Dual Boot system backup problem

CJ13760 · May 2021

I have a dual-boot system. Windows 10 Pro and Windows 7 Pro, both 64-bit. They are on separate physical drives. I have AOMEI Backupper Standard installed on both.

When I run Backupper under Win10 and select System backup, it allows me to backup just Win10, which is perfect.

But when I do the same under Win7, it backs up both Win7 & Win10 into a single image. It does not give me a choice. This is not acceptable. Since this is a laptop, it is not feasable to disconnect the Win10 drive.

Booting AOMEI from a flash drive behaves the same. But not always. Sometimes it will only backup Win10.

SIW2 · May 2021

A system backup includes all partitions required by the system.

It seems your win7 installation is using win10 system partition.

If you include a screenshot of windows disk managament somebody might be able to advise a course of action.

CJ13760 · May 2021

Thanks SIW2 for that tip. My first thought was no, its not using the Win10 drive. Then it dawned on me: Since I boot from the Win10 drive & then select Win7, it's still tied to the Win10 boot manager. So I boot from the Win7 drive, and the problem is resolved! Just have to remember to boot the drive that I want to back up. The boot manager on the Win7 drive does not see the Win10 drive.

mecmec · March 2023

I have the exact same dual boot setup as @CJ13760 (Win7/Win10 on separate disks). If I want to secure this setup, will I then have to make system backup of both OS? I tend to only backup Win7, as this was really tricky to get right. However, I suspect that somehow Win7 boot info is embedded in Win10, so that restoring Win7 on a fresh Win10 install might not work? Any thoughts?

aiArtisan · March 2023

Hello CJ13760, I understand you prefer to use system backups, but that is not working for you. Which motherboard mode are you using, BIOS, UEFI-csm, UEFI-noncsm?

Please try to use disk backup method, that may work better for you. If you are using motherboard mode UEFI, and you want to manage the BCD boot settings, you could do that in the command line, or with msconfig, or with EasyBCD. Msconfig is the simplest way to manage the BCD boot settings. If you manage the BCD boot settings with the command line, or with EasyBCD, please practice that first on a separate PC that has no personal files on it. If you need to manage the BCD boot settings outside of windows, you could use Hirens > EasyBCD.

Great free tools from Aomei:

Aomei WinPE Builder 2.0 USB, includes: Partition Assistant, Backupper, Recuva, OSF Mount, CPU-Z, Bootice. Does not support internal NVMe disks.

Great free tools NOT from Aomei:

EasyBCD - application

LazeSoft - live USB boot repair

Hirens Boot PE - live USB tool suite
To add custom drivers such as NVMe, simply put them into the “CustomDrivers” folder. Hirens is not recommended in combination with Ventoy USB.

CJ13760 · March 2023

mecmec

That's the cleanest way - Backup 7 & 10 separately, booting from the drive that you want to back up. Restore to the appropriate drive, booting from the recovery flash drive.

aiArtisan Apparently you misunderstood what I wrote previously:

"Since I boot from the Win10 drive & then select Win7, it's still tied to the Win10 boot manager. So I boot from the Win7 drive, and the problem is resolved! Just have to remember to boot the drive that I want to back up. The boot manager on the Win7 drive does not see the Win10 drive."

aiArtisan · March 2023

Yes I read that. Could you please reply with which of the 3 motherboard modes you are using?

CJ13760 · March 2023

BIOS. And I use EasyBCD.

admin · March 2023

@Mecmec, You need to boot from the system you want to back up, and then install software to create the system backup.

Dual Boot system backup problem

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