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Making a restore disc for Windows 7

strep3241

strep3241

Senior member
I want to create a disc that will allow me to reinstall Windows 7 if a problem comes up. How do I go about doing this in Windows 7? I know of two different options, create a system image and create a system repair disc. System repair disc is no good because that will not allow you to reinstall Windows.

I think creating a system image is what I want but the problem is it will take 7 dvd's to do that, it is 28 gb's in size. Should it take that many discs? This is a new machine with just the normal stuff like antivirus and drivers.

The computer did not come with a Windows disc but it does have a windows serial number.
 
memory said:
I want to create a disc that will allow me to reinstall Windows 7 if a problem comes up. How do I go about doing this in Windows 7? I know of two different options, create a system image and create a system repair disc. System repair disc is no good because that will not allow you to reinstall Windows.

I think creating a system image is what I want but the problem is it will take 7 dvd's to do that, it is 28 gb's in size. Should it take that many discs? This is a new machine with just the normal stuff like antivirus and drivers.

The computer did not come with a Windows disc but it does have a windows serial number.
Click to expand...

There may already be a hidden restore partition on your computer.
 
There are different ways to do this depending.

a. Shrink the primary partition close to the minimum space then image that.
b. Create a compressed backup onto DvD
c. Put the image on a Blueray

The best bet is simply to buy an external drive and keep your image there as such drives are inexpensive. Optical stuff that you create by writing to is not the reliability of a professional manufactured media (eg, a Microsoft retail CD/DvD). An HDD has been much more trustworthy than personally created optical media in my experience.
 
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http://www.mydigitallife.info/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-from-digital-river/
Win 7 iso seem to still be available here (I got one that works for Win 7 home)
If you want to clone your entire drive yes 7 DVD's is believable.
If you use a program such as Marcium reflect free version then output your clone or image to an external hard drive this may be a better solution http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx.
I know images will be much less than the 28 GB due to compression and skipping things like the swap file. (mine is 26 GB on disk, then the image is ~17 GB)
Hope this helps!
 
Windows 7 has an imaging and backup software program built in. Not the best, easiest or fastest, but I've restored from it before and it works. Backup and Restore is the program built into Windows 7.

I prefer Acronis True Image. Fast and makes great images which can be made and restored while using the Acronis CD to boot your system, without Windows.
 
I just use a second SSD and the included s/w to clone a boot drive. I wipe the clone and re-clone periodically. Of course this also should be taken as I do not keep data on my boot disk/SSD.
 
HOSED said:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-from-digital-river/
Win 7 iso seem to still be available here (I got one that works for Win 7 home)
If you want to clone your entire drive yes 7 DVD's is believable.
If you use a program such as Marcium reflect free version then output your clone or image to an external hard drive this may be a better solution http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx.
I know images will be much less than the 28 GB due to compression and skipping things like the swap file. (mine is 26 GB on disk, then the image is ~17 GB)
Hope this helps!
Click to expand...

The downloaded ISO from Digital River is the way to go assuming you have a valid 25 character Product Key to activate the installation.

The burned ISO will act as a repair disk and an installation disk.

Burning images to DVDs is shaky--they are prone to issues. Store an image file on a separate physical hard drive. You can restore a Macrium image and be back up and running in 30 minutes or so. Reliability high--probably 98 or 99 percent. The key point is to make sure that your burned Macrium recovery disk is bootable. Make a WinPE recovery disk rather than a Linux recovery disk to reduce the probability of booting (driver) issues.
 
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My solution is to have a duplicate drive on hand for every computer. I reclone such drives after every major change. It takes less than two minutes to swap drives in a mobile rack should there be a failure. Cloneware is your choice. I use Acronis TI-2014's created bootable media.
 
memory said:
Could I use my Windows installation disk and use the product key that came with the computer?
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Once the .iso file is burned to a DVD, yes that should work fine for a clean install then you have to load needed drivers and programs, etc. the key S/B on a label attached to the computer. If for any reason the key is unreadable this program may be of some help (I recommend the free version)
http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/
 
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HOSED said:
Once the .iso file is burned to a DVD, yes that should work fine for a clean install then you have to load needed drivers and programs, etc. the key S/B on a label attached to the computer. If for any reason the key is unreadable this program may be of some help (I recommend the free version)
http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/
Click to expand...

I think you misunderstood me. I have an actual copy of Windows that I use on my computer. Could I use that same disk for the second computer and use the key that came with the computer?
 
memory said:
I think you misunderstood me. I have an actual copy of Windows that I use on my computer. Could I use that same disk for the second computer and use the key that came with the computer?
Click to expand...

Yes, you can use the disk and simply use the key for the second computer. You do not need a second installation disk.
 
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