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    Can Windows 7 be safely imaged to a backup drive?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by JellyGeo, Oct 30, 2009.

  1. JellyGeo

    JellyGeo Notebook Evangelist

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    Greetings - I finally finished the Win 7 upgrade to the original drive for my Toshiba U405. It is a dual-booter with Win 7 and Vista 32 - and the Win 7 upgrade install did not break the boot-loader or cause any problems with the Vista partition. What I would like to do is image the entire new drive onto a backup drive. Doing that with Vista was no problem as only one device changed (the hdd) and it did not require activation. I usually use "dd" in Knoppix and haven't had any problems with Vista. Has anyone tried this? TIA
     
    JellyGeo, Oct 30, 2009
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  2. ScuderiaConchiglia

    ScuderiaConchiglia NBR Vaio Team Curmudgeon

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    With DD under Knoppix, no. With my trusty old Ghost 2003 under PC-DOS, you bet. Worked like a champ.

    Gary
     
    ScuderiaConchiglia, Oct 30, 2009
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  3. JellyGeo

    JellyGeo Notebook Evangelist

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    Gary - Thanks for your quick reply and good news!! I was concerned M$ may have stuck something in Win 7 to keep people from making backup drives. All of my systems (so far) are dual-booters and I'm having a terrible time (with my second upgrade) with Win 7 Upgrade coming up and seeing it's boot drive as something other than the C drive.
     
    JellyGeo, Oct 30, 2009
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  4. GoodBytes

    GoodBytes NvGPUPro

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    If you have Win7 Pro or Ultimate you can do it from Windows 7. Look under "Backup & Restore" panel from the Control Panel. Microsoft calls it "Complete PC backup", it's image process.
     
    GoodBytes, Oct 31, 2009
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  5. cn_habs

    cn_habs Notebook Deity

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    Would I need an external hard drive then in order for it to be truly effective?
     
    cn_habs, Oct 31, 2009
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  6. GoodBytes

    GoodBytes NvGPUPro

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    You need one of the following solutions:
    - External HDD or any external storage device on eSATA or firewire or USB.
    - Shared network folder.
    - Several DVD's
    - A lot of CD's
    - Excessive amount of Floppies :p

    Correction on what I said on my previous post. In Vista it's called "Complete PC Backup". in Windows 7 it's called properly "System image".
     
    GoodBytes, Oct 31, 2009
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  7. JellyGeo

    JellyGeo Notebook Evangelist

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    Another way to do this - albeit kinda expensive - is to get your laptop installed and config'd exactly as you like it -then just image the drive onto another same-sized (easiest) drive. I'm testing this with Win 7 this weekend - it has worked very well with no activation issues using Vista.
     
    JellyGeo, Oct 31, 2009
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  8. ScuderiaConchiglia

    ScuderiaConchiglia NBR Vaio Team Curmudgeon

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    Effective no. Perfectly safe, yes. With an external you are protected both from software anomalies and disk drive failures.

    Gary
     
    ScuderiaConchiglia, Oct 31, 2009
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  9. cn_habs

    cn_habs Notebook Deity

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    cn_habs, Oct 31, 2009
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  10. ScuderiaConchiglia

    ScuderiaConchiglia NBR Vaio Team Curmudgeon

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    You can make an effective (i.e usable) backup without an external hard drive. But to be safe from HARDWARE (disk drive) failure as well, you need to backup to some external device.

    Gary
     
    ScuderiaConchiglia, Oct 31, 2009
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