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Never Re-install Windows Again Part 3: Imaging your hard drive
In this, the third part of this series Gizmo shows to image your system drive using the free imaging program DriveImage XML
In Part 2 of this series I showed how to partition (or divide) your current C: drive into two smaller drives (partitions) so that the first partition C: contain your Windows operating system (and some of your data) while the second partition contains just data. In this part I'll show you how to create an image or snapshot of your Windows partition using a free imaging program called DriveImage XML.
Step 1: Setting Up DriveImage XML
DriveImage XML is a free imaging program that's particularly easy to use. It's not particularly fast but it does have a great advantage of many of the other free imaging programs: it forms part of the standard collection of utilities on the UBCD4Win bootable rescue disk.
That means that if your Windows system becomes unbootable you can restore a working image of your system drive by booting from a UBCD4Win CD and running DriveImage XML. Once you have restored the image your PC should boot into Windows normally.
That's fine for restoring an image or recovering an unbootable PC but you don't need to run DriveImage XML from a boot CD to create an image. To create an image you can run DriveImage XML directly from Windows rather than a CD. In fact that's exactly what we are going to do is this tutorial.
If you ever need to run UBCD4Win to recover an unbootable PC or restore an image the product looks and works the same when run from a boot CD as it does from Windows.
Download DriveImage XML from here and install it on your PC. It's a 1.5MB download and will work on Windows XP or later though I haven't tried it myself with Vista.
Step 2: Setup the Storage Area for your Image
In the previous part of this series we created a separate data partition. We will use this partition to store the image of our C: drive that we create with DriveImage XML.
Here's what our disk looked like after we had created the data partition:
So we are going to create an image of C:, our system drive and store it on F: our data drive. Note your data drive may have another drive letter other than F:
If you have an second physical hard drive or an external USB drive you could store your image files there. However I suggest you first store it on the data partition of your main hard drive and then later copy it to your second drive. That way you'll have two backup copies.
First lets' go to our data drive and create a special folder called "images" to hold our image files. Do that now. When finished you data drive should look something like this:
Step 3: Create the Drive Image
Startup DriveImage XML. You should see a screen that looks something like this:
Select the backup option. You will then see this screen:
Select the C: drive and press Next. This will start the backup wizard.
Press Next
Enter the storage location for the image file into the "Directory" box. In this example I've entered F:\images.
You have some decisions to make with the options. Here's what they mean:
Raw mode means that every sector on you system file will be copied even sectors without data. Most users will want to leave this box unchecked as the image creation process will take a lot longer if you copy unused sectors.
The Split large files option will split the image file into several smaller files each small enough to be burnt to a CD. If you don't intend to burn to CD then uncheck this option.
Compressing your file will roughly halve the size of the resulting image file but will lengthen the time it takes to burn an image. Most users will want to check this option to save space.
In the following examples I used the default options but I suspect most users would check "compressed" but leave both "Raw mode" and "Split large files" unchecked.
Leave the Hot Imaging Strategy options set to the default values.
Once you have set your options click Next and the backup process will start.
Don't be too alarmed at the "time remaining" figure. It will start very high but drop rapidly as the backup continues. DriveImage XML is still slow though. This particular backup ended up taking 1 hour 50 minutes while the commercial imaging program Acronis True Image took only 22 minutes to backup the same drive. Still if you setup DriveImage XML to run overnight it really doesn't matter.
When the imaging is completed go to the location where you stored you image file and make sure it's there. Here's what my imaging folder looked like:
Here you can clearly see how DriveImage XML has broken up the image file into small, CD-size chunks. If you want a CD backup you could then use your CD burner to burn each file to CD. That's a lot of CDs. With external hard drives now so cheap it seems a lot of effort to me but I do accept that CDs are good for offsite backup.
Restoring an image using DriveImage XML is simplicity itself. Just select the Restore option from the opening page, select the image you want to restore and you are done!
Well that's it folks. In this three part series I've shown you how to:
- Divide your hard drive into a system partition and a data partition
- Move your data from the system partition to the data partition
- Backup your system drive using DriveImage XML
Now next time your Windows get corrupted you can recover your Windows system from your backup image.
A Note on Restoring Images
You can't restore an image to your C: drive while Windows is running from your C: drive. When you think about it this has to be the case as the process of restoring the image will write over the running version of Windows.
So how do you restore a C: drive image?
Easy. You boot your PC from a UBCD4Win boot CD, run DriveImage XML from the CD and then restore your image.
You'll also need a boot disk if your system becomes unbootable as you won't be able to run DriveImage XML from your PC as it isn't working!
So it pays to go to the trouble of making a UBCD4Win boot disk and to have this available before you encounter a problem.
You can find instructions how to make your own UBCD4Win boot disk here.
Well that's the end of this three part series folks.
Remember to backup your system drive often. I do it at least once a week but average users can get away with doing it monthly.
Once you've set this up "you'll never need to re-install Windows again." :>)
Never Re-install Windows Again: Part 1
Never Re-install Windows Again: Part 2
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Comments
Macrium is just as good Driveimage XML.
However the recent version of Macrium is not a freeware.The old version is still available at some sites.
One other advantage of backing up the C drive periodically is that you will have the most recent update, upgrade to Windows XP plus to Java and adobe player as well (Adobe seems to make more upgrades to flash player than Microsoft makes it to Windows XP.
Keep in mind Macrium can be run from USB stick.
Before you boot the computer with UBCD however, connect the USB stick or USB external drives.
Unfortunately with some portable external drives when connected to the USB port before you run UCBD, they will not let UCBD load completely. However, if you connect it to the USB port after you boot with UCBD they will not be recognized. Perhaps you might want to try using AC operated external drive than portable external drive to back up and restore.
Hard drives can fail at any time. Installing Windows, all the drivers and applications is a time consuming process
Hi,
I have make a image copy of my HD with all the data. The data is very important for me. But my HD got bad sectors on it. Now i need to copy the data with the option of ignoring bad sector. I already have before the raid configuration setup on my computer. Do i need to make a copy of the data before replacing the damaged HD (as the raid is setup between two HDs) with new HDs or there is no need to copy the data?
But now i have the image of 23 GB but the actual size of the windows along with the data is 115 GB. How do i copy the whole data? is there anyone can help me out.
Unfortunately we cannot provide individual support of this nature here in the comments. Please post your query in our forum:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/freeware-forum/general-computer-support/
I REALLY would appreciate the procedure for Backing up and Restoring to an... External Hard Drive, so I can install to another computer, and just for safety's sake in case of a failed hard drive !
PLEASE help us out with a 4th series !!!
All of the above can be done on any USB external drive. Just substitute it in the equation. Most computer's made in the last 7 years recognize USB drive's at boot time. Meaning Gparted and DriveImg XML, or any other boot CD shouldn't have a problem recognizing it. If this is not the case for you, go into your Bios options (usually either F2 or Delete while the computer is booting) and look for the ability to boot from USB or something about USB removable sources. Make sure it's enabled.
If the external USB drive still doesn't show up, try disabling the Floppy or FDD drive in the Bios options, since you probably don't have one anyway. (Re-enable it if you need it, of course.)
Last resort, make sure your motherboard's chipset drivers are up to date by going to your manufacturer's website (example: Dell.com) and checking for updates. You can also check at Intel.com or AMD.com but it's much more confusing that way.
Ugg, you lost me after you instructed using UBCD4Win to restore the image. I know the creator of UBCD4Win did his very best to write a step-by-step guide to building the bootable rescue CD, but my eyes were like pinwheel. @_@
I tried googling to see if I could find a way to use DriveImageXML on a ready-made bootable rescue CD. Took me a few hours, but I found it: Hiren's BootCD.
Download, unzip, burn, boot, locate ImageDriveXML, restore. None of this building a UBCD4Win crap. Not only so, it has the GParted Partition Editor on it as well. Therefore every app the 3-parts article required is on this boot CD.
Too bad there isn't an app that combine GParted and DriveImageXML in one linear process. But Hiren's BootCD is the next best thing.
Thanks for writing the articles. =D
We do not support or recommend Hiren's Boot CD because it contains commercial software, which are not licensed properly, and therefore the CD is considered illegal.
The comment will be deleted after some time.
This is nice method of restore.I have a server with 2 SCSI disk/Windows 2000/ and the disks are in RAID 0. So Is the disk imaging possible and does the resotre works?
Regards
Great article on hard drive imaging and restoring but one thing can cause major concern. The hard drives today are quite reliable compared to the ones of yesteryear and do not 'crash' as often as the old ones did. They do 'crash' so it's just a matter of time before they do. When a hard drive crashes for whatever reason it has to be replaced so your method brings up a new question. If you have the hard drive image on the same drive as your data backup, and it crashes you lose the image along with all the data. I believe any way you look at it, backups have to be on a separate drive. The price of drives are so low that it has become necessary to have a storage drive as part of ones system's hardware.
I personally make an image of my total hard drive weekly which takes about an hour for my 200 gigs. To restore my drive to the new drive takes about 45 minutes. I use Macrium reflect which is free and has never let me down. This way you never have to re-install windows and you have the security for a very small investment. BTW you should run a poll on which hard drive manufacturers users prefer or use as there is a difference in reliability between their drives. I have had a few brand new drives crash after 10 to 100 hours of use and others last for years of 24/7 useage.
Thanks you so much for this very detailed and informative article! Great work!!!
My apologies if this is the wrong forum for this question but I could not find one directly applicable. I am missing some features in Windows Vista Media Player as well as Device Manager is not reading anything I have installed at a particular time. In addition the laptop is not recognizing when I plug in my printer-it may be missing a driver. My question is can I use the Vista installation disk to address just these issues alone? If not how may I repair these problems? Thank you
I don't have a personal knowledge of Vista so I can't say if a repair install is possible or even how effective this might be if it is. From experience all I can say is that invariably systems with multiple corruptions are always better off with a complete new install. If you decide to go down this route make sure to save your important data first and then scan it all with a reputable antivirus solution before putting it back in to your clean system.
Thanks MC for the timely reply. Can I use a program such as Macrium free before reinstalling? Or will this somewhat nullify what I am trying to do in the first place? I am trying to avoid having to reinstall all my software programs such as security and others. I am a new user of pcs at this level so your replies are a huge help.
Unfortunately an image is only good to use if it is taken at a time when everything is complete and clean, i.e. immediately after a re-install. I say this because there's a chance your computer may also have a malware infection. Before going to the trouble of reinstalling though it might be worth your seeking out someone competent who can run some system cleaners, additional malware scanners and other tools which may just possibly rescue things for you.
perhaps it is just the 12+ hours I have spent AGAIN on a dumb Micro$oft
WinCrash install, (and because of the infinite??? number of times I have
been forced to do this since I felt compelled to make the switch back to
this miserable OS from RedHat, but am I correct that after installing the software suggested in this "never install wincrash again..." article, I understand that I cannot use the Dell OEM setup disks to build the UBCD4Win disk? I am sure I did not see this until later in the article AFTER I had done most of the work, (my fault for being tired and not going through it all first) but is there NO way to salvage the UBCD install to create the startup disk with the OEM version of Wincrash I have. I refuse to pay for a standalone copy and if this is the end result, I go back to RedHat tommorrow. Any help here?
Thanks
The imaging software you use is a bit dated Gizmo. Very complicated for the average Joe. Macrium Reflect is free and simplicity itself to use (has an idiot wizard). Click, click, click ...done, image to file on second partition, DVD or 2nd HD.
Click, click, click...restored!
I've not used Macrium Reflect though it has been on my to-do list for a long time. When I do get around to trying it I'll update this review if I consider Macrium Reflect to offer a better solution.
The following comments were made by "Mike" in another section of the site and have been moved here:
Gizmo, you warn against continuing if you see a recovery partition on the drive. Well, 1)I'm using Acronis True Image 2)saw your note about up to 4 Primary partitions allowed on a drive and 3)that the Recovery partition was the first partition on the drive, with "C:" as the second. I figured with a solid drive image I could recover from most anything that came up.
So here is the log of the steps I used to get a separate "Data" partition on a drive with a System Recovery partition. This could/should be cleaned up as this my log of my exploration into extra partitions on a drive.
=======================================================================
o Split main partition into C: and F: (D: used by System Recovery partition)
Assumptions/hints
Gizmo:Need 1 Pri,Act part. Can have up to 4 Primary partitions
Partitions on drive 0 are in the order: 1) D: System Recovery, 2) C:
XP home asseen in Start->Admin tools->CompMgmt->DiskMgmt
Used Acronis True Image for drive image and restore
1 Defragged Main XP partition
2 Drive imaged MBR&T0(0+GB, D:Recovery part.(4GB) & C:Main XP part.(74GB)
3 UBCD4Win:
1)Delete Main XP part
2)Create/format new 12GB C: "XP OS" (Primary, Active)
3)Create/format new 57GB I: "MyData"(Primary) - format failed
4 Restored C: XP from step 2 into 12gb C: partition
Attempted reboot - failed. No msg:"Press F11 to start recovery..."
Suspected MBR & trk 0 overwritten by UBCD4Win.
Recovered MBR & trk 0
5 Booted restored/ recovered C: partition sucessfully
Drive I is unusable. Also got error message when Windows tryed to Add drive I: hardware.
o Used XP's "Start", "Admisitrative Tools", "Computer Management", "Disk Management"
"MyData" part. actions: 1)Deleted, 2)Created "MyData" as Primary part.
6 Drive imaged MBR&T0(0+GB, D:Recovery part.(4GB), C: XP part.(12GB) & E"MyData"(57GB)
7 Tested new drive structure
At reboot at msg "Press F11 to start recovery...", ran System recovery from first
Pri partiiton and recovered vanilla XP Home system
Copied some data to "MyData" partition, deleted part of it, ran Auslogic's defrag
All seemed to work just fine.
8 Restored "C:Main XP part."(74GB) from #2, into "C:XP OS"(12GB)
9 Drive imaged MBR&T0(0+GB, D:Recovery part.(4GB), C: XP part.(12GB) & E"MyData"(57GB)
Now working on the new structure.
Will move "My Documents" to "MyData", install my Apps & take final drive image
Thanks and take care, Mike
Look all he is seperating is the my documents folder from windows. I really do not see any advatage in what he is doing. just create an image of the drive and find somewheres safe to keep it. second or external drive or whatever, If you make an image of the drive there is no advantage I can see in seperating the document folder.
Respectfully, I believe you missed the point. Or perhaps you don't know what system images are. When you restore from an image, it replaces everything (very literally, everything) with the programs and data contained in the original image. If you image one drive that has your operating system and all your installed programs on it and then later have to restore to get your system stable / recovered for some reason (or to undo a bad O/S test installation, install the O/S and programs on a new PC, etc.) not having your data on the imaged (system) drive prevents it from being killed by the restore. In your description, having to restore the O/S and programs to they're original / stable state would overwrite all of your data too. Separating the drives allows you to separate the images, and for a lot of reasons, it's a lot more common to have to restore due to an O/S issue than documents, etc. Images are awesome because they bypass the re-installation of the O/S, activation, etc. as well as the re-installation of all the applications, drivers and so forth. I would recommend re-reading and maybe trying it out for yourself :O) - BG
I use macrium reflect, which has a built in CD Boot disk creator. It allows you to run a backup from within windows, and use the boot disk to restore in the event of hard disk failure. I also agree with storing your OS and APPS on the C:\ drive or partition. that way all your data is safe in the event of an OS crash and you just need to restore the OS partition\disk.
I backed up a neighbor's hard drive last november over 13 dvds using driveimage xml. She now wants it restored. One of the many small files is corrupt, and cannot be copied from the DVD. I have tried everything to repair it. The best I could do is to recover it ended up with the file size smaller than it should be, and it gives me errors when I try to restore. And thoughts would be appreciated.
I apologize, my post above shouldn't have been posted as a 'reply' :)
I had been using DriveImage XML to image my C drive periodically for some time, thinking I would be ready in the event of a drive failure or hard drive upgrade. The upgrade came first with the purchase of a new hard drive, but when I restored my DiveImage XML image to the new drive, it would not boot. This is a 6 year old Dell Dimension 4550 system. I ended up using the trial of Acronis True Image Home 2009 to clone the drive with no problem. Can anyone explain why the drive wouldn't boot after restoring a DriveImage XML image? I even tried changing the drive ID as suggest in the DriveImage XML FAQs. Also, the partition in the new drive was set to primary and active. I'm puzzled by this. I hope someone can help. Thanks!
Great article Gizmo.
I only used part 2, but I read the whole thing.
I have 3 almost identical HDDs' (the C drive is getting a bit dodgy), and I was already using DriveImage XML but it wouldn't let me restore (or disk to disk) the image to a drive of exactly the same size as my C drive. Probably because windows puts some smeg on every drive installed, making it look smaller than it really is. So I re-sized and partitioned, and re-imaged C:. As I write this I am watching DriveImage-XML running in BartPE quite happily restore the image to one of my other drives.... finished. Restart, del to enter bios, change boot drive, reboot, YES! YES! YES! It Lives! lol (: Cheers m8 -Adrian down Under
OK I have read the entire article and I am not sure if this is what I need to do. Here is my problem. I have two drives both have operating OS on them and each of them have 1 program that I want to combine on to either one of the drives.
drive 1 has the program EMB
drive 2 has the program BOS
I have lost the software for both of the programs so reinstalling them from the disk is not an option. I have plug in the drives and one remains as original the C drive and the other one becomes drive F. Neither of these programs will run if they are not in the C drive. I have searched for the configuration files to make it look in the F drive but not able to located them. I does not matter if I make one the master and the other a slave the drive number still becomes "C:" and "F:".... making the other program inoperable.
Would doing what is noted in the article resolve my problems of getting both of the programs on to one drive????
You may be able to use the "Computer Management" tool to change drive letters. But you can only have one C: drive at a time. However I seriously doubt you can use an imaging tool to combine 2 drives into one. If these programs are registered to you, your best bet is contacting the program vendors. Good luck.
Just read all 3 parts and am wondering what advantage this has over simply doing an image of the entire C drive each month and incremental backup once a week. Then if there is a crash, or a virus, simply restore the entire C drive. Also, with an imaging program like Snapshot you can exclude files that are large and transitory like any .avi files.
Gizmo says that he images the C partition once a week. What about the other partitions, don't they need some form of backup? If so, then you're backing up or imaging the same files as mentioned in the above paragraph but in two steps. I fail to see the advantage. What am I missing?
There is, of course, nothing "wrong" with your method. Gizmo is addressing the problem from the standpoint of someone who only has one hard disk; where do you store the image? When he wrote the original article, cheap USB drives were not available, and the merits of disk partitioning were not widely known. The idea of separating Data and System is partly to make the System as small as possible, and, as you hint, to allow for different backup schedules and methods. Just a couple of years ago, system images took a long time to make and keeping it small was a real advantage, although this simply isn't critical on today's more powerful machines and with much improved sware. I backup (image) System every couple of weeks; but Data gets backupped every day.
hello i have a problem.
I am using driveimage xml to restore my see c drive.I boot my pc using active boot disk.My os is vista.Then i run xml,it runs fine.i can browse file and extract them brillant.But when i go to restore i get an error unable to lock drive and then vss not started.Vss can not be started because my os is not running.The xml program will continue the restore without locking or vss.will this restore work?
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