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I need to do a full backup of a boot partition of Windows 7. I want to be able to restore it if needed.

My understanding is that the only way to do this is to clone the partition byte-for-byte using something like Clonezilla. (If I'm in error, please correct me.)

Question:

Can I reduce the size of the partition before cloning (in order to minimize the size of the clone image), then increase the size of the partition after the making the clone, and then decrease the partition to the smaller size if the clone ever needs to be restored? Will that work?

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2 Answers2

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A byte-for-byte clone as you put it is quite inefficient and Clonezilla by default will not attempt to do such a thing. Instead it will attempt to copy just the files and data that was listed as being used on the hard drive to the backup medium to keep the backup small.

The only reason to reduce the size of the partition before starting the clone/backup is to ensure that you can restore the image on a smaller disk/partition. In other words, if your disk is 2TB large and you make a backup of it, you can only restore the backup to other 2TB or larger disks/partitions. Do keep in mind that, (at the time of this writing), if your 2TB image has only used up say 20GB worth of data, it will still require a 2TB or larger disk/partition to restore to; even though the backup/restored size was 20GB.

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Blerg
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Microsoft came up with DISM that solves this issue entirely... DISM doesn't care about partition size but, obviously, you must ensure the backed up data will fit onto the smaller disk - i.e. Don't knowingly try to put 500GB worth of C: onto a new 250GB disk.

DISM is available through the WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit) kit and you can create bootable media so you can begin using such tools as DISM and DISKPART.

DISM captures only the files/folders in use and doesn't have any knowledge of the partition structure used.

DISM creates a .wim file that is essentially a compressed file but it retains all the files. folders and attributes/permissions on the original install. As an aside: 7-Zip now has the ability to open .wim files so, in an emergency, you can easily extract files/folders from a different computer.

When using DISM to restore the image you must pre-create the partitions you require (using DISKPART to create (a basic example) the system reserved partition and then the main C: partition) and then you can put the WIM file into your new C:. It is then recommended you then use the BCDBoot tool to copy the Windows boot files to the boot partition (System Reserved) which will allow your Windows installation to boot.

Kinnectus
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