Restore from system image - well, how ?

[old gobbo]

The MS page

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/restore-your-computer-from-a-system-image-backup

which is what one gets when one searches MS for 'system image', is ludicrously vague. While saying it will tell you how to restore from a system image, the detailed instructions are missing, both for possessors of a Windows installation disk and for those using a 'preinstalled recovery option', whatever that may be (by definition, a system image is not going to be 'pre-installed', indeed if you have any sense it is not even going to be on the same computer). (It also points to the 'Lock' button, using a symbol which has never appeared on any W7 system I have ever seen, but at least I can work out what they are referring to.)

Please can someone tell me, what are the instructions that I am going to be told after I have clicked 'Windows complete PC restore' ? It would be useful to know these in advance, and also to know if there are - as is usual with MS - any complications. Thanks for your help.

 

[jefboyardee]

Monkeysnot has instructions for that at System Restore. I've used it but wound up back with my old buddy, RollBack Rx.

 

[TrainableMan]

Some computers come with an extra hidden partition which is for recovery; basically an OEM W7 "DVD" stored on the hard drive. This would normally be a computer you bought from Dell, HP, etc that came with W7 preinstalled and no DVD. Your instructions that came with the PC should mention a recovery Partition. I believe this would be the 'preinstalled recovery option' Microsoft mentions.

W7 also offers Backup and Restore and within that utility there is an option to create a system image as well as the more common creation and scheduling backups. You can Recover from that image IF you ever created it.
- To CREATE a system image run Backup and Restore and select the link to "create a system image".
- To restore FROM a system image run Recovery and choose the advanced options.


A system image is a complete snapshot of your system at that point in time (registry, OS, programs, data) and when you recover to that point, everything starts over from then and there. It will give you the option to back up your data to an external drive before it proceeds and that is important because it is destructive; all new or changed data will be lost unless you back it up before the recovery.

NOTE: Recovery is different than the System Restore option jefboyardee mentions because System Restore only affects the registry and programs installed since the restore point was taken, your data is unaffected by such an operation.

Also FYI: W7 Folders are "Locked" if they are owned by the system rather than you. In order to allow multiple users on one computer as well as to add additional security, folders such as the Windows OS, program files, and even direct access to your data are "owned" by the computer. That is basically why you access your data via libraries and why the user account control window pops up when you try to install programs.

 

[old gobbo]

Monkeysnot has instructions for that at System Restore. I've used it but wound up back with my old buddy, RollBack Rx.

Many thanks for this, but System Restore is straightforward - except when it tells you that you cannot use that restore point , because it is corrupt or the system doesn't like it - and when it further tells you that the point you have chosen does not work, leaving you with no option but System Image Restore or Reinstall. As I say, thanks for the reference, but System Restore was not the point of this inquiry.
I have now edited the question, to insert the crucial missing words 'are missing', and my apologies if that misled you.

 

[old gobbo]

Some computers come with an extra hidden partition which is for recovery; basically an OEM W7 "DVD" stored on the hard drive. This would normally be a computer you bought from Dell, HP, etc that came with W7 preinstalled and no DVD. Your instructions that came with the PC should mention a recovery Partition. I believe this would be the 'preinstalled recovery option' Microsoft mentions.

W7 also offers Backup and Restore and within that utility there is an option to create a system image as well as the more common creation and scheduling backups. You can Recover from that image IF you ever created it.
- To CREATE a system image run Backup and Restore and select the link to "create a system image".
- To restore FROM a system image run Recovery and choose the advanced options.
View attachment 5781

A system image is a complete snapshot of your system at that point in time (registry, OS, programs, data) and when you recover to that point, everything starts over from then and there. It will give you the option to back up your data to an external drive before it proceeds and that is important because it is destructive; all new or changed data will be lost unless you back it up before the recovery.

NOTE: Recovery is different than the System Restore option jefboyardee mentions because System Restore only affects the registry and programs installed since the restore point was taken, your data is unaffected by such an operation.

Also FYI: W7 Folders are "Locked" if they are owned by the system rather than you. In order to allow multiple users on one computer as well as to add additional security, folders such as the Windows OS, program files, and even direct access to your data are "owned" by the computer. That is basically why you access your data via libraries and why the user account control window pops up when you try to install programs.

Thank you for the trouble you have taken over this answer, which is very clear and covers far more than my original question (including explaining the hidden partition). However I foolishly left out the crucial words 'are missing' from my original post (now added): my question is not how to access System Restore, nor how to use System Restore, but what are the detailed instructions when you Restore from a System Image ? If you, or anyone else, can help with this, I would be most grateful.

 

[TrainableMan]

So if I understand you correctly, you created a system image at some point prior and now you plan to run Recovery. That is what I showed in the image in my post above. And when you get to the last screen (of my image) click the "Use a system image you created earlier to recover your computer". After that page it will suggest that you backup all your data first, which I explained above, is because the restore is destructive. Once you back up your data the next step would be to select the image for restore and let it run. The Recovery program should run for some time and replace everything on all the drives included in the image. When it finishes it should reboot your system & when it comes back up you should be back to just as it looked at the time the image was made.