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I've just bought a new laptop, it came with Windows 7 installed, and I would like to install linux.
I know I can have both, but just in case I want to first backup everything. I want to copy an image to my pendrive (32gb) and keep a copy in my desktop.
How can I create this image?
ChocoDeveloper
Posted 2012-12-12T17:50:23.540
Reputation: 2 327
1
XXClone will perform this task for you for free:
Alternatively O&O Disk Image is a paid for program:
Simon
Posted 2012-12-12T17:50:23.540
Reputation: 4 193
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Windows 7 has a builtin image backup facility. It's the second item under System and Security in the Control Panel.
Nicole Hamilton
Posted 2012-12-12T17:50:23.540
Reputation: 8 987
This doesn't let me store the image in disk first, it asks for a dvd/pendrive. I have the pendrive, but windows says it can't backup the system in this type of device, only my files. – ChocoDeveloper – 2012-12-12T19:03:48.687
1You said your pendrive is 32GB. How big is your C: drive? Is there anything more to the message? – Nicole Hamilton – 2012-12-12T19:12:39.973
If I remember well, that's true... win7 can't make the image on pendrives directly. I think you can make a new partition on your hd (anyways you'll need it to keep the image on your desktop as you said you want to do), make the image on it and copy the image later to your pen-drive with dd when you have linux on the machine or with a windows tool but I don't remember one now :) as I'm not using windows regularly since a few (almost reaching 2 digits now...) years. – laurent – 2012-12-13T01:24:52.063
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If you would like to use a third party tool Macrium Reflect is very handy for tasks like this!
MalwareManiac
Posted 2012-12-12T17:50:23.540
Reputation: 834
-1
You use Windows AIK or OPK for that, it'll "capture" a WIM image of your install, do note that if you install much at all, it'll increase the size of the WIM, and the ability to go over the size of a standard DVD is really easy.
MarcusJ
Posted 2012-12-12T17:50:23.540
Reputation: 1 947
1in windows 7 backup there is an option to make a full bootable image. Anyways, comments on other answers should go in their proper place, not in another answer. – laurent – 2012-12-12T18:06:20.547
sorry, not bootable but restorable through windows restore or an installation disk. – laurent – 2012-12-12T18:19:42.147
1Laurent's right, and more importantly the question doesn't say anything about it needing to be bootable. If you just want an image of a configured system that you can reload at will, and won't be doing it with regularity to justify installing 3rd party software, the built-in Windows utility is actually REALLY useful. – Shinrai – 2012-12-12T18:47:15.173
@Shinrai Yes, the Windows backup facility is pretty good. The only problem I have with it is that while it can do file backups to a 4K Native drive (i.e., one of the new 3+ TB drives) the image backup part will only work with a 512 byte sector drive. (It's fixed in Win8, not Win7.) For the Seagate 3TB I just bought, I had to use Seagate's supplied version of Acronis to make the image. But Windows file backup works great with the 3TB drive. Since the OP is using a pendrive, he shouldn't have a problem. – Nicole Hamilton – 2012-12-12T18:55:15.083
I've gotten windows backup to successfully run on a lot of different computers, with all sorts of external hard drives. – nhinkle – 2012-12-12T19:28:38.483
@nhinkle I have gotten the backup to work too, however I have never gotten the full system image backup to work on a (destination) drive with 4K sector sizes. – Scott Chamberlain – 2012-12-12T19:45:41.870
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@nhinkle 4K Native drives are new, invented as a way of solving some engineering problems pushing drive capacities past 2TB. Microsoft supports 4K Native in Win8, not Win7.
– Nicole Hamilton – 2012-12-13T00:19:37.927
2In Super User, and all the StackExchange sites, shopping or product recommendations are considered off topic and open ended, and sometimes even too localized. Try to reword your question in a way that you are not asking for products, but more of processes; this will help keep it on topic – Canadian Luke – 2012-12-12T17:55:29.557
@Luke Shopping or product? I just asked for a program. Go home, you are drunk. – ChocoDeveloper – 2012-12-12T19:01:16.150
2ChocoDeveloper, FYI @Luke is completely correct here. In its original form, your question was not a good fit for how our Q&A style works. Laurent's edits are a good example of how a question like this should be asked. We discourage questions asking for specific programs, and encourage questions that ask for solutions to a particular problem. If the answer involves a program, that's fine. Please refrain from making rude comments to users just because you disagree. – nhinkle – 2012-12-12T19:26:46.850
Try this software. http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm
– JustinD – 2012-12-12T19:27:34.977@nhinkle Luke is not completely correct, a program is not a product. A program could have been a simple home-made script for the command line, like the ones we usually share in linux. About the format of the question, whatever, I can't keep up with the rules and the never-ending fragmentation of stack sites (there comes laurent, who fixed it instead of being obnoxious). I have seen thousands of questions with this format (eg: which C library can I use for X?), and I don't remember seeing stupid comments about shopping. – ChocoDeveloper – 2012-12-12T20:13:40.517
@ChocoDeveloper See this Meta post
– Canadian Luke – 2012-12-12T20:23:02.083