Windowsimagebackup - what is this folder and what system files does it store? WindowsImageBackup what is this folder? Restoring Windows 7 from a system image

Good afternoon

This instruction is about how to restore Windows (7, 8, 10) from a previously created full system image.

If you need to create an image Windows systems, go to the article:

Restoring a Windows system image

Go to the Troubleshooting section.

3. Now go to the "System Image Restore" section:

4. After this, the computer will reboot and you will need to log in using your account Windows:

5. The next window is “Selecting a system image to restore.” Paste DVD disc or a flash drive (USB flash drive), Windows itself will find the latest image. If this does not happen, make the selection manually.

6. Now you can select additional image recovery options. If you check the "Format and partition disks" checkbox, then all data on your computer or laptop will be deleted. If you do not check the box, only the C:\ drive will be deleted.

7. In the final window, click the “Finish” button, after which the image recovery process will begin. Please note that the process cannot be stopped or canceled:

During the recovery process, your computer may restart several times. In addition, the process itself can take from 10 minutes to several hours, so be prepared to wait.

If the process is interrupted or fails, you can repeat it, but use a different Windows image.

Agree, as soon as the time comes to reinstall the system, you begin to think about various programs and drivers that will have to be installed again and again after installation clean Windows. I suggest not torturing your brain and just create a system image once, from which you can easily and quickly install Windows 7 with all the necessary software.

For myself personally, I realized long ago that I should expand iso image Windows 7 with all the programs and drivers is much easier than periodically installing a new system with all the packages. Standard application Archiving and Windows recovery 7, allows you to create an image system disk with all programs and drivers.

Why do you need to create an ISO image of the system?

2. You do not need to install all new drivers.

3. There is no need to download and install all new software.

How to create a system image of Windows 7?

1. Launch the Backup and Restore application. Start->My Programs->Maintenance->Backup and Restore.

3. Select the disk on which the image will be saved. I recommend saving the image either on an external USB disk(flash drive or hard drive), or on the second partition of the hard drive. If you have only one disk in your system, be sure to use the article.

4. Now all that remains is to click the “Archive” button. In the figure you can see exactly how many gigabytes of information the archive will contain. The iso image will turn out to be very large, since I have not reinstalled the system on my laptop for almost 2 years. And there are a lot of different documents.

5. We wait until the system performs Archiving. By the way, archiving 56 gigabytes took only 30 minutes, which is pretty good.

After the system creates the image, you will be prompted to create a recovery disk. Do not put off this task until serious system failures occur. Just click the Yes button and follow the short instructions.

The system image will be stored in the "WindowsImageBackup" folder with the following structure.

How to create a bootable usb floppy disk

How to restore Windows 7 from an image

1. Restart the computer and press F8 on the keyboard, we need the recovery floppy to load. Typically F8 or F12 loads a list of devices from which you can boot to the Windows shell. You need to select a device with a recovery disk, in my case it is DVD drive with the letter G. Alternatively, or .

2. If the recovery disk is running, the following picture will open in front of us.

4. Now we can either select the image manually or use the latest available one. I decided to choose the second point to check.

5. Select an image from the list, left-click, and then click next.

6. On new page Click the “Next” button again.

7. If you want to format your hard drive, you will need to install special drivers and check the box next to formatting. Or just click the Next button.

8. Well, that's practically all. All you have to do is click Finish and wait until the system image is unpacked on your hard drive.

Hello friends Let's talk about the WindowsImageBackup folder. This folder is not just a system folder, it is unreal great value may have for you. Because this folder stores a copy of your entire system disk, and when your Windows is covered in a copper basin, it is thanks to this folder that you can return working Windows. So think a hundred times before deleting it. But how did this folder appear in the first place? Well, either you previously made a backup of the disk (that is, the system image), or someone else, or maybe the system itself decided to make a backup. In general, my advice is not to delete it until there is a real reason, and then you need to think carefully.

You can then restore your system state from this image. How to do this? Well, I will write briefly, but I think you will easily understand. In general, look, when you install Windows, there will first be a window with a choice of the Russian language, and if I’m not mistaken, then in this window at the bottom there is a System Restore item. Click it, and then like Diagnostics and there will already be an item Restore from image.

By the way, this item is in the picture, I’m sure that if you want to restore it yourself, everything will work out for you (of course, if you previously made a copy of the system disk). First, click here Diagnostics:

And then restoration from the image, as you can see, everything is simple:

To be honest, I used to think that all this was difficult and kept putting off getting acquainted until later

So, to create this image, you need to select the icon in the Control Panel backup:

Then select the option to create a system image:

And that’s it, then follow the instructions, I’ll repeat just that to create an image (not to be confused with a restore point), you only need separate hard drive.

Now look, if I right-click on the WindowsImageBackup folder, you see that opposite Delete and Rename there is such a shield, this means that this is a system and important folder:

Therefore, if you delete it, then you will delete the Windows backup; if you are absolutely sure that you do not need it, then of course you can delete it.

Yes, it weighs a lot, but excuse me, this is the entire image of the system, the entire system disk! That is, you can understand how convenient this recovery can be in some situations.

I will also say that an interesting feature is available during recovery - disk repartitioning. What is it? During the recovery process, the system disk is completely deleted. That is, it turns out to be a completely unmarked area (well, I could be wrong here, but this is my guess). And then it is again divided into two partitions (the system one and the small one, the service type), and only then the files are copied from backup copy.

Figure A: The System Recovery Options menu provides tools that you can use to diagnose, fix boot problems, and perform system recovery.

Having a working system image provides some confidence in the future (more details here), but when it comes to using it, there is reason to panic. After all, your first acquaintance with the image recovery procedure will take place in a situation where extreme measures cannot be avoided, which means you will already be on edge and are unlikely to be prepared to learn new knowledge.

Therefore, I decided to describe in detail the process of restoring a system from an image in this article. After reading it, you will know what to do if something happens.

Subtleties

The system image includes everything system files and user settings, programs and files. However, please note that the entire system is being restored from the image, so all current programs, settings and files will be replaced previous versions, saved at the time of creating the system image.

Starting a system recovery procedure from an image

To begin, connect the system image media to your computer: if it is saved on an optical disk, select the latest one and insert it into the drive; if it is on an external hard drive, connect it to the PC. For example, I saved the system image to external HDD.

Open the System Recovery Options menu. Let me remind you that this can be done in several ways:

If Windows still starts to boot, you can try to open the System Recovery Options menu manually with hard drive.
. If Windows doesn't even start to boot, you can call up System Recovery Options by booting your computer from the Windows 7 installation DVD.
. If you have a System Repair Disc, boot your computer from it and open the System Recovery Options menu.

Read more in the “Calling the System Recovery Options” section of the article “”.

Recovery procedure

When you select the “System Image Restore” option, the utility will automatically detect the latest available image and display information about it in the first window of the “Re-Image Your Computer” wizard (Figure B). As you can see, my image is located on drive F ( external hard disk), it was created on July 19 at 4:51 am, and is an image of the Greg-PC computer.

Figure B: System Image Restore automatically detects the latest available image.

To complete the picture, let me clarify: if the System Image Restore tool fails to detect the system image, a message will appear asking you to connect external drive or paste optical disk into the drive and try again (Figure C). If the image is stored on network drive, click the “Cancel” button and follow the wizard’s instructions to connect to network resource and selecting the image manually.

Figure C If System Image Restore cannot detect the system image, this warning appears.

But let's return to our example. Click Next. A second wizard window will open (Figure D) with additional options. If you want to restore the system to the previous hard drive, you do not need to select the Format and Repartition Disks option. If the system is restored to a new hard drive, the option will most likely be selected by default and cannot be canceled. In this case, there is nothing to worry about - as long as new disk the volume was greater than or equal to the old one.

Figure D: Additional options are available on the second page of the recovery wizard.

Since there are no other disks in my case, the Exclude Disks button is greyed out. If your computer has multiple hard drives, click the "Exclude Drives" button and select the drive to which you want to restore the system.

If neither option is available, you may need to install drivers for the disks you are recovering. To do this, click the “Install Drivers” button. But since Windows 7 provides excellent built-in driver support, this situation is unlikely.

If you click the “Advanced” button, the window shown in Fig. 1 will open. E. The option “Restart the computer after the recovery is complete” (Automatically Restart) is selected by default, and in addition to it you can enable automatic check disks.

Figure E: By clicking the Advanced button, you can enable automatic disk checking.

Figure F To complete the Restore Your Computer from an Image wizard, click Finish.

Of course, further confirmation will be required (Figure G). Just click "Yes" to start the process.

Figure G: Click Yes on the last dialog box.

After this, the operation to restore the system image will begin. You can monitor your progress using the progress bar (Figure H). Depending on the size of the hard drive, the procedure may take several hours. In the meantime, you can relax, drink coffee or watch TV. When everything is ready, your computer will reboot and greet you with the usual login screen.

Figure H: You can monitor your progress using a progress bar, but the process will likely take several hours.

What do you think?

Now that you know what the process of restoring a system from an image is like, you will be mentally prepared if you have to face such a need. Or maybe you have already had to restore the system from an image? Share your experience in the comments!

Who among the users of Windows systems has not encountered a situation when the operating system malfunctions and needs to be restored? The vast majority of uninitiated users rely on automated Windows tools, but such actions very often only lead to the fact that when critical errors and failures, the system simply reports that the computer could not be restored. That is why restoring a computer from an image created using OS tools or using third party programs, seems more preferable, since it allows you to bring the system into working order in a short period of time and with a 100% guarantee (unless the external removable media on which the image was previously recorded is not damaged). AND removable drives or USB drives do not always need to be used.

In some cases, you can save a backup copy directly on a logical partition of another disk included in the RAID array (if it is not intended to be restored in the future), or, if possible, in network folder with open shared access on another computer.

Why do you need to create a system image?

Before you consider restoring your computer from Windows image, let’s briefly look at why you need to create such copies and how it all works. When you create an image file that has a VHD extension (like files virtual disks), for example, for a partition with an installed operating system, absolutely all system objects and the operating system itself are copied to it, and installed programs, and user data. When using a standard procedure using tools Windows file V mandatory copied to removable media or an external hard drive, since the logical partition can be located on the same physical disk as the one being archived (then it can be copied to any other location).

When you start restoring a computer from an image, the partition for which this procedure is being performed is completely rewritten with formatting, as a result of which absolutely all files and directories (even damaged ones) are replaced with those that were saved in the image. It is not difficult to guess that in the end the user receives a working system in the form in which it was before the appearance of failures or fatal errors.

How to make an image of one or more partitions?

Now a few words about how to prepare to restore a computer from an image. It goes without saying that this image must be created in advance by selecting the partition for which such operations may be required. In all modifications of Windows, there is a special section for archiving (backup) and recovery in the “Control Panel”, in which you select the creation of an image.

After initiating the procedure, the location where the image is saved, the partition to be archived are indicated, and the main procedure is launched. Please note that if you select DVDs as your media, you may need an extremely large number of them. Therefore, it is best to save the image either on an external HDD or on the Internet.

Note: sometimes you can use the archiving settings item, and then indicate to the system on which disk the archived files will be stored. copies created.

Restoring a computer from a Windows 7 image: standard process launch option

So, we assume that the image has been created. Now you can proceed directly to the procedure for restoring your computer from an image, if required. In a running system, for this in Windows 7 and below, the above section is used, where the items for restoring system parameters and advanced recovery methods are alternately selected.

After this, the use of a previously created image is indicated, and the archiving item is skipped. The last step confirms that the computer is restarting. Finally, after this, the language layout, the user are selected, and the access password is entered, if one is set. When the recovery options window appears, it checks for image recovery and then searches for the latest available image.

After completing all the preliminary steps, all that remains is to confirm the operation (setting additional parameters in the form of excluding disks, re-partitioning or installing drivers, you can skip).

Restoring a computer from a system image if Windows cannot boot

Now it’s worth considering a situation where some irreversible failures have occurred in the system, but the image was previously created and saved on removable media.

In this case, you will first need to enter the special start menu, called up in Windows 7 and below with the F8 key, select the troubleshooting item and go through the procedure described above.

You can do it even simpler by first setting the rescue media with the image as the first device to start in the BIOS/UEFI settings. Such actions are more necessary to restore your computer from an image of Windows 8 and higher. In the process, the layout and image file are selected in the same way, after which the restoration is confirmed. In case required file stored in a logical partition, but the recovery tool does not find it on its own, you must specify its location. This is usually the WindowsImageBackup directory.

Windows 10: recovery procedure

Restoring your computer from a Windows 10 image can be done by following the steps described.

But in the case of self-activation of the process in a running system, you will have to use the special boot options item (to get to the start menu, which is not called up by the F8 key during boot), and only then use the previously created image.

Run automatic recovery with image selection

It is not uncommon to encounter situations where a user initially relies on using an automated system rollback to a previous state, but after completing all the steps, a message appears on the screen stating that the computer did not start correctly and the system could not be restored. Autorecovery is usually launched three times forced shutdown computer or laptop with repeated switching on and interruption of loading. The fourth time the rollback starts.

But when this notification appears, many do not pay attention to the fact that the window has an additional options button. You need to click it, and then, as in all previous cases, select the appropriate item using the previously created image.

How to use an image file located in a network environment?

Finally, restoring the computer from an image to network environment can be done just as easily. Initially, the file itself can be saved on the hard drive of another terminal, but for the folder with the image(s) itself you will need to set general access, and also allow detection of the computer terminal itself on the Network (for example, with a wireless connection). In this case, restoring a computer from an image in a network folder may take a little longer, which is due to some speed limitations of the network connection, which affects data copying. But the actions performed are practically no different from what was presented above.

Note: if there are several images in the directory, be especially careful when choosing the source file, since instead of your system you can get someone else’s with the unnecessary programs and user files.

Partial file recovery

But the use of images is not limited to just the given actions, because operating system sometimes it may not be necessary to restore, but it is necessary to return only lost or some corrupted files. In such a situation, the image file can be used as a regular virtual hard disk. To do this, just call up computer control via RMB on the computer icon (in Windows 10 it is located directly in Explorer, and not on the Desktop), and then use the hard drive tool. The easiest way to call it from the Run console is with the command diskmgmt.msc.

Next, in the “Action” menu, select connecting a virtual hard disk and specify the path to the file with the VHD extension (to the same previously created image). After this, you just need to select the file you are looking for and click the open button. The disk will appear in Explorer, and you can copy the necessary information from it, as from a regular logical partition.

Disadvantages of the standard technique

Unfortunately, the standard method does not inspire confidence in many users, to put it mildly, as it has a number of significant shortcomings. The main one is that it is not possible to fully configure archiving using automatic mode (this may require additional utilities). And with this approach, depending on the size of the system or logical partition itself, the backup copy can take up quite a lot of space. For example, if the size of the system partition with the “ten” is 235 GB and the occupied space is 80 GB, 164 GB are needed to create the image. The only thing left to do here is to use external media in the form of a USB-HDD, since such a volume of data will not fit on any flash drive. And about optical media there is no talk at all. Can you imagine how many disks (even double-layer ones) will be needed, not to mention the time spent copying files?

Third party software

As for specialized programs from third-party developers, the utility looks the most relevant True Image from Acronis. It’s much easier to create an image than using standard Windows tools.

It is believed that one of the most important features of the program is the ability to directly save the image in cloud service Acronis, although many note that this service is paid and in fact is simply imposed on users. In addition, saving the image to remote server- not the best and safe solution, especially if the image file contains important confidential information. Naturally, in the program you can configure automatic archiving and create in advance bootable media for recovery. But this is already a clear plus.

Afterword

This is briefly all that concerns a computer using a previously created image. The main emphasis was placed exclusively on the tools and tools of Windows systems, since many users may simply not have special third-party applications at hand. And in such a situation, you can perform a rollback with a very high probability of successful system recovery.