Correct way to move from System Restore to an imaging tool

[pangea33]

What is the right path to go from using Window's built in System Restore to a true disk imaging software? Am I best advised to save off one last Sys Restore in the image, or should I fully disable SR before taking my first snapshot?

I think that I will use BootItNG based on some of the posts that I have seen here. Will disabling SR take care of any disk housekeeping, or are there files that I need to delete manually?

Thanks a lot for any input.

[Paul Komski]

Turning off System Restore first will mean the image file will be that bit smaller.

Imaging with it intact will of course allow you to run System Restore and still have all existing Restore Points if you restore the image.

If you are happy that you wont want to go back in time use the former.

The best time to create an image is after a clean install and after you have added just your "must haves" and customised the OS the way you want it.

You might want to try a clean install after you have imaged your current situation because if you forgot something you can still go back and restore the system or even just restore individual files from the image file. At the same time it is a good move to separate your OS and Data onto separate partitions so that you can restore your image file without overwriting your data.

The only housekeeping that Disabling SR does is to reclaim the space used by System Restore - so no you dont manually delete any of these related files.

[Sylvander]

Hold only the "Windows" & "Program Files" folders [plus odds & ends] on C:
Move the following [or something like it, this is for Win98], ideally to a 2nd [small, old, spare] physical HDD but a small partition would do:

a. My Documents. [Use “TweakUI” to move their home]
b. E-mails for all identities. [use the email client to move their home]
c. Internet Explorer Favourites. [Use “TweakUI” to move their home]
d. Temporary Internet Files. [use the browser (Internet Explorer) to move them]
e. Re-home the Windows Address Book as shown here http://tinyurl.com/24q6l . Use the key “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WAB\WAB4\Wab FileName” to specify its new address. [Its normal home address [in Win98] is C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book\(the name you gave your PC).WAB]

Keep the main bulk of your data files on at least one other partition, but you could separate them onto different partitions according to...
How of often they might need backup, or by size or type.

You can make backups of the different partitions at differing frequencies according to their needs
Because C: holds only the bare minimum of important OS & program files and configuration files...
It's quick and easy to:
Defragment
Scandisk
Backup
Restore

Windows and the programs also tend to work faster because they don't have to search among a whole stack of other files to find their own [they travel light and fast like a greyhound].

[pangea33]

I appreciate the feedback. Most likely I'll keep an image with System Restore enabled for a brief period, just for reassurance. Its easy to see why a drive image is most useful right after a fresh install, and going forward my PC will always have one. At this point it's just seems too much of a hassle, though. I've got a lot of development tools and application servers configured, which is why I don't want to, even though it might be a little lazy.

I've become way too cautious about installing software now. After reading BootIt's pdf file and web searches, I know I just have to run one 80k file to create a bootable medium, but I've been needlessly hesitant. Imaging software seems like an insurance policy that's WELL worth the money.

Currently my OS and apps are on one partition of the main drive, and all my websites are configured on the other. Drive 2 has a partition for music, one for application installs and personal data, a small one for an intermediate download location and scratch space, plus a 2 gig partition on the front of the drive for my pagefile.

Are there likely to be any issues with the distributed pagefile location after a reimage, as long as I don't change drive letters? Thanks for the useful tips on some of the other data Sylvander, that's good advice.

[Paul Komski]

Are there likely to be any issues with the distributed pagefile location after a reimage, as long as I don't change drive letters?

If the pagefile is split onto numerous partitions or is not kept on a system partition that is being imaged - then when the image is restored the partitions (to which the pagefile references point) should (ideally anyway) exist otherwise they cannot obviously be recreataed. The partition just needs to be there with adequate space on it - the old pagefile doesnt need to be there - it is recreated if required.

I used to worry about the pagefile but in fact this has never created problems for me when reimaging using WinXP. But then I always keep at least a minimum pagefile on the system partition. WinXP is pretty good about recreating one if its really needed even if you have previoulsly specified a fixed size and location for it.

The biggest problems when restoring system images is to ensure you restore them to the same location. If the partition structure is altered or the mbr radically rewritten you may get a ntldr is missing message because boot.ini cannot find the correct partition any more.