Just wondering if there are any implications when doing an image under limited user account? Will the resulting image be just as useful in case of emergency as if I do the image under administrator account?
I make it a practice to perform imaging in Admin account while offline. I must admit, I am yet to try a backup in LUA yet. I just don't see the need to muck around with stability and future images when you can easily log into another account.
I have done imaging from limited user account for years and have found no problems after restoring them. I dont see how it could be since the imaging software copies the hard drive bit for bit.
As Sukarof has said, it's an IMAGING operation and there are no file permission issues at play here. Some imagers (ATI) in the past have used hybrid imaging mechanisms and they may have issues but a real imaging app has no such issues.
On one of my pc I have a similar situation and noticed that when doing an image via macrium under LUA, I am asked for administrator credentials. Once I enter these, everything goes through as usual.
It might vary with the imaging software. Everything I use requires administrative access. Imaging a non system drive should be possible in a LUA but imaging is an administrative function when it is a system drive. Most of the modern imaging programs do some sort of file system analysis before imaging to reduce imaging time and disk space and this will require access to system files that are normally hidden in a LUA. Only pure sector by sector imaging will totally bypass the file system and that is the exception these days, not the default. In any case, even if imaging under a LUA works, restoration will require an administrator account or bootable disk for an offline restore. I only have one imaging program that does sector by sector imaging exclusively and that is mostly used for really unusual systems like firmware images that require an exact image and it is a small utility. All of the big programs like Aomei, Macrium, Easus, etc use compression algorithms that require administrative access. If you get a UAC prompt, you are running the program as an administrator even if it is from a LUA.
