Make/restore an image in Windows 7

Transcription

1 Make/restore an image in Windows 7 Why? The computer could be come unusable for several reasons eg the hard disc fails, there is a virus infection, a mess up by the user, etc and other ways of recovering eg System Restore do not work. The operating system can always be re-installed from either a Microsoft disc or, more typically, from the recovery disc provided by the supplier of the computer. That assumes that you made the recovery disc, as advised by the supplier, just after activating the computer. If you have to recover from scratch then you will need to add all the Microsoft updates. Then you have to add in your favourite software Firefox and any extensions and bookmarks you have implemented did you have a copy of your bookmarks? LibreOffice Picassa Audacity, etc Then reset all your preferences, at least those you can recall. That will take a considerable time. An image is a carbon copy of the operating system including all the updates and the software you have added plus your preferences, your extensions, your bookmarks, etc. Restoring returns the computer to the state it was in at the time the image was created. You will face having to catch up on any updates etc but a much simpler and short activity. As I make an image about every three months the recovery phase is quick. My most recent restore from an image took about 16 minutes the size was 36.2GB. Then about ten minutes installing the Windows updates and my Firefox bookmarks. 1

2 Make an image Click Control Panel then System and Security to get this window. Click Backup and Restore back up your computer and restore files - to get this. Note the three entries on upper left hand side create an image create a system repair disc create a new full back up 2

3 Select Create a system image to get this My expansion drive had been connected to the laptop and Windows 7 found it. Drive automatically detected Create a system image My Expansion drive was automatically detected and selected by default Click Next to get this These are the drives required for Windows It suggests the two Windows components. I have my data in Data (D:) which is regularly updated so there is no point in backing it up. By the time a restore is required the data would be several months/years old. 3

4 Click Next to get this asking for confirmation. Click Start backup and wait. The time is dependent on the size of the image to be created. 4

5 System Image completed It is suggested that you create a System Repair Disc. 5

6 Insert a DVD, open Computer, right click on the DVD entry, see below, and select Erase. <<< DVD entry Click Next to confirm the erase 6

7 You will be returned to the Create a system repair disc window so click Yes to proceed. On completion the next window opens advising what to name the DVD. This back up took 52 minutes and it was 50GB. I had made the image with some unwanted software and without clearing our unwanted files. My image is usually about 36GB taking 23/25 minutes. As I keep my data in a separate partition there is no personal data on the image. 7

8 The folder holding the image is WindowsImageBackup as shown here. Next day I repeated the image having removed some software and related folders. The image took about four minutes. The WindowsImageBackup was added to. I prefer to keep individual images so I move each to a folder Windows 7 images, as here. 8

9 Restore an image Insert the Recovery CD and reboot. At the prompt to press any key. I used space bar as pressing Enter was ignored. Then follows a message Windows loading files Next is a window where your keyboard is requested. Press the downward pointing arrow and select your keyboard. In my case it was United Kingdom. In this windows I want to restore an image I had created so I selected Restore your computer... At this point attach the Expansion drive and move the selected WindowsImageBackup from the folder to the main window. I selected Select a system image There was only one image on the Expansion drive and it was found. Click on the image and the Next button is no longer greyed out. Click Next. 9

10 Then select Format and repartition disks. NB. Format and partition apply only to the partition holding C: ie windows. Then confirm the restore. The restore begins. On completion Windows wants a restart. NB. Remove the recovery disc at this point. 10