Multiple OS installations from 1 image

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Is it possible to create multiple OS installations of windows 7 on one machine from one master image file using TI 2012?

I have several win 7 installs on the same machine for dedicated purposes (Main, Games, Testing, Programing, etc...), and they all are the same up to a point - that is, they share many initial programs, tweeks, service packs, updates, etc.

Since I reinstall often, I'd like to have a basic image that I can restore from and then only have to minor customizing.

I used to do this using Acronis Disk Director, and made it so each OS could not see the others, but I'd really rather use Windows 7's own boot menu as it seems much, much cleaner. I'm just not sure if Win 7 would get confused by this.

Any thoughts?

Tue, 01/31/2012 - 23:27
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I think you need to post on an MS w7 forum for this question.

But as far as ati goes, you would have the same bootmanager with every restore, so you I don't think you would be able to use it for the added OS partitions. I.e., ati doesn't install an OS, it merely copies over an image.

Wed, 02/01/2012 - 13:05
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Thanks for the reply Scott.
As you say this might be better answered in a W7 forum, but I remember a discussion about exactly how Vista (or windows 7?)would react in such a scenario in the old True Image forum (I think by Mudcrab) and I think the answer could be helpful for some users here.

Windows 7's bootmanager is far superior to any previous Microsoft windows boot manager - image a Win 7 OS partition, save it, later delete that installation and then install a new Win 7 OS to a different partition. In the future you could use TI to restore the original OS from its image file, leaving both OS installions on your PC. The only thing you may have to do is use your windows CD to repair your computer and it will find all OS's installed (or you could used BCDedit to do it manually). I have 4 Win 7 installations on my computer that I installed one after the other and the bootmanager setup everything automatically. However it is a pain to go through all the same installation steps that many times, so I just wanted to use an image file to shorten the process. I'm sure the boot manager would be fine - it's just Windows seeing a duplicate of itself that I worry about.

Wed, 02/01/2012 - 20:38
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I think you should be fine. I would definately use imaging for that too. The main thing is making sure that the boot menu stays updated (may need a fix after restore, for example). It can help to have different backgrounds for each or some other way of easily telling them from each other when booted. The other thing is that the C: drive must be correctly assigned to the Windows partition that's being booted. You can check this using DD 11. If this is wrong, then Windows may act strangely or get corrupted because of looking like it's booted from one partition, but actually using files on another partition. I think TI should take care of modifying the C: assignment for the restored partition.

As long as you have current backup images of each Windows partition you should be safe. You could always restore if something did go wrong.

Thu, 02/02/2012 - 06:04
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That was exactly the information I was looking for. Good ol' mudcrab to the rescue again! (you've helped me out in the past numerous times before).
I do indeed have different backgrounds for each OS install (It only took me one time of getting confused to realize that it was a neccessity).

It makes sense that if an image is made with C: as the boot drive, and then is restored with D: being the boot drive, data from the boot drive could be written to the C: drive, causing numerous problems. I had that problem a long, long time ago with XP, when I tried to do multiple partions by cloning them (this was before I got TI).

I'm a bit afraid of DD11 as I had some weird things going on with DD10 (partition alignment issues I believe, and possibly other problems).
I suppose it couldn't hurt to use it to just check to make sure C: is being properly assigned, but don't know if I could justify buying it just for that purpose. Wouldn't DD10 work just as well for that purpose? or is it going to muck with my partitions regardless of what I do?

Thanks so much MudCrab!

Thu, 02/02/2012 - 15:55
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You can always boot into the restored Windows and check that Disk Management shows the correct partition as "C:" and "(Boot)". As I said, I think TI will take care of this. If it does, then you won't have to worry about it (I'd still check after a restore, though, until you're confident it's working consistently). Most of the problems reported when doing this type of restore was that the BCD file wasn't updated correctly. There usually wasn't any problems with the C: assignment.

One of the best new features (in my opinion) of DD 11 is the ability to check/set the drive letter assignments for a Windows partition. DD lets you select which Windows and then it shows the partitions with the letters as assigned when that OS is booted. This makes it easy to check/change them as necessary. If you don't want to install it you can always just use the DD CD.

Thu, 02/02/2012 - 17:02