[SOLVED] Windows 10 recovery, System image and System Repair Disk version question

Mar 20, 2022
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Hello,

For the sake of this discussion, I am only thinking about OS/Operating System recovery, not personal data, music, pictures, etc.…

I periodically create a System Image, using the Backup and Restore (Windows 7) in the Control Panel, say every month or so , major update, etc.

After creating the System Image, the utility prompts “Do you want to create a System Repair Disc?” which I did years ago but haven’t done in a while.

The theory is, in the event of a hard drive crash, the recovery method is…
  1. Replace the hard drive
  2. Boot the “System repair disk”
  3. Restore the System Image
Here’s the question, the System Repair Disk is years old, should I be concerned about Windows 10 version/build differences? Will the old System Repair Disk, old Windows 10 version, be able to restore the System Image, newer/up to date Windows 10 version or should I be creating new System Repair Disks? If so, how often? I would think it silly for MS to be forcing me to burn DVDs frequently.

Thanks in advance.

RC
 
Solution
Here’s the question, the System Repair Disk is years old, should I be concerned about Windows 10 version/build differences? Will the old System Repair Disk, old Windows 10 version, be able to restore the System Image, newer/up to date Windows 10 version or should I be creating new System Repair Disks? If so, how often? I would think it silly for MS to be forcing me to burn DVDs frequently.
It sounds like you're really doing this the hard way. Here's what I did: I have an external usb drive containing a 1TB m.2 drive in a Sabrent enclosure. I loaded the Macrium software ISO file onto the usb drive so that its self-booting. I then used Gparted to resize the initial Macrium partition to 1GB. The remaining...

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Why burn a DVD?
USB instead.

But unless actually tested to work otherwise, with an older bootable DVD/USB, I would create a new bootable thing at the same time I create the System Image.

A major part of a backup routine is testing, and know that your procedure actually works.
 
Mar 20, 2022
3
0
10
Why burn a DVD?
USB instead.

But unless actually tested to work otherwise, with an older bootable DVD/USB, I would create a new bootable thing at the same time I create the System Image.

A major part of a backup routine is testing, and know that your procedure actually works.

If you took the time to check you'd know you can't create a USB System repair Disc.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
If you took the time to check you'd know you can't create a USB System repair Disc.
Sorry, I don't use that functionality. (I use Macrium Reflect for my backup needs)
But seeing as MANY current systems have no optical drive, it is not unreasonable to think that it would be doable to USB.

3 out of 4 of my current desktops have no optical, and none of my laptops.


So, alternatives to burning/wasting a new DVD all the time...

A rewritable DVD.
Or, that Restore functionaslity can be invoked from a Win 10 install USB,
 
Here’s the question, the System Repair Disk is years old, should I be concerned about Windows 10 version/build differences?
You should be worried about data rot or generally DVDs being pretty unreliable so burning a new one every now and then should be standard.

In general if the image is esd or wim you can apply (write it back to a hard drive) it even with a normal windows installation media by going into command line and using dism, if it is .vhd you can even mount it and boot straight into it if you have a newer bcdstore installed.
 
Here’s the question, the System Repair Disk is years old, should I be concerned about Windows 10 version/build differences? Will the old System Repair Disk, old Windows 10 version, be able to restore the System Image, newer/up to date Windows 10 version or should I be creating new System Repair Disks? If so, how often? I would think it silly for MS to be forcing me to burn DVDs frequently.
It sounds like you're really doing this the hard way. Here's what I did: I have an external usb drive containing a 1TB m.2 drive in a Sabrent enclosure. I loaded the Macrium software ISO file onto the usb drive so that its self-booting. I then used Gparted to resize the initial Macrium partition to 1GB. The remaining space on the drive is formatted as a GPT NTFS data storage partition. Each week I boot the drive and use the Macrium software to create a full image of my computer's internal m.2 drive. Once this is set up, which does take a few minutes, it works really well and I have no problems restoring my computer's internal m.2 drive. I could self-boot this on any computer with a usb port and restore the image onto any drive whether its a m.2, ssd or hdd. This seems the simplest to me.
 
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