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Build a core OS backup disk

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In April 2012, I upgraded from Microsoft Windows 7 Pro 64 bit to Ulitimate. The upgrade was done via Microsoft's web update option. The upgrade went without an issue.

However, now I would like to build an installation disk for the OS, in a pristine condition. Specifically, I would like to create the image in such a way as to perform all the functions of an upgrade of the OS.

The disk would be created with all the drivers, all the upgrade checks-n-balances that a Microsoft supplied disk would include.

Additionally, it would NOT include any of my installed software, user ids or other user-manged data.

By having this disk built, it would provide a final, last resort build if it came to this. It is highly unlikely that it ever would, but it would still provide a source for OS components should such a component become corrupted or otherwise compomised.

Will Acronis TI 2013 do this? If not, does Acronis provide a solution for this path? Must I contact Microsoft to obtain such a disk?

Thank you for your guidance and support. The product is great, operating as advertised and designed.

0 Users found this helpful

Kind of.

On the one hand, you definitely use ATI 2013's recovery CD to do a "pristine" OS backup as you want, without having to any install third party software (including the Windows version of ATI, BTW) on your OS. You'd need to include all partitions (even the hidden ones) in that disk and partition backup. To clarify, you don't get an "installation disk". You get a disk image that you can restore to a brand new disk and get everything back to where it was when you backed it up.

On the other hand, this type of backup is limited in how useful it is in reality. After a while you have Windows updates, you spend tweaking your settings and apps... So you also want a deep history of system images (the default version chain provides this easily within Windows).