Can I get Windows Backup and Restore to save more than one system image backup on a single drive?

I've been using legacy (Windows 7) Backup and Restore on a Windows 10 Pro system to generate system image backups that can be restored from bare metal. A major limitation of the tool, however, is that I can only have one image stored on a particular drive; if I run the backup again, the system replaces the older image. Setting the amount of space for System Restore to 100% does not help.

Is there some way I can get the system to store multiple images on the same target drive? It's okay if I need to use the command line or change group policy.

bwDraco

Posted 2016-07-13T10:12:58.743

Reputation: 41 701

I know this is effectively the same question as http://superuser.com/questions/903789/windows-7-backup-multiple-vhd-system-images-on-a-dedicated-disk, only that the system is running Windows 10 Pro. I'm asking it again because the old question has received no answers or other meaningful attention. See also: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/187535/close-an-old-question-of-a-duplicate-i-just-asked

– bwDraco – 2016-07-13T10:13:02.540

Answers

Create multiple partitions on the backup drive, and then you can create an image on each partition. Other data can also be saved on each partition without disturbing the Windows Image Backup. I do this all the time.

the original mike western

Posted 2016-07-13T10:12:58.743

Reputation: 1 159

I'd honestly prefer not to create a new partition for each backup, so I'm going to wait for alternative answers, but +1. – bwDraco – 2016-07-13T10:30:49.393

Bear in mind, other date can reside along with the image back on those partitions without any conflict. – the original mike western – 2016-08-13T02:44:32.487

Late answer, but you should be able to rename the folder WindowsImageBackup to something else without having to use another partition.

On a multi-boot system with Win 7 and Win 10, this is actually required as a workaround for a bug that doing a Win 7 image backup after doing a Win 10 image backup will cause Win 10 image restore unable to find the Win 10 image backup. What I use for a workaround is to have two folders, one named WindowsImageBackup.w7 the other named WindowsImageBackup.w10. I rename one of them to WindowsImageBackup just before doing a backup, then rename it back.

rcgldr

Posted 2016-07-13T10:12:58.743

Reputation: 187