0

I have computers with Windows XP, Vista, and 7 installed. I have some ideas that I would like to use these computers for but I would need to backup everything on them first. I'm interested to know if I can make a copy of the whole system as a portable image file where I can copy them to other devices such as from my external drive to my pc. I'm not looking to reformat a whole drive just to clone an image to it. I was wanting to have it all on one file that I can move or copy around to any drive without reformatting anything, if possible.

Update to question: I do intend to be able to run the VHD file on a virtual machine like VirtualBox.

Improve this question
3
  • This looks like its already been answered here: superuser.com/questions/68139/…
    – GMON
    Commented Apr 26, 2023 at 7:12
  • Do you want to be able to run these "Windows XP, Vista, and 7" from this "portable image file" somehow?
    – Kamil Maciorowski
    Commented Apr 26, 2023 at 7:18
  • About the terminology: ISO files are exclusively for optical media images. While you can of course use any file extension with any contents, this would only cause confusion. Raw disk (if that’s what you go for) don’t really have a standardized extension. They are often called .img, sometimes also .raw. // An image file is always portable, just like any other file.
    – Daniel B
    Commented Apr 26, 2023 at 8:53

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

An alternative option is to use SysInternals Disk2VHD, and create a VHD image of the drive (assuming the system is a single drive). You can then mount this VHD using something like Virtual Box.

Improve this answer
2
  • 1
    One may also create a virtual machine based on the VHD.
    – harrymc
    Commented Apr 26, 2023 at 9:32
  • Posted my question a while a few months back, then got busy, and didn't get back to what I was trying to do since until few days ago. This is what I was looking for. The current version of Disk2VHD does not support Window XP, but a version for it can be found here: web.archive.org/web/20091101034951/http://technet.microsoft.com/….
    – Wolf Zwiener
    Commented Jul 8, 2023 at 19:52
-1

I want to suggest you the Acronis image (https://www.acronis.com/).

Steps to do the backup / create image:

  1. Install the tool on your computer
  2. From the tool you are able to format a USB drive and make a bootable Acronis Imager or write an Acronis Imager DVD.
  3. You should connect your USB stick or put your DVD into the PC that you would like to save.
  4. Boot up from the USB/DVD drive.
  5. When the wizard appears, connect a massive USB storage (HDD/SSD) where you will save the internal drive.
  6. A graphical interface will drive you through the steps.

6.1) Selecting you would like to backup or restore

6.2) Select the destination folder on the external HDD

6.3) Name the file

6.4) See the progress

6.5) Turn off the computer from the wizard

  1. On your normal computer, where you created the USB stick, you will be able to open up the Acronis image file as an ISO file, but the installed Acronis Tool is needed for this.

If you would like to restore the whole image to the old computer the USB stick can do this too. So the image can work as a backup too which can be reloaded to any disk without doing a full Windows install and file restores.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .