[michael4scuba]

i wanted to create a backup image of my windows 7 hard drive in case i ever wanted to reinstall it

looked at different 3rd party software acronis, ghost etc

decided to use windows 7's own image creator which i used to backup to an external hard drive.

the next step was to create a bootable dcd/cd disc. with the dell not having an optical drive i tried to create a bootable recovery usb stick.

not having much success i stumbled upon some great software.

i down loaded the 32bit windows 7 recovery iso and used free software called wintobootic. all you need to do is drag and drop the iso onto the software choose the memory stick you want to use and it creates a windows 7 recovery boot usb drive.

hopefully i should be able to install the usb stick boot off it and reinstall the original windows 7 image back onto my dell 10v

has anyone tried this?

[sebgros]

I use achronis that you mentioned and make a backup every week (under windows). there is an option that creates a bootable media (usb/cd/dvd) with achronis on it.it works really well

Ive never tried the windows image backup sorry

[holmes4]

There are several options for turning an ISO into a bootable USB stick - you found another.