System imagages while file mounted?

[Paul Fullname]

Just a question about backups on Win 7 machine.

Is there any impact or other concern about making a whole system image backup while an encrypted file is mounted?

What if a backup is under way first than while processing I were to mount a file?

Thanks.

[Adrian Kentleton]

I personally have no worries about running system drive (C:) backups while VC volumes are mounted, or mounting them while a backup is running.

I don't use Windows in-built system images (they're so infuriatingly non-cofigurable, like so much Windows software), using instead the free Macrium Reflect to do my weekly C: drive images (saved to a VC volume on an external drive, naturally!).

Reflect images have the advantage you can mount and extract individual files from them, as well as restoring the whole image. And, you can add Reflect to the boot menu, so you can use it to restore an image if the PC won't boot to Windows, and reverting to an earlier state is necessary.

Windows (and Reflect) uses the 'Volume Shadow Copy' service to take a 'snapshot' of the state of the C: drive when the backup starts, and it is that that is backed up. You can carry on working in Windows while the backup is running, but eg any file you create after the backup starts will not be in the backup!