Windows (7) problems!

[NoCforMe]

Let me know how it works for you.

Well, I now have a ~7 Gb image of my C: drive, which hardly makes a dent in my 1 Tb drive. So I think I'm good. Thanks!

[zedd151]

There are compression options to make it smaller. Also, you can merge Hard Linked files for a bit more reduction. If you try these options be sure to keep the original, just in case... as with all of these, use at your own risk. Take your time to explore the program. Many of the Cleanup tools are mainly for windows 10, just so you know. You can backup your drivers from dism++ and install new ones (from driver files (.inf + .dll's) not .exe installer...


The real test is restoring successfully from the backup image of course. Take a deep breathe before testing it. Better still, install the backup on another partition.


EasyBCD program I mentioned would come in handy for getting the second partition bootable.

[NoCforMe]

found a third party vendor for dism++ https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/dism.html

Since I'm now using this software, which I got for FREE (neither web host nor author got any $$), I don't want to be ungracious. I have to say that I have respect and admiration for the people who created this utility (and for the site that I downloaded it from). Useful things--did I say FOR FREE? And thanks to you, Zedd, for posting this.

I used to dream of releasing useful software into the world and letting people use it, so my hat's off to those who are living the dream.

[hutch--]

Z,

I own a perfect XP box, only used it for a couple of months then built a Win7 64 bit machine. It has a 3.8 gig PIV and 8 gig of memory, 4 gig for the OS and the other 4 gig for ramdisk. Nice fast machine to use and while its nowhere as powerful as a 64 bit box, its really snappy to use.

I don't need anything out of it so it survives as a complete box, that old now I forget what is in it, I used to keep it on the LAN for a couple of apps, a scanner and microscope but both went onto my old monster so it became useless. You can amuse yourself with nostalgia but if you have to get anything useful done, you have to move up to much later stuff.

[NoCforMe]

Apparently my processing needs are much more modest than yours. No video producing going on here, for one.

So I'm curious: how many computers do you have there, approximately, Steve? 2 here just for comparison; other one is a still-working Windows 2000 box that I use as my "scanning station" and for ripping music, which I just did. Need to keep it since I have a SCSI (yes, SCSI!) film scanner (Nikon, good one) and this is the only system I could come up with that still supports SCSI (through ASPI, Adaptec's SCSI Programming Interface; used to deal with that for work). SCSI was good stuff back in the day.

[hutch--]

Five current, 4 x Xeons, 1 x i7 (my dev box) and the ancient XP box with a 3.8 gig PIV.

[Vortex]

Hi NoCforMe,

Sorry, thanks for the effort, but I'm not a command-line kind of guy. As stated above, I want a Windows executable that'll do the job.

Surely there's something out there that doesn't require unpacking, configuring, compiling, etc.? Something I can just run? How hard could that be?

wimlib comes already compiled with the zip archive, no need to compile the source code for Windows :

Code Select Expand

C:\mnt>unzip.exe wimlib-1.13.6-windows-x86_64-bin.zip
Archive:  wimlib-1.13.6-windows-x86_64-bin.zip
.
.
extracting: wimapply.cmd
extracting: wimcapture.cmd
.
.
  inflating: wimlib-imagex.exe

wimcapture.cmd and the other .cmd files are useful to simplify the usage of wimlib-imagex.exe :

Code Select Expand

C:\mnt>type wimcapture.cmd
@echo off
"%~dp0\wimlib-imagex" capture %*

[Vortex]

Hi NoCforMe,

So Vortex: since I have nothing else at the moment that will work, let's say I want to use the wimlib package to make an image. I started looking at the documentation and I gotta say, it makes my head hurt; typical Unix software and descriptions.

Can you tell me 1) which command file I should use and 2) what options/parameters, etc., I need to use in order to make an image? (I assume I'd be using wimcapture, right?)

wimcapture, exactly as I explained here with some examples :

http://masm32.com/board/index.php?topic=10523.msg116157#msg116157

You can boot off from a Windows Preinstallation ( WinPE ) environment to backup your operating system with creating a volume shadow copy :

Code Select Expand

wimcapture.cmd C:\ \\sharedfolder\backup-Win7.wim --compress=fast --config=conf.ini --threads=64


Do I want to make a bootable image? or just one that Windows can load in case of system failure?

Again, you need a WinPE disk to recover the operating system. wimapply.cmd does the job :

Code Select Expand

wimapply.cmd \\sharedfolder\backup-Win7.wim C:\

If you have a UEFI computer, you need to create the UEFI partition structure on a blank drive \ new drive :

CreatePartitions-UEFI.txt

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/oem-deployment-of-windows-desktop-editions-sample-scripts?preserve-view=true&view=windows-10#-createpartitions-uefitxt

[TimoVJL]

So a GUI version for creating a patch-files helps someone.
Both 32/64 bit versions needed.
WinPE have limited Win32 API, so don't be too creative, like using too much COM.

[Vortex]

Hi Timo,

Regarding the capabilities of a modern WinPE build, you would like to try the Win10XPE project, it's a state-of-the-art :

https://github.com/ChrisRfr/Win10XPE

[Gunther]

Regarding the capabilities of a modern WinPE build, you would like to try the Win10XPE project, it's a state-of-the-art :

https://github.com/ChrisRfr/Win10XPE

Indeed it is. An impressive alternative to remember. Thank you for the tip.

[zedd151]

... Regarding the capabilities of a modern WinPE build, you would like to try the Win10XPE project, it's a state-of-the-art :

https://github.com/ChrisRfr/Win10XPE

Hmmm. From what I've read so far, this looks like a very useful tool. I will have to look into this further a little  later though. Thanks for the link, Vortex. 

[zedd151]

NoCforMe, I hope you hadn't bricked the restoring of the backed up OS. Always have another way to boot the computer, i.e., some form of rescue CD/DVD or bootable USB drive. Or as I do, I have WinPE as one of my boot menu options (runs from .wim file on another partition) as a fail-safe mechanism, with tools in it to repair boot files if they become corrupted etc. also have partitioning tools there, dism++ and a few other tools that I use for backing up drivers, etc.
The reason for this post is that you hadn't posted in 21 hours, and I'm worried that you fubarred the backup, or the restoration of it.