Create an iso from your installed system. Creating ISO images. Creating an exact copy of the system with all programs using Acronis True Image Utility for creating a system image

This tutorial will go into detail on how to create an ISO image. On the agenda are free programs that allow you to create an ISO image of Windows, or any other bootable disk image. We will also talk about alternative options to accomplish this task. We'll also talk about how to make an ISO disk image from files.

CDBurnerXP is another convenient free utility in Russian that allows you to burn discs and at the same time create their images, including in Windows XP (the program works in both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1). With good reason, this option is considered one of the best for creating ISO images.

Creating an image takes place in a few simple steps:

As a result, a disk image containing the data you selected will be prepared and saved.

You can download CDBurnerXP from the official website https://cdburnerxp.se/ru/download, but be careful: to download the clean version without Adware, click “More download options”, and then select either the portable version of the program that works without installation, or the second installer option without OpenCandy.

ImgBurn is a free program for creating and burning ISO images.

Attention (added in 2015): despite the fact that ImgBurn remains an excellent program, I could not find an installer that was free of unwanted programs on the official website. As a result of scanning in Windows 10, I did not find any suspicious activity, but I recommend being careful.

The next program we'll look at is ImgBurn. You can download it for free on the developer’s website www.imgburn.com. The program is very functional, yet easy to use and will be understandable to any beginner. Moreover, Microsoft support recommends using this program to create a boot disk for Windows 7. By default, the program loads in English, but you can also download a Russian language file on the official website, and then copy the unpacked archive to the Language folder in the folder with the ImgBurn program.

What ImgBurn can do:

Create an ISO image from a disk. In particular, you cannot use it to create a bootable ISO of Windows from the operating system distribution.
Easily create ISO images from files. Those. You can specify any folder or folders and create an image with them.
Burning ISO images to discs - for example, when you need to make a bootable disc in order to install Windows.

PowerISO - advanced bootable ISO creation and more

The PowerISO program, designed to work with boot images of Windows and other operating systems, as well as any other disk images, can be downloaded from the developer’s website https://www.poweriso.com/download.php. The program can do anything, although it is paid, and the free version has some limitations. However, let's consider the capabilities of PowerISO:

Creating and burning ISO images. Creating bootable ISOs when there is no boot disk
Creating bootable Windows flash drives
Burn ISO images to disk, mount them in Windows
Creating images from files and folders, from CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray discs
Converting images from ISO to BIN and from BIN to ISO
Extracting files and folders from images
Support for Apple OS X DMG images
Full support for Windows 8

These are not all the features of the program and many of them can be used in the free version. So, if creating boot images, flash drives from ISOs and constantly working with them is your thing, take a closer look at this program, it can do a lot.

BurnAware Free - Burn and Create ISO

You can download the free program BurnAware Free from the official source http://www.burnaware.com/products.html. What can this program do? Not much, but essentially all the necessary functions are present in it:

Writing data, images, files to disks
Creating ISO Disc Images

Perhaps this is quite enough if you are not pursuing some very complex goals. Boot ISOs also burn perfectly provided you have a boot disk from which this image is made.

ISO recorder 3.1 - version for Windows 8 and Windows 7

Another free program that allows you to create ISOs from CDs or DVDs (creating ISOs from files and folders is not supported). You can download the program from the website of the author Alex Feinman http://alexfeinman.com/W7.htm

Program properties:

Compatible with Windows 8 and Windows 7, x64 and x86
Creating and burning images from/to CD/DVD discs, including creating bootable ISOs

After installing the program, in the context menu that appears when you right-click on the CD, the item “Create image from CD” will appear - just click it and follow the instructions. Writing an image to disk occurs in the same way - right-click on the ISO file, select “Write to disk”.

Free ISODisk program - full-fledged work with ISO images and virtual disks

The next program is ISODisk, which can be downloaded for free from http://www.isodisk.com/. This software allows you to perform the following tasks:

Easily make ISOs from CDs or DVDs, including a bootable image of Windows or another operating system, computer recovery discs
Mount the ISO on the system as a virtual disk.

Regarding ISODisk, it is worth noting that the program copes with creating images with a bang, but it is better not to use it for mounting virtual drives - the developers themselves admit that this function works fully adequately only in Windows XP.

Free DVD ISO Maker

Free DVD ISO Maker can be downloaded for free from the website http://www.minidvdsoft.com/dvdtoiso/download_free_dvd_iso_maker.html. The program is simple, convenient and no frills. The entire process of creating a disk image takes place in three steps:

Run the program, in the Selet CD/DVD device field, specify the path to the disk from which you want to make an image. Click "Next"
Specify where to save the ISO file
Click "Convert" and wait for the program to finish.

Done, you can use the created image for your own purposes.

How to Create a Bootable Windows 7 ISO Using the Command Line

Let's finish with free programs and look at creating a bootable ISO image of Windows 7 (may work for Windows 8, not tested) using the command line.

You will need all the files contained on the Windows 7 distribution disk, let's say they are in the folder C:\Make-Windows7-ISO\
You will also need The Windows® Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows® 7, a set of utilities from Microsoft, which can be downloaded from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5753. In this set we are interested in two tools - oscdimg.exe, by default located in the folder ProgramFiles\WindowsAIK\Tools\x86 and etfsboot.com - a boot sector that allows you to create a bootable ISO of Windows 7.
Launch Command Prompt as administrator and enter the command:
oscdimg -n -m -b»C:\Make-Windows7-ISO\boot\etfsboot.com» C:\Make-Windows7-ISO C:\Make-Windows7-ISO\Win7.iso

Note on last command: no space between parameter – b and indicating the path to the boot sector - this is not an error, it is necessary.

After entering the command, you will observe the process of burning a bootable ISO of Windows 7. Upon completion, you will be told the size of the image file and written that the process is complete. Now you can use the created ISO image to .

How to create an ISO image using UltraISO

UltraISO software is one of the most popular for all tasks related to disk images, flash drives or creating bootable media. Making an ISO image from files or a disk in UltraISO does not present any particular problems and we will look at this process.

Launch the UltraISO program
At the bottom, select the files that you want to add to the image, by right-clicking on them you can select “Add”.
Once you've finished adding files, select "File" - "Save" from the UltraISO menu and save it as an ISO. The image is ready.

Creating an ISO on Linux

Everything that is required to create a disk image is already present in the operating system itself, and therefore the process of creating ISO image files is quite simple:

On Linux, launch a terminal
Enter: dd if=/dev/cdrom of=~/cd_image.iso- this will create an image from the disk inserted into the drive. If the disk was bootable, the image will be the same.
To create an ISO image from files, use the command mkisofs -o /tmp/cd_image.iso /papka/files/

How to create a bootable USB flash drive from an ISO image

If for some reason the methods and programs listed here were not enough for you to do what you wanted and create a disk image, pay attention to this list: Programs for creating images on Wikipedia - you will certainly find what you need for your operating system.

The new backup utilities in Windows 7 are truly impressive. System imaging is available in all editions of Windows 7. Today we'll look at a way to create a backup image of your machine without using third-party utilities like Ghost or True Image.

Let's say you've just finished installing a fresh copy of Windows 7 on your computer and configured it the way you like. Now the first thing you need to do is create a disk image that will help you quickly recover in case of failure. An image is an exact copy of everything on your disk. It is best to create it when the system is still clean and organized. This will make the image smaller in size, and will allow you to quickly restore your system in case of unforeseen circumstances.

Creating an image in Windows 7

To create an image, go to Control Panel - System and Security - Backup and Restore.

You can include multiple hard drives in your image, but this will increase the final image size. The drive on which Windows is installed will be enabled by default. Also, the image cannot include the disk where you are going to save your image (unless, of course, you are saving it to disk).

In the confirmation window you will be able to see how big your image will be and what drives will be included in it. If you find an error here, you can go back and correct everything.

A progress bar appears as the image is created. In our example, creating a disk image with 15GB of data on an external drive took approximately 20 minutes. However, the creation time varies depending on the system and where the image is saved.

Once the process is complete, you will be prompted to create a recovery disk. To which you must give your consent and ensure that the disk is stored in a safe and secure place.

When it comes to recovery (if it comes), you can use your recovery disk and its System Image Recovery option in System Recovery Options to get your system back.

Vista Ultimate, Business and Enterprise also allow you to create a system backup image. True, Vista Home and Home Premium do not have this feature. The process is similar to creating an image in Windows 7. To begin, simply type backup in the Start menu search box and then click on Backup and Restore Center.

Then click the Back up computer button and you will see a backup wizard that will guide you through the image creation process.

Conclusion

All the utilities described above are extremely convenient and really work well. It's also good that they will be available in all editions of Windows 7, and not just in the higher ones (like, for example, Vista). This will allow you to save your money (approximately $50-80) on third-party utilities.

It is necessary to create an image when the system is still fresh, so that it does not turn out to be huge and allows you to quickly recover in the event of a failure. For example, we created an image after installing the operating system, the Office 2007 office suite, and several other programs we use most frequently. As a result, the image took us 10GB, which we could easily place on an external hard drive.

Today, in continuation of the topic of setting up and optimizing Windows 10, I’ll tell you how I solve the issue of backing up the system disk.

So, we installed Windows, configured it, cleaned it of unwanted functionality, and installed all the programs. Everything flies, everything is fine. Now it is important to somehow record this state of the system so that in the future you can easily return to it, and not do the same work every time.

This can be done by creating an image of the system disk and a special bootable flash drive.

Such an image will be a kind of safety net in case some virus penetrates the system or the computer simply refuses to boot at the most inopportune moment. And in general, if you are ever no longer satisfied with the speed of the system, you can quickly return to the original state of the newly installed and configured operating system with all the programs on board in 10-15 minutes.

How to make this image?

First, we need a special program that can create images of hard drive partitions. There are many such programs. Some of them are paid, but there are also good free options.

Of the paid programs, the most famous program is Acronis True Image. I purchased a license for this program and am using it successfully.

Step 1. Install AOMEI Backupper

You can download AOMEI Backupper from the official website of the developer: AOMEI Backupper. After the download is complete, run the installer. In the window that appears, click Install Now.

Step 2. Create an image of the system partition

We are waiting for the image of the system partition to be created. While we wait, you can check the box Check backup integrity on completion- check the image for integrity after its creation.

When the process is complete, look at which directory the image was placed in. In my case it's C:\System Backup(1) and press Finish.

Now find this folder

Let's open it. Inside we have an image of the system disk, which was created by the program in the previous step.

Step 3. How to restore the system from this image when the need arises?

If the system has been infected by a virus or it simply no longer suits you, then you will most likely want to restore the system. How to do it?

There are two options here.

Option 1. If your computer starts normally and Windows continues to work, then to restore the image you simply launch this program and go to the tab Restore.

There we put a tick opposite System Restore, connect the external hard drive on which you have the image and through the button Path indicate it to the program. Next, click the button Next.

In the window that appears, the program will detect that you are about to restore the system partition. We agree.

On the next page, check that the source partition and the one recorded in the image match in file system and size, and click Start Restore.

A window like this will appear in which we are warned that the recovery will occur in reboot mode. Click Yes.

The program will require some time to prepare the system. After a few minutes, the system will automatically reboot and the recovery process will begin during the reboot process.

For me it looked like this:

Option 2. In case your computer won’t boot at all (due to a virus or something else), you will have the opportunity to boot from a special flash drive and restore the system partition from there.

To create a bootable USB flash drive you need to go to the tab Utilities and select a tool Create Bootable Media.

Click again Next

We indicate USB Boot Device and select a clean flash drive there. A flash drive with a size of 1 GB or more is suitable.

Now the program will analyze which drivers need to be added to the image so that booting from the flash drive goes smoothly. Click Ok.

We wait until the bootable media is created. It took me about 5 minutes. When everything is ready, press Finish.

Now let's check the flash drive. It should have the following files.

Now, if you need to boot from it, then when you restart the computer you will need to go into the BIOS and set this flash drive as the first source.

That's how it works. I hope this information was useful to you, and now you will definitely make a backup system image for yourself in case of emergency. And in general, it’s much more comfortable to work at a computer when you know that you always have a backup copy of your perfectly configured system, which you can return to in 15 minutes.

I am also pleased to announce that for those who are interested in the topic of the Windows 10 operating system in a more complete format, I have prepared a new course “Customizing and optimizing Windows 10 using the method of Evgeny Popov.” It was recorded during the actual installation and configuration of Windows 10 on my computer.

In it, in the format of step-by-step video tutorials, you will see everything that I do with my system from A to Z.

The entire course is divided into several blocks:

1. Performance optimization
2. Cleaning spy functionality
3. Installation and configuration of programs
4. Setting up protection via Shadow Defender

There is also a separate module for creating images of the system partition via Acronis True Image And Macrium Reflect.

The course itself will launch next Wednesday May 31, 2017. According to tradition, the best conditions will apply in the first three days. Firstly, these days the price will be 35% lower, and secondly, there are a few more valuable points awaiting you, which I will talk about next week.

While we are perfecting the course, I invite you to read a short presentation from which you can learn more about the course.

Imagine this situation: you bought a computer or laptop with an installed operating system, you are satisfied with everything, time passes, a year, or maybe two, you have already accumulated a large database of various important information and files: for example, a large collection of photographs, installed games, films, documents and at one fine moment the system crashes, there can be a lot of reasons, ranging from viruses to the fact that the lights were simply turned off, and you do not have an uninterruptible power supply to safely shut down the system.

Tell me what to do, how can this be, the system is not working correctly, everything is slow, half of the desktop is missing, and even worse, Windows 7 won’t load at all, will it really be necessary to reinstall the Windows 7 system, but you don’t even know, and there is no installation disk, really? everything is lost and you need to start all over again? Don’t worry, everything can be fixed and we’ll look into it now!

To produce, we will use the program Acronis True Image Home 2013, believe me - this is the best and highest quality program for backing up and restoring a Windows system, of course, every quality product is paid, and if you value your Windows system and have extra money, then of course it’s better to buy the product once and protect yourself, but if you're short on money, you'll need to do a good search on the Internet (just be careful), otherwise a broken product can play a cruel joke on you. Well, if you haven’t found anything on the Internet yourself, then write to me through the feedback form, I’ll try to help.

So, let's begin. I want to say right away that in this article we will not deal with the description of the program and global settings; for this there will be separate articles on this program, so I think it’s worth subscribing to updating the articles through the subscription form. Open the Acronis True Image Home program, the main window with tips will open in front of you in order to create a windows 7 system image, click on the “System Backup” button.

In the window that opens, look at the points that I marked with numbers.

Selecting partitions for backup, be sure to select (Unnamed partition is the system bootloader) and (Local disk “C”), if your hard drive is divided into several partitions, you can select them or then separately create a backup copy of these partitions.
Choose a location to save the backup - this can be a hard drive partition or various drives; of course, to store the system image, it is better to use a removable hard drive or a second hard drive if you have several of them.
You can enter the name of the backup copy or leave it as default.
Be sure to open the Disk Backup Options tab. In the settings window that opens, check the box “Check the backup after it is created” and click “Ok”.
After everything has been done, click the “Archive” button.

The whole process has started and you will need to wait until the program completes. It took me about 40 minutes, but it's worth it.

After completing the creation of the Windows 7 system image, you can go to the section where the copy was saved and look at the created Backup of the system. Now, using the created backup copy, you can easily restore the entire Windows 7 system with all the information and settings in the form in which it was, by pressing just one button.

But that’s not all, system failures can be different, that’s okay, if the failure was not significant and Windows 7 loaded, you can easily open the backup and restore the system, but what to do if the download does not occur? A little tweaking in the program will help us here. Open the “Tools and Utilities” item and open the “Startup Repair” tab.

When and why do we need an operating system image? From the moment of purchasing a personal computer and before starting it, any user has to perform a number of preliminary configuration steps. First of all, the operating system is installed, then the necessary device and hardware drivers, after which the software comes. Often, when purchasing a desktop or laptop, users receive a ready-to-use device: the OS and drivers are installed by the installer, sometimes even a minimal set of office software is included. Nevertheless, there are still enough worries about installation and configuration - from the appearance of the interface to specific programs.

Of course, this takes time: even an advanced user will spend several hours on such an operation, and often the individualization process can take several days - this is labor-intensive, painstaking and requires care, but, unfortunately, it is impossible to call it a one-time operation.

Why? Because modern computers, from the hardware to the fine-tuning of the software, are susceptible to failures, even failure, and the software, in addition, can be unstable; the result of such instability can be a wide variety of consequences, from simply unpleasant to fatal.

Here is what one of the users writes: “... I purchased a new hard drive with a SATA interface and increased recording density... over the two years of its use, I had to seriously restore the OS five times, three times with a complete reinstallation. In each of these cases, I found several bad blocks on the logical disk occupied by the OS...” This case is not isolated; in addition, there is a danger of system data being damaged by malicious programs - viruses, Trojans. Often, as a result of their activities, it is necessary to completely delete information, format disks and reinstall all software.

But even if the consequences are not fatal, still over time any OS begins to work slower due to accumulated redundant information, which can also serve as a prerequisite for its reinstallation. In any of these cases, the user will face lengthy, painstaking work, which, however, could be completed in 15-20 minutes if... care is taken to make timely backups. It is enough to create an image of the system disk and, if necessary, deploy it.

How to save an operating system image

The task of creating an image for a fully customized operating system has long been successfully solved by software developers. Products with which this is done exist in different forms: some are commercial, some are free. However, when choosing a utility, I personally would not skimp: even commercial programs are not very expensive. For example, Acronis True Image Home 2011 will cost 928 rubles, and Symantec Norton Ghost will cost 1,499 rubles. Of course, there are also free versions of such software, such as driveImage xML from runtime Software or the cross-platform solution GParted (by the way, you can download its version in the LiveCd image), but they have significantly fewer capabilities. However, if you set the task “only make disk images with the OS and for free!”, then this option is the best.

I’ll look at the process of making an image using an example Acronis True Image Home, fortunately I have been using this utility for a long time and am pleased with its capabilities.

The first thing to do is create a boot disk. It will allow you to boot from an optical drive in the event of a fatal failure (up to the failure of the hard drive), and then restore the system from the saved image from external storage (including to a new HDD). To do this, you need to go to the section " Tools and Utilities» select the item « Creating bootable media" By the way, if you launched Acronis True Image Home for the first time, you will be prompted to complete this procedure by the Wizard. The created disk image can be saved in ISO format; it is small in size - about 60 MB, which allows you to write it even to a flash drive or small CD. During the disc creation process, you will only have to select a burning device (or a path to save the ISO image). After clicking the “Proceed” button, you will either have a ready-made CD or an image that you will have to burn with your favorite program onto optical media. I prefer to keep the boot disk next to the laptop and a copy of the image on a flash drive. For reliability.

So, the boot disk is ready, let's proceed to the procedure of creating an image of the system disk. I consider the ideal case to be creating an image from a boot disk: there is no risk of losing critical data due to open files, etc. However, the same can be done from under a running OS: as experiments have shown, there are no problems with this arises too.

On the tab " start page"select the link option " Discs" in the section " Backup", mark the system disk with a tick (I also mark " Byte-by-byte copying", but this is not necessary, and the archive size increases). On the next tab, select the path to save the image. It is important that it is under no circumstances located on the system disk; It is best if it is located on external media and a physically different drive. For insurance. All that remains is to press the " Get started"so that, after a time depending on the size of your system partition, you get an exact copy of the disk - the same system image. For reliability, this operation should be performed once for a new, installed and configured OS, and then an archive of the current state should be created every three months. Of course, the first of them must be kept intact and without changes, and the updated one can be stored no more than two: the current and the previous one.

How to deploy an operating system image

If you need to restore an image from a backup, the procedure is performed in a similar way: boot from the boot CD, select the option " Restore from backup", indicate the location of the last archive (or the very first, depending on the situation), wait 15-20 minutes and get a fully functional system. It is also possible to restore a copy from the operating system, however, this mode can only be used to restore some files or folders that are not occupied by system operations or services. In this way, you can return applications that were accidentally deleted or damaged by viruses to working condition.

To do this, select the tab " Recovery» — « Restoring disks from a backup"and after selecting the current image in the "Select recovery method" window, indicate where and what objects to deploy. The required information can be placed either in the same place or in a separate section: this may be required to compare changed files

Why is it worth backing up an operating system image?

I have already said that it is best to have several copies in the archives - and this is not accidental. Despite the size of the archive file (and only in the case of a “bare OS” it will take at least 4.5 GB), saving space for it is the last thing. Therefore, ideally, five archives should be stored: a fully installed and configured OS with drivers; a fully prepared system with installed software; an annual copy of the working configuration and two updated quarterly copies, the latest and the previous one.

This storage mode is guaranteed to avoid any problems with possible damage to both software and hardware. You can return to a working configuration at any time, even if the last two archives contain the virus in a latent state - you can restore the annual backup. And if it is necessary to completely redo the configuration, getting rid of unnecessary (outdated) information, or simply return to a “clean” OS (this situation may arise when selling a computer or transferring it to another person), the first of the archives is used.

If it is impossible to store such a quantity, the number of archive files should be reduced to three: a “clean” copy and two quarterly ones. If you rarely change the PC configuration or it is not used for active work, the number of archive files can be reduced to two. In this case, it is enough to save a regular copy of the contents of the system disk once a year or six months.

Where and how to store archives

An important condition for the safety and reliable protection of your backup information is the correct choice of storage location. The first commandment is to never store all backups on a working hard drive, and certainly never place them on a system partition. The first copy of the system can be placed on optical media or a flash drive: DVD or Br have enough capacity for such an archive. Subsequent images typically range in size from 20 to 80 GB (and may be larger), so only external hard drives can be used to store them.

The best solution is to place backups in several places: for example, on different external drives or on neighboring computers. Even in the event of failure of both the PC and the external storage (this is possible, for example, due to significant power fluctuations in the electrical network), at least one accessible copy will remain on an optical disk or backup HDD, used only for maintaining archives, the rest of the time stored in off state. As a separate means of protection, it is recommended to place one archive in online storage. Of course, downloading several tens of gigabytes is not an accessible task for everyone (a high-speed channel is required), but if the volume is small (10-20 GB), then this is a completely possible option.

To restore the system (for example, after a hard drive fails), you will first have to restore the minimum configuration (from a flash device or optical disk), gain access to the Internet, download the required file and restore it again - this time in a “combat” configuration