Windows 10: Excluding a default drive from a system image backup?

Hi all,

My OS became corrupt yesterday (totally unbootable) so I've had to start from scratch. Due to this experience, I'm very keen to have a full system image backup to save me having to spend a day rebuilding my operating environment if something similar happens again. I have a problem when trying to do this though, it's marked a 1TB secondary drive (that I use to store games) as a system drive, meaning that I don't have room to save the backup: http://puu.sh/pRG6S/7766fc6086.png
I have done some research, and I think it's because I have the Oculus Rift software installed to that drive (as I can't fit the games on my SSD (OS drive)), meaning that a service is launched from that drive: Windows 7 Backup identifies wrong drive as a system drive Solved - Windows 7 Help Forums
How can I overcome this, forcing Windows to only create a system image from my C: drive? I'd prefer to do it directly through Windows, but happy to use 3rd party software that can create a restore-able full system image.

Cheers,

:)

 

How to restore a Windows 10 system image to an existing or larger storage device

If u select exclude partitions would u be able to exclude all exept for the partition where the default os is installed? (Usualy C) or can u only exlude certail drives, and is it possible to make a system backup of a certain drive only (eg of only windows
os drive and exclude all other partitions from ur image)

 

Exclude partition from system image.

I have a similar issue.

In my case I have a 240 GB SSD for my system drive. ALL my data files are on a separate 500GB "D" Drive. I back up my data files much more frequently than I do a system/software backup. With Windows '7' I was able to do a system image of the physical
SSD and it's recovery partition and exclude the "D" drive. In fact Windows "7" did not select the "D" drive by default for a system image because a system image by definition does not include the data files, but rather only the Operating System and installed
programs.

It appears that Microsoft took the "System Backup" in windows 7 and renamed it to "System Image" in windows 10 and then proceeded to remove the capability to create a true system image.

I guess I have no choice but to use a third party disk imaging/system backup program to image my "C" drive occasionally and using Microsoft "SyncToy" as my preferred backup method for my data files. I have tried hard to make the Windows 10 backup systems
work to my satisfaction, but it seems that is impossible, not due to malfunction but due to design.

 

You would use something like EaseUS Todo Workstation or Clonezilla to exclude or include a partition. Only thing with Clonezilla, is that the image is the whole size of the drive. That means any empty space will be included. Other backup software does the same thing.

Have you tried to do a fix mbr to see if that is the issue? Hard drives do not become corrupt, unless they are failing, or something has caused them to go offline when the computer/nas loses power.

 

Thanks, I'll look into that software *Smile Is there no way to forcibly prevent Windows from including the F: drive in the backup then?

Sorry, that should have read 'my OS became corrupt', the drive's fine. I rebuilt the mbr when rebuilding the drive this morning.

 

Microsoft made their so called backup software very crippled. When there was Norton Ghost, it was the most widely used. Now it is more of personal choice, since a lot of ISP provided licensed Internet Security software like Norton or McAfee, also includes system backup software.

ToDo is on sale every now and then. There is Home or Business. Business gives you more options.

 

With Macrium Reflect free you can exclude/include any partitions you want from a backup image.
Macrium uses compression and a backup image file can be much smaller than the partition(s) being imaged.
For me a Macrium backup image file is about 60% of the used space on the partition being imaged.
Macrium Reflect Free

 

With the WindowsPE stuff Macrium looks perfect, I shall give it a spin, thank you. I'm tempted by the workstation edition for the incremental backups, so may have to keep my eyes peeled for a discount code *Smile

 

Hi,

There's a difference between cloning and imaging a drive/partition. Cloning, as the name suggest copies everything including empty space whereas imaging only copies what is actually on that drive/partition.

Macrium Reflect can do both and it can also repair unbootable system drives/partitions.
Just make sure to create their rescue disk/stick just in case the system becomes unbootable.
IMHO opinion it's about the best free backup software currently available and it's very fast too.

Cheers, *Wink

 

All done cheers, got it set up to backup a system image monthly with daily differential backups. Do you know if it's possible to ignore the daily backups and just use the monthly image when restoring?

 

Yes, you can restore the Full Backup, or any of the Differentials.

You should review and adjust your Defaults, especially the Backup Retention Rules.
The default Retention Rules would not keep a month's worth of Diff's.

In the Menu / Other Tasks click on Edit Defaults.

 

Thanks, sorry, just to clarify, if I do a full backup monthly, and then keep 14 days worth of differential backups, would restoring from say differential backup #19 on day 20 still work, despite the first 6's days worth of differential backups having been deleted? I suppose what I'm asking is that does the differential backup backup the changes from the full backup every time it's run, or the previous differential backup?

 

Yes, with Differentials that would work.

Differentials include all changes since the Full Backup, they do not depend on any prior Diff's.

With Incrementals, if any Incremental made since the Full Backup is corrupt or missing, any Incremental after that will not work.
Incremental backups include only the changes since the previous Incremental.

 

Cheers, just wanted to confirm (A-level IT was a little while ago now *Tongue).

 

One thing you might consider,
Setup a small partition for testing, then you can create backups of that partition quickly.
Make changes to that partition, create full and diffs of it.
Then you can test backup and restoring, learn how it works, and is it reliable for you.

It won't be a "critical" partition, just a test/learning partition, so the OS will not be affected.

I have a small 5 GB "Portable Apps" partition that works well for me to test this stuff.
It takes less than 2 minutes for a Full backup, and a Diff runs in about 30 seconds.
It also tests if my portable programs still work, without affecting the [C] OS drive.