PC Imaging and Restore

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numnutz

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Just about everyone has been using some product to boot a pc from a bootable CD connecting a usb hard drive and creating or restoring computers from those two media's. Does anyone have a product that can create a unattended USB flash drive that will restore an image that you created to a PC.

I have been using Macrium Reflect and I have a bootable usb flash drive that you can restore an image to a pc on the same drive but I would like to script it or have a program that does it for you so a user can just plug the drive in, boot to it and with no, or very little user intervention have the application restore the image. I have read that with the paid version of Macrium and a second program will do this. anyone doing this with Macrium or another program?
 
What kind of environment are you looking at? Things like Storage Server Essentials and Home Server allow you to do full backups and then create a recovery CD/USB stick.

Of course Clonezilla will do the same thing. And it costs nothing other than your time.
 
Windows 7 environment mostly not servers or nas right now. I will take a look at clonzilla and Microsoft toolkit but I'm looking for something as quick out of the box to configure as possible.
 
Wait...are you wanting a way to restore from a backup as quick as possible, or are you wanting to reload a universal image as quick as possible?
 
I want a program to create an image file using something like, the built in Windows7 backup, Macrium Reflect, Acronis, Ghost or any other program.

Then that program have an option to take that image and create a bootable USB boot drive that once plugged in and booted to will, with no, or very little end user intervention restore the image to the PC. basically do not want the end user to have to find the image file, tell what drives / partitions to restore etc. Ideally just a window stating click here to start restore and have the program do its thing from there. Thanks
 
you could make your own restore partition on the boot drive. not the same as a bootable external, but simple for an end user to use.
 
Yes, I am actually a oem, partner with farstone, system restore. It creates a factory restore partition on the hard drive. Good program cost is very reasonable. But the only option the program gives you other than the restore partition is the ability to create cd / DVD bootable media. Which can be anywhere from 3 or more DVDs, usually about 5. I am Looking for one bootable USB restore option. Thanks,
 
You could create a windows backup recovery disc on a USB drive. By default, Windows 7 will not create one with a USB drive, but you can do a work around for that. Then Backup a VHD to the USB drive. However the use will have to select the VHD after booting up to the recovery USB. If they can't follow the instructions you leave in order to do that, they are going to be calling you anyway if they need to restore a backup.

Edit: Just saw the more recent posts. There must be a way to get that recovery partition on a USB drive.
 
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Supposedly using the paid version of Macrium reflect in combination with there program disk restore it can be done, I might just bite the bullet and pay the $58 bucks and try it just wish I knew someone who has already tried..
 
Larry - yes it comes out to about $10 a license. I put in any pc build I do and many pc repairs that hard drives were replaced or wipe and reloads that didn't have a recovery partition already. I add the cost into the build or repair usually $15 per PC and it adds value to the job in other ways. I would like to add a bootable unattended flash drive recovery option too. CD / DVD recovery media is slow and out dated these days ( my opinion ) the low cost of flash drives these days makes it possible. Just don't want to spend time on setup and configuration with manual creation of recovery partitions and bootable devices if I can find something inexpensive. Farstone oem works very well if it only allowed creation of bootable USB I would be all set lol.

Space squad - farstone oem is exactly like booting into a dell recovery restore partition and there DVD recovery media as well. I just want to try USB recovery instead of DVD.
 
@numnutz: Thanks for the info. Once you get over 99 licenses, the price drops drastically, e.g., $4/license in the next tier, but that's a large chunk of change. Flash drives are so easy to lose, I think I'd be taping it to the inside of the case or tethering it to the back of the case.
 
yes its an investment have to make sure you can make it back. In regards to USB drives, Not sure they are easier to miss place than 4 DVD's. And I cant tell you how many times I have taken the time to try to restore a pc from a set of dvd's sitting there popping them in one by one for 30 minutes plus for it to fail on the last cd, frustrating lol.

If they lose it then that's on them and it would possibly turn into a more of a revenue service call than if they didn't. In my mind its more of a cool, wow factor to give to a client than handing them a bunch of restore disks. and it seems not many people are doing it. I could be wrong it might not be worth it but I wanted to give it a shot, thanks
 
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