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Windows 7 Image

Albatross
By Albatross
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Go to solution Solved by stconquest,

Okay, I'm ready to use Clonezilla and I tried to watch as many tutorials as I could. I haven't found one that explains the options  only ones that show their own process (for example they don't explain how you find your Windows drive (because my install isn't identical to theirs) to begin the cloning or how to store the image on anything but a server/connection to another computer). I would like to clone my Windows 7 install and store it to an external book I have. Is this at all possible?

 

If someone could help me out that would be great! And as always...there are likes involved. :P

 

You have to be able to recognize your own drives when you are in there. 

 

I did exactly what you are trying to do, I cloned my 240GB SSD (mostly empty), onto an external drive.  I will get the one video I watched....1 sec...

 

 

I went off of this solely.  I used a DVD in an optical drive as the boot device.  Seemed easier(but USB is easy too), and I have tons of blanks.

Posted

Hello guys!

 

I wanted to know if it was possible to reinstall Windows 7, install updates + my "base" programs (Spotify, Firefox etc) and then save an image of it or something (not sure on the term) for later use? So that if I ever wanted a "fresh" start I could use the image. I thought I read something like this is possible but I can't seem to pinpoint where and then replicate the method myself. Do any of you know what I am talking about and if so, can you maybe walk me through the process + list programs I might need to do it?

 

Oh, and one more question before I go; is there a way to copy a Chrome folder so it retains the passwords, log ins, themes etc etc? No matter what I try I can't seem to get it to back everything up for moving to a new computer.

 

I am about to start a fresh install of Windows so if I don't reply real quick that's the reason.

 

Anyways, thanks for reading and yes...I give likes. ;)

|  The United Empire of Earth Wants You | The Stormborn (ongoing build; 90% done)  |  Skyrim Mods Recommendations  |  LTT Blue Forum Theme! | Learning Russian! Blog |
|"They got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.” ― Tupac Shakur  | "Half of writing history is hiding the truth" — Captain Malcolm Reynolds | "Museums are racist." — Michelle Obama | "Slap a word like "racist" or "nazi" on it and you'll have an army at your back." — MSM Logic | "A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" — Jesus Christ | "I love the Union and the Constitution, but I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it." — Jefferson Davis |

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Hello guys!

 

I wanted to know if it was possible to reinstall Windows 7, install updates + my "base" programs (Spotify, Firefox etc) and then save an image of it or something (not sure on the term) for later use? So that if I ever wanted a "fresh" start I could use the image. I thought I read something like this is possible but I can't seem to pinpoint where and then replicate the method myself. Do any of you know what I am talking about and if so, can you maybe walk me through the process + list programs I might need to do it?

 

Oh, and one more question before I go; is there a way to copy a Chrome folder so it retains the passwords, log ins, themes etc etc? No matter what I try I can't seem to get it to back everything up for moving to a new computer.

 

I am about to start a fresh install of Windows so if I don't reply real quick that's the reason.

 

Anyways, thanks for reading and yes...I give likes. ;)

Lastpass+xmarks 

System Specs

CPU: Ryzen 5 5600x | Mobo: Gigabyte B550i Aorus Pro AX | RAM: Hyper X Fury 3600 64gb | GPU: Nvidia FE 4090 | Storage: WD Blk SN750 NVMe - 1tb, Samsung 860 Evo - 1tb, WD Blk - 6tb/5tb, WD Red - 10tb | PSU:Corsair ax860 | Cooling: AMD Wraith Stealth  Displays: 55" Samsung 4k Q80R, 24" BenQ XL2420TE/XL2411Z & Asus VG248QE | Kb: K70 RGB Blue | Mouse: Logitech G903 | Case: Fractal Torrent RGB | Extra: HTC Vive, Fanatec CSR/Shifters/CSR Elite Pedals w/ Rennsport stand, Thustmaster Warthog HOTAS, Track IR5,, ARCTIC Z3 Pro Triple Monitor Arm | OS: Win 10 Pro 64 bit

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I'm not sure about the windows image part, But you can sign-in with your google account in chrome and everything gets synced as it was on the previous machine...

There's always a way...

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Thanks for the swift replies guys!

 

Lastpass+xmarks 

 

Is buying a program the only way to do it?

 

 

I'm not sure about the windows image part, But you can sign-in with your google account in chrome and everything gets synced as it was on the previous machine...

 

Is there no way to do this without a google account? *I don't have one*

|  The United Empire of Earth Wants You | The Stormborn (ongoing build; 90% done)  |  Skyrim Mods Recommendations  |  LTT Blue Forum Theme! | Learning Russian! Blog |
|"They got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.” ― Tupac Shakur  | "Half of writing history is hiding the truth" — Captain Malcolm Reynolds | "Museums are racist." — Michelle Obama | "Slap a word like "racist" or "nazi" on it and you'll have an army at your back." — MSM Logic | "A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" — Jesus Christ | "I love the Union and the Constitution, but I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it." — Jefferson Davis |

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Is there no way to do this without a google account? *I don't have one*

 

You can create one real quick, It's the best way to do what you are trying to do, without any hassle..

There's always a way...

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You can create one real quick, It's the best way to do what you are trying to do, without any hassle..

 

Damn, I really wanted to avoid a spy google account. Alright, I guess I'm just gonna have to re-enter my passwords haha thanks guys! Now I just need to know about that image thingy. :)

|  The United Empire of Earth Wants You | The Stormborn (ongoing build; 90% done)  |  Skyrim Mods Recommendations  |  LTT Blue Forum Theme! | Learning Russian! Blog |
|"They got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.” ― Tupac Shakur  | "Half of writing history is hiding the truth" — Captain Malcolm Reynolds | "Museums are racist." — Michelle Obama | "Slap a word like "racist" or "nazi" on it and you'll have an army at your back." — MSM Logic | "A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" — Jesus Christ | "I love the Union and the Constitution, but I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it." — Jefferson Davis |

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Damn, I really wanted to avoid a spy google account. Alright, I guess I'm just gonna have to re-enter my passwords haha thanks guys! Now I just need to know about that image thingy. :)

 

Windows has it's own imaging program.  It failed on me three times, so I used Clonezilla.

 

Clonezilla is free and works great. 

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Windows has it's own imaging program.  It failed on me three times, so I used Clonezilla.

 

Clonezilla is free and works great. 

 

Free, that's what I'm talking about!

 

Would you mind explaining how to use it or pointing to a FAQ/Tutorial for me? :)

|  The United Empire of Earth Wants You | The Stormborn (ongoing build; 90% done)  |  Skyrim Mods Recommendations  |  LTT Blue Forum Theme! | Learning Russian! Blog |
|"They got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.” ― Tupac Shakur  | "Half of writing history is hiding the truth" — Captain Malcolm Reynolds | "Museums are racist." — Michelle Obama | "Slap a word like "racist" or "nazi" on it and you'll have an army at your back." — MSM Logic | "A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" — Jesus Christ | "I love the Union and the Constitution, but I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it." — Jefferson Davis |

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Thanks for the swift replies guys!

 

 

Is buying a program the only way to do it?

 

 

 

Is there no way to do this without a google account? *I don't have one*

both are free, it wont do everything you mentioned but it will ease the transition alot

System Specs

CPU: Ryzen 5 5600x | Mobo: Gigabyte B550i Aorus Pro AX | RAM: Hyper X Fury 3600 64gb | GPU: Nvidia FE 4090 | Storage: WD Blk SN750 NVMe - 1tb, Samsung 860 Evo - 1tb, WD Blk - 6tb/5tb, WD Red - 10tb | PSU:Corsair ax860 | Cooling: AMD Wraith Stealth  Displays: 55" Samsung 4k Q80R, 24" BenQ XL2420TE/XL2411Z & Asus VG248QE | Kb: K70 RGB Blue | Mouse: Logitech G903 | Case: Fractal Torrent RGB | Extra: HTC Vive, Fanatec CSR/Shifters/CSR Elite Pedals w/ Rennsport stand, Thustmaster Warthog HOTAS, Track IR5,, ARCTIC Z3 Pro Triple Monitor Arm | OS: Win 10 Pro 64 bit

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Free, that's what I'm talking about!

 

Would you mind explaining how to use it or pointing to a FAQ/Tutorial for me? :)

 

Sure.

 

Go here to get the program:  http://clonezilla.org/

 

Mount it on a DVD or USB.  It is around 150MB.

 

Place the DVD/USB in the drive and restart your computer.

 

It will boot into it's own interface.

 

Watch a YouTube video first, so you can get familiar with the interface.

 

 

Simple, easy and fast.  Took me 10 minutes to make a 24GB image.  Had a game installed, and all my utility programs...and windows updated of course.

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Okay, I'm ready to use Clonezilla and I tried to watch as many tutorials as I could. I haven't found one that explains the options  only ones that show their own process (for example they don't explain how you find your Windows drive (because my install isn't identical to theirs) to begin the cloning or how to store the image on anything but a server/connection to another computer). I would like to clone my Windows 7 install and store it to an external book I have. Is this at all possible?

 

If someone could help me out that would be great! And as always...there are likes involved. :P

|  The United Empire of Earth Wants You | The Stormborn (ongoing build; 90% done)  |  Skyrim Mods Recommendations  |  LTT Blue Forum Theme! | Learning Russian! Blog |
|"They got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.” ― Tupac Shakur  | "Half of writing history is hiding the truth" — Captain Malcolm Reynolds | "Museums are racist." — Michelle Obama | "Slap a word like "racist" or "nazi" on it and you'll have an army at your back." — MSM Logic | "A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" — Jesus Christ | "I love the Union and the Constitution, but I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it." — Jefferson Davis |

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Okay, I'm ready to use Clonezilla and I tried to watch as many tutorials as I could. I haven't found one that explains the options  only ones that show their own process (for example they don't explain how you find your Windows drive (because my install isn't identical to theirs) to begin the cloning or how to store the image on anything but a server/connection to another computer). I would like to clone my Windows 7 install and store it to an external book I have. Is this at all possible?

 

If someone could help me out that would be great! And as always...there are likes involved. :P

 

You have to be able to recognize your own drives when you are in there. 

 

I did exactly what you are trying to do, I cloned my 240GB SSD (mostly empty), onto an external drive.  I will get the one video I watched....1 sec...

 

 

I went off of this solely.  I used a DVD in an optical drive as the boot device.  Seemed easier(but USB is easy too), and I have tons of blanks.

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You have to be able to recognize your own drives when you are in there. 

 

I did exactly what you are trying to do, I cloned my 240GB SSD (mostly empty), onto an external drive.  I will get the one video I watched....1 sec...

 

I went off of this solely.  I used a DVD in an optical drive as the boot device.  Seemed easier(but USB is easy too), and I have tons of blanks.

 

Thank you! That video did it!

 

I couldn't get it to read my external drive at all. Then I unplugged it at the Clonezilla selection screen and then plugged it back in. Next screen it was there! I have successfully managed to clone an image of Windows 7 now! Thanks so much stconquest!

 

Oh, and for those who might wonder about lame Chrome who wish not to touch their accounts, a solution to backuping up everything was:

 

Press Windows Key + R > type "%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data" in without quotes > Copy the entire folder (or just default) > paste to location of backup > done.

|  The United Empire of Earth Wants You | The Stormborn (ongoing build; 90% done)  |  Skyrim Mods Recommendations  |  LTT Blue Forum Theme! | Learning Russian! Blog |
|"They got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.” ― Tupac Shakur  | "Half of writing history is hiding the truth" — Captain Malcolm Reynolds | "Museums are racist." — Michelle Obama | "Slap a word like "racist" or "nazi" on it and you'll have an army at your back." — MSM Logic | "A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" — Jesus Christ | "I love the Union and the Constitution, but I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it." — Jefferson Davis |

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Okay...so I decided to see if the image would work. I used "restoredisk Restore_an_image_to_local_disk" to load the image but it gave me a whole set of errors and now my Windows drive doesn't appear to have anything on it and it also broke my grub (Ubuntu still works so I fixed my grub). I followed the instructions to the dot on the video so I haven't missed anything. Was I supposed to do something for Windows 7 via the advanced options or something?

|  The United Empire of Earth Wants You | The Stormborn (ongoing build; 90% done)  |  Skyrim Mods Recommendations  |  LTT Blue Forum Theme! | Learning Russian! Blog |
|"They got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.” ― Tupac Shakur  | "Half of writing history is hiding the truth" — Captain Malcolm Reynolds | "Museums are racist." — Michelle Obama | "Slap a word like "racist" or "nazi" on it and you'll have an army at your back." — MSM Logic | "A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" — Jesus Christ | "I love the Union and the Constitution, but I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it." — Jefferson Davis |

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Okay...so I decided to see if the image would work. I used "restoredisk Restore_an_image_to_local_disk" to load the image but it gave me a whole set of errors and now my Windows drive doesn't appear to have anything on it and it also broke my grub (Ubuntu still works so I fixed my grub). I followed the instructions to the dot on the video so I haven't missed anything. Was I supposed to do something for Windows 7 via the advanced options or something?

 

Weird.  Good that you tested it, I did as well... when I first made my image.

 

No prep was needed for me, and I restored the image on two separate occasions. 

 

My best guess is that the write went wrong. 

 

How long did writing the image take you?  I am just curious (10 min for my 24GB image).

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I figured I should test so if I needed it a month from now I wouldn't be greeted with the errors as a surprise. haha

 

It had almost 200gb (165gb) used and took almost two hours (on a 500gb WD hard drive). The tutorial said it could take a while so I just assumed that was more than normal. :P

 

 

 

 

Oh, and here's some stuff it reported:

 

Error 38 when determining sector size! Setting sector size to Disk device is
home/partimag/Windows-7.img/sda-gpt.gdisk 512
Disk device is /home/partimag/Windows-7.img/sda/gpt/gdisk

Warning: OXEE partition doesn't start on sector 1. This can cause problems in some OSes.

Informing the OS of partition changes.........done!

The disk and partition in this system is now: *this was left blank and then jumped to the error below*

Error: /dev/sda: unrecognised disk label

Model: ATA WDC WD500AKAS-0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector Size: (logical/physical: 512B/512B)
Partition Table: Unknown

Disk Flags:
Error: /dev/sda: unrecognised disk label
Restoring partition /dev/sda...
Unable to find target partition "sda1"

|  The United Empire of Earth Wants You | The Stormborn (ongoing build; 90% done)  |  Skyrim Mods Recommendations  |  LTT Blue Forum Theme! | Learning Russian! Blog |
|"They got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.” ― Tupac Shakur  | "Half of writing history is hiding the truth" — Captain Malcolm Reynolds | "Museums are racist." — Michelle Obama | "Slap a word like "racist" or "nazi" on it and you'll have an army at your back." — MSM Logic | "A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" — Jesus Christ | "I love the Union and the Constitution, but I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it." — Jefferson Davis |

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Solved!

 

I was reading over the terminal outputs in Clonezilla and saw some oddities. It led me to believe that Clonezilla was just confused and unable to read the drive to restore the image. So I thought about older versions of Clonezilla and this time I used Tuxboot in Ubuntu to install "clonezilla-live-20140915-trusty-amd64" to the drive. Loaded Clonezilla and BAM! Loaded my Windows image and restored everything when it had all been deleted off the hard drive.

 

This is just too awesome! Clonezilla has won a place in my heart! Thanks again for mentioning it @stconquest and bringing me that tutorial video! :)

|  The United Empire of Earth Wants You | The Stormborn (ongoing build; 90% done)  |  Skyrim Mods Recommendations  |  LTT Blue Forum Theme! | Learning Russian! Blog |
|"They got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.” ― Tupac Shakur  | "Half of writing history is hiding the truth" — Captain Malcolm Reynolds | "Museums are racist." — Michelle Obama | "Slap a word like "racist" or "nazi" on it and you'll have an army at your back." — MSM Logic | "A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" — Jesus Christ | "I love the Union and the Constitution, but I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it." — Jefferson Davis |

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Solved!

 

I was reading over the terminal outputs in Clonezilla and saw some oddities. It led me to believe that Clonezilla was just confused and unable to read the drive to restore the image. So I thought about older versions of Clonezilla and this time I used Tuxboot in Ubuntu to install "clonezilla-live-20140915-trusty-amd64" to the drive. Loaded Clonezilla and BAM! Loaded my Windows image and restored everything when it had all been deleted off the hard drive.

 

This is just too awesome! Clonezilla has won a place in my heart! Thanks again for mentioning it @stconquest and bringing me that tutorial video! :)

 

Lol, I have no idea what you said but I am glad you figured it out.

 

You're welcome :)

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I figured I should test so if I needed it a month from now I wouldn't be greeted with the errors as a surprise. haha

 

It had almost 200gb (165gb) used and took almost two hours (on a 500gb WD hard drive). The tutorial said it could take a while so I just assumed that was more than normal. :P

 

 

 

 

Oh, and here's some stuff it reported:

 

Wow, that was a lot more data than I backed up.

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I just hope the solution can help others who are experiencing a proper save image but experiencing errors upon restoring the images. But from what I saw I am definitely not the only one who had this problem. :lol:

 

Wow, that was a lot more data than I backed up.

 

It is a lot. The odd part is that I really didn't install much, just BF3/4, all available updates and two drawing programs. I have no idea why it took so much space but oh well, it is convenient and I love it. :)

|  The United Empire of Earth Wants You | The Stormborn (ongoing build; 90% done)  |  Skyrim Mods Recommendations  |  LTT Blue Forum Theme! | Learning Russian! Blog |
|"They got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.” ― Tupac Shakur  | "Half of writing history is hiding the truth" — Captain Malcolm Reynolds | "Museums are racist." — Michelle Obama | "Slap a word like "racist" or "nazi" on it and you'll have an army at your back." — MSM Logic | "A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" — Jesus Christ | "I love the Union and the Constitution, but I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it." — Jefferson Davis |

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I just hope the solution can help others who are experiencing a proper save image but experiencing errors upon restoring the images. But from what I saw I am definitely not the only one who had this problem. :lol:

 

 

It is a lot. The odd part is that I really didn't install much, just BF3/4, all available updates and two drawing programs. I have no idea why it took so much space but oh well, it is convenient and I love it. :)

 

Ok, that is weird.  I had Windows 7(updated), a bunch of utility programs (8-10) and League of Legends (7GB).  My image was only 24GB.

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Ok, that is weird.  I had Windows 7(updated), a bunch of utility programs (8-10) and League of Legends (7GB).  My image was only 24GB.

 

Hmm...I'll find a program to locate the source/s.

 

 

edit

 

Yikes. Running WinDirState and found three culprits of over 20GB. Mostly loose Photoshop PSDs I had made. Moved them to my external drive. Gotta weed out the rest of the GB hogs! haha

|  The United Empire of Earth Wants You | The Stormborn (ongoing build; 90% done)  |  Skyrim Mods Recommendations  |  LTT Blue Forum Theme! | Learning Russian! Blog |
|"They got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.” ― Tupac Shakur  | "Half of writing history is hiding the truth" — Captain Malcolm Reynolds | "Museums are racist." — Michelle Obama | "Slap a word like "racist" or "nazi" on it and you'll have an army at your back." — MSM Logic | "A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" — Jesus Christ | "I love the Union and the Constitution, but I would rather leave the Union with the Constitution than remain in the Union without it." — Jefferson Davis |

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