How to create an image of the FULL system (OS and data)?

Question

Hi there,

How to create a restorable image of the full system (OS and data)? I have seen some commercial products that do this (like Acronis, Paragon, Farstone, and so on) and I need to do it too.
I found and API named Image Mastering API to stage and burn images but nothing to let you copy the FULL system.

Thanks,

Javier Andrés Cáceres Alvis
Blog Personal: http://speechflow.spaces.live.com/
Blog Intel: http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/author/javierandrescaceres/

Answer 1

One commonly used approach is to read raw disk sectors one at a time and store them in a giant backup file. You can find code examples on the internet: here is one promising one on Code Project.

If the intention is to be able to restore to the same raw drive, your job is pretty much done. If you want to assign this to a new raw drive, there is additional complexity, since I suspect the boot sector will also need to be touched. I'm afraid these details are outside my realm of experience, but probably you can get more help from the microsoft.public.win32.programmer.kernel newsgroup. This is actually a bit OT for a Visual C++ newsgroup.

Answer 2

Hello Javier,

Please take a look at this page:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd851907.aspx

Since this forum is for VC++ related question, I am moving this thread to General Windows Development Issues forum.

Thanks,
Rong-Chun Zhang

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Answer 3

Thanks Rong.

Any other option?

Answer 4

I finally found a tool called Imagex which works fine for my need:
http://technet.microsoft.com/es-es/library/cc722145(WS.10).aspx

Javier Andrés Cáceres Alvis
Blog Personal: http://speechflow.spaces.live.com/
Blog Intel: http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/author/javierandrescaceres/