Windows 7 provides a free and easy way to restore a complete installation from a backed up disk image.
Windows 7 disk images are restored using a system repair disc that can be created from a working Windows 7 installation.
To create your own system repair disc, go to Start > Control Panel > Backup and Restore > Create a system repair disc.
The restoral procedure and functionality is similar to more fully featured commercial programs such as Acronis True Image and Norton Ghost.
Step One:
Insert your Windows 7 system repair disc into the CD / DVD rom.
Start the computer and watch for screen that tells you to "Press any key to boot from from the CD / DVD." If you don't see that message, change the boot order to boot from the CD first in the BIOS.
If you haven't done this before, you can change your system's boot order in the BIOS.
To do this, restart your computer and before the splash screen displays press whichever key you are told. Might be F2, F1, F12 ? to enter Setup or BIOS.
In the Boot section you should then be able to adjust the settings labelled Boot Order, Boot Device Priority or another variation on this wording. Make sure that your CD/DVD drive is set to be your first boot device and you should be able to boot from a CD / DVD.
Step Two:
After the computer boots from the system repair disc, choose your language and keyboard input method.
Step Three:
In the System Recovery Options dialog box, select "Restore your computer using a system image that you created earlier".
Step Four:
In the Re-image your computer dialog box, choose "Select a system image".
Step Five:
If your backed up disk image is on an external USB device, plug it in now and click refresh. The system will start searching for and automatically show available images to restore.
Step Six:
If you have more than one system image to restore, choose the most recent one in this dialog box. In this example there is only one image to choose from.
Step Seven:
This box allows you to select some additional restore options. I have selected to Format and repartition disks here. This formats the destination disk to match the layout of the system image that is being restored.
Step Eight:
Review the restore settings and if they are correct, proceed with Re-imaging your computer.
