Winows 7 Disk Imaging

[GLOOPS]

Hi guys! 

Not long ago I posted up here with regard to imaging my hard drive.  I got lots of help and have now sorted my problem but I think I have gone for overkill! (lol) 

By that I mean that I have got hold of two HD imaging programs and I now take at least TWO image backups of my hard drive.  One I use is Windows 7's own imaging program.   Am I overkilling do you guys think?   I am asking, I suppose if Win 7 imaging program can be trusted to do the job, without using my Acronis and Paragon gizmos?

What say you guys???   

[Geek-9pm]

Of the three you mention..
I con retinue to use Acronis.

[jason2074]

Having two images is better than one.

[Geek-9pm]

Having two images is better than one.

Yeah Until you have confidence in one, use two.
Notably some users have found the backup system did not work as they thought. 

It is useful to have a spare hard drive on hand to verify that the restore process telly works. Do not do a restore when you not need it;. but use a spare hard drive to verify the restore procedure. Acronis can start from a flash drive. Or a CD. See if you can get Acronis to restore to a blank drive from the backup. This will ensure you understand the method and the hardware is right.

Look for Acronis Boot Disk in the documentation.
The other programs should have the same features.

[GLOOPS]

Yeah Until you have confidence in one, use two.
Notably some users have found the backup system did not work as they thought. 

It is useful to have a spare hard drive on hand to verify that the restore process telly works. Do not do a restore when you not need it;. but use a spare hard drive to verify the restore procedure. Acronis can start from a flash drive. Or a CD. See if you can get Acronis to restore to a blank drive from the backup. This will ensure you understand the method and the hardware is right.

Look for Acronis Boot Disk in the documentation.
The other programs should have the same features.

Yes I have a couple of 'passports' and an external HD as well.  I have all the CD's that help install the images also.  I have successfully restored from both Acronis AND Windows imaging in the past, so I am farely confident of the restoring procedure.   I guess I am trying to cut my work down to using just one image maker rather than more.  It takes a fair amount of time to image the HD.   Win 7 is the quickest. Acronis and Paragon take forever! (lol)   

[patio]

I image 2 PC's and my benchtest machine every other week...
Once a month i burn the latest image to DVD and store it off site.

Worst case scenario of a fatal crash and i'm 2 weeks back as far as data goes...

Works for me.

[GLOOPS]

I image 2 PC's and my benchtest machine every other week...
Once a month i burn the latest image to DVD and store it off site.

Worst case scenario of a fatal crash and i'm 2 weeks back as far as data goes...

Works for me.

What program do you use buddy?

[patio]

Acronis True Image.

[Allan]

Acronis True Image.

+1

[Salmon Trout]

I am asking, I suppose if Win 7 imaging program can be trusted to do the job, without using my Acronis and Paragon gizmos?

Since Win98 days I have been making image backups; I used Norton Ghost 8 right through to XP. 2 years ago I built a Shuttle barebones (AMD Phenom, Windows 7 Professional 64 bit) and I have been using the built in Windows 7 disk imaging tool. I created a bootable CD and I have successfully restored from image 3 times now (when I needed to) and before that a couple of times just to test that I actually could do a restore if I ever needed to. I personally don't see the need to try anything else. I have 2 external hard drives and I alternate them. I never let either image get more than 7 days old. If I ever need to I can mount an image (which is in VHD format) as a drive letter in Windows and recover selected files without having to do a full image restore.

[patio]

Only reason i didn't and won't try 7's imaging is when Vista came out i did an image using their built in feature...
2 weeks later when i needed it (new build) it failed miserably...

Good to hear they did some much needed work on it...

[Salmon Trout]

I would never trust a backup strategy that I have not tested completely on my hardware. I also tried Acronis and I could not get the bootable CD to work. It always froze. Maybe I was just unlucky. , The Windows 7 native imaging tool has never let me down.

[patio]

So we have identical issues with different products...
Interesting.
What i learned years ago is if you rely on any backup app and never test the actual backups you are a victim of a false sense of security...

P.S. It happened years ago when i also used Ghost...i learned the hard way.

[Salmon Trout]

I have seen on the Web that Acronis boot disk failure has been a known issue with some motherboard chipsets... the problem I had was it would hang on "Starting Acronis Loader..." - multiple CDs, different burners, from separately downloaded ISOs. I also had a similar problem with Paragon Backup And Recovery 10.

[Salmon Trout]

The solutions other than Windows have to use a customized/branded Linux boot CD; at the time I first started using my system I found that certain Linux bootable CDs would not boot; the Windows 7 DVD of course boots on my system; this disk also contains the recovery environment; it seemed like a no-brainer, especially after I had tested the recovery process.