Windows7 image backup - restoring the image question

[ranchhand]

Has anyone actually used Windows 7 partition-image backup utility (not the file backup) to restore to a different hard drive than the original hard drive that has the operating system that the image was created from? Will it do that? The reason I ask is to make sure that if the original HD mechanically fails, M/Soft will allow re-imaging onto a different hard drive.

[Bjs]

This link pretty well covers the answer

Thou it can be finicky ... mine refused until I used another tool to delete all known partitions on the drive ... after that all worked fine.

[ranchhand]

Thanks Bjs, that is a great link. I searched a lot but I guess I missed that one. It is pretty much what I suspected, sometimes it works and sometimes not. This is typical Microsoft and why many go to third party utilities for features that are in Windows. Simply amazing to me, such a company with the talent they have and the deep pockets, something as critical as backup is "iffy" at best. I have experienced that many of these imaging utilities are terrific at creating the image, but fail when it comes time to restore. When I read the reviews of these products, the reviewer tests by creating the image but doesn't attempt the restore, and that is the most critical part of the whole thing!

[fritzi93]

The free hard drive manufacturers' versions of Acronis (WD and Seagate) have never failed me yet. The image backup/restore always goes off without a hitch. Never tried Windows backup. Good luck.

[ranchhand]

Thanx Fritzi, Yeah, I thought about that; the only hitch I can see is that it limits me to one manufacturer. I assume that a Seagate image backup would not work on a WD??

[fritzi93]

As long as you have one of the manufacturer's hard drives in your computer, it will work. If, say, you have the Seagate version installed and just one Seagate drive, it doesn't matter if the drive to be imaged or the destination drive isn't a Seagate. But you cannot install both the Seagate and WD versions on the same computer. (I have the Seagate version on my computer, and the WD version installed on my wife's (office) computer.)

Then there's Macrium Reflect, also free. Doesn't matter at all what hard drives you have. I have that one installed on a netbook that came with a Hitachi hard drive. And I tested the backup/restore on that one too, no problem.

[sambat]

I used it to restore to a larger HDD - which I think is the rule.

[fritzi93]

For some software, maybe, I dunno. You can clone with proportional partition sizes to a different size drive with Acronis, or you can adjust partition sizes, which is unnecessarily cumbersome. Or just run PartedMagic afterwards to recover unpartitioned space and/or align a drive. I have restored images to a smaller drive, like when I got a couple SSDs for my computers (and had to align afterwards). Just so the drive is bigger than the image.

Macrium is a bit of a pain in the ass, and you'll have to run PartedMagic afterwards on a destination drive, unless it was also the drive that was imaged in the first place.

[RabidDog]

I have experienced that many of these imaging utilities are terrific at creating the image, but fail when it comes time to restore. When I read the reviews of these products, the reviewer tests by creating the image but doesn't attempt the restore, and that is the most critical part of the whole thing!

This is so true, both of reviewers and users. I have seen (few) people back up weekly etc but when I ask what would they do to restore the image, they look at me blankly.
I think that restores of backups are rated badly as very few people ever get to do them. They either do not have a backup in place, or they hire someone else to take the responsibility. Quite often people do not even know what they are backing up, unless its a whole disc.
This is when programs and OS on one partition and data on another can really start to make sense.
i wouldnt trust W$ to change partition sizes, or it's backups, as complete data loss in the past, made me burst out laughing.*

*If laughing is crying and cursing, TOH $£%^^!!

[bevills1]

FYI there's a workaround to get Seagate Discwizard to work regardless of hard drive brand posted at http://forums.seagate.com/t5/DiscWizard-and-MaxBlast/Using-DiscWizard-MaxBlast-to-back...hard/m-p/25406. I've used the workaround on several PCs, and it's not failed to backup and restore on any I've done thus far.

[ranchhand]

Thanks, Bevills...I would like to give that a whirl. I found the Disc Wizard download, but what it this "Max Blast" they refer to?

[bevills1]

Maxblast is the same as Discwizard but for Maxtor hard drives. I suspect they both work the same since the workaround link references both.

[ranchhand]

Ok, thanks... believe it or not, I just now started getting SMART flag popups on my WD1-TB (1 year old) Backup drive. I don't believe it. It failed the Seagate Tools HD test also. Well, Newegg, here I come.

[classfour]

Just cloned with a drive cloner - on worked, one did not.

Easus todobackup has worked every time.

have not done the M$ one

[bevills1]

Is the drive not still under warranty? I checked a couple of Seagate and WD drives at Newegg, and they show 2 year warranty.

[ranchhand]

Yes, it appears to be. Tomorrow I am pulling it out to get the serial number and I will call Seagate. It will be interesting to see what happens.

[ranchhand]

Hey all... I am pulling up this older thread to follow-up on my Seagate hard drive warranty return (see the post immediately above this one). I must admit, being as jaded and cynical as I am, the service at Seagate was gold. Gave the customer service guy the drive serial number and he sent me via 2-day delivery a new 1TB drive with pre-paid labels to return the old one. No problems, no discussion. Interestingly, I thought the drive was under warranty for 2 years, but he said it was covered to 2014 (?). Oh, well, whose to argue? I installed the new drive, popped the old one back in the same box, slapped the sticker on it and dropped it off at the UPS store 2 blocks away. Done.

By the way, I am really impressed with Macrium Reflect (free edition). Dead-easy to navigate. Another thing that kind of amazes me, if I access the image on my backup drive, double-click on it, a dialog box pops up enabling me to access the entire hard drive (virtual)! I can just drag & drop any individual data file I want onto my active desktop! Most of you guys probably knew this already, but I didn't and it really blew me away!

[Almost Human]

Used Windows 7 Backup and Restore tool to restore a disk image of a failed HD yesterday. Everything went smooth and quickly in about half an hour. I used an identical HD that had been used in another PC, and just deleted the partitions with the System Recovery disc first. Since it was a recent image, only 16 updates to the OS were necessary - mostly IE security updates.

[ranchhand]

Ain't life beautiful when a plan comes together?