled and put external device to the top of the boot priority list by selecting it and pressing F5.
• For CD put internal optical disk drive at the top of the list.

Booting up the system and connect drives:

• Boot your BootCD.
• A prompt appears. Select “Mini Windows XP” and hit enter.
• After the boot is complete, you find yourself on the Windows XP desktop:

• If you navigate to my computer you should find all the partitions and data on your RAID or Non-RAID HDD/SSDs. You can also check in the device manager under “Disk drives” and properties of your Drive (Volume0 when you have a RAID array) by clicking the populate button in the Volumes tab. In the following screenshot you see the property window for my Z11's 256GB quad-ssd.
  
• In order to backup or restore your system to/from an external hard drive, connect the drive via USB (FireWire was not tested yet due to lack of FW drive, eSATA through an AKE BC338 eSATA-ExpressCard controller did not work for me). After that hit the “Mount Removable” icon on the desktop, your drive should appear in my computer.

Backing up your system:

• Open up the HBCD Menu via the desktop or start menu shortcut and go to Menu – Backup and select your desired backup tool. (Alternatively, you can also start your own software in that system if it contains all needed runtimes)
• As my favourite backup software is the good old Ghost, I take that for demonstration (keep in mind you need the license to use that, if you do not have a license, use one of the other freeware tools provided by Hiren’s BootCD, e.g. DriveImage XML also works pretty well).
• Start Ghost and click through the notifications.
• Backup your complete system disk via local – disk – to image and select your drive, click OK specify the location of the image file and select if you want to use image compression. After that, click yes to start the backup process.
  
• Recover your system via local – disk – from image and go through the process the same way.
• If you only want to backup single partitions, use “Partition” unter local.
• After your Backup/Restore process is finished, just restart your computer and boot from the internal drive (change the BIOS settings or take out your bootcd/flashdrive).
  

If you followed all steps carefully, you should be successful with your backup. With that, it is possible to recover your system very fast (as you can see above, it takes just a few minutes) back to a clean system with ease. Because of that, I decided to abandon my recovery partition since I find the method described more useful.

 

Funny I was just posting this in another thread. Ghost works flawlessly from PE/BootCD

 

Thanks big time for this clear instructions, but I have 1 question:

I understand that the backup method using "Ghost" DISK TO IMAGE is a sector-by-sector IMAGE, which is a very huge Image size if we have the 256GB, so, can we use/do sth. to make the image less in size?

Copying the Disk to an Image using a USB HDD will take a very long time when sector-by-sector method is used.

In simple words, its like copying a 256GB File to a USB HDD which is limited to max 30-50 MB/s.

Thx again.

 

No, ghost is kinda intelligent and backups your drive not sector-by-sector, it looks on the file system tables (MFT entries) to backup only the existing data. As you can see in the above finish screenshot, I backuped my 256 gig drive with 17 gigs of data in ~12 minutes with fast compression resulting in a 12 gig image on my external HDD. I recovered from that image nearly half a dozen times now and it works wonderful. After a reboot you have a perfectly clean, cloned system.

 

@pyr0:

I truly cannot thank you enough, thank you so much friend.

Will

 

You are welcome, I hope that this guide helps folks out there properly backing up their beloved machines without hassle.

 

I don't have a lot of experience with back ups in general. Can you explain why this method is superior to, say, using Windows' native back up tool? Does this method somehow facilitate restoring the SSDs to their nascent state?

 

pyr0, can you give Acronis True Image 2010 a shot?

I Like the Idea of Acronis Recovery Zone, and the Bootable Media that comes with it, and its FAST & EASY, you can use it to backup your SSD into an Image file created on external storage like a USB HDD or sth.

If you can try it (30 Days fully functional) then that would be another solution for plp not acquainted with Ghost.

Will

 

This is imaging, not backup. The two are different -- when you image a partition, you copy everything, no matter what, but don't have the fine grained control that you have when doing backups.

Ghost is good, but it isn't Ghost anymore with the newest versions -- it's a rebranded Paragon Driveimage. Still good, but you might as well buy "Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery 2010 Desktop Edition" instead -- it does the same job as Ghost (compatible images), and adds the ability to do simple backups too.

Personally, for imaging, I prefer to use "dd" from a Linux boot CD. 100% verbatim images no matter what the file system is, and no need to fiddle around with restoring partitions in a certain order to not break boot on multi-boot systems, which you otherwise may have to do with Ghost/BESR. Oh, and it makes it very easy to import the images into a virtual machine -- since dd creates raw data files without a single byte or header added, no support for specific versions of specific image programs is needed by the vm. The dd images will work just as well 10 years from now, when Ghost version 11 support has long since been discontinued.

 

Ghost in hirens bootcd is actually ghost. And if you do a full disk image, it restores are the partitions, boot sector, etc perfectly.

 

I did already, i think I tried the home edition of acronis. I really like that because you can backup your entire system directly out of windows on-the-fly and it supports incremental backups. But, unfortunately, the acronis rescue cd seems to load a linux system that is not able to recognize the raid array as it is. The drives are shown individually. Since Ghost does the job perfectly, I stick to that for my Z.

@arth1: You are right that this procedure describes imaging of the raid array, and for that, dd's flexibility is nice -- when you need and you can handle it (requires you to be kinda linux pro or power-user with multiple VMs and stuff). But for the average user, IMO, the Ghost thing is just very handy and you can image (= full backup, see title) your entire system. Especially, if you want to test out new software and you want to be able to go back to your old, clean config easily. If you need to send your device for repair, this method is also great because you backup everything as is, wipe the drive due to privacy reasons and when you get your laptop back, you can easily return to your productive system. In the meantime, you can have also granular access on individual files in your image via Ghost Explorer.

I tried multiple tools to backup my data in any way and of course there are many different working ways for that but the described in this thread is as far I have seen the most simple and efficient method.

 

From the images here, it isn't -- it's Ghost 11.x, and everything above 8.x is Paragon Driveimage in disguise. The main difference is that the old Ghost runs baremetal, not using a Windows environment. And doesn't require a registration (or cracked copy).

But anyhow, New Ghost is still good, as long as you don't have non-standard setups (like GPT partition tables, EFI boot areas, or chained bootloaders). I'd still recommend paying a little bit more to get BESR, which includes a renamed New Ghost as well as a simple backup program.

 

That ghost runs in dos also and the reg details have always been stored in a text file. I can tell you it grabs efi boot areas, GPT partitions, GPT-MFT hybrid partition maps, etc. with ease. And restores them perfectly. I've done all this on my Z so I can confidently swear by it.

 

Okay guys, I love the ideas and things said about of Ghost, and of course (dd) requires linux knowledge, though I'm familiar with it, but would rather pass.

Now, Since I DON'T trust the Recovery DVDs that has been created by Sony -not interested in a debate btw- it just sometime Dies on you or fail.

The question now is:

How can I image/Backup the Recovery Partition on an external HDD?

Can I use the Ghost version from the Hiren's Boot CD 10.6 to do so?

If yes, then what do I choose? like, settings inside ghost?

thanks much

 

^yes use ghost from hiren. Choose local partition to partition (or disk). On the source drive grab the partition that is somewhere around 8gb in size.

 

I would add to beaups post better use partition to file (if you want to backup as an image), select the backup partition and the destination of the file and you are all set to delete the ty partition.

Btw guys, I got imaging /backing up working on an external drive through eSATA in hirens bootcd. If anybody is interested in that, just drop me a line and I'll write up a guide how to make that work. I am also working on a guide / review on eSATA cards in the VPC-Z.

 

Much appreciated, will give that a shot and come to you with updates.

Have you guys noticed that Hiren's Boot CD newer versions like 11.0 lacks some stuff that were readily available in previous versions like the 10.6?

they remove apps as opposed to ADDING more for every version UP!

 

Perhaps licensing issues... They removed the commercial stuff but left the link in the menus. You just have to add the .uha files to your disk again.

 

Pyro, thanks for posting this. My vaio just came in and this was the first thing I did. This looks like a superb way to backup the vaio!

 

Quick Question, do you guys have any problems running ghost32 with the bootable USB?

I'm cloning my girlfriend's Vaio Y with no problems using the bootable USB, however, with the Z, the ghost32 freezes and doesnt respond. I had to use a bootable CD instead. Any ideas/solutions?

 

Yeah, especially when you like to have your original (untouched) setup out-of-the-box saved in order to go back later.

Same problem here - did not figure a solution out yet, CD worked.

 

Dear pyr0:

I tried using the ghost32 to image my 128GB raid0 64+64, but it said it will take 1 hour 18 minutes to do the job, plus, it seems it wants to make an exact sector-by-sector backup.

I saw your first post when it took 11 minutes only with a 17GB file size for the image.

Am I doing sth wrong?

Should I set some settings to have your exact setup.

regards;

Will

 

Please check what you have set in the ghost options. There is an option for sector-by-sector copy. What is the backup speed being showed? How much space is occupied on your drive?

 

Backup is only for cowards.

Well, ghost is not free. If you want to use a free product you can go with the internal Windows backup (do only full backup, the incremental is very slow). Otherwise I would recommend Acronis TrueImage, which allows you to do incremental backups.

 

Since when is TrueImage free?

You are right, I already mentioned TrueImage, but the Rescue Disk is not able to recognize the SSD-Raid in the Z. If you know how to do, you can of course load TrueImage in the BootCD system and make your backup.

 

I didn't say it was free
I haven't tested the boot media of TrueImage Home 2011 in a RAID environment but the TrueImage Workstation Echo worked with RAID and also the Disk Director 11. Right now I'm testing the Home 2011 but don't have RAID configured. I'll test it later this week with the Sony/Toshiba RAID.

 

Please Do, Please!

 

I just tested Acronis TrueImage Home 2011 with the Toshiba SSD's in RAID 0. The RAID0 is detected properly when running TrueImage from CD.

 

Well, thats great news Enny, my only concern whether Acronis will be able to Restore the Backed up Image it created earlier.

Some guy said once that He could backup his Raid-0 to an external HDD image, later, when he tried to restore it, he had problems, was using a Z11, if I remember correctly.

Its a real challenge to depend on an Imaging Application and Invest in it, while later, we discover that it fails to restore, have your test run of Acronis 2011, included an actual Restore?

I so much love it more than ghost, wish it worked for you.

Awaiting your confirmation.

regards to you friend.

Will

 

Oh you want to restore, who ever wants to restore something? That costs extra.
I'll test the restore.
It is important that when you back the data with Acronis that you run also a verify.
A while ago as we did Image restores at work with Acronis we had a few issues where you could not restore (got error) when the image file was saved on the network or USB drive but the image itself was fine. If then put the image on another media (like DVD) it works.

On my computer I used the Acronis Echo Workstation as I moved from the Toshiba RAID SSD's to the Crucial SSD.

 

I use Paragon Drive Backup 2010 Special Edition, the backup went fine, but I wonder if anyone has used it (or other Paragon products) to restore?

 

I had trouble running the Paragon Drive Backup recovery CD using the "normal" option, but on the "safe mode" option it loads correctly (except that you have to hit any button to get it to advance on several blank screens) and it sees the RAID array as a single drive, which I think is what we want, right? Note, I don't actually need to restore right now, just testing to see if it would work before I go depending on these backups.

 

Hi folks, need some advise regarding the built-in Windows 7 imaging.
I have a Z115 which has W7 installed in C:, a data partition D:, and I also kept the recovery partition. When I did the windows system image it told me that it included "System Reserved (System)", "(C: )(System)", and "Recovery (System)". I wanted to image only C: but I went ahead anyway. When I checked the image folder it was 32gb whereas my C: is currently only 23gb, so I figured that the image did include the recovery partition.

Now I don't like this for 2 reasons: first, it unnecessarily wastes 10gb imaging the recovery partition (I already have that covered with the factory recovery discs), and second I imagine that when I do the restoration windows will also restore the recovery partition which would be an unecessary step, or worse, possibly corrupt a perfectly fine recovery partition if the backup image turns out to be imperfect, or worst, delete the recovery partition. I'm probably being a bit paranoid but I would really prefer that it's not touched during the the windows imaging/restore process.

So my question is:
- will the recovery partition be affected during the windows restore process?
- is there a way to make windows just image the C: partition and restore only that?
- can Acronis do above?

Part of my preference for windows backup is that I can initiate the restore process from F8 at boot without the need for discs. My Z unfortunately does not have a built-in DVD drive and I don't pack the external one when I travel.

Can Acronis do a "hot" restore? (ie. assuming windows is perfectly fine and I just want to go back to a previous image) Or can Acronis initiate a restore from a USB key?

Many thanks in advance.

 

Just use a USB stick. All of the major backup applications out there should support creating either bootable USB sticks directly, or bootable ISOs which can be turned into bootable USB sticks (sorry don't have any links handy for that but it can be done). And what media are you backing up to that you bring with you when you travel? External HDD?

 

yeah, i use an external HDD.
i've read up on acronis and it seems quite a number of people are having problems with it on W7.
so, is there a way to make the W7 image just the C: partition and not include the recovery partition?

 

if it's not readily apparent how, then probably not. I don't mess with windows backup, there is not enough control.

 

Pyr0,

Thanks for the write up! Did you have Intel RST 9.5 or 9.6 installed when you tested the backup/restore? I tested DriveImageXML (backup and restore) and Ghost (just backup) using Hiren's boot cd and stock Z1290X. Things worked just as you described.

I would now like to update to Intel Rapid Storage Technology 9.6, but want to minimize nasty surprises.

By the way, the nice thing about DriveImage XML is that you can make system images while you are in Windows7 with the same version of the DriveImage XML that is on Hiren's CD.

 

I dont see a problem with updating RST. Its just a driver - that doesnt affect the backup/restore process. I am on 9.6 and everything is working perfectly. I was able to backup a 256GB Z and restore that to another Z with completely different SSD configuration.

Good Luck.

 

Thanks for the info.

Hirens CD clearly has the right drivers for RST9.5. There is an off chance it does not have the drivers for RST9.6.

I just spent a week rebuilding my Z from a restore because an unrelated backup failed me, so I may be a little paranoid

 

Hiren 10.6 is working great with my 9.6 config, so don't worry using it.

 

Thank you!

 

I have an update regarding Acronis as backup solution. I've tested the Home 2011 for a while and I'm disappointed, it has all sorts of fancy features but is not very reliable (verify hangs ...) and has a problem with TrueCrypt.
I have one drive encrypted with TrueCrypt and I cannot backup data from it or save a backup to it even though Windows sees the drive and can access it without problem. Acronis support is less then helpful, that said to wait for an updated version, I guess they didn't properly test the product before releasing it.
I tested the Acronis B&R 10 Workstation, which works great, it sees all the drives and does all I need. It costs $75 and I think it is worth it when your looking for not only backing up the whole drive from a boot media but also from the running system and files/folders (good alternative to Windows internal backup).

 

So Acronis B&R 10 Workstation works good with TrueCrypt? I have never used hdd encryption before, but I want to do it on this laptop, does norton ghost or any others work with encrypted drives?

 

Well, backing up the encrypted data is useless, you can only backup data the is not encrypted. That means you have to run the backup tool (Acronis or others) in Windows.

 

You cant make a full disk image of an encrypted disk? I don't understand why that wouldn't work.

 

Because it is encrypted! You can make an image but when you restore it you cannot use or access any data because the encryption is broken. even sector by sector image/clone does not work.

 

Don't know if anyone's reading this thread lately, but I just want to confirm that what beaups says is true of Ghost even with default settings. When I opened Ghost, I first went into Options and selected what seemed to be the best one for saving the boot sector and all (free space included, I think), but that image ended up being unreadable by Ghost Explorer, so I went back and set the imaging option to default, which GE can read, but the image is much smaller. So I'm just verifying that this image with default should restore the drive to its original state. Thanks.

 

Clonezilla works very well too. So you can try that. It's a cd-bootable linux version that clones ur hard drive.

 

I've used Clonezilla before, thanks. I'm more interested in imaging here, not cloning (dd would be the comparison, I guess). But I'm asking a specific question about Ghost, since that's what I've already used. I'd create multiple images with different progs if I had the space, but I don't.

 

If you're on Win7, it has system imaging built right in.
Just go to Backup and Restore, then on the left choose Create a system image. Runs within Windows, no reboot needed.

Its not selective about partitions though, will image the lot but it compresses data and works quite well. (I'm actually quite impressed with MS for including this)

Just create/download a repair disc or follow one of the online guides to making the repair disc a bootable USB. If your system is still partially bootable, I think you can also hit F8 and select Repair your system without the need for any repair disc.

Just one thing to be mindful of when restoring, if you have more than one hdd, just double check the excluded hdd settings to make sure only the drive you want to restore is included.