Win7 Administrator Account for Rescue/Backup Disk?

[W. eWatson]

As was suggested in a thread above, I went off to look for Win7 help on
a MS Forum. I chose MS TechNet. It seems pretty slow going there. My
question seems easy enough.

I have a new HP PC and would like to create a Backup disk for the OS or
whatever else might needed to rebuild the software in the event of a
failure. I have not added anything to the system yet. HP's help says
nothing about what account one should be on to do this. It just shows
the step. It seems very much like it should be done as Admin. I
understand that's hidden, but have instructions on how to get to it. So
what's the answer? Secondly, did MS deliberately hide the Admin account
because it should not be used for every day operations, but only as
needed to do Admin work?

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

As was suggested in a thread above, I went off to look for Win7 help on a
MS Forum. I chose MS TechNet. It seems pretty slow going there. My
question seems easy enough.

I have a new HP PC and would like to create a Backup disk for the OS or
whatever else might needed to rebuild the software in the event of a
failure. I have not added anything to the system yet. HP's help says
nothing about what account one should be on to do this. It just shows the
step. It seems very much like it should be done as Admin. I understand
that's hidden, but have instructions on how to get to it. So what's the
answer? Secondly, did MS deliberately hide the Admin account because it
should not be used for every day operations, but only as needed to do
Admin work?

Sorry, the Windows 7 boot environment is radically different from the one
you find in Windows XP. You really need to ask the experts in a Win7 forum,
even if it is a little slow for your liking. You could try here:
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/windows7.

 

[W. eWatson]

Sorry, the Windows 7 boot environment is radically different from the
one you find in Windows XP. You really need to ask the experts in a Win7
forum, even if it is a little slow for your liking. You could try here:
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/windows7.

Thanks. I posted there a moment ago. I guess "social" and TechNet forums
all hang together. I was logged in under both.

I decided to jump in by using the Rescue Disk instructions. I put in a
DVD at the prompt, and asked for a backup. After a baffling number of
instructions that provided no clue as to what I requested was actually
completed, I stopped and completed the post there. The silence was very
strange. Maybe I'll know some time soon.

 

[Daave]

As was suggested in a thread above, I went off to look for Win7 help
on a MS Forum. I chose MS TechNet. It seems pretty slow going there.
My question seems easy enough.

How about trying this newgroup:

news://news.aioe.org/alt.windows7.general

Hopefully, you'll get quicker responses.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

As was suggested in a thread above, I went off to look for Win7 help on a
MS Forum. I chose MS TechNet. It seems pretty slow going there. My
question seems easy enough.

I have a new HP PC and would like to create a Backup disk for the OS or
whatever else might needed to rebuild the software in the event of a
failure. I have not added anything to the system yet. HP's help says
nothing about what account one should be on to do this. It just shows the
step. It seems very much like it should be done as Admin. I understand
that's hidden, but have instructions on how to get to it. So what's the
answer? Secondly, did MS deliberately hide the Admin account because it
should not be used for every day operations, but only as needed to do
Admin work?

These backups often just create images of everything on the drive. You
want to do this before you get much further. Be sure that you have enough
discs on hand - the utility should telll you how many you need (as CD-R or
DVD-R).

I would actually suggest doing the base install, then creating an image of
the drive as it is using software such as Acronis TrueImage. If you don't
image to a hard disk, you will likely need two or more DVDs for the image
file.

It's also worth contacting HP support now and attempting to purchase restore
DVDs. These often cost around $30 or so, and are worth it.

I do basic installs, then attach the drive to my bench system and create an
image to hard disk. In case of disaster, I can restore the image, to a new
hard disk if necessary, and be running again in under an hour. If
restoring to a new drive, I can then recover data with somewhat more leisure
and less time pressure.

As to the account, you need to be using an account with administrator
rights. It is not necessary to use the built-in Administrator account, it
can be any user account with Administrator rights. In fact, in the default
setting, you may be completely unable to do this from the Administrator
account.

And yes, the Administrator account is disabled by default on at least some
Win 7 versions, as on some Vista versions, so that it can't be used as a
daily account or left wide open as a security hole. However, the rationale
for this decision seems somewhat flawed since the Administrator account
first has to be enabled from another user account, but you can't enable it
if you can't get into a user account because the only user account is
corrupted.

So, it's not a bad idea to enable it, and put a decent password on it, which
you change periodically.

HTH
-pk

 

[W. eWatson]

How about trying this newgroup:

news://news.aioe.org/alt.windows7.general

Hopefully, you'll get quicker responses.

I posted to another one that looks like it gets more activity. In the
meantime, I driving down to the Sacramento area and peruse some big
bookstores. Years ago, MS offered 30 days free support on their OSes. I
guess that's gone by the wayside. I see nothing like it for HP. I did go
to a local bookstore. Win7 and Visualizing Win7. Both lack detail to be
satisfactory. Off to Amazon to see what they have as recommendations.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Post here instead:
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7performance/threads

 

[W. eWatson]

These backups often just create images of everything on the drive. You
want to do this before you get much further. Be sure that you have enough
discs on hand - the utility should telll you how many you need (as CD-R or
DVD-R).

I would actually suggest doing the base install, then creating an image of
the drive as it is using software such as Acronis TrueImage. If you don't
image to a hard disk, you will likely need two or more DVDs for the image
file.

It's also worth contacting HP support now and attempting to purchase restore
DVDs. These often cost around $30 or so, and are worth it.

I do basic installs, then attach the drive to my bench system and create an
image to hard disk. In case of disaster, I can restore the image, to a new
hard disk if necessary, and be running again in under an hour. If
restoring to a new drive, I can then recover data with somewhat more leisure
and less time pressure.

As to the account, you need to be using an account with administrator
rights. It is not necessary to use the built-in Administrator account, it
can be any user account with Administrator rights. In fact, in the default
setting, you may be completely unable to do this from the Administrator
account.

And yes, the Administrator account is disabled by default on at least some
Win 7 versions, as on some Vista versions, so that it can't be used as a
daily account or left wide open as a security hole. However, the rationale
for this decision seems somewhat flawed since the Administrator account
first has to be enabled from another user account, but you can't enable it
if you can't get into a user account because the only user account is
corrupted.

So, it's not a bad idea to enable it, and put a decent password on it, which
you change periodically.

HTH
-pk

Thanks. I stopped by Best Buy yesterday and asked them about the # DVDs
I would need for restore images, 3. I had spent 45 minutes in Barnes &
Nobles looking at Win 7 books. That's how I fell into images as the way
to do what I wanted. I found 4 books I thought would be very useful, and
bought one. Windows 7 in Depth, Que pub. I had a Que book for W2K, and
liked their style. The others were Windows 7 Inside Out, MS pub; Windows
7 On Demand, Que pub. A lesser book, but one that could have appeal to
beginners was Window 7 Plain and Simple, MS pub. I think the first three
books had 45 day access to the web version of the books. I thought that
was a good feature. It makes the book searchable. Fairly often such
books don't have a thorough index.

I'm not real impressed by the HP getting started. I don't think anything
was mentioned about buying the disks for $30. Maybe I missed it, but
when I was considering Vista, MS had some pretty decent fairly long
videos on line that pretty reasonably covered lots of topics. From my
post above, I think the best that could be turned up for 7 is the 7
second videos. Ugh.

Ah, what about the fabled Win7 transfer cable. As best I can tell it's a
USB 2 cable.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Inline

W. eWatson wrote:

Thanks. I stopped by Best Buy yesterday and asked them about the # DVDs
I would need for restore images, 3. I had spent 45 minutes in Barnes &
Nobles looking at Win 7 books...

Windows 7 Inside Out
http://www.google.com/products/cata...out&hl=en&cid=15665486279643288350&sa=title#p

I'm not real impressed by the HP getting started. I don't think anything
was mentioned about buying the disks for $30. Maybe I missed it, but
when I was considering Vista, MS had some pretty decent fairly long
videos on line that pretty reasonably covered lots of topics. From my
post above, I think the best that could be turned up for 7 is the 7
second videos. Ugh.

cf. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Search?q=backup&prd=Windows7

Ah, what about the fabled Win7 transfer cable. As best I can tell it's a
USB 2 cable.

Again, post such questions here:
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7performance/threads

 

[W. eWatson]

Inline

W. eWatson wrote:


Windows 7 Inside Out
http://www.google.com/products/cata...out&hl=en&cid=15665486279643288350&sa=title#p



Again, post such questions here:
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7performance/threads

Done here. The other sites have taken a disappointingly long time to
respond. Holidays? The book will fix that.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Assuming you're "solarblast"
(http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/user/threads?user=solarblast),
one of your recent threads has had a reply:
http://social.answers.microsoft.com...e/thread/7e0a7c96-7d01-43e7-a525-af47c9c887b0