making a drive image

[Jim]

sorry if the questions noobish ( and yea I searched the subject before posting)
I want reinstall my OS and all apps then make a restore dvd or partition on the HD ,whats the best choise and hows it done ?
thanks

[Squeetard]

I use acronis true image. Works great.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by Squeetard

I use acronis true image. Works great.

so that means I save an image on my hard drive ? this app safely makes a partition after my OS is installed ?

[lowfat]

I use Windows backup that is included with Vista. Works great.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by lowfat

I use Windows backup that is included with Vista. Works great.

so that make an image to restore from? as in restore the entire OS?

[frontier204]

Only the "Complete PC Backup" included with Vista Business/Ultimate/Enterprise will do that. It creates a Microsoft Virtual PC image of your HDD IIRC.
So far I've used it a few times to restore my HDD image after LAN parties without issues. (I don't trust my friends' software and computers with my shields down)

[ipaine]

I use Acronis True Image myself. I actually have just done it on a Wyse thin client. Going to have one for each of my kids and this way I just set up one and image the drive. Then I can deploy the image to the other machine. Plus if they screw it up it will be nice and simple to bring it back.

I would do my own little tutorial for you but don't seem to have the time right now so I did the next best thing, I found a few of them for you.

The first one is on how to create the image:
Acronis True Image - Hard Drive Imaging Review and Tutorial

The second one is how to restore an image:
Acronis True Image - Hard Drive Recovery Review and Tutorial

And then the third is how to create a boot CD/DVD:
Acronis True Image - Create Boot CD Review and Tutorial

Now those are very straight forward default choices tutorials. There are many other different options that you can do with that program that are not discussed, but they are good enough to get going. For instance you can set it to create your image across multiple discs if it is going to be bigger than a single CD/DVD. You can also put the image onto a network drive if you want, I know that is what I'm doing for that Wyse image I just made. Plus it can be useful if you want to upgrade the size of your hard drive as it will put the image on any size drive as long as it has room for the image.

One piece of advice is to create the boot CD and boot to that then do your image. That way you can be certain that windows does not get in the way of making the image. One other piece of advice if to make sure you validate the backup. Really if you can try to restore it to a new drive (or old one) just to make sure it works.

Hopefully those tutorials will help you out. Also if you have any other questions just post them and hopefully I will be able to help you out. Plus I do believe there are quite a few people around here that use Acronis.


Edit: I just noticed that on that same site they have tutorials for Ghost 14 as well (just look up at the top). You could also use that, but most of my experience is with Acrons and I prefer it. Plus Acronis can be downloaded as a free 14 day trial (I think it's 14 days) and I believe it also costs less to purchase. But either one will do what you want.

Edit #2: I was wrong, it is a 15 day free trial and you can find it here: Acronis True Image Home 2009

[cyclo]

Originally Posted by frontier204

Only the "Complete PC Backup" included with Vista Business/Ultimate/Enterprise will do that. It creates a Microsoft Virtual PC image of your HDD IIRC.
So far I've used it a few times to restore my HDD image after LAN parties without issues. (I don't trust my friends' software and computers with my shields down)

Another vote for Vista's Complete PC Backup. I have used it to upgrade to a bigger, faster hard drive.

Excellent step by step here...
Backing Up: How to use Vista's Complete PC Backup and Restore utility
Restoring: Using Windows Complete PC Restore to restore your computer

[Shredder]

As a reasonable method for quick recover you may also concider making your own slipstreamed copy of your OS install disk. Install OS, get all updates from Microcrash then make your Slipstreamed disk. It worked great for my raid failure crashes that lost all data including images. The Elder geek has a decent tut on it if your interested.

[chrisk]

I have had Acronis (2 years ago, forget version), Ghost 12 and 14, tried Windows backup in Vista 64, and Seagate Diskwizard. I like Ghost 14 the most. Easiest to use. Acronis would have won in my books but I had issues with the backup scheduler.

BTW Seagate Diskwizard will make a complete backup (no incrementals, differentials, etc) for free, and is based on Acronis True Image. All you need is a Seagate/Maxtor hard drive somewhere in the backup process (either the source drive or backup destination). Great free alternative to try, as I see you have a Seagate drive.