Creating a windows xp system image. Create an iso from your installed system. Creating ISO images. Creating your own distribution

In order to have something to use to restore the Windows 7 operating system in the event of a failure, you must first create these recovery tools. How?

We press the Start button, then click “Control Panel”, there we open “System and Security” and, finally, we get to what we are looking for, namely “Backup and Restore”.

"Creating a system image" and
"Create a system repair disc."

The Windows 7 system recovery disk is a boot disk, you insert it into the CD/DVD drive, and the computer boots (!) from the boot disk, and not from the C: drive, from which for some reason it does not boot.

Using a boot disk, you can boot your computer if your PC operating system is not working. After booting your PC from the Windows 7 system recovery disc, you can restore your PC's operating system. And for this you will already need a system image.

A Windows 7 system image is an archive of the operating system in the state it was at the time it was archived. That is, a system image is an archived copy of the OS that allows you to subsequently restore an operating system that completely matches the operating system at the time of archiving. What was archived is what we got as a result of system recovery!

A Windows 7 system recovery disc only needs to be created once. The same cannot be said for the Windows 7 system image. Since the operating system is constantly changing and supplemented, the more often we create a Windows 7 system image, the more accurately we can restore the system from the image saved in the archive.

How to create a Windows 7 system recovery disc?

Click on the proposed option “Create a system repair disk” and follow the instructions displayed on the screen. To create a system recovery disk, we will need a CD/DVD device with the ability to record discs on it, and we will need one blank CD or DVD blank. It is better to use non-rewritable discs for this, so as not to accidentally erase this very important disc later.

The Windows 7 system recovery disk created in this way must be carefully labeled, as recommended by the Backup and Restore program, and placed somewhere where it can be retrieved in an emergency.

If you use a mobile device (for example, a laptop or netbook), then it is better to take the system recovery disk with you. You never know what can happen on a trip?!

If your PC does not have a device for recording CD/DVD discs, then you need to use an external device connected via . There is no other way!

The same external device will also be needed when restoring the system in the event of a system failure. Therefore, it is better to take such an external device with you on trips if you plan to actively work on the PC on the road and outside the home (or office) with possible disastrous consequences for the operating system.

Creating a Windows 7 system image

To create a Windows 7 system image, we need an external hard drive. Moreover, this may be the same disk on which the . The main thing is that this external hard drive has enough space to accommodate the system image and user data archive.

Connect an external hard drive and click on the “Create a system image” option. After some thoughtfulness, the computer will offer to select one of the possible disks on which you can burn the system image. Select the external hard drive (in our example, this is external drive E:), click “Next”:

Then a confirmation window for archiving parameters will appear, in which we must confirm the selected disk for archiving the system image. Confirmation is made by clicking on the “Archive” button:

After confirmation of archiving, the actual creation of a system image on the specified external hard drive begins. In the “Creating a system image” window, the green “Archive saving in progress” indicator crawls, showing how much archiving has been completed:

Before the system image is backed up, you will be asked whether you need to create a system recovery disk. We can answer “No”, since we have already made a system recovery disk using the appropriate option in the main “Backup and Restore” window.

If the system recovery disk has not been created previously, then it is useful to answer “Yes” to the proposed question in order to create this disk.

Let me remind you that a system image created on an external hard drive cannot itself be restored on a PC where the operating system does not boot. This is exactly what you need for a system recovery disk:

Once archiving of the system image is completed, the message “Archiving completed successfully” will appear in the “Creating a system image” window. All that remains is to close the system image creation window by clicking on the “Close” button:

Thus, we created a one-time system image - an archive of the operating system for possible subsequent restoration in the event of possible failures.

In order for this procedure for creating a system image to be performed regularly, when setting up automatic archiving, you must check the box next to the “Enable system image” option, as shown in the following figure:

We're safe now. We have a system recovery disk from which you can start your PC in case of OS failure. And we have a system image on an external hard drive from which we can restore the operating system to the time it was last backed up.

How is operating system recovery performed?

“You’re about to hear something that would be better if you didn’t hear it!” - said one of the heroes of the film “The Man from the Boulevard des Capuchins”.

What I mean is that it would be better for each of us not to encounter the problem of restoring the OS. But if we have to, we will know how to do it.

So, the PC is “dead” and won’t boot. Then we take the Windows 7 system recovery disc, insert it into the CD/DVD device and try to boot the computer from this disc. It doesn't always work out that easy.

Sometimes you still need to go into the PC BIOS to specify the “Initial boot from CD/DVD” option there. I will not describe how to do this, since in each specific case, for each specific PC, this is done in its own way.

This is described in the documentation for the PC, or in the documentation for the PC motherboard, or in the documentation for the BIOS. Since the BIOS menu is most often written in English, the keyword when searching for the corresponding menu options should be the English word “boot” (read as “boot” with a long “u” sound, and translated as “boot”).

After booting the PC using the system recovery disk, connect the external hard drive with the system image saved on it to the USB port of the PC. Then select the appropriate options from the proposed menu for restoring the system from a system image. We indicate that the system needs to be restored, that the system image is stored on such and such an external hard drive. That's all. The recovery program does further work automatically. You just need to be patient and under no circumstances turn off the PC until the recovery is complete.

Upon completion of restoring the system from the system image, you need to remove the system recovery disk from the CD/DVD device, mentally thank it for the services provided (!), and put it back in its original place until the next time (it would be better if this case never happened again!) .

And then you should restart your PC. If everything went well, then to our joy and satisfaction the system will return to the state in which it was at the time the archived copy of the system image was created.
And if not? So, no luck...

"Rounding"

It is impossible to complete the repair, it can only be stopped - so says popular wisdom. Also with issues of archiving and restoring the system and data. There is no end to the methods and methods of performing these procedures.
Therefore, we need to wrap things up.

What other ways are there to restore the operating system? There are a lot of things.

For example, some users go so far as to install two operating systems on their PC, such as Windows and Linux. And they work with Windows until it fails. After Windows fails, they boot into Linux and use its tools to manually restore Windows.

- So it is possible?
- Why not. If this helps in restoring Windows.

You can have two C: drives with Windows operating systems preinstalled on them. One stands inside the PC, the other lies on a shelf (in a drawer, etc.) and waits for its turn. If something happens, we remove one disk from the PC and insert another. Expensive? Yes, but it’s reliable and practical!

To protect user data, you can use the so-called, which allows you to store user data (all or part) on a remote server. This remote disk on the server is accessed via the Internet. All issues of data safety and recovery in case of possible failures are taken over by the company providing access to the cloud.

It’s a pity that you can’t store operating system files in this way, although who forbids, for example, recording a system image during archiving to a cloud disk? Please…

The list of ways and methods can be continued indefinitely. It is important for us not so much to understand the methods themselves as to recognize the fact that both the operating system and user data need to be archived. You need to do this periodically, don’t forget to do it, and don’t be lazy about doing it.

And then you can be almost sure that the system and data will be safe and sound. Almost? Yes, almost, since His Majesty’s chance cannot be discounted. You might get lucky, or you might not.

Those who archive the operating system and their own data have much better luck and much more often. Tested empirically by millions of PC users. Proven in practice.

I suggest you join the majority of lucky people.

– When was the last time you backed up your operating system and your data? Never?! Last year?! Last week?! Yesterday?!
– I’ll do it today!!!

Hi all! Today I decided to touch on the topic of restoring an installed operating system. We will, of course, talk about Windows.

I think many users have encountered a problem when Windows suddenly stops starting.

The reasons for such a problem can be very different - penetration into the system, damaged hard drive blocks, hardware problems, mistakes of one of the users...

In many cases, an image of an existing operating system can help out. I’ll tell you how to create a system image.

Standard Windows tools

When using the method provided by the operating system itself, you do not need any additional program. The only thing you need is administrator rights; an external hard drive is also desirable.

Let's look at all the details using the example of the "seven", still the most popular system from the Windows family.

So. First you need to prepare your computer for the upcoming operation. To reduce the size of the image that you will use for recovery, remove all unnecessary programs and files from the system partition (usually drive C).

But be careful, delete only what you know for sure is unnecessary, do not touch the Windows files itself!

And, by the way, be sure to think about what programs should be installed so that they are already in the image and reduce the number of additional actions in the future (after recovery procedures). Then it is better to restart the computer.

On the left side of the window, click “Create a system image.” You will have to wait for some time - the system will evaluate the system partition and scan local disks. The next window will prompt you to select a device to save the archive.

Choosing the right media

Other options are possible, but I do not recommend saving to a disk that is a system one; moreover, Windows in some cases may not provide such an option at all.

The capacity of a DVD is too small for such needs, and dividing the full image into ten pieces, each of which is recorded on a separate DVD, is clearly not the best solution.

In general, choose what is most suitable for your case, connect all the necessary devices and click “Next”.

In the next window, check whether everything is assigned correctly - the disks for archiving and the location of the backup copy (the window is called: “Confirmation of archiving parameters”) - and click the “Archive” button.

Until the process is completed, you must leave the computer alone - do not turn it off, do not launch any programs, or interrupt the archiving process.

In addition to the saved image, you can make a bootable disk by selecting “Create a system repair disk.” You may need it if you do not have an installation disk that contains the Windows distribution kit and all the necessary utilities. Go there too - to the “Control Panel”, then to “Backup and Restore”.

How it works

Now let's look at how to use the archive image file. In case of serious failures of the operating system, a boot disk is used - the one from which Windows was installed, or one created as I described above.

You just need to insert it into the DVD drive and start your computer from it. A menu will appear on the screen - select “Restore from a previously created image.”

Then you will need to specify the location of the image file - the external hard drive with the file must already be connected. Specify the file and the recovery operation will begin. The result will be a working, serviceable Windows in the form in which it was at the time the image was created.

With respect! Abdullin Ruslan

ISO is a standard designed to bring the structure of compact discs to uniform standards. An ISO image in the general sense has now become a virtual version of a real media with an operating system on board. The OS on it can be in a state ready for installation, or it can be launched directly from it - the so-called Live version.

One of the popular operating systems is Windows 7. Therefore, for installation, they often use the method of creating its image for subsequent installation. You can then burn it to a CD or flash drive. How to create an ISO image of Windows 7 will be discussed in this article.

Why do you need an ISO image of the operating system?

The first images appeared in the era of global development of compact discs. And many wanted to have a copy of a game or operating system in order to be able to use it in the future. To do this, we used special grabbers and programs that completely copied the structure and data of the CD. This data could be written to another CD or deployed on a flash drive, thus making it bootable.

The image can also be used as an installation disk for a virtual machine in which the operating system will be tested.

How to create an ISO image of Windows 7 from Windows itself

In order to create an image, you will need some source, for example a folder with Windows files or an actual CD. The original ISO image of Windows 7 can be downloaded from the official Microsoft website. True, you will need an activation key that will help you use it in a legal way. But on the Internet you can find a lot of different assemblies that are downloaded completely free of charge.

So, there are two types of sources - a real CD and a folder with files on the computer's hard drive. It is worth listing several options with which you can create an image.

UltraISO - the most popular program for working with images

The program is shareware, i.e. in the Free version all functionality will not be available.

The main window of the UltraISO program is divided into several small zones. The top left window shows the structure of the current image. In the right window are its contents. The bottom left one reflects the structure of the contents of the computer on which the program is running. And on the right is what is inside the selected folder on the left.

By default, the image is created with the date in the name. We need to fix this and rename it in a way that is more convenient, because this is the entry that will be displayed when it is loaded.

To add files to a project, you need to select a folder or media in the lower left window, and in the right window - which files you are interested in. You can simply drag them with the mouse into the top window.

When the required set of files has been selected, you need to go to the file and select “Save As”. A dialog box will open asking you to specify the file name, its future location and format. Select “ISO file” from the list of available file types. By clicking the “Save” button, a progress window will appear, after which the Windows 7 ISO image file will be ready.

Let's move on to other options.

How to create an ISO image of Windows 7 on Linux

This operation in Linux operating systems is slightly different from this procedure in Windows. In Windows you had to install the program and create an ISO image, but in Linux everything is ready out of the box. You just need to insert the existing media into the CD drive and enter a few lines in the terminal:

dd if=/dev/cdrom of=~/image_name.iso

This command will read data from the disk inserted into the reader and create a complete copy of it on the hard disk with the specified name.

List of programs with image creation function

Ashampoo Burning Studio Free. Free program with a good set of settings and functions. Nice and simple interface. Can both create images and write them to disk

CDBurnerXP is a compact application that comes with built-in advertising. But if you search a little on the developer’s website, you can find the Portable version. Capable of recording, erasing, and creating copies of discs.

ImgBurn is free and has quite powerful functionality. Writes, erases and creates images.

PowerISO is a powerful combine that can handle almost any task related to images and disks. The only drawback is that you have to pay for the full version, and the free version has limited capabilities.

IsoDisk is a small utility that can quickly create a disk image from media in a CD drive. It weighs little, comes free of charge and performs only its task without overloading the user with various settings and settings.

Conclusion

In this article, we briefly looked at a couple of ways to create an ISO image of Windows 7. This may be useful for those who are doing this for the first time or have forgotten a few simple steps.

More complex operations, such as creating a bootable USB flash drive, are described in much greater detail and are beyond the scope of this article. In addition, you need to have at least basic computer skills. It is worth noting that manually creating a boot image makes it possible to launch several systems for installation or even from a disk in the Live version.

If something suddenly happens to your operating system, it can lead to a huge number of problems. In the best case, you will have to reinstall it, search on the Internet for drivers and installers of the programs you need. In the worst case, there is a risk of completely losing all personal information, unique photographs, important documents and projects. Typically, restoring the OS is unlikely to help in this case - it only works with Windows settings. Therefore, to save your data, it is important to know how you can create a backup disk image of your Windows 7.

Types of images

You don't need to have the DVD itself for this. There is specialized software (for example, the UltraISO utility) with which you can do everything you need right on your computer. You prepare a set of folders and files, and use the program to create a disk image.

The second type is a backup copy of the operating system. It can be done even using standard Windows tools. It is needed to restore your OS in case of unforeseen emergency situations.

In fact, this is a cast of the hard drive. The computer scans the entire contents of the specified HDD and packs it into a special archive. If something happens, you can always restore everything back.

Windows Backup

To create a backup of data on disk, you do not need to install any additional software. You just need to do the following:

The whole process can take quite a long time. The volumes of stored data are usually large. In general, the duration depends on the amount of information being copied, the generation of USB or SATA/SAS interfaces, network speed (depending on where the backup is saved) and computer performance.

Recovery disk

After completing the backup process, the system will prompt you to create a special recovery disk. This is a set of useful programs that can help users if their OS stops starting. On it you can find utilities for restoring the MBR boot sector, sets of system files necessary for startup, and so on.

Creating an ISO image

If you want to burn DVD or CD content to digital ISO format, you will need a special program. The simplest and most reliable example of such a utility is the free ImgBurn application.

It can be downloaded from the official website http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download. Follow the link and select one of the suggested mirrors for downloading. After this, you need to run the downloaded installer and install the OS, following the instructions of the Install Wizard.

To create an ISO, you need to launch the application and click on the “Create image file from disk” button. Select the drive, indicate where to place the image, and the process will begin.

After installing the Windows operating system with the necessary drivers and frequently used programs, it is advisable to make a backup copy of the OS.

This will save significant time the next time you reinstall Windows, since after restoring the OS from this copy, we will receive a clean computer with all the necessary drivers and necessary programs.

Backing up the Windows operating system

First, we'll show you how to make a copy of Windows using system tools. To do this, go to the following menu: “Start” - “Control Panel” - “Backup and Restore”. On the left side of the panel we have the option “Create a system image”.

When you select this option, a window will appear asking you to select the location where the backup will be saved. We can select one of the partitions of our disk, or use an external disk or flash drive of the appropriate size for this purpose

After selecting the storage location, click “Next”. Then click the “Start Backup” button. The copying process will begin, which may take up to several tens of minutes, depending on the size of the operating system along with programs and the speed of your computer.

The next step we can take is to create a recovery disk. Once the backup process is complete, you will see a window asking you to create a recovery disk. Press the confirm button and insert a blank DVD into the drive. After burning a recovery disk, we have a ready-made set that will be useful to us in case of a computer failure.

How to restore Windows 7 system

Now let's assume that the operating system crashes and Windows 7 won't boot. We insert our disk into the drive and set the BIOS to boot the computer from the CD. The computer should then start booting directly from the CD.

After downloading the files, a window will appear with the option to select the location of our file with a copy of Windows 7. After specifying the location of our copy, click the “Restore the computer using a previously created system image” button, after which the recovery process will begin.

If everything goes well, then after rebooting the computer, we will have a fully working Windows operating system. Unfortunately, the Windows 7 backup utility does not have many options and therefore the backup takes on average 14-18 GB.

Another method for backing up Windows 7 is using the Acronis program, which is much better than Windows system tools. First of all, the copy is created much faster and we have the choice of creating an image of the entire C: / partition or just Windows. In addition, restoring Windows from a previously created backup is much faster, and we can do without using a CD.

Creating a copy of Windows 7 using Acronis

Launch the program, and then select “Create an image” or “Create a copy” depending on the version of the program. As a rule, at each stage the program tells us what needs to be done. So you just carefully read the instructions displayed on the screen.

The program will ask you to select what should be included in the image (copy). Select "My Computer" and click next. Select the C:\ drive and click next. On the file exclusions tab, do not mark anything and click next.

A window should appear with the option to select the location where our copy of Windows 7 will be saved. First, on the left side, select a location, for example Drive D:\. Then below we enter the name of the file of our copy and click next.

Select “Create a new image” and click next. The program will ask whether to use the default parameters - check “Yes”. Then a window will appear with the ability to enter comments about the copies (no need to write anything), click next, and the creation of a Windows backup will begin.