Colin said:
The F8 system restore is the same as the system restore reached from within
Windows itself. It is not for restoring from a ghost image. I am a little
uncertain what you mean by "I see no way to restore it (.iso file)." The
system restore at F8 is for doing a regular system restore when Vista
refuses to load. It is a new recovery option.
I understand that what you are looking for is a full backup/restore image.
System restore will never make such an image. CompletePC Backup, which uses
volsnap.sys (as does SR), is much closer to what you were hoping for. It
generates block level copies in the .vhd format. Whether it can run a
restore from the recovery tools or the system has to be running is beyond my
knowledge. I suspect that the design is for it to be useful from WinRE
reached by booting the dvd.
Yes, CompletePC Backup is the name MS has given this feature. It's an
image.
The HELP file on restoring the image reads as follows...
"A system image backup contains copies of your programs, system
settings, and files. You can use a system backup to restore the contents
of your computer if your hard disk or entire computer ever fails.
Warning
When you restore your computer from a system image backup, it is a
complete restoration. You can't choose individual items to restore, and
all of your current programs, system settings, and files are replaced.
Before starting, make sure that the removable media on which your backup
is stored is available, if applicable.
Insert the system image backup DVD into a DVD drive on your computer, or
if the backup is on an external drive, connect the external drive to
your computer.
Turn on the computer and press F8 while the computer is starting up.
This will open the Windows Recovery Environment.
Click Windows System Image Backup, and then follow the instructions."
....and there's the rub. No "Windows System Image Backup" item can be
seen on the F8 menu here.
