Windows Vista CompletePC - backup and restore from DVD media

re: Windows Vista CompletePC - backup and restore from DVD media

rob — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 16:35:42 GMT

Kinda reminds me of the old DOS PKZip. When you made an archive that spanned multiple floppies you had to start with the first, then put the last, then put the first in again.. then you run thru them in order. It was a pain.
Bet you can't wait till you get a BlueRay drive, huh? The more things change, the more they stay the same. Or, as a wise man once said "Same as it ever was"...

re: Windows Vista CompletePC - backup and restore from DVD media

Ronni Pedersen — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 19:50:11 GMT

Is it possible to restore the backup on different hardware?

re: Windows Vista CompletePC - backup and restore from DVD media

Keith Combs — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 01:04:20 GMT

I don't believe that's possible at this point. If you want to do those type of captures and restores, look at the imaging tools we have coming out (ImageX).

re: Windows Vista CompletePC - backup and restore from DVD media

Ronni Pedersen — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 14:47:44 GMT

Thanks for your reply.
After reading this blog, I found myself playing with this nice feature, for several hours last night :-)
When I found out that the backup/image format was VHD, I almost jumped off the chair...
Would this thing mount i Virtual PC / Virtual Server?
It would :-) But only as an additional drive in an existing VM guest. Will booting these backups in Virtual PC / Server be supported in a feature release of Vista and/or Virtual PC?

re: Windows Vista CompletePC - backup and restore from DVD media

Keith Combs — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 17:46:23 GMT

I was wondering when someone was going to ask that question. Yes, it mounts but boot support will not happen nor be supported. Frankly, I would prefer that it can't be mounted at all. In the earlier versions of Windows Vista, you could not mount it.

I'm afraid if people mount the files or monkey around with them, then they'll hose the file(s) up and it won't rescue them if needed.

However, patch management and offline forensics comes to mind so I can see some cases for access to the backup data for security or legal issues.

re: Windows Vista CompletePC - backup and restore from DVD media

John Ball — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 01:47:26 GMT

Wow, sounds really neat! I hope it is cleaned up but can't wait to play around with it. I hope I'll never have to use (restore) my pc with them though but it's a heck of a lot better than what I have now!