How should I back-up my data before a windows re-install? Omitted files when copying C drive

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I wonder how to make sure I backed up all files before whiping out C and re-install Windows (factory reset).

I have taken best of care to copy my documents, photos etc. to an external drive. However there is no way I can exclude the possibility that there may be somewhere some files I may need. For example, right after I thought I was done, I found a folder on C where some game had put the saved game files. So I might have lost these if I had not seen them because they were in an unsual location on the drive.

One obvious option seems to be to simply copy the whole system drive (and any other partitions). However, when I do so by ctrl+c and +v (copy and paste), Windows copies far less data volume (in GB) than is on the drive. It seems it systematically omits some files. Maybe these are unimportant system files, but I am not sure.

Hence my question: how should I backup my data before factory reset to make sure I got everything (beyond those things I can easily copy manually)?

Edit in response to @JourneymanGeek: I found this Technet link where the author states it is very problematic to launch a vhd on the same system it images. If that is true a disk image does not seem to be a good solution after all.

tomka

Posted 2016-05-15T14:24:37.677

Reputation: 397

Hard to believe this has never been asked before. – Moab – 2016-05-15T16:36:33.810

I have two very important questions. What version of Windows? Why are you going to wipe your installation? – Ramhound – 2016-05-15T17:15:55.553

I was also surprised it hadn't been asked. For my case that would be Windows 7 which has been installed for 3 years. System is getting somewhat slow and I want to update to Windows 10 starting fresh. Why do you ask? – tomka – 2016-05-16T09:10:22.063

@Ramhound see comment. Don't know if you get notified. – tomka – 2016-05-16T09:36:01.893

I ask because if you want to upgrade to Windows 10, you can just upgrade to Windows 10, and choose not to keep anything. That will have the exact same effect as doing a "clean" install – Ramhound – 2016-05-16T11:57:23.143

1@DaniSpringer.com the first sentence of their question says otherwise... – Ramhound – 2016-05-19T11:55:04.297

Answers

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Just image the whole drive - it'll backup everything, and most decent imaging software should let you do some flavour of compression. You can then mount the drive directly and get files off.

There's a lot of different options but disk2vhd seems like the 'simplest' option since modern versions of windows support VHD natively. The image would take the space taken up by the contents of the drive and you can grab files off it at leisure. I don't think there's any compression option but the ease of mounting makes up for it.

Likewise, most decent backup software would let you mount a backup. I've used macrium reflect free for this, but acronis or any other common backup software that does images would let you do this too.

Journeyman Geek

Posted 2016-05-15T14:24:37.677

Reputation: 119 122

Aha, sounds interesting, thanks! And I can save that imagine on an external HD and mount it like an own drive it I need it? – tomka – 2016-05-15T14:37:08.603

1yup, You could even pop it on storage elsewhere and mount it to a windows 7+ box – Journeyman Geek – 2016-05-15T14:38:40.003

Okay running an image now. How can I test-mount it when done? Is there a good guide somewhere? – tomka – 2016-05-15T14:44:09.780

1http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/create-mount-vhd-windows/ looks good. You simply go into the disk management plugin, pick attach, point it at the image. – Journeyman Geek – 2016-05-15T14:46:05.180

What's more, such image can be booted in a virtual machine, for example using VirtualBox - may be handy sometimes, for example when moving to a new machine. You should, however, mind Windows license terms: you can't have Windows installed with one product key on two machines simultaneously, be it physical or virtual ones, and OEM licenses are bound to one machine and can't be legally moved to a VM. For example I had a BOX-licensed Windows installed on my old laptop, so I have imaged it, wiped the disk and ran that system on another laptop with separate Windows license. – gronostaj – 2016-05-15T18:53:12.637

@JourneymanGeek I cannot mount the VHDX file creatred by disk2vhd using Windows Computer Management as described in the link you attached. It does not not find the file type. When I switch to "all files" and force open the VHDX it says the file is damaged. disk2vhd reported successful completion of the image and the size is roughly that of the disk. What do I do wrong? All Windows 7. – tomka – 2016-05-16T09:19:40.757

Perhaps I should not have used VHDX? – tomka – 2016-05-16T09:21:20.117

I've typically used standard VHDs for thos. – Journeyman Geek – 2016-05-16T09:25:16.387

Any idea how to mount vhdx under Windows 7? – tomka – 2016-05-16T09:27:51.370

I don't have a windows 7 system to test, and I think its a newer format that windows 7 dosen't support. I'd stick to VHD – Journeyman Geek – 2016-05-16T11:07:08.863

I finally managed to create and mount the VHD. However it says its offline because there is a signature conflict. Is it possible this happens becuase I imaged the system disk and mount it with the same system? Then I would not see how this image is an effective backup. – tomka – 2016-05-18T16:48:25.910

The disk2vhd docs suggests it should work fine. I've sucessfully used it before, but that was mounting it on another box to test. http://www.howtohaven.com/system/change-disk-signature.shtml suggests you can use diskpart to change it

– Journeyman Geek – 2016-05-19T09:12:44.697

This is becoming a long discussion, but I still have not fixed the problem. I found this Technet link where the author states it is very problematic to launch a vhd on the same system it images. If that is true a disk image does not seem to be a good solution after all. https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/markrussinovich/2011/11/06/fixing-disk-signature-collisions/

– tomka – 2016-05-25T21:08:49.647

It's literally a single command to change the identification of a virtual hdd, but that changes the identification, which isn't a good thing if you want to use .vhd to restore from. Which is the reason .vhd are not normally used to backup and restore from much better solutions that exist – Ramhound – 2016-05-25T21:19:35.563

Asked: 2016-05-15T14:24:37.677

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Active: 2016-05-25T21:09:14.867