#Win 7 system image tool full
#Win 7 system image tool Pc
#Win 7 system image tool windows 7
#Win 7 system image tool windows

Windows ships with an alternative frontend for Windows Backup, the WBAdmin command-line utility. Īs mentioned above, Backup and Restore is merely a frontend.

#Win 7 system image tool full

As such, System Restore can use shadow copies that Backup and Restore created during a full system backup. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, another Windows component called System Restore also uses VSS. VSS ensures both file system-level consistency and app-level consistency for apps registered as VSS writers. ĭuring a backup, Windows uses the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to ensure that files are not changed while they are being backed up. Scheduled backups, by default, run every Sunday at 7 P.M. This service runs independent of user sessions and can perform scheduled backups even when no users have logged onto the system.

The backend component is a Windows service called Windows Backup. Operation īackup and Restore is only a frontend for interfacing with the user. Windows Server Backup in Windows Server 2008 does not support hard disk drives with large sector sizes (4096 bytes) unless they support 512 byte emulation. It also supports CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs as backup destinations, but does not support tape drives. However, Backup and Restore does not support backing up to a subfolder of a volume. Finally, hypervisors such as Hyper-V, VMware Workstation, and Oracle VirtualBox support VHD as their disk format, so it is possible to use these backups in virtual machines.īackups could be stored on the root of any storage device other than the one being backed up or on a network share.

#Win 7 system image tool windows 7

In Windows 7 Enterprise and Ultimate, it also possible to boot from the VHD file. The mounted virtual disk has all the features of an actual volume, meaning that the Previous Versions feature of Windows 7 is available on it. Īlternatively, one could mount the VHD image as a virtual disk, allowing extraction of individual files. Beginning with Windows Vista SP1, system images can be restored to a machine with a different motherboard, which may have a different disk controller, but the target machine must have the same number of disks. One could later restore the VHD through the Windows Recovery Environment. However, Backup and Restore can also only create system images of disks formatted with the NTFS file system. The block-based backup is more efficient at performing subsequent differential backups, as only the blocks that have changed need to be backed up.

#Win 7 system image tool Pc

The other method of backup, called Complete PC Backup in Windows Vista or system image in Windows 7, is a block-by-block disk image of the system, saved in a VHD file. Microsoft hoped that this simplistic approach would prove appealing to users who were easily appalled by 'a long tree of checkboxes.' įile backup in Windows 7 presents two options for operation: Let Me Choose, which allows users to perform backups of specific folders, libraries, and to create a system image and Let Windows Choose, which creates backups of all personal data in user folders and libraries, and also creates a system image. Users can only choose whether to perform a backup of a certain category. The second, incremental backup stores only files that are changed after a previous backup.įile backup in Windows Vista does not allow users to choose specific files, locations, or users to back up instead, it backs up content from all users based on categories: audio tracks, compressed files, documents, email, photos, recorded television shows, videos, and additional user files. The first, normal backup, stores everything selected for backup. Two methods of file backup are supported. The Backup and Restore app can create backup copies of individual files and folders. The Windows Server counterpart of Backup and Restore is called Windows Server Backup.īackup and Restore supports two different types of backup: File and folder backup, and system image. Despite its deprecation, however, it is part of all versions of Windows released thereafter. Microsoft deprecated Backup and Restore in Windows 8.0, recommending to use the File History app for file-based backup and a third-party solution for system imaging. But its full set of features are only available on high-end editions of Windows, i.e., the Professional, Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions. Unlike its predecessor, it supports CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays discs as backup media.īackup and Restore offers file and folder backup in all editions of Windows. It replaces NTBackup, which has been part of Windows since Windows NT 3.51. It can create file and folder backups, as well as system images backups, to be used for recovery in the event of data corruption, hard disk drive failure, or malware infection. Backup and Restore (formerly Backup and Restore Center ) is the primary backup component of Windows Vista and Windows 7.