Backing up Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 System Image?
I think I saw one post somewhere stating that Windows doesn't allow backing up of system image to ReadyNAS (a network drive) using the simple file and system backup/file history that comes with WIN7 and WIN8.1. Can someone please confirm if this is the case? I have tried on a number of occasions, but it always fails on both WIN7 and WIN8.1...I can try again and make a note of the error codes if that helps....text explanation goes along the lines of unable to access the network resource or similar.
Windows support site is not at all helpful.
If I have to use a third party backup program, what do you recommend? I have seen Acronis mentioned, but I used to use that for normal backups 2-3 years ago, but found it overly complicated, and would prefer to use something more simple. What about Norton Backup?
Re: Backing up Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 System Image?
Hi Hhellie
Very useful link, thank you. Since my original post I have dug out and re-installed my copy of Acronis True Image 2012 and it appears to have worked fine, but as I also want to backup a laptop running Windows 8.1 I've d/loaded the 'trial' version of Acronis True Image 2015 (2012 doesn't support WIN8.1), which also works fine on my Windows 7 Ultimate laptop - haven't tried it on the 8.1 one yet. Acronis are running a good deal at present with an upgrade to latest version includes a free second copy (free license)!
However, I will follow those instructions on that link you supplied and see if that works. If it does, I then have a choice of two methods 🙂 .
Thanks again, and will report back on my findings.
Re: Backing up Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 System Image?
Just ran a Windows backup on my WIN7 laptop, but it still resulted in Windows reporting "The backup did not complete successfully"😞 .
The Windows error message was '0x81000039' which was the same as I had when I first tried running it. I confess I chose the files to backup rather than let Windows choose, as I only wanted to test it by saving a few files AND the System Image.
The explanation given for the failure was:-
Widows Backup encountered an error when accessing the remote shared folder. Details: The specified network name is no longer available.
A couple of zip files are located on the NAS which I assume are the files (My Documents) I selected, but I've yet to check, AND there does appear to be a complete System Image as well, so I'm a little confused! Perhaps I need to follow the steps in http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/24913/~/readynas-os6-%26-windows-backup to the letter and see what happens, but I would have thought I could choose the files I want to backup, rather than have Windows decide for me each time.
I certainly don't get any errors when I use Acronis to backup.
I've yet to try it on the WIN8.1 laptop, so that's my next task.
Update
Just took a look at those 2 zip files that were created and they only hold a few of the files contained in 'My Documents' folder, so it has failed I'm afraid 😞
