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Editable Drive Image Backup Solution


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This is a fairly strange question.

So I have a few machines I want to make backup drive images of. If the machine has hard drive issues I can just re-image a physical drive and I am good to go. The strange part is that I would also like to be able to add/del files on the image as needed. So of the software on it gets updated in between. I was thinking that a p2v option (vmWare) to allow the image to be mounted as a virtual pc as this would be fully editable. However getting it back to the disk (v2p) is a issue. I was able to find Acronis product that does it but cost is a concern. Basically I need a free option. That this point I am thinking its not doable for zero.

Anyone have any experience doing this sort of thing?

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"I would also like to be able to add/del files on the image as needed."

If you machine changes, ie you installed some patches, updated software, deleted software, etc. etc. Just take another image ;)

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Acronis works great. If you find a 0 cost solution feel free to spread the wealth. I have been looking for 5+ years. There are plenty of free imaging utilities out there, you could tecnically use them to image on and off, however vmware does not support them and many do not have bare metal restore capability.

Last I checked ghost wasn't free although also editable as he wants.

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Sc302 I could understand the desire to edit an image in a work place where the image is used to install. IE you want a bare metal image that will install to most any hardware, you might want to add a new driver, or change the software included in the image, etc.

But in a home use sort of thing as backup image -- as you mention there are plenty of free tools to image with. If your box changes in such a way that you feel its a good idea to change your image, then take a new one.. What it takes 20 minutes, an hour maybe - delete the old image, keep the new = done.

All that being said, if you just want to manipulate a few files on the image.. I take images all the time with imageX (free from MS) you can mount these and add/delete files and just commit the changes to the images.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc722145%28WS.10%29.aspx

What is ImageX?

ImageX is a command-line tool that enables original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and corporations to capture, to modify, and to apply file-based disk images for rapid deployment. ImageX works with Windows image (.wim) files for copying to a network, or it can work with other technologies that use .wim images, such as Windows Setup, Windows Deployment Services (Windows DS), and the System Management Server (SMS) Operating System Feature Deployment Pack.

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Windows 7's Image backups are mountable as hard drives when you load the .vhd image inside Disk Management. I was doing this to grab a few files I needed, but I can't confirm if files could be added to it.

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Yes both are viable solutions, like I said many are free. He mentioned vmware and p2v and v2p. This needs bare metal restore capabilities which no free image software that I know of is capable of, it also will need to be syspreped again. I am not understanding how you would v2p without bare metal restore capabilities.

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Few details I left out...

Corporate environment and this is a experiment of mine hence 0 cost factor.

@Salty Wagyu Should have added they are all running XP.

@BudMan This is sort of how I do it now. Just would be easier to keep the drive images stored on a separate drive with the ability to modify contents. Then reflash a hard drive with the image as needed. I am trying to really streamline the process.

Really seems like Acronis is the simplest option, I will look into ImageX hadn't see that yet.

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If you use Windows 7, VHD images (which Full System Backup feature of Windows 7 creates) can be mounted from Disk Management and edited. Or if you use SysPrep and WIM images, you can edit them as well as mentioned above using ImageX.

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