"Create a System Image"

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hellopeops

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Jul 16, 2009
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Not sure if this is a system question or a windows 11 question.

Is windows 11 imaging software absolute garbage? I recently assembled a new PC and I'm trying to keep the amount of programs I install on it to a minimum. I know Macrium is popular but they are about to go to an annual subscription model (ugh) and so I'm wondering if I should give windows imaging software a chance.
 
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It does the job. I've used it a few times myself. The only problem is that the image copies the entire partition, so it's only really useful to create right after you've installed the OS and set up everything you need to get going. And the other issue is that the snapshot is basically frozen in that time, so any updates that were done since then will have to be done again.

I personally stopped working with system images because I've found I can reinstall the OS and get back to more or less where I want to be within an hour. I do this with a combination of limiting what apps I absolutely need, with a lot of core apps installed using Ninite, and knowing where program data is saved and which ones I actually need to restore. For instance, I can back up and restore a Firefox profile such that I don't need to log into all my sites and set up the extensions I have on it.
 
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hotaru.hino said:
And the other issue is that the snapshot is basically frozen in that time, so any updates that were done since then will have to be done again.
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actually system restore keeps that image updated, like image itself is old, but system restore keeps adding there gradual restore points, so you dont need to restore to exact image you made but you can choose later restore points
 
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kerberos_20 said:
actually system restore keeps that image updated, like image itself is old, but system restore keeps adding there gradual restore points, so you dont need to restore to exact image you made but you can choose later restore points
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I'm pretty sure System Restore doesn't touch a system image created by using the Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Backup and Restore (Windows 7) > Create a System Image tool. Especially when the expectation is to throw the image on storage drive that isn't typically attached to the computer (i.e, an external one) I could see this maybe updating the existing image if you re-run again, but I'm also sure it just makes an entirely new image because why bother.
 
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hotaru.hino said:
I'm pretty sure System Restore doesn't touch a system image created by using the Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Backup and Restore (Windows 7) > Create a System Image tool. Especially when the expectation is to throw the image on storage drive that isn't typically attached to the computer (i.e, an external one) I could see this maybe updating the existing image if you re-run again, but I'm also sure it just makes an entirely new image because why bother.
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okay might not be exactly called system restore point, but there is weekly schedule for backup updates which doesnt do full image backup every week

if you slap it on external drive, you get no scheduled backups...so yea image gets frozen to just image backup that you did ages ago
 
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hotaru.hino said:
You do realize on the left side bar in Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Backup and Restore (Windows 7) it says "Create a system image"
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yes, once you run it, scheduled backup becomes available alongside with space reservation...then it every week saves volume snapshots, but they are smaller then previous image backup (based on volume changes), if you want to restore it later you can choose first image or weekly scheduled backup

edit: that means if you wipe you drive, you can restore to which ever image backup you have, first one (which can be very old) or weekly one and whole volume(s) gets restored
apparently it also has option to backup user files aswell...guess i never used that part
 
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kerberos_20 said:
yes, once you run it, scheduled backup becomes available alongside with space reservation...then it every week saves volume snapshots, but they are smaller then previous image backup (based on volume changes), if you want to restore it later you can choose first image or weekly scheduled backup

edit: that means if you wipe you drive, you can restore to which ever image backup you have, first one (which can be very old) or weekly one and whole volume(s) gets restored
apparently it also has option to backup user files aswell...guess i never used that part
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I created a system restore image and the tool still says "Windows Back up has not been set up". File History also hasn't been turned on. Looking at the folder where system image was created shows me it simply created a virtual hard drive (VHDX) file. In addition, Windows doesn't even seem to notice a system image was created.

So I don't know where you're getting your info from, but this isn't want happens when you use Windows' system image function.
 
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hotaru.hino said:
I created a system restore image and the tool still says "Windows Back up has not been set up". File History also hasn't been turned on. Looking at the folder where system image was created shows me it simply created a virtual hard drive (VHDX) file. In addition, Windows doesn't even seem to notice a system image was created.

So I don't know where you're getting your info from, but this isn't want happens when you use Windows' system image function.
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i used it in past, it was doing incremental backups every week...and at some point when nvidia was toyin with DCH drivers it did break some things which system restore wasnt able to repair (performance loss even after system restore) and full wipe and recovering from image backup which was like 2yrs old + incremental image restored it just fine
atm when i tryin to create image it throws at me incorrect function 0x80070001, so cant really tell,ms doesnt maintain that app for a while now
google answer to this:
The destination device (external hard drive) you used as backup storage uses 4K sectors while windows backup needs 512 sectors.
 
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hotaru.hino said:
I personally stopped working with system images because I've found I can reinstall the OS and get back to more or less where I want to be within an hour. I do this with a combination of limiting what apps I absolutely need, with a lot of core apps installed using Ninite, and knowing where program data is saved and which ones I actually need to restore. For instance, I can back up and restore a Firefox profile such that I don't need to log into all my sites and set up the extensions I have on it.
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I wish I had known about Ninite before. I had used Belarc to try to keep track of all my installation keys (didn't do a great job). Re-installing everything was annoying!

I seperated all my non-program information onto a seperate drive. My operating system and all programs are on my main m.2 drive. And I was thinking about imaging my c drive weekly to monthly as a form of backup/rescue.
 
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hellopeops said:
I seperated all my non-program information onto a seperate drive. My operating system and all programs are on my main m.2 drive. And I was thinking about imaging my c drive weekly to monthly as a form of backup/rescue.
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The reason why I didn't want to do this method is the image is going to grow in size, likely from clutter I may or may not need. I mean sure, storage space is cheap and NVMe drives are fast, but it's just one of those things that tickle me.
 
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