Does Win7 support scheduling system image backups?

Question

Is there a way to schedule/automate system image backups in Windows 7 Pro? Or do I have to do it manually every time?

Solution 1

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/11340-add-system-image-backup-task-scheduler.html

In Task Scheduler, click Create Task. Click the Actions tab. Click the New button.

Leave Action on "Start a Program." In the "Program/script" field, type in WBADMIN. Then under "add arguments," type in:

START BACKUP -backupTarget:X: -include:c:

where "X" is the drive letter of your backup drive, and "c" is your primary hard drive.

Set the triggers, settings, and conditions to whatever you like.

Image Backup does an incremental "ghost" of your HD, adding any changes since your last Image Backup, and keeping all previous backups available as well.

.

Solution 2

This post mentions that you don't need to use task scheduler to schedule a system image backup. Just enable scheduled backups, and check the 'system image' box when you configure it.

you do not need to use scheduled tasks. Go to back up and restore - change settings-next-let me choose. You have the option to include system image on the schedule that you have chosen. I see now that the insturctions were given by the prior poster. In any case, enjoy.

I've been using this approach to push an image backup to a network drive, and it's working fine so far. It's also nice setting it up this way (as opposed to a scheduled task and command) b/c there's an informative backup status screen that comes with the windows backup utility, that gives you feedback on last successful backup, next backup, size of image, etc.

Solution 3

I wish to include this site which explains more about WBAdmin and the start backup command. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc742083.aspx

What I found useful is that the -include option can take a comma-delimited set of drives. So if you have your OS C: drive and, say, a Storage D: drive that you want imaged, use:

START BACKUP -backupTarget:X: -include:C:,D:

Comments

[Nux]

You might want to use something like WBADMIN START BACKUP -backupTarget:B: -include:d:,e: -allCritical. Adding -allCritical will include all system disks (e.g. C: but also folder-dirves connected to C:).