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Win7, disk imaging, vmware
f0dder:
Here goes...
I'm (hopefully!) getting hold of a nice SSD tomorrow, which means reinstalling Windows (the main reason for getting an SSD is fast application loadtime et cetera). While I don't usually like running bleeding-edge OSes, Win7-RC seems pretty nice & stable to me, so I'll give it a go. It's basically either that or Vista, and Win7 does have some neato improvements as well as being ~4GB freshly after install (my vlited Vista on the laptop is ~6GB).
Win7 part
First, does Win7 need it's BCD in that little 100meg-or-whatever hidden partition it creates by default, or is it possible to have the BCD on the system partition? If it can go on the system partition, is there any advantage whatsoever to keep the two partitions separate?
Disk imaging part
Next, I'd like a recommendation for disk imaging software. I used to use ghost and then TrueImage, but haven't been into system recovery by disk image for some years now (I've used DriveImage XML for the purpose of picking out individiual files that I might have forgotten to backup before a format, but that's it). So, what some good (and preferably free) disk imaging software today that...
1) can handle partition bootsector and perhaps MBR (ie, restore an image to a blank harddisk and then boot from it)
2) can be booted from a DVD or (preferably) USB keyfob
3) has windows software to extract individual files from it's image (not a requirement, but would be nice).
Acronis TrueImage probably fits the shoe, but I don't have a license for it anymore, and frankly all the different versions listed on their site leaves me damn confused.
VMWare -> hardware part
And, finally - what about creating an image from a vmware virtual machine and transferring it to real hardware? I believe this is possible, but does it require any special trickery, and would there be any downsides from doing this? I have nicely working vLited Win7-RC setup disc, but it's impossible to disable pagefile and hibernation on that disc, which thus has to be done post-install... and frankly, it's nicer doing setup & testing in a VM before going to real hardware.
4wd:
Regarding Disk Imaging:
What about Paragon Drive Backup 9 Personal Edition ?
The above is a comparison between the Special Edition, (same as Personal), version and full version as well as registration page. If you can live without updates, support or WinPE based recovery disk then they're the same.
Available free from a post on GHacks, 32 and 64 bit available.
I've just recently installed it to see how it compares to TI Home 11 and it seems to be not that bad. In fact if it weren't for the fact that I need TIH11 installed so I could include it on my Win/VistaPE CD I'd probably switch.
During the last week, (cleaning/upgrading a pc for someone), I've used the bootable Rescue disk to image/restore a system approx. 5-8 times without a problem. As part of it's basic options it also ignores pagefile.sys, (not sure about hiberfil.sys), so it's not included.
It can restore individual files, do incremental file and differential partition backup, it's FREE.
Here's a grab of the interface:
Win7, disk imaging, vmware
Wrt. backup a virtual drive and restore to real drive - doesn't Win7 install all drivers during a normal install ?
If so, when you booted it would it not just reinstall all the "new" drivers for the real PC from it's CAB, (or whatever), files ?
I might try it, I've got Win7x86 running under VirtualPC.
f0dder:
4wd: thanks for the suggestion. I recall grabbing a copy of the free drivebackup, and for some reason not being super impressed with it (can't recall why, though). You say it has a rescue disk, but I assume that's strictly for restoring a backup - it would be nice being able to backup from the bootmedia as well. But if the boot media can restore backup from, say, a network location, I could live with the boot media only being able to restore.
Btw, does the Paragon app do a raw partition dump sector-by-sector, or will be backup file be limited to the used partition size?
Wrt. backup a virtual drive and restore to real drive - doesn't Win7 install all drivers during a normal install ?
If so, when you booted it would it not just reinstall all the "new" drivers for the real PC from it's CAB, (or whatever), files ?-4wd (May 12, 2009, 10:50 PM)
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Very good question! That would definitely solve a lot of problems. And since I will be installing to a SATA drive, there hopefully shouldn't be any boot device driver problems. I guess there could be other problems, though - like, the location of the boot device being different between the VM and the physical hardware you try restoring to. I don't know supermuch about how the BCD works, but it's probably fixable like boot.ini was, but would the registry also contain some invalid entries?
I guess I could try messing around with my current vm install of Win7, since I haven't put much time into tweaking it yet.
nudone:
this won't be too helpful as i can't remember the version number BUT...
i'd been using Paragon rather than Acronis, i started to recommend Paragon to people i know. they used it, backed up their main drive, all seemed fine.
the problem was/is that two, possibly three, people i know could not restore the Paragon image when they tried (i think i had the same problem but i can't remember now).
Paragon would appear to restore but on rebooting the machine the system would be corrupt somehow - to the extent that typical fixes didn't sort it out. the only way to restore their system was to find alternative image backups... by Acronis.
now, i know Paragon must work, and i know it did work. this particular version just didn't - it might have been a linux boot disk version.
what i recommend (and it will sound extreme - but it's safe, you can't deny that), is to do two backups of your system using two different products and then test them both out. that's the only safe way of knowing if you've got a backup that isn't going to work.
no point leaving it until you need your backup image restored only to find it doesn't work - AND that's the only backup image you have.
4wd:
4wd: thanks for the suggestion. I recall grabbing a copy of the free drivebackup, and for some reason not being super impressed with it (can't recall why, though). You say it has a rescue disk, but I assume that's strictly for restoring a backup - it would be nice being able to backup from the bootmedia as well. But if the boot media can restore backup from, say, a network location, I could live with the boot media only being able to restore.-f0dder (May 13, 2009, 01:38 AM)
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Using the Recovery Media you can:
Win7, disk imaging, vmware
I'm pretty sure that what you want is covered in that lot :)
Btw, does the Paragon app do a raw partition dump sector-by-sector, or will be backup file be limited to the used partition size?
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You can specify Raw processing under the Advanced tab during a backup which is what you want I believe.
You can also specify the whole HDD, the MBR or just track 0.
Wrt. backup a virtual drive and restore to real drive - doesn't Win7 install all drivers during a normal install ?
If so, when you booted it would it not just reinstall all the "new" drivers for the real PC from it's CAB, (or whatever), files ?-4wd (May 12, 2009, 10:50 PM)
--- End quote ---
Very good question! That would definitely solve a lot of problems. And since I will be installing to a SATA drive, there hopefully shouldn't be any boot device driver problems. I guess there could be other problems, though - like, the location of the boot device being different between the VM and the physical hardware you try restoring to. I don't know supermuch about how the BCD works, but it's probably fixable like boot.ini was, but would the registry also contain some invalid entries?
--- End quote ---
Doesn't most of the registry refer to locations as the Volume, (eg. C:, D:, etc) ?
With only the boot.ini, (or BCD thing), referring to rdisk and partition, etc.
Who knows, maybe the Boot Corrector on the PDB9 Rescue disk will fix any boot problem ;)
I'm just about to do a backup of my VirtPC W7 and then I'll restore it to something, possibly my old Acer laptop, and see what happens.
EDIT: Changed the list to a pic because it looks nicer :)
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