Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional)
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Use Veeam Agent for Windows. Entirely free.
- Install.
- Create Recovery Image.
- Backup to USB.
- Remove failing HDD, add new HDD.
- Boot to Bootable USB with the Veeam Recovery Image applied (Rufus is good for that - also free).
- Inset restore USB and select it in Veeam Recovery.
- Let it recover...
- Done!
Easy. Works time after time.
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@jimmy9008 said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
Use Veeam Agent for Windows. Entirely free.
- Install.
- Create Recovery Image.
- Backup to USB.
- Remove failing HDD, add new HDD.
- Boot to Bootable USB with the Veeam Recovery Image applied (Rufus is good for that - also free).
- Inset restore USB and select it in Veeam Recovery.
- Let it recover...
- Done!
Easy. Works time after time.
Just for clarification - this is a three drive solution as well.
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Maybe the system image restored failed due to errors found in the failing HDD.
Why dont you just backup the data of files in :
C:\Users
And the other drives besides C using a light Linux Live OS (Gparted) or WIndows recovery enviroment.
And take his browser profile, and bookmarks.Thats what most users need anyway.
Installing Windows 7 or any windows from scratch takes 5-10 mins on good machines and 15-20 on slow ones. then restore the data.
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@emad-r Yeah, I learned that there isn't any specific software he needs, so I'm just going to literally copy his user folder and maybe the Pictures, Documents, and Music folders onto a thumb drive, give him a newer tower with a fresh 7 install and just drag and drop that over. Was still nice getting all these avenues of approach.
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@dashrender said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
@jimmy9008 said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
Use Veeam Agent for Windows. Entirely free.
- Install.
- Create Recovery Image.
- Backup to USB.
- Remove failing HDD, add new HDD.
- Boot to Bootable USB with the Veeam Recovery Image applied (Rufus is good for that - also free).
- Inset restore USB and select it in Veeam Recovery.
- Let it recover...
- Done!
Easy. Works time after time.
Just for clarification - this is a three drive solution as well.
Veeam Agent won't care how many drives. You do the backup and image. Replace one, two or all three. Won't matter.
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@emad-r said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
Maybe the system image restored failed due to errors found in the failing HDD.
Why dont you just backup the data of files in :
C:\Users
And the other drives besides C using a light Linux Live OS (Gparted) or WIndows recovery enviroment.
And take his browser profile, and bookmarks.Thats what most users need anyway.
Installing Windows 7 or any windows from scratch takes 5-10 mins on good machines and 15-20 on slow ones. then restore the data.
Really? When was the last time you install Windows 7? It took over 5 hours to install all the updates.
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@dashrender yea, those updates are ruthless for sure. Good point.
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@jimmy9008 said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
@dashrender said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
@jimmy9008 said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
Use Veeam Agent for Windows. Entirely free.
- Install.
- Create Recovery Image.
- Backup to USB.
- Remove failing HDD, add new HDD.
- Boot to Bootable USB with the Veeam Recovery Image applied (Rufus is good for that - also free).
- Inset restore USB and select it in Veeam Recovery.
- Let it recover...
- Done!
Easy. Works time after time.
Just for clarification - this is a three drive solution as well.
Veeam Agent won't care how many drives. You do the backup and image. Replace one, two or all three. Won't matter.
That's not what I mean.
To use Veeam - you need three total drives.
drive 1 - original
drive 2 - place to store the backup image (you can use any number of different software packages to do this)
drive 3 - replacement drive that you will restore the image onto.This is what my third post suggests, just using Clonezilla instead of Veeam, and @Breffni-Potter mentioned.
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@g-i-jones said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
@emad-r Yeah, I learned that there isn't any specific software he needs, so I'm just going to literally copy his user folder and maybe the Pictures, Documents, and Music folders onto a thumb drive, give him a newer tower with a fresh 7 install and just drag and drop that over. Was still nice getting all these avenues of approach.
Why are you giving them Windows 7? You can upgrade that machine to Windows 10 for free, why keep them on old stuff?
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@dashrender I don't call the shots on that. I personally like 10, but everything we have at our organization is build on or with Windows 7 in mind. Plus, most of our users are older folk that if you threw a new OS at them, they would be calling me for every minor task because they hardly know how to set up a print job as it is.
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Really? When was the last time you install Windows 7? It took over 5 hours to install all the updates.
In I.T bench world, you can tick the option to install updates automatically, and give the client the machine and it will install updates by itself. No one has to babysit the whole thing (unless you really love that person you are helping).
Also I love system image modder by the name of murphy78, what he does is incorporates Windows 7 updates in the base installation image, without corrupting anything (and I trust him after following many of his releases).
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@emad-r I'm gonna have to look into that, that's highly interesting, thanks for sharing.
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@dashrender said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
@jimmy9008 said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
@dashrender said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
@jimmy9008 said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
Use Veeam Agent for Windows. Entirely free.
- Install.
- Create Recovery Image.
- Backup to USB.
- Remove failing HDD, add new HDD.
- Boot to Bootable USB with the Veeam Recovery Image applied (Rufus is good for that - also free).
- Inset restore USB and select it in Veeam Recovery.
- Let it recover...
- Done!
Easy. Works time after time.
Just for clarification - this is a three drive solution as well.
Veeam Agent won't care how many drives. You do the backup and image. Replace one, two or all three. Won't matter.
That's not what I mean.
To use Veeam - you need three total drives.
drive 1 - original
drive 2 - place to store the backup image (you can use any number of different software packages to do this)
drive 3 - replacement drive that you will restore the image onto.This is what my third post suggests, just using Clonezilla instead of Veeam, and @Breffni-Potter mentioned.
Yes, makes sense. Read what you typed differently.
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@emad-r said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
Really? When was the last time you install Windows 7? It took over 5 hours to install all the updates.
In I.T bench world, you can tick the option to install updates automatically, and give the client the machine and it will install updates by itself. No one has to babysit the whole thing (unless you really love that person you are helping).
Also I love system image modder by the name of murphy78, what he does is incorporates Windows 7 updates in the base installation image, without corrupting anything.
Yeah, can do this but every so often expect the call: "My PC that you repaired yesterday is so slow." - They won't appreciate it's doing a bazillion updates. IMO - should get to them up to date and ready.
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@jimmy9008 said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
@emad-r said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
Really? When was the last time you install Windows 7? It took over 5 hours to install all the updates.
In I.T bench world, you can tick the option to install updates automatically, and give the client the machine and it will install updates by itself. No one has to babysit the whole thing (unless you really love that person you are helping).
Also I love system image modder by the name of murphy78, what he does is incorporates Windows 7 updates in the base installation image, without corrupting anything.
Yeah, can do this but every so often expect the call: "My PC that you repaired yesterday is so slow." - They won't appreciate it's doing a bazillion updates. IMO - should get to them up to date and ready.
It all depends on the user... is the user good to you ? did he ever provided with sweets or offered food ? if not he gets the Vanilla Windows 7.
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You can learn that lost art yourself, but murphy78 had mad skillz in this thing. Too bad recently he stopped updating his stuff cause he moved to bad location with no good internet.
Um research him and see how he does it, listen he is not cracker or pirate or hacker (my opinion), he uses official MSDN images and open about his methods, and he just provides you with like Windows 7 image up-to-date with .net 4.6 for example.
Also he can provide you with Windows 10 All In One release, like Windows 10 behemoth image with 26 options to install.
But honestly speaking I can see why it is lost art, today you Can install Windows 10
(whatever version you like) + Cumulative update and your good to go. -
@jimmy9008 said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
@emad-r said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
Really? When was the last time you install Windows 7? It took over 5 hours to install all the updates.
In I.T bench world, you can tick the option to install updates automatically, and give the client the machine and it will install updates by itself. No one has to babysit the whole thing (unless you really love that person you are helping).
Also I love system image modder by the name of murphy78, what he does is incorporates Windows 7 updates in the base installation image, without corrupting anything.
Yeah, can do this but every so often expect the call: "My PC that you repaired yesterday is so slow." - They won't appreciate it's doing a bazillion updates. IMO - should get to them up to date and ready.
Exactly. Handing a unit to an end user that has hours of updates to go, not only makes the machine slow, also give the user a window to get infected by otherwise patched things. While this might be a low probability, it's just not worth it to me.
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@emad-r said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
@jimmy9008 said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
@emad-r said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
Really? When was the last time you install Windows 7? It took over 5 hours to install all the updates.
In I.T bench world, you can tick the option to install updates automatically, and give the client the machine and it will install updates by itself. No one has to babysit the whole thing (unless you really love that person you are helping).
Also I love system image modder by the name of murphy78, what he does is incorporates Windows 7 updates in the base installation image, without corrupting anything.
Yeah, can do this but every so often expect the call: "My PC that you repaired yesterday is so slow." - They won't appreciate it's doing a bazillion updates. IMO - should get to them up to date and ready.
It all depends on the user... is the user good to you ? did he ever provided with sweets or offered food ? if not he gets the Vanilla Windows 7.
Wow - someone has to much power.
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@dashrender said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
It all depends on the user... is the user good to you ? did he ever provided with sweets or offered food ? if not he gets the Vanilla Windows 7.
More like too much responsibilities and under paid.
I support one main site with 100 machines/users (there is server that I can use to help me).
another with 30 machines (there is server that I can use to help me).
and another with 20 machines (no servers)
and ofcourse the printers everywhere.- my servers + vendor servers + WiFi and the firewall.
Basically everything I.T
No assistance or helper, even when requested, they offered a good candidate I choose internally 14.10$ per month, for helping me an hour each day = true story.
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@g-i-jones said in Windows restore from system image (Windows 7 Professional):
So I had an associate bring me his computer that is saying "imminent HDD failure".
I re-formatted a 160GB HDD I had laying around to NTFS to match the current 160GB failing HDD. Also created a DVD repair disk in the same instance.
I then pulled the old HDD out, and put in it's place the new HDD with the image I created, and booted from the repair DVD. I got the system repair from image option and started going through that but I almost instantly get this error:
"The System image restore failed.
Error details: Windows did not find any disk which it can use for recreating volumes present in backup. Offline disks, cluster shared disks or disks explicitly excluded by user will not be used by windows. Ensure that disks are online and no disks are excluded by mistake. (0x80042414)"
I've read that Windows back-up operations are shit but wanted to know, based on what I've told you thus far, if anyone had any tips about what I might have done wrong or an alternative route that does not involve third-party software. This is my first time dealing with a failing HDD and would appreciate if any of you could help as I'm really trying to learn all I can from you guys about IT.
It's because the new drive you put in is slightly smaller than the one that was in.
Use a bigger new drive.
