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Win 7: Backing up without a second HDD?

  • 21-07-2012 9:30am
    #1
    runswithascript
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,811 ✭✭✭


    After an Acer Aspire One netbook belonging to someone else became suspiciously sluggish I have just re-installed Windows 7, all essential security programs, security and anti-adware browser addons, a safe hosts file, and all necessary programs to make full use of media etc.

    This took some time to do, and I can see myself having to do it all over again in a few months time, and although it is incredibly easy to re-install Windows 7 using Acer Recovery (holding down Alt + F10 immediately at boot - you may need to try this several times), it is a pain in the ass customizing the system.

    Ideally I would like to take make a complete backup image file and store it somewhere safe. The problem is that there is no external HDD to back up onto, and the only media available to backup onto, a Verbatim 16GB flash drive, Windows Backup will not work with.

    There is not and there never will be multimedia to backup on this system.

    When I try Start Menu >> Search >> Backup and Restore >> Create system image >> On a hard disk >> <Select the flash drive> >> initially here it told me it could not use it as it was not formatted to NTFS (for linux compatibility), but on formatting to said file system it now advises me:
    This drive is not a valid back up location.

    Strange since there is an option to install to multiple DVDs, although obviously this is not practical with a netbook.

    I understand the drive is about 10GBs short for a complete backup of the system and what I have installed, but from the videos I have watched online I should have the option to deselect the system files themselves, and just back up the rest. This would work almost as well as a complete backup, because as I have said it is relatively easy and pain free to reinstall bare-metal Windows 7 from Acer's on-board media which must be some hidden partition.

    Is there some way to make this work? Would it succeed if I ordered a 32GB flash drive? The owner of the computer is only prepared to spend €10 or €20 on backup media, which I doubt I could get an external HDD for, even second hand.

    I have found others online that had problems using Windows 7's Backup and Restore with flash media, despite Microsoft reportedly advertising the utility having no problems doing so.

    Is there any way to backup an image onto the same *partition or disk it comes from, even if I would have to boot off a flash drive to achieve this? I'm aware this is useless if the hard drive fails, but it's a lot better than having to painstakingly re-install all programs and settings etc on top of a fresh install.

    Maybe I could fool the system temporarily into thinking there was a separate partition to backup onto using something like Daemon Tools to create some sort of virtual drive?

    I know I could use GParted to partition the drive, something I have used before but I understand it could damage the HDD, although since the drive is relatively empty and I would only be splitting partitions rather than moving them it would be okay?


Comments

  • #2
    Technomanic
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3 ✭Technomanic


    You could try joining a windows network with another PC and mapping a network drive to a folder or hard drive on another pc on the network. Then you can just copy the files manually if backup doesn't work with that.


  • #3
    whiteonblu
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 147 ✭✭whiteonblu


    will acronis back up help? You often get old versions free with pc mags. Paragon is another one with old free versions


  • #4
    The_Thing
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,017 ✭✭✭The_Thing


    Another vote here for Acronis True Image. I have been using it for a few years now and it has never failed me yet.

    I reckon if it's a 32-Bit install of Windows you have then a 16 GB pen drive would be more than enough to store the image. When you're walking through the steps in the True Image wizard select maximum compression to reduce the final size of the file. And be sure to tick the option to validate the image once it has been created just to be sure.


  • #5
    Sup08
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,689 ✭✭✭Sup08


    To make an image of a PC you are in fact making a copy of the HDD. You can select to ignore the empty space but you need a HDD/Thumb drive the same size or larger than the used space of the HDD.
    You can try shrink the HDD in the Disk management Console and Copy the Image to the new space. (Not really sure if this option is available in Basic) but worth a try and will copy the image very fast.


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