WIN 7/Vista Disk Crash No OS disks

Topic

New Reply

Hi To All,

Has been awhile but good to be back among the tech conscenti; my dilemma is I have an HP HDX 16, 64bit WIN 7 up to date, about five years old, the HD is about to or has died, intermittent operation, flashing yellow light on HD indicator. The system has twice unsuccessfully run the fix – it in DOS and the system/screen goes blank/black.

This will be the third HD…..it originally came with Vista then HP shipped WIN 7 one month later…..as part of the WIN 7 upgrade I made two Vista back up CD….can only locate on of the two.

Fortunately, I had some earlier indications of the HD dying so performed a full system back up several days before the end…..a bit naïve, a full system back up w/system image does or does not include backing up the OS???? My guess is no…..

If not, what options do I have…..for $55 I can replace the HD with a better fast one……for now until I make the move to Mac Book. All suggestions welcomed! Thank you!!!;);)

Regards,
Mojave1

Reply | Quote

Replies

a full system back up w/system image does or does not include backing up the OS????

Here’s a couple of articles on your question about imaging.
http://www.sevenforums.com/backup-restore/255556-system-image-same-cloned-drive.html

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/difference-between-disk-cloning-disk-imaging-68100.html

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

Reply | Quote

A system image = OS and everything else. This is what you need to replace a hard disk.

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

Hi To All,

Thanks for the responses, Paul, so to be for sure, for sure, the back ups I’ve religiously performed (w/system image) actually backs up the OS software? If so, then after replacing the HD, restoring the will be accomplished via the USB peripheral HD, correct?

Thanks for the insight….mojave1

Reply | Quote

[trying to delete this post, I totally miss-read a post and answered the wrong question]

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

Reply | Quote

You need a backup program recovery CD / USB to boot from – same software as you used to backup.
Then you need the backup files, probably on an external hard disk.
Run the backup program and follow the restore steps.

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

You need a backup program recovery CD / USB to boot from – same software as you used to backup.
Then you need the backup files, probably on an external hard disk.
Run the backup program and follow the restore steps.

cheers, Paul

And as I recall a backup program recovery CD must be generated from or with the subject computer??

Thanks Paul…

Reply | Quote

You can usually create the recovery CD/USB from any computer running the backup program, but if you have unusual disk drivers you will need to use a “bare metal” restore. This is normally an additional cost option for the backup programs.

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote

Hi Paul, could you expand on your kind response, the restore will be after I replace the HD…..Thank you mojave1

Reply | Quote

If you’d like I can burn a couple of Win 7×64 Pro SP1 bootable disks with the eicfg file removed which makes them universal Win 7×64 install disks up to Ultimate and send them to you, but you’d need the generic product key to activate which Belarc Advisor will provide.

You could then install Win 7 onto the new HD and then use your system image to get back to where you were.

Just PM me your address if you’re interested.

Reply | Quote

…a full system back up w/system image does or does not include backing up the OS????…

If you used Win7’s “Backup and Restore” feature to create the backup you could restore the image to a new HDD.
You will need a Win7 “System repair disk”, see screenshot:

40244-RepairDisk

If you don’t have a repair disk you could create one on another Win7 64bit computer.

With the new HDD fitted to the computer, and the external drive with the image connected, boot from the repair disk and choose the option to restore the image (browse to the external drive and choose the image to restore, etc.).

Reply | Quote

As you are replacing an existing hard disk you should have no problems.
1. Create a full disk image.
2. Create a boot/restore CD/USB.
3. Test that you can boot from the restore CD.
4. Replace the hard disk.
5. Plug in the external device containing the image.
6. Boot from the restore CD.
7. Restore the disk image, re-sizing the C: / D: partition to fill the new disk.

cheers, Paul

Reply | Quote