Do I need an external hard drive to create a system image?

Do I need an external hard drive to create a system image?

I have upgraded from Vista to Win 7 Home Premium 32. I want to create a system image for recovery purposes in the event of disaster. Tried it several times on discs and it didn't work. Would it work better with an external hard drive? I looked at HP250GB Pocket Media Drive with USB cable for about $80. Would this work for creating the system image and for recovery? Does a recovery put the operating system back on my laptop? I know that sounds really dumb, but it's all pretty confusing to me.

Asked by: Guest | Views: 308

Total answers/comments: 2

Comments display order:

Guest [Entry]

"I would always recommend doing a full backup to either a USB flash drive or an external hard drive.

Windows built in backup utility is brilliant for a full image, but if you want another tool, look for ImageX in the WAIK (Microsoft Windows Automated Installation Kit).

It is a tiny tool. I personally made a custom WindowsPE disk with this on it (the WAIK guides you through this) but you can put it on a usb stick and run Windows setup from the dvd or BartPE. You can then create a full drive backup very easily

Read here for more information on the tool. You basically need the \mount and \capture flags.

Here is the direct link to information on creating images.

Here is the direct link to information on mounting images."

Guest [Entry]

"You can easily create a restorable image using Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery 2010. They have a 60 day demo that will allow a running system to create an image. That image can be restored to same or different hardware or even convert to an MS or VMware Virtual machine image.

I used this before I upgraded to Windows 7 anad have used it to back up numerous systems before as well.

Symantec BESR 2010"