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Creating, moving, multiple bootable backup images (on/to a single disk)?

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The goal: Backup my system every time I re-format the OS for compatibility. Drive images (bootable backups) are the clear choice. Until now I have used seperate hard drives for each image - however (due to space) I now need to place multiple 128GB bootable backups on a single 1TB hard disk.

I already have bootable backups in place, the question is:

How can I move the individual backups onto a single drive, and make it so there are 3-4 bootable images on one drive.

Will I need to boot into the already existing backups and re-image them onto the new drive - or can they be transferred in some way?
 
Most imaging software allows to make bootable media. In days gone by that was a CD or DVD. You booted to the bootable disk and created the image and CHOSE the location to save the image. That "save to" location would be your 1TB drive for each image that had need to be saved. That works for sure.
 
It would be easier to partition the drive. Make the OS partition, relatively small, install large apps/games on another partition. That way you can reimage your OS partition in a couple of minutes, quickly.

Then you can make backups of data on other partitions easier from Windows.


I dual boot Windows 7 / Windows XP and image/reimage one OS *from the other* and vice versa. No need to reboot to image partitions other than the OS.
 
Wow I have a ton of questions now:

Note: I have a 120GB SSD primary, and (3) 1TB Storage disks that I have been attempting to create bootable backups on.

Also: I may have been misusing the word 'images'. I have used Marcrium Reflect to clone my Primary SSD to a backup disk (6 months ago). Then I reinstalled Windows 7. So, I have a bootable backup - alongside my current installation. This allows me to boot into my backup at any time, and it also allows me to move files/and run programs interchangeably on the backup disk (when booted into my current installation. I seek this flexibility. I would like to add a second backup OS Installation to my backup disk.

Will Images allow me to freely boot into them at any time, and allow access to their files (when booted on a different OS)?


Compression, how effective is it (%), and what kind of implications does it have on A: Image creation time and B: OS switching time.

Booting. Can I boot directly from an image and how would that work? Does an image have to be reloaded onto my primary drive to boot in and if so how long would that take for an HDD >> SSD?
 
You can mount an image from any OS as a new drive and browse inside it as if accessing a new drive. Or you can boot and restore the image to your hard drive.

I found TeraByte to make images faster and with better compression than Acronis or Ghost. Exact numbers depend on the speed of your hard drive (it's best to make images from/to different physical hard drives).

You can boot from a USB or if you make DVDs, I believe they insert bootable startup files into the DVDs so you can boot from them and image from them to Hard Drive.
 
Boot and restore?

Huh?

My current backups are bootable. Are you saying that with an image, I have to restore that image to my primary hard drive in order to boot from it?

If this is the case, is there a way to restore multiple images to different partitions of a single drive? So that I will have multiple backups that I can boot into?
 
Boot and restore?

Huh?

My current backups are bootable. Are you saying that with an image, I have to restore that image to my primary hard drive in order to boot from it?

If this is the case, is there a way to restore multiple images to different partitions of a single drive? So that I will have multiple backups that I can boot into?
 
I think we may not be understanding each other. Maybe we can use examples.


What does 'bootable' mean to you?
If you have Windows installed on a hard drive partition, like your C: Drive, you can make compressed image files of that partition. Then you simply restore those images files onto C: Drive and your C Drive is restored to the state it was in when you made your image backups initially.


Are you talking about having the same Windows installation installed on multiple partitions at the same time and booting into different partitions? I do that by having different Windows installations, for example Windows 7 on C: drive and Windows XP from D: drive and Windows Vista on V: drive. Then I can restore/backup one operating system *from* the other.


 
Last edited:
Sorry for the confusion.

When I say bootable, I mean I would have the ability to boot into it directly from my BIOS. No restoration or process necessary.

I am talking about having multiple OS installtions - INSTALLED AND READY TO GO - all on one single drive - instead of multiple drives.

Images sound nice and all - but you have to restore them - which takes time right? I want them all to be bootable whenever I please - without having to wait 20 minutes to make a 120GB image. So I have been cloning my drives. But this only allows for one OS per drive. I want to mash like 5 OS installations to a single drive.
 
We'll get it figured out. When you talk about multiple operating systems, you are correct that you do not need multiple Hard Drives. But multiple OS have to be on different hard drive partitions, you know that, right? Each partition has its own drive letter.


So once you install multiple OS, each on its own partition, you can drive image that partition. The quickest way to do that is to not install large apps/games on the OS partition but install them on another partition or hard drive. For example, I install large apps on E:\Program Files instead of C:\Program Files, that way the imaging process is quicker.



But let's back to clarify what you want to do. Let's say you install Windows on your C: drive and you set everything up just like you want it, the only thing you can do at that point is either clone C: drive or make an image of C: drive, that's what imaging means.


Otherwise, what did you have in mind after you set up C: drive just like you want it, what would you like to do with the contents of C: drive where your operating system is?
 
Yeah. I know multiple OS's need to be on different partitions. And I know you can do clean installs of an OS on different partitions.

What I want to do is backup and EXISTING OS, on a new partition.

Say I have a C: Drive. And its 240GB. It has 2 partitions:

C: 120GB
F: 120GB

Now say that C: has an OS and F is empty. I want to essentially clone C: onto F:. That way I have TWO working OS's that I can do different things with.

I would prefer cloning to imaging because I don't want to have to wait 20min to restore and boot an image. I want them all immediately bootable. Also I don't want to have to use a second OS to restore the Image. I need to be able to be able to plug the drive in and have it just work.

The idea is that I need my C: drive to not be overwritten and for it to always be current and functional. And I also need my 2011, 2010, and 2009 C: drive installations all shoved onto one disk, on different partitions, and all bootable at any time. Currently they are on their own individual disks. I need them all on one disk. All this is for backwards compatibility because sometimes I need to be able to run a program that I ran in 2010...and I cant wait 20min to do it...

Thanks for your help. I like moving program files to other Drives (I use shortcuts actually because its more flexible than installing somewhere else) - but the problem with that is that a lot of my programs require registry, user data, etc etc and tracking all that becomes a huge mess.
 
Great. I happen to own that software already actually. I guess the question is how do I get all of the OS installations onto their own partitions. I have a 500 GB drive right now with 4 x 120GB partitions just waiting for me to slap OS's into the individual partitions.
 
I'm not sure how the drive letters will play out, but you would clone to free partitions or use drive image software to backup then restore to free partitions.


I had Vista installed on V: drive instead of C: drive and after swapping hard drives the drive letter changed inside that Vista installation so I had to do this to change it back to the original drive letter:

Code: 
Change the System/Boot Drive Letter


At boot and before you see the Start Menu / Task Bar, you may see the following error message:
rundll32.exe
Windows cannot access specified device path or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access this item.

CTRL + ALT +DEL > Start Task Manager > Application TAB > New Task... > explorer.exe > OK

Change the OS drive letter, for example, from G: to V:
Start Menu > regedit.exe > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices >

1. First rename \DosDevices\V: to \DosDevices\Z: (to free it up)
2. Now you can rename \DosDevices\G: to \DosDevices\V:

Drive letter G will become drive letter V upon reboot.


In case of problems, instructions to change drive letter G: to V:

  01. Make a full system backup of the computer and system state.
  02. Log on as an Administrator.
  03. Start Regedt32.exe.
  04. Go to the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
  05. Click on MountedDevices.
  06. Right click on MountedDevices> Permissions
  07. Verify that Administrators have full control. Change this back when you are finished with these steps.
  08. Exit Regedt32.exe, and then start Regedit.exe.
  09. Locate the same registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
  10. To free up drive letter V: On the right pane, right click on \DosDevices\V: > Rename > \DosDevices\Z:

      Note: Must use Regedit instead of Regedt32 to rename this registry key.

  11. Right-click \DosDevices\G: > Rename > \DosDevices\V:

  12. Exit Regedit, and then start Regedt32.
  13. Change the permissions back to the previous setting for Administrators.
  13. Restart the computer.
 
That's what I figured too - however all the software I have found - will wipe the entire disk when cloning to it or a partition on it (which limits me to one backup per disk). I will be using drive images until I find software that can accomplish this.
 
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