when I select Create System Image in Windows 7, it selects both my C & D partitions... C has Windows 7 Ultimate OS D has only video / audio files both C & D are partitions on a single HDD there is no option to de-select D drive image .... which is strange & consumes unnecessary space on my external backup drive Another Question :: if I don't select system image, and instead 'backup' my entire C drive, can it be restored as a fully functional OS on a formatted drive ? ...or can only a system image do that ? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPDATE :: extra info as asked my members : Yup in Disk Management , Windows 7 'C' drive is the last partition shown, with 'D' drive the partition before it Custom Built PC ... HISTORY D had XP (was called C at that time...years ago ! ) C had Vista Ultimate then had Upgraded from Vista Ultimate to 7 Ultimate and formatted the D drive, to use as a regular NTFS parition to store media files...
Do you supposed this could happen if he created D: not as a primary partition but mounted it as an empty NTFS folder? I've only done that once but the new partition showed up as a folder on C: with the name I chose for it.
yeah, and I seem to remember a partition that's mounted as a folder shows a green border in Disk Management. It's been a long time.
Yup , Windows 7 'C' drive is the last partition shown, with 'D' drive the partition before it Custom Built PC ... HISTORY D had XP (was called C at that time...years ago ! ) C had Vista Ultimate then had Upgraded from Vista Ultimate to 7 Ultimate and formatted the D drive, to use as a regular NTFS parition to store media files...
but D drive was formatted before upgrading to Windows 7 from Vista ....so how come it's still an issue ? :/ C : 70.9 GB ... D : 78.1 GB I have both Acronis 2011 & Ghost v15 setup ...but used Windows 7 in-built backup application, as it seemed the most reliable since it's made by Microsoft itself ...I'm actually scared of Norton products ...and Acronis ratings were decent on Cnet...
I still didn't understand, why my Windows 7 on C ..points to D ... if that's the case, then it should've backed up only the D, to which it points .... not the C , which it thinks is D ... I wish there was some sort of shortcut, like an app that only changes the BootLog file, which the system is referring to... where it thinks C is D ...and D is C... if the moving thing is the only solution, I guess I'll wait it out ....and then simply move it on a C only SSD that I plan to buy some day, hopefully... which will have only 1 ...C partition ...
I guess then I'll wait it out ...and move the system image of C , on a new SSD when I buy it eventually... Thanks for all the help, mates
@BMW, When/If you get your SSD, don't 'Move' your Windows 7 install over to it. HDD's and SSD's work differently at a low level and use different technics to store your data. You'd be better off doing a clean install once you get your new SSD. You should do this anyway when your changing major components. Backup youe files, do a clean install, then restore your files, @acrsn, Can Windows recovery see/use Acronis backup images ?
Thanks a lot, Acrsn & ZaForD I'm delighted to know members like yall still exist in the world Really hoping SSD Prices crash soon
Another way to create C: disk image It's probable that the reason you're getting both C: and D: in the disk image is that Windows is creating a "system image" (i.e., an image of everything that impacts on Windows itself) and that it's seeing D: as somehow connected to its functioning. I've had this same problem myself. My solution (instead of creating a system image in conjunction with my file-by-file backup) has been to set up a Task Scheduler job to create the C: disk image on a schedule (which also allows me to use a different schedule than my D: file backup). Use TS to run the following program: wbadmin Use these arguments: start backup -backupTarget:X: -include:C: -quiet Where "X:" is replaced by your backup drive's letter. Start in: C:\Windows\system32 This will create a disk image of just C: on your backup drive (using Windows' standard folder structure for image backups, of course).