Bootable Image of C Drive

M

Marcus Fenix

Level H
Hi Everybody,
I had changed my proccy a few days back and on the first boot got a blue screen.I reformatted my HDD and all was ok.But the major headache after this was the incessant windows updates and all my soffware installation as I formatted my HDD after around 2 years.

To get around this I am planning to do one thing. I intend to create a bootable image of my C drive with all my essential software and installed Windows updates.The size of my C drive installation is around 13 GB or so as most of my large games are installed on the D drive and backup for the D drive is not required.
Only the essentials e.g. MS Office,Antivirus,Tune Up utilities,System drivers etc are installed in my C drive.

Can anyone help me out in this regard......

Thanks in Advance
 
use disk imaging tools - some examples that come to mind are acronis, partition master, etc. Then you need a bootable cd/usb with the necessary tool installed, boot from usb/ cd, run the software, choose the backup file and go for it.
 
Right now I used the Windows backup facility and created a recovery DVD but this one is a two part solution.I want the full installation on a bootable pern drive.
@axeman thanks for pointing that out.I am studying up on how to accomplish this with Acronis[DOUBLEPOST=1376991643][/DOUBLEPOST]Thanks a lot axeman.
Found the answer
http://kb.acronis.com/content/34873
Mods please close the thread
 
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Install windows as usual on your HD. Go to audit mode when you reach the "enter windows key" part. Update existing symlinks to move program folders to another partition (both 32 and 64bit folders). Update new paths in the registry. Create symlinks of user folders in a separate partition. Move user folders to this new partition. Update registry accordingly.
Update your windows installation. Install software that you'd absolutely need everytime you format your system (antivirus, winzip etc). You may not need big stuff like MS Office or Photoshop and therefore no need to install it at this moment.

When you are satisfied that you've installed everything that you need to put in your recovery drive/image, start creating a recovery image. So far, Windows' own recovery image is the most reliable form of backing up a windows system. This image would be of your C drive only. It'll backup new symlinks and registry entries as well.
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Come out of audit mode and proceed with the windows key entry. You can automate this part as well. You'll also create a new user during this time.

Now, if your windows installation crashes unexpectedly, you won't lose any "data". You can extract user data from that separate partition and all your settings for games, programs etc will be saved on other partitions. All you have to do is recover the image you created earlier and you'll be presented with a screen to enter the windows key.

If you backup your system after installing everything on C drive than it'll be difficult for you to extract small amount of personal data from a crashed windows installation. However, you can mount windows images on other working systems in case of emergency.
 
gauravH said:
Install windows as usual on your HD. Go to audit mode when you reach the "enter windows key" part. Update existing symlinks to move program folders to another partition (both 32 and 64bit folders). Update new paths in the registry. Create symlinks of user folders in a separate partition. Move user folders to this new partition. Update registry accordingly.
Update your windows installation. Install software that you'd absolutely need everytime you format your system (antivirus, winzip etc). You may not need big stuff like MS Office or Photoshop and therefore no need to install it at this moment.

When you are satisfied that you've installed everything that you need to put in your recovery drive/image, start creating a recovery image. So far, Windows' own recovery image is the most reliable form of backing up a windows system. This image would be of your C drive only. It'll backup new symlinks and registry entries as well.
---
Come out of audit mode and proceed with the windows key entry. You can automate this part as well. You'll also create a new user during this time.

Now, if your windows installation crashes unexpectedly, you won't lose any "data". You can extract user data from that separate partition and all your settings for games, programs etc will be saved on other partitions. All you have to do is recover the image you created earlier and you'll be presented with a screen to enter the windows key.

If you backup your system after installing everything on C drive than it'll be difficult for you to extract small amount of personal data from a crashed windows installation. However, you can mount windows images on other working systems in case of emergency.
Click to expand...

Would you mind creating a separate thread instead with screenshots/ youtube video detailing the same?
 
i dont remember the software ( i will update ), but i imaged my old hdd to my new hdd.. with this software tool and it worked perfectly. no cds/dvd/usbs required.

again, i will get back with the software details, but let me outline the details :

120GB hdd - > partitioned to 20gb (OS) 100gb (data and downloads)
this was migrated to a new formatted 500GB hdd.

run software on 120gb, plugin the 500gb to usb and start the cloning process. takes around one hour. cloning complete, with options to set partition size.
new hdd was partitioned to 2 drives 50gb (OS), 450gb (downloads , date etc)

plugout the old HDD, plugin the new HDD, all set and PC running.
I even rebooted to the old HDD, and it works as well.

this for me was the most seamless solution, with the following options :

mirror HDD, mirror partition size, mirror number of partitions, change number of partitions, and individual partition sizes, rresulting in a plug and play HDD copy.

I assume this is an easier way of doing things!! let me know if this is what you are looking at?
 
Try acronis true image with universal restore feature. Can restore system on dissimilar hardwares too. Worked perfectly for me for windows 8 x64.

I can now restore or install os with all my softwares in 15 mins flat.
 
No need to go for commercial software, when excellent free software are there to do the job. Also, no need to follow lengthy and difficult procedures, when the job can be done very easily.

You can look at free software for disk imaging/cloning, here:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-drive-cloning-software.htm

I have used Paragon Backup & Recovery in the past successfully to make an image of my hard drive, and I have also used it to transfer the image on to another hard drive, and it was able to boot without problems.

I have used Macrium Reflect to make an image of my hard drive too. But, I have not restored the image to check it. However, it's a reliable tool too.

You can use any of them.. they are both reliable, and excellent.

I will just provide additional information. Both of these allow you to create a rescue disc, using which you can boot the computer with, and then restore the image.
With Paragon, you can make an image, and restore, both with the rescue disc. However, with Macrium Reflect's rescue disc, you can only restore the image.

Paragon allows only Linux based rescue discs, whereas Macrium Reflect allows you to make both Linux based and Win PE based rescue discs. Win PE based discs are more reliable in terms of working across all hardware.

Paragon allows you to make a bootable USB rescue, whereas no such option in Macrium.

With any of them, you can create an image of your hard disk, and store it somewhere safe, either on your flash drive, or in a separate partition, and use when needed.

You have made a good decision to make an image :).. good luck!
 
xxclone.com

direct image, no boot cd required, it just copies every partition on your current HDD onto a new HDD ( same or larger size). once the copying is done, you can literally switch the hard drives immediately.. runs within windows, free to install and use!
 
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