SOLVED System Image Backup

[RecumbentTim]

I did a system image backup of my Windows 7 system to a usb drive prior to upgrading Windows 10 with no problem at all. The upgrade failed leaving me with no choice but to use the system image or load Windows 7 from the disc . I chose to load the Windows 7 Home Premium from the disc. Then I tried to load a new system image to a new USB drive but it is not recognized now so I could not. Then I tried to use the Optical drive to do this. Actually I did a full backup. That filled a 4.7 GB disc and finished on a second disc with a combined total of 5.5. Is that correct? My C drive has 33 GB indicated on my hard drive. Now if I have a problem and need to reload the system, do I just start with disc 1 and proceed?
I have never had a back up or system image before and have always used the OS disc which I purchased and would start from scratch if I needed to.

 

[davidhk129]

Actually finished with just 2 disks is a surprise to me.
I am no expert in this subject, but I have been doing System Image Backup for 2 years now, and I do the backup about every 10 days in a regular basis. It is invaluable to me. It has saved me many many times when I had issues I could not fix.

I suggest that you invest some money and buy an external hard drive. A 500 GB ext hdd can be had about $50 in Canada. Should be even cheaper in USA, depending on the brand name of course.

I use a 1TB WD Passport ext. hdd to store image backups for my 2 laptops running Win 10 Home, Win 10 Pro and Insider Preview. I paid about $70 CDN in Warlmart when it was on sales.

When image backup is done and saved to the ext. hdd, I can access it by plugging it to my computer. The image is stored under Windows Image Backup folder.
Here are 2 screenshots. Notice the file size of one of my image backups.

SystemImagebackup folder

Image backup file size

 

[davidhk129]

RE : My C drive has 33 GB indicated on my hard drive
Huh ? 33 GB available ?
You have a tablet ? 64 GB ?

RE : Now if I have a problem and need to reload the system, do I just start with disc 1 and proceed?

Can't answer this question. I use external hard drive for that.
Windows 7 has slightly different ways to run the image backup recovery than Windows 10.
I can look up my dusty file for the procedures if you need them.

 

[Trouble]

I think the procedure is pretty much the same.
Boot from the installation disk and use the Repair Your PC link and select the recovery option.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/restore-computer-from-system-image-backup#1TC=windows-7
Or even better a little bit more detail......
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/wi...system-image-recovery-to-restore-a-hard-disk/

 

[davidhk129]

Windows 7 has slightly different ways to run the image backup recovery than Windows 10.
I can look up my dusty file for the procedures if you need them.

I wrote that with pre-installed Windows 7 in mind.
In most cases, pre-installed Win 7 computers do not come with Installation disk any more,but with a recovery partition instead.

The OP has a installation CD which I overlooked.
That does make things a lot easier.

However, if one can login to the computer, running image recovery can be done without using installation disk.

 

[RecumbentTim]

Thank you both for your advise. I am ordering a 1TB external HD. ($49.99 total) which will be here in just two days. Re: your question David "is it 64 GB", answer is yes it is a 64 GB SSD..