I am new to imaging. Never done system image. I googled & read about quite a few popular imaging software. From what I gathered & liked good are 2 popular, Macruim & Aomei. Which one would be better? Aomei has 2 versions, one for Win 7,8 & 10 & one includes XP with other OS. Mine is Win 7 64, so the version not including XP would be better for me? This version doesn't includes Linux bootable, is it needed? Any good portable imaging softwares? One query... Win 10 is going to be free upgrade. I dont know if the user will be able to format & install & activate Win 10 after 1 year deadline (given that the user had opted & installed Win 10 upgrade) So I thought I will format & install & update Win 7 & then upgrade Win 10 & then create an image. Can this image be used to restore after 1 year deadline? Any activation prob? Can this image be used to restore on new HD or new system after 1 year deadline? Any activation prob?
It seems you are referring to the free editions of AOMEI Backupper and Macrium Reflect. While they are both known to be reliable disk-imaging programs, I would go with AB because it can make full, incremental and differential backups, whereas the free edition of MR can only make full backups. In either case (AB or MR) a boot disk is necessary to restore your C-drive! If you download the Win7 version of AB you must separately download the boot disk. Whichever program you choose, as soon as you create the boot disk see if it boots up and discovers your disk drives! I'm not aware of any free portable disk-imaging programs. Drive Snapshot (which I happen to use) is portable by design, tiny in size, simple to use and truly excellent, but it is not free. I can't speak to Win10 (or 8.x for that matter) as I'm quite content with Win7. Hth, pv
Creating an external boot recovery media and restore from it is better anyway. You don't know if a malware botched the files required to enter to boot recovery environment in your computer until it is too late. JFYI, I've had great success in many backup and restore processes with Macrium, but with AOMEI the restore never worked even once. Although the backup process seemed to be successful. YMMV.
I meant free version of Macrium & Aomei Backupper. I installed both under Shadow Defender to check the GUI & options. PE or Linux rescue disc would be better? Coz when I checked rescue disc creation on both, AB default to Linux i.e Linux option was checked & Macrium defaults to PE i.e PE was checked. I can image only system drive, right? So when I restore it, the other partition will remain intact or option during restore so that other partition is not damaged? (I have made 2 partitions of the harddisk, C & E) For image destination, if I select USB, then I can attach USB & system will boot from USB & I can restore image, right?
Just try booting the boot disk (Linux or WinPE) to see if it boots up successfully and recognizes all of your drives (internal + external). If all of that works you should be good to go. If not, try the other type of boot disk. Yes, you will be able to image just your system drive (partition). Many of us do that. Yes, as long as you restore the image to the corresponding partition the other partitions will remain intact. I'm not sure what you mean in your last sentence?
In the last sentence I meant... If I create an image on USB, does this means if I will attach that USB to the system & start the system, the system will boot from USB & I will get Macrium screen to restore image?
You might need to change the boot priority in your BIOS menu. Also, you won't boot into the recovery environment if all your USB drive contains is only the image. You need the boot recovery files that you build with the imaging program you use.
Thats the answer I was looking for. Boot Recovery Files means Rescue Disc prepared with the imaging program?
That's correct. You can restore non-system volumes from your installed disk-imaging program, but an system volume must be restored from the external boot disk (as I stated in post #2). pv
Yes. Though I personally prefer to use USB drives instead of discs, since they're a lot easier to keep in my shelves. But what about boot recovery menu from within Windows, whatever that is? I never had a chance to try it out since they usually aren't available in the trial.
Well... yes it is, except the external device is now your internal SYSTEM volume rather than a UFD or CD/DVD. That type of recovery is done pre-BOOT to Windows... it uses the BOOT manager that runs prior to beginning the BOOT operation of your LIVE Windows, it DOES NOT run under LIVE Windows at all. But it does use your SYSTEM volume if it hasn't been destroyed completely.
You mean if I create system (C Drive) image on system, I cannot restore it with imaging program. To restore system image, I should have system image on USB, CD i.e external drives, right?
What I do is have the emergency/recovery/startup disc on USB, SD or CD. And have my system image on an external Hard Drive. Plug them both in. Boot to recovery OS, select restore & point towards the system image. TaDah.
True, but they are not physically separated. Which is too uncomfortable for my liking. Either a USB drive or a disc will do. I personally use USB drives purely for the sake of storage convenient, and also some say it is faster to load compared to using CDs. I have been thinking about it for a while, actually. However, I would suggest to do what zapjb does. That is what most people do.