What software to use at Windows 10 to backup to FreeNAS

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booya

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Using the native Windows support for ESDs & WIMs, one can backup or restore a partition through WinRE/WinPE if it's the system partition, else directly booted to Windows for any other partition.

So to be perfectly clear, for a full backup of a running Windows 10 instance, a third party backup solution is required?
 

zoomzoom

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So to be perfectly clear, for a full backup of a running Windows 10 instance, a third party backup solution is required?
No, Windows natively supports this. I'm a bit baffled, as the answer to your question is contained in the sentence you quoted...
  • "Using the native Windows support for ESDs & WIMs, one can backup or restore a partition through WinRE/WinPE if it's the system partition, else directly booted to Windows for any other partition."
 

booya

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No, Windows natively supports this. I'm a bit baffled, as the answer to your question is contained in the sentence you quoted...
  • "Using the native Windows support for ESDs & WIMs, one can backup or restore a partition through WinRE/WinPE if it's the system partition, else directly booted to Windows for any other partition."

Thanks zoomzoom, but isn't it required to reboot into both Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) and Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) to do the backup and therefore it cannot be used on a _running_ Windows 10 instance?
 

zoomzoom

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If wanting to backup the OS partition, yes, the system must be booted to WinRE (or WinPE), as in use system files cannot be accessed while booted to the OS, of which is simple enough:
  • Settings -> Update & Security -> Recovery -> Advanced Startup - Restart > Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt
If you want to backup a non-OS partition, it will simply be off-lined during the image capture.

Granted, there are 3rd party applications that claim to allow seamless OS partition backup while the system files are in use, however I have yet to find any of these that can do so without corruption at some point, as OS system files cannot be accessed while they're in use.
  • Additionally, there's several cons to using third party solutions over the native Windows DISM
    • 3rd Party Solutions:
      • almost always rely exclusively on Linux tools and will require booting into a Linux recovery image in order to restore the OS partition
      • almost always use non-standard, and sometimes proprietary, image formats, preventing you from restoring without using their tools
      • cannot guarantee corruption in any given image will not occur

    • Windows Native WIM images via DISM (>Win8) or ImageX (<Win7)
      • are supported as far back as Vista, if not before then
      • are impossible to corrupt, provided the following parameters are issued: /checkintegrity /verify
      • are smart compression formats, with each appended image only adding files that have changed, allowing for a massive amount of information to be contained within an extremely small image size. For example:
        • You create an initial image (Index 1) of your OS partition, Base.wim. A month from now, you capture a new backup (Index 2) and append it to Base.wim ( DISM /Append-Image). Index 2 will use existing files from Index 1 if those files have not changed (it auto checks hashes), and so on for each additional appended image, which will be assigned an index number in chronological order
      • can be mounted with DISM /Mount-Image to make changes to / browsing the image, or can be browsed with 7zip (READ ONLY, as saving changes without using DISM will corrupt the image)
For example, I use the following command to create the initial Base.wim after a clean install
  • DISM /Capture-Image /ImageFile:Z:\Base.wim /Compression:Max /CaptureDir:C:\ /Name:"Alienware 18: Windows 10" /Description:"v1803: Base (Driver's Only)" /EA /NoRpFix /CheckIntegrity /Verify /ScratchDir:Z:\
And to append a new backup
  • DISM /Append-Image /ImageFile:Z:\Base.wim /CaptureDir:C:\ /Name:"Alienware 18: Windows 10" /Description:"v1803: Software Installed (No Customizations)" /EA /NoRpFix /CheckIntegrity /Verify /ScratchDir:Z:\
This results with the following:
Code:
PS C:\Users\James> cmd /c dir /n z:
 Volume in drive Z is OSI

 Directory of Z:\

2018.05.06  01:57	19,256,467,802 Base.wim


PS C:\Users\James> dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:z:\Base.wim	
															
Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool				
Version: 10.0.17134.1										
															
Details for image : z:\Base.wim								
															
Index : 1													
Name : Alienware 18: Windows 10								
Description : v1803: Base (Driver's Only)					
Size : 22,710,283,446 bytes									
															
Index : 2													
Name : Alienware 18: Windows 10								
Description : v1803: Software Installed (No Customizations)	
Size : 45,591,850,754 bytes


PS C:\Users\James> dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:z:\Base.wim /index:1

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.17134.1

Details for image : z:\Base.wim

Index : 1
Name : Alienware 18: Windows 10
Description : v1803: Base (Driver's Only)
Size : 22,710,283,446 bytes
WIM Bootable : No
Architecture : x64
Hal : acpiapic
Version : 10.0.17134
ServicePack Build : 1
ServicePack Level : 1
Edition : Professional
Installation : Client
ProductType : WinNT
ProductSuite : Terminal Server
System Root : WINDOWS
Directories : 24288
Files : 112665
Created : 2018.05.05 - 13:56:47
Modified : 2018.05.05 - 13:56:47
Languages :
		en-US (Default)


PS C:\Users\James> dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:z:\Base.wim /index:2

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.17134.1

Details for image : z:\Base.wim

Index : 2
Name : Alienware 18: Windows 10
Description : v1803: Software Installed (No Customizations)
Size : 45,591,850,754 bytes
WIM Bootable : No
Architecture : x64
Hal : acpiapic
Version : 10.0.17134
ServicePack Build : 1
ServicePack Level : 1
Edition : Professional
Installation : Client
ProductType : WinNT
ProductSuite : Terminal Server
System Root : WINDOWS
Directories : 45803
Files : 203058
Created : 2018.05.06 - 01:55:47
Modified : 2018.05.06 - 01:55:48
Languages :
		en-US (Default)
 
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booya

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If wanting to backup the OS partition, yes, the system must be booted to WinRE (or WinPE), as in use system files cannot be accessed while booted to the OS, of which is simple enough:
  • Settings -> Update & Security -> Recovery -> Advanced Startup - Restart > Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt
...

Great informative post zoomzoom! And I would definitely have used this if it could be automated. As it seems the original post also requested automation the question remains: How can we reliably do a full backup of a running Windows 10 instance? What's the least bad option?

The built in "Backup and Restore (Windows 7)" cannot do a full system state backup to a FreeNAS SMB share without error. I assume that this type of full system state backup is similar to the "clone" you get using DISM. On Windows Server however the built-in system state backup option does work.

Is a third party solution the only way to go here? One alternative is to virtualize a Windows instance and share a volume which can be successfully used by "Backup and Restore (Windows 7)". Cumbersome to say the least.

By the way, I would like to add that I've had difficulties getting "File history" to backup according to the schedule. It seems flaky at best.
 

zoomzoom

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Great informative post zoomzoom! And I would definitely have used this if it could be automated. As it seems the original post also requested automation the question remains: How can we reliably do a full backup of a running Windows 10 instance? What's the least bad option?
For backing up OS files, it doesn't matter which 3rd party solution one utilizes, there is no reliable way of backing up in use Windows system files, which is why one cannot be booted to the OS to make a backup of the OS partition, without introducing corruption to the resulting backups, of which will occur at some point.

To automate capturing an image with DISM, a script can be created to reboot the PC into WinRE, with a separate script in the WinRE.wim that executes upon loading WinRE to capture an image and once done, reboot the OS.
  • This is the best and safest option to ensure backups remain corruption free and not an inconvenience for the user by having to rely on proprietary images or a Linux environment.
    • Provided one has ensured the WinRE.wim has been saved to it's own Recovery partition (i.e. not the partition Windows is installed to), then even if the OS partition became corrupted, WinRE could still be booted into by hard resetting the system 2x once BIOS/EFI hands off to the Windows bootloader.
      • Additionally, WinRE can be customized by the user, and is something I recommend everyone do.
      • If one wants to be able to utilize their PC while capturing an image of the OS partition, Win10PE_SE can be utilized.

The built in "Backup and Restore (Windows 7)" cannot do a full system state backup to a FreeNAS SMB share without error. I assume that this type of full system state backup is similar to the "clone" you get using DISM. On Windows Server however the built-in system state backup option does work.
The same functionality exists in Windows 10, but is intended to back up user data, not the OS itself and is not a clone of the data, but files with a version date and time attached.
  • The way in which images are captured, and what applications they used, changed from Win7 [ImageX] to Win8+ [DISM]. Also, the way it which Windows 10 "Resets" itself has been improved, as it now utilizes the WinSxS folder to reset itself, thereby keeping all drivers installed up to the last major update (essentially ever 3 months or so). This not only drastically improves reset times, but also solves the issue of OEM drivers that must be installed first, and prior to any other software or Microsoft updates , which created an issue prior to this new reset method.
    • That being said, I will never recommend the Reset functionality, as you still lose all 3rd party software you installed, and restoring from a WIM image is far faster
      • A Reset is also far more intensive and time consuming when compared to restoring a WIM image

The best partition layout for Windows is where the user data files and the OS are stored on separate partitions (just like storing /home on a separate partition/disk on Unix based OSes) , such as the following (in a single HDD layout):
  • BIOS:
    • Partition 1: 260MB Boot Files
    • Partition 2: Windows OS
      • For most people, 128GB for the OS partition should be plenty
    • Partition 3: User Data
      • This houses the bulk of each user's data folders/files (Documents, Downloads, etc.)
        • Within the User's data folder (C:\Users\<username>), right click on the data folders, select the Location tab, then enter the data partition's drive letter and user folder (D:\<username>\<data_folder_name>)
          • The OneDrive directory is the exception to this, as the folder location must be set via the OneDrive program itself, and if already set up to use C:\Users\<username\OneDrive, it must be logged out of first, then re-setup.
    • Partition 4: WinRE
      • I recommend 2GB if you're planning on customizing it, otherwise 512MB is fine


  • UEFI:
    • Partition 1: 260MB EFI Boot files
    • Partition 2: 128MB MSR
    • Partition 3: Windows OS
    • Partition 4: User Data
      • I personally choose to store my user data on a 2nd SSD
    • Partition 5: WinRE
    • Partition 6: Recovery
      • While one can store the recovery image (Base.wim) on the WinRE partition, I personally choose not to because I have an SSD, which requires the last partition be large enough for over-provisioning (at least 10% of the hdd size, plus whatever free space for the Base.wim and any additional appended backups... I reserve 75GB extra, plus the 10%, for a total of 168GB)

By the way, I would like to add that I've had difficulties getting "File history" to backup according to the schedule. It seems flaky at best.
I've never had an issue with it... are you setting it up via Settings -> Update & Security -> Backup -> More Options
  • I believe it will only create a new version of a file if the previous version has been modified
I personally prefer creating a WIM image of my data HDD, as it requires far less storage space, however you do lose version history under the properties of any file/folder. I do use File History backup, but still create a WIM image of my data HDD every month.
 
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ethereal

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https://www.iperiusbackup.com

BACKUP SOFTWARE FOR SERVER AND WORKSTATIONS

it backs up windows using windows standards - no propriety images or boot discs. to restore image boot to windows safe mode or windows install disc. i believe it has lifetime upgrades.
 

booya

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To automate capturing an image with DISM, a script can be created to reboot the PC into WinRE, with a separate script in the WinRE.wim that executes upon loading WinRE to capture an image and once done, reboot the OS.

I've given up on "Backup and Restore (Windows 7)" however this solution seems a little bit complicated. Are there working examples of the steps/scripts required of doing this type of automated backup? And is it possible to backup straight to the FreeNAS SMB share? Are there any additional risks?

I've never had an issue with it... are you setting it up via Settings -> Update & Security -> Backup -> More Options
  • I believe it will only create a new version of a file if the previous version has been modified

Yes that's the setup. No backup since few days now, the eventlog says: "Unable to finish a backup cycle for configuration"; Event ID 203. Otherwise no notifications for the user. Scary!
 

booya

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...
Windows has always supported native backup and restore, and it's always baffled me why people choose 3rd Party products like Acronis or Macrium ...

People do prefer a fast and easy "setup-and-forget" backup solution. Simple as that. If your backup solution works (automated) it is still far from simple.
 

zoomzoom

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People do prefer a fast and easy "setup-and-forget" backup solution. Simple as that. If your backup solution works (automated) it is still far from simple.
It doesn't get much more simple that a one line command, nor is it difficult to mount a winre.wim, modify the peinit script to auto run a batch file with the DISM command, followed by the reboot command. Does it require the user to take ~30min out of their day to do the initial configuration, yes, however it's far from complicated when Microsoft lays out exactly what to do and what commands to run on the Microsoft Docs pages for the aforementioned.
  • Many people choose third party backup solutions, however, from my own experience using numerous products from the largest and well known developers, it always ends up becoming an inconvenience or corruption in the images occur, of which is impossible with WIMs and ESDs.
Unfortunately, Microsoft has made Windows users fear the command terminal, when in reality, all Windows users should have basic proficiency on how to utilize the command terminal, most especially DISM, as DISM is the only program that can fix corruption in the %WinDir%\WinSxS directory and users should run the DISM RestoreHealth and SFC commands monthly.
  • We make backups for a reason, and I personally have far more confidence in a backup method that is immune to corruption and has existed for well over a decade, doesn't require 3rd party software, and whose interface is accessible even on a Windows install that won't boot (as WinRE should reside on a separate partition).
 

moelassus

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I've been backing up my Windows 10 machines with the following command line for awhile now. It backs up to FreeNAS without issue.

wbAdmin start backup -backupTarget:\\freenas\pcbackups\<computername> -include:C: -allCritical -quiet

How is this different from the above?
 

zoomzoom

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I've been backing up my Windows 10 machines with the following command line for awhile now. It backs up to FreeNAS without issue.

wbAdmin start backup -backupTarget:\\freenas\pcbackups\<computername> -include:C: -allCritical -quiet

How is this different from the above?
wbadmin is the back end of the VSS service, whose front end is System Restore ( rstrui) and is not an actual backup mechanism, but a system state create/restore point mechanism that is highly prone to corruption from being a differential backup service.
  • VSS state creation points are saved to C:\System Volume Information\ as guid files containing any files/directories that have changed since the last created system state point, which is set to 7 days by default in the registry.
    • Due to Windows 10 changing how VSS system states are taken, relying on Windows 10 to automatically create a new system state creation point every 7 days has shown to be unreliable at best.
    • To automate system state creation points, one can create a task in Task Scheduler ([ WinKey] + [ R], taskschd.msc) to:
      • Run wbadmin with the start backup paramater
      • Utilize wmic via the System RP Creation.xml task export below
      • Utilize cscript via the System Startup RP Creation.xml task export below, pointing cscript's arguments (under Actions) to the RPDescr-Startup.vbs below
VSS is not meant, nor intended, to be utilized as a reliable backup of a system, with DISM WIM/ESD image creation as the only reliable native backup solution that is immune to corruption.
  • VSS serves a great purpose and should not be under-utilized (I personally create several RP's a day), but it is not meant to be relied upon as an actual backup solution.
 

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moelassus

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It sounds like I might use it the same way as you do: As a way to periodically capture an image of my PCs in the event I need to do a bare metal restore.

I don't use it to restore data as I don't keep much, if any, data on the local machine that isn't already replicated elsewhere. Plus it wouldn't be the most convenient mechanism for restoring files though I have mounted images in Disk Manager so I could grab a file out of my downloads folder.
 

jlpellet

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Not arguing with folks & have no experience with Win10, but I've used Casper from https://www.fssdev.com/ since XP days through Win7 & find it makes a reliable bootable clone of the boot drive from within Windows (the vendor says in work the same in Win10) I make a routine clone to a hot spare drive (that does NOT have an Win-assigned drive letter) & have booted it without problem by changing the BIOS boot drive. While I don't use it, it says it will make an image file as well. As always, YMMV.
 

zoomzoom

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It sounds like I might use it the same way as you do: As a way to periodically capture an image of my PCs in the event I need to do a bare metal restore... I have mounted images in Disk Manager
What type of backup are you referring to, as WIMs/ESDs cannot be mounted in Disk Management (at least that I'm aware of).

What image extension does the software create? I'm always highly skeptical of 3rd party backup solutions, for the aforementioned reasons in my previous posts.

From reading the FAQs section on their website, it leaves a lot of questions as to how they're backing up a partition, and this sentence is odd, as bootrec /fixmbr & bootrec /fixboot (latter cannot be used with UEFI) should always be ran after applying a backup image to a windows partition: "Casper does not replace the master boot record or change the active partition status on the target disk."
  • If applying an image to formatted partition, the system will not boot without changing that partition to active via DiskPart (Windows), gparted (Linux), or other partition management software.
  • Furthermore, this throws up a red flag: "In order to ensure the target disk contains a valid master boot record and the appropriate partition is marked active, it is necessary to use the Copy an entire hard disk method"
    • This is another reason why the native Windows WIM/ESD images are preferred, as they can be applied through WinRE/WinPE, of which have DiskPart and BootRec as apart of the WinPE/WinRE images.
    • WIMs/ESDs are images of partitions or directories, rather than whole disk images, and because of this, the user does not experience the inconveniences of full disk backups on Windows.
While choosing a backup method is personal preference, with no right or wrong way to go about it, the fact Windows natively supports being able to image it's own partitions or directories, guaranteeing images are impossible to corrupt with /CheckIntegrity /Verify parameters, it obsoletes almost all 3rd party backup solutions, many of which rely on VSS to backup in use system files, and because of this, their images are usually prone to corruption.
  • Most have experienced VSS checkpoint corruption if they've attempted a System Restore and received an error afterwards that the system was not able to be restored.
 
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moelassus

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What type of backup are you referring to, as WIMs/ESDs cannot be mounted in Disk Management (at least that I'm aware of).

The wbadmin utility generates a VHDX image (one per partition) which can be mounted in Disk Manager. It's a full system image capture of the entire OS partition. If you use the GUI to generate the system image backup it will prompt you to create a USB recovery disk for use with these images.
 

booya

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It doesn't get much more simple that a one line command, nor is it difficult to mount a winre.wim, modify the peinit script to auto run a batch file with the DISM command, followed by the reboot command. Does it require the user to take ~30min out of their day to do the initial configuration, yes, however it's far from complicated when Microsoft lays out exactly what to do and what commands to run on the Microsoft Docs pages for the aforementioned.

Yes that one line DISM-command is simple, however, the multiple steps required to make an automated full system backup of a running Windows 10 instance makes a bit complicated. Are the following steps correct for this type of backup?
  1. Make a second bootable partition with WinRE/WinPE.
  2. Schedule a script for daily rebooting into a modified WinRE/WinPE which runs the DISM-backup, copies the resulting backup image onto a FreeNAS SMB share and then reboots back into the Windows 10 partition.
  3. Profit.
Two additional questions: Does DISM support backup of Windows 10 using BitLocker and full disk encryption? When transferring the backup image file to the FreeNAS SMB share the full backup image has to be copied resulting in a significantly larger transfer size compared to using an incremental backup?
 

zoomzoom

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The wbadmin utility generates a VHDX image (one per partition) which can be mounted in Disk Manager. It's a full system image capture of the entire OS partition. If you use the GUI to generate the system image backup it will prompt you to create a USB recovery disk for use with these images.
Oh, the doc section for it (linked to in my previous post) made it seem like it used VSS to create system state points.
  • In this case, this would definitely not be recommended for full system backups, as:
    • It's inefficient for storage
      • WIMs/ESDs are smart compression formats (VHD/VHDX is not), with ESD being the best (it's compression ratio is 33% greater than WIMs), and I explain how this works in prior posts in this thread.
    • It has no mechanism to check for integrity [corruption]
    • Additional backups cannot be appended to the original backup, so for each new backup, a new VHD/VHDX must be created.
    • There's no way to add a name or description to the VHD/VHDX
      • This means the only option is to have it in a text file in the image or via the image name, and neither of these are secure and both can be changed at will, of which is not preferable.

Yes that one line DISM-command is simple, however, the multiple steps required to make an automated full system backup of a running Windows 10 instance makes a bit complicated. Are the following steps correct for this type of backup?
Windows 10 actually greatly simplified the process... you can access WinRE three different ways, two of which without ever logging in and one without even booting to Windows.
  1. If booted to Windows 10: Settings -> Update & Security -> Recovery -> Advanced Startup -> Restart Now - Troubleshoot -> Advanced -> Command Prompt
  2. At the login screen: Open up the Power Menu by clicking on it's icon, and once it's open, hold down [ SHIFT], click on Restart, and continuing holding down [ SHIFT] until the Advanced Startup blue screen is shown.
  3. During POST: once the BIOS/EFI hands off to the Windows bootloader, immediately press and hold down the power button until the system powers off. Repeat 2x total, and after the second time, allow it to boot without interference and it will load WinRE.
    • Once the system fails to boot 2x in a row, WinRE auto loads.
Make a second bootable partition with WinRE/WinPE.
No, WinRE is auto created upon a new Windows install, however it will likely place the winre.wim in C:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim.
  • This is why I always recommend moving it to one of the small system partitions Windows creates during install (UEFI installs may need to shrink the main Windows partition by 512MB and add a 512MB partition after the main Windows partition), as it allows WinRE to be loaded even if corruption happens to the main Windows partition. This involves ReAgentC:
    1. Determine Location: Find where WinRE's Recovery folder is at, verify it contains subdirectory .\WindowsRE and .\WindowsRE\winre.wim, then copy and paste the .\Recovery folder on the partition you want to utilize to store WinRE (say D:\)
    2. Disable WinRE: reagentc disable
    3. Set a new location for WinRE: reagentc /setreimage /path D:\Recovery\WindowsRE /target C:\Windows
      • Where /path D:\Recovery\WindowsRE is where you've copied the .\Recovery folder to
    4. Re-enable WinRE: reagentc enable
    5. Verify WinRE is active: reagentc /info
      • Should resemble:
        Code:
        PS $  reagentc /info
        Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
        Information:
        
        	Windows RE status:		 Enabled
        	Windows RE location:	   \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk2\partition4\Recovery\WindowsRE
        	Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: 80cc65eb-5088-11e8-9281-b4a7d309fd88
        	Recovery image location:
        	Recovery image index:	  0
        	Custom image location:
        	Custom image index:		0
        
        REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.
Schedule a script for daily rebooting into a modified WinRE/WinPE which runs the DISM-backup, copies the resulting backup image onto a FreeNAS SMB share and then reboots back into the Windows 10 partition.
There's no reason to append a new WIM image every day... once a week at most, and most users would be fine with every 2 or 4 weeks. This assumes your user data folders have been moved to a separate partition, however if your's using the C: partition for your user data folders (%UserProfile%\Documents, %UserProfile%\Downloads, etc.), I would configure that to backup at least once a week if you're a heavy user.
  • You should be able to image your user data folders while still booted to Windows, provided you've closed any applications files in those folders could be in use by.
Not sure what you mean by this.
Does DISM support backup of Windows 10 using BitLocker and full disk encryption?
I've never used BitLocker, but I would imagine so. You'll need to do some research on the Microsoft Docs site, and possibly TechNet.
When transferring the backup image file to the FreeNAS SMB share the full backup image has to be copied resulting in a significantly larger transfer size compared to using an incremental backup?
  • You can capture/append an image with DISM to a Network Share or mapped drive, however I prefer to do so via a USB3 drive, then use that drive to transfer to my FreeNAS box.
  • You only have to transfer the actual WIM once... all additional images that are appended to it are appended to the original WIM as a separate index. See my post in #24 regarding WIM/ESD being smart compression formats.
 
Last edited:

booya

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Windows 10 actually greatly simplified the process... you can access WinRE three different ways, two of which without ever logging in and one without even booting to Windows.
  1. If booted to Windows 10: Settings -> Update & Security -> Recovery -> Advanced Startup -> Restart Now - Troubleshoot -> Advanced -> Command Prompt
  2. At the login screen: Open up the Power Menu by clicking on it's icon, and once it's open, hold down [ SHIFT], click on Restart, and continuing holding down [ SHIFT] until the Advanced Startup blue screen is shown.
  3. During POST: once the BIOS/EFI hands off to the Windows bootloader, immediately press and hold down the power button until the system powers off. Repeat 2x total, and after the second time, allow it to boot without interference and it will load WinRE.
    • Once the system fails to boot 2x in a row, WinRE auto loads.

Great! But I need to automate the reboot into WinRE from a scheduled event within Window 10. Found one suggestion for rebooting into WinRE through the command line:
Code:
bcdedit /set {current} safeboot network
Are there better alternatives?

There's no reason to append a new WIM image every day... once a week at most, and most users would be fine with every 2 or 4 weeks. This assumes your user data folders have been moved to a separate partition, however if your's using the C: partition for your user data folders (%UserProfile%\Documents, %UserProfile%\Downloads, etc.), I would configure that to backup at least once a week if you're a heavy user.
  • You should be able to image your user data folders while still booted to Windows, provided you've closed any applications files in those folders could be in use by.


Alright, once or twice per month is totally fine (if only File History could be trusted).


I've never used BitLocker, but I would imagine so. You'll need to do some research on the Microsoft Docs site, and possibly TechNet.

  • You can capture/append an image with DISM to a Network Share or mapped drive, however I prefer to do so via a USB3 drive, then use that drive to transfer to my FreeNAS box.
  • You only have to transfer the actual WIM once... all additional images that are appended to it are appended to the original WIM as a separate index. See my post in #24 regarding WIM/ESD being smart compression formats.

Appending is great. I still have to confirm that capturing directly to the FreeNAS SMB share works, the examples I've seen showed a local storage capture followed by transferring the image to a network share. However, it seems that DISM can only capture decrypted volumes (decrypted using Manage-bde), which leads me to believe that the decryption key is required to be stored in clear text in a script on the WinRE partition. This somewhat defeats the purpose of using encryption since I need to automate this procedure and will not be able to use a removable USB-stick. Fortunately encryption is not critical.
 
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