Win7 32 or 64-bit?

[Animeniax]

Good points, I'm buying the copy of Win7 64 today.

I've always thought about taking an image of the system right after it's built with all of the software and updates installed but for some reason I've only ever done it once, and then I ended up not using the image when I had to re-image my system.

[David75]

Good points, I'm buying the copy of Win7 64 today.

I've always thought about taking an image of the system right after it's built with all of the software and updates installed but for some reason I've only ever done it once, and then I ended up not using the image when I had to re-image my system.

You can also create a savepoint for your system after your clean install, rename it.
It's very efficient too.

I tend to create such points before installing any software or making changes to the system.
The rollback is painless and quite quick.
I can not tell wether it will save the system in all cases, but up to now, in the 50 times I had to use it on different boxes, I had no troubles.

[Animeniax]

I might give that a try, but I've never had to utilize that kind of recovery method before. I'd only do the image process so I could quickly re-image after a harddrive change or something similar.

[David75]

I might give that a try, but I've never had to utilize that kind of recovery method before. I'd only do the image process so I could quickly re-image after a harddrive change or something similar.

I admitt I never had to use a full backup, so I do not know how it works and if it works well.

[Buffalobiian]

I admitt I never had to use a full backup, so I do not know how it works and if it works well.

Full backups take longer to do (generally a few hours), but store the PC's information in a much more comprehensive manner. You can reimage full backups when the OS can't boot as well.

The problem I had with Windows XP's System Restore was that it only partially saves my information, such that I've had cases where the computer thinks I've got a program installed (because it saved that registry info), but fails to run it because it failed to save my files for that program (which were wiped out), making re-installing a bitch because it won't re-install when it thinks it's already there, or when it can't find uninstall.exe on the file.

For my other household computers I've done an initial backup after the OS and essential programs have been installed, while I've done periodic full-backups of mine (monthly or so). I've never had to use them, so I don't know if they work.

It seems W7 comes with its own backup solution, but I have yet to try it out.

[David75]

I meant I never used W7 full backup solution

I already imaged many systems and reinstalled full images with clonezilla or other solutions.

W7 has image and system snapshots backups solutions.
I used the snapshot rollbacks, but not the image one yet. From Jan 09 and my first win7 beta install, I never had a problem that would require a full image rollback.

Considering how prices have fallen, I love the win7+nas+logmein combo to manage average users desktops.