One thing I really like in Windows 7 is the built-in capability of creating a full backup image so that I can restore it back when Windows is corrupted and unbootable. The computer that I use to mess and test stuff was running Windows XP and I normally use Symantec Ghost to restore back the original state. I have upgraded the testing machine to run Windows 7 and has chosen to use Rollback RX instead which is very similar to Comodo Time Machine. The Rollback RX snapshot backup and restore process is VERY fast but I had issues with it deactivating Windows 7 and had to reactivate every time I do a restoration. On some bad days when the Windows Activation server is down, I am unable to activate Windows and kept on getting error code 0xc004c008.

Then I tried using the good old Symantec Ghost to create an image backup but when I restored the partition, the computer cannot be booted up and it seemed to have incompatibility between Ghost and Rollback RX. I gave up using both Ghost and Rollback, and now I am using the Windows 7 built-in system image backup and restore tool. One good thing about using the Windows 7 built-in system image backup is I don’t need to install any third party software and run its services during startup which gives me a total clean Windows 7 machine after restoration.

If you didn’t know what is a system image, a system image is an exact copy of the drive but is backed up and saved into a file which can be used to restore to a computer at any time. Although Windows 7 Backup and Restore tool hardly comes with any extra features and the speed is not as fast as third party drive imaging software but it is good enough for my situation. I have a pretty large hard drive 600GB so I split the drive into 2 partititons, the first one for installing Windows 7 and the second one for storing backup images. After finished installing and properly setting up Windows 7 the way I liked it, I ran the Windows 7 Backup and Restore tool to create a backup image and save it to my other partition. Whenever Windows 7 got very corrupted or unstable to use, all I need to do is reboot the computer, hit F8 and select Repair Your Computer from the Advanced Boot Options.

I will show you how to create Windows 7 backup system image. There are a few ways of running the Windows 7 Backup and Restore Tool and you can only do it from Windows.

Method 1: Click the Windows 7 Start Menu orb button and type backup at the Search programs and files bar. You should see Backup and Restore appear in Programs.

Method 2: Click the Windows 7 Start Menu > All Programs > Maintenance > Backup and Restore

Method 3: Type this at the run (WIN+R) window %SystemRoot%\System32\control.exe /name Microsoft.BackupAndRestore

Method 4: Type this at the run (WIN+R) window %SystemRoot%\System32\sddt.exe

Method 5: Control Panel > Backup and Restore (Large icons or Small icons view)

Method 6: Control Panel > Back up your computer at System and Security (Category view)

After running Backup and Restore tool, click Create a system image from the right pane. The full command line to directly access the Create a system image is %SystemRoot%\System32\sddt.exe /BLBBACKUPWIZARD.

You can either backup to a different hard drive partition or to DVD disc. For on a hard drive, external hard drive or even a USB flash drive is supported but mapped network drive doesn’t. At the final confirmation, the Backup and Restore tool will tell you how much space it would take to create the backup and clicking the Start backup button will start the backup process.

There are 3 ways to restore back your computer using the backup image that you created.

Method 1: From Control Panel with Small or Large icons view, run Recovery. Click Advanced Recovery methods, and select the first option that says “Use a system image you created earlier to recover your computer“. If you have files to backup, then click Back up now or else click Skip. Click the Restart button which will reboot your computer and follow the steps.

Method 2: This is useful when Windows cannot start up. Turn on your computer and start tapping F8 key. Select Repair your computer on the Advanced Boot Options, select keyboard layout, select username and type the user’s password if there is one. Then finally on the System Recovery Options menu, click System Image Recover and follow the instructions.

Method 3: It is also possible that the boot sector or master boot record gets corrupted and you won’t be able to press F8 to go to Advanced Boot Options. You will need to start the computer with a Windows 7 system repair disc which can be created in a working Windows 7 or download the ISO image from here via torrent or free file host. The instructions are exactly the same as method 2.


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