Naming windows images.

Anybody have any idea how i can individually name any images i create because if i need to restore an image im relying just on dates and some guesswork.
Any help please.

 

Macrium Reflect gives you the option to name the image before the image is made.

 

+1 .. I'd love to learn how others handle this.

I manually maintain a change log where I keep track of application additions and deletions from image to image, along with notes about Windows updates and settings tweaks to critical security apps. I store this in a text file where I keep my images.

It works - but it's easy to get lazy and not keep track of every important detail. Surely there are better ways to do this!

 

When I used windows inbuilt imaging I kept *.txt file to describe what was there. Extremely inconvenient.

 

When using macrium, I start with a baseline image name, such as
win7x64_base_
I save this backup job. As I add more to my baseline image, I use that job, which appends a # on the back of this name.

My baseline image is my most important. I don't reinstall now that I do this, I go back to a baseline image and build up from there.

In newer versions of macrium I started adding notes to the image, so that when restoring I can see these notes for each image.

Once I get my baseline just the way I want it, I am then free to modify. As I modify, I will use a naming convention along with the notes within the image to keep track of things. I often use a date as well because the restore process with macrium shows a guid or something, not the name of the file.

That means alternate version A of baseline might look like
win7x64_browser_security_01012012
as I add more to it, it might be
win7x64_browser_security_media_02012012

A different alternate version might be
win7x64_browser_security_gaming_03012012

What macrium shows in the restore screen is something like
843ac9201d303da13bf
which of course means nothing. I filter by date so I can choose the last one usually. But by using the notes feature of the newer macriums I can see in my notes what is going on. The notes are rather limited, so I keep them short and sweet. Often since I am restoring using PE I browse to the image location within PE and compare the date of the file to the correct name, so I am sure which one I am restoring.

It can be a pain to manage these files, but since I am more concerned with my baseline build than data backup, I don't have too many choises to choose from really. All of my large applications are installed to another drive/partition, and all my data is usually on a NAS box. So for me the OS drive/partition is very small, and my images only contain the OS and small applications like security tools or cd burning software, etc.

Usually what I do is build up my baseline, then modify an alternate. I use this for a time, until I want to change things. If I am adding a new program/settings, I load that last image up, make the changes, then make a new image. I would then delete the prior image in the series, or maybe only keep the last two images.

Sometimes I might like to make some major changes. In this case I go back to a baseline image and start over. Some of my baseline images have nothing but windows and preferences, others have applications, but they are all designed to be a complete starting point to a new build.

My baseline images don't have browsers installed, nor java/flash. Basically anything that would need to be updated on a restoration just gets installed as I build a new OS.

Sul.

 

Beethoven1770,

When you create a backup image with IFW, IFD, IFL you can type up to a 500 character description which is stored in the backup image and can be read prior to a restore.

 

When I use Clonezilla I name the snapshots' folders with name which is a short description what is there and a date.

 

not sure about of other programs but acronis has a button to add a timestamp