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I have a 20 new computers that are being deployed and I would like to create a backup images of all of them and save it on an external HDD. The reason why I want to do this is because if in future, one of the HDD goes bad, I can just use the image for that particular computer, load it on new HDD and have it up and running in a few hours.

I tried creating system image but it creates backup files without "setup.exe" (or a similar .exe file). I have to use a Repair disc for this to work.

I was wondering if there's a way to make an ISO image of the existing HDD (after installing a few personal software), so that I can use that image on the new HDD and have it up and running.

Please let me know if you need more explanation. Thank you in advance for your help.

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    "is it possible to create an ISO image for an HDD so that we can reinstall it without using any additional disk?" - No; You want to use .wim images created by DISM instead.
    – Ramhound
    Jun 12, 2017 at 18:14
  • Are there any free software that can do that?
    – Dhrumit Patel
    Jun 13, 2017 at 17:01

1 Answer 1

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What you want is to create an image of the computer(s). There is pay-for software that does this, but Clonezilla is Free/Open and works really well.

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  • Awesome. Will that create an image that I use straight away on a new HDD? I mean while booting the computer.
    – Dhrumit Patel
    Jun 13, 2017 at 17:01
  • Boot the clonezilla disk, tell it to restore and image, point to the image (external hard drive, partition on internal drive, whatever) and where to restore it. Go for coffee, come back and reboot into the system you cloned. Used to use a similar software (norton ghost) to deploy an image to labs full of computers across network.
    – ivanivan
    Jun 13, 2017 at 18:45
  • Does clonezilla work with USB booting? Could you put the restore image on the same USB drive?
    – simpleuser
    Jun 13, 2017 at 22:51
  • AFAIK yes to the first, definite yes to the second.
    – ivanivan
    Jun 14, 2017 at 1:19
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    @ivanivan: Thank you so very much. CLONEZILLA WORKS.
    – Dhrumit Patel
    Jun 22, 2017 at 17:37

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