Dadtom65 Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 Hi All. With Win 10 about to be released I am seriously thinking of making a backup of the operating system, to save if any windows problems occurred as trying to install Win 7 then going through all the updates to get to Win 10 will take a while. I have a USB 3 Samsung 1TB portable hard drive and was thinking of using that for the backup. What do I need to do the backup, I take it you can not do just a copy and paste thing. I don't suppose they will be giving away free copy's of Win 10 on disc. Thanks for any help. Derek. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antonvs Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 Hi Derek. Yours is a question I have been exploring and refining for some time. You are correct in assuming that a simple copy will not do all you need. What you need to achieve is what is called a disk image which can be bookable. The main reason for this is that FSX (in any form) keeps track of all the installation in the system registry. This information also gets stored in a disk image backup. There are a number of commercial programs made for this task. A few are Acronis, AOMEI and EASE US. I have been using the 1st which has had a long and good reputation until recently for a reason unknown to me. I tried AOMEI (priced around US$50) but am not totally comfortable as they are a seemingly small business and in addition it is fairly hard or inconvenient to test an image. EaseUS has very good reports and I may go that way. Here is a link to a good user guide they provide. http://www.easeus.com/todo-backup-guide/ If your system and sim are on the one volume (drive), it's fairly straight forward, but if you have you sim on a separate drive you need to make sure that the backup (image) includes the boot drive (C:) so the registry and hidden user docs get included. So in this case your backup usb drive needs to be as big as your combined boot and sim drive. The backup software takes care of keeping this structure in tact. There are other factors, but this should get you started. Feel free to ask for more advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkH Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 I don't suppose they will be giving away free copy's of Win 10 on disc When you buy a PC with an OEM installation of the OS there is usually an option to create installation media for when you need to reinstall. It may be worth looking into whether this will be possible with Windows 10. Otherwise you can create an image backup of your clean install, although this won't allow you to change any of the installation options later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antonvs Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 When you buy a PC with an OEM installation of the OS there is usually an option to create installation media for when you need to reinstall. It may be worth looking into whether this will be possible with Windows 10. Otherwise you can create an image backup of your clean install, although this won't allow you to change any of the installation options later. Microsoft have announced this week that it will be possible to create our own boot disc using either a usb stick or DVD. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack the Swede in Spain Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 They also announced that it will be possible to download WIN10 as an ISO-file, for later installing/updating. I have downloaded the BETA as an ISO file and used the DVD I created for installs on my test PC:s. Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadtom65 Posted July 26, 2015 Author Share Posted July 26, 2015 Hi Guys. What is an ISO file. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadtom65 Posted July 26, 2015 Author Share Posted July 26, 2015 Hi. OK just did a Google. So my thinking is that Microsoft are going to let you download a complete version of Win 10 ? and let you save that as an ISO file. I can build comps but not into the actual programming. Derek. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack the Swede in Spain Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 A file containing ALL needed installation files, but put into a single file. You have to "mount" the ISO-image that is "unpack it" before you can use the setup.exe in it. More or less just like a .zip file. BUT FIRST save the ISO-image to DVD so you can use i later on. I allways "unpack" my ISO files and copy the files to the DVD and then I can use it like a normal installation DVD in my CD-reader. http://pcsupport.about.com/od/termsi/g/isofile.htm PS! Didn´t see your last posting before I posted. Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkH Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 Hi Guys. What is an ISO file. This is an image of a CD-ROM or a DVD-ROM. So you can make an actual installation CD-ROM/DVD-ROM from it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadtom65 Posted July 26, 2015 Author Share Posted July 26, 2015 Hi All. Yes thank you every one and cheer's Jack that was what I found when googled. Derek. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrancoisB Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 The file doesn't need to be an ISO file. A file containing ALL needed installation files, but put into a single file. You have to "mount" the ISO-image that is "unpack it" before you can use the setup.exe in it. More or less just like a .zip file. BUT FIRST save the ISO-image to DVD so you can use i later on. I allways "unpack" my ISO files and copy the files to the DVD and then I can use it like a normal installation DVD in my CD-reader. http://pcsupport.about.com/od/termsi/g/isofile.htm PS! Didn´t see your last posting before I posted. Jack I'm confused. Didn't he ask how to make a backup of his operating system? I assume that he wants to make a backup of his OS partition and not his installation disc(s). In that case I don't see why he would need an ISO. He just needs to back up his operating partition with imaging software (antonvs mentioned a view) and restore it when needed. Which format the backup uses is in that context irrelevant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dadtom65 Posted July 27, 2015 Author Share Posted July 27, 2015 Hi FrancoisB. Sorry yes that was what i meant at first but if you can download the new Win 10 as a file, then if I have any windows trouble and need a reinstall i can just use the File as saved. I take it guys that having the complete Win 10 on file means I wont need my Win 7 Pro as well, that correct ? Cheer's Derek. Hi All, All so I might well do a back up of my C drive after the installing of Win 10, especially FSX seeing as all the trouble I had with it earlier. Thanks Derek. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gw6aa Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Hi, I've been using Acronis for years. It's a bit like house insurance. 99% of the time you don't need it but when you do it's a life saver. At the moment I've got the OS and FSX etc. on a 500GB SSD P3D on a 500Gb SSD All downloads and archives of the stuff I've bought on a 1T HDD A 2T HDD holds all the images of the above 3 drives. You can automatically update the images at a convenient time. I set it to do the updates once a month. If you haven't changed the contents of the drives much it might take 3 or 4 minutes each. I would have no qualms about installing Windows 10. If it turned into a disaster reinstalling the images would only take an hour or 2. CN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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