DISM newbie question

[mdart]

Can someone answer a simple question. Can you clone a working pc with Windows 7 and a bunch of applications installed and create a *.wim file.

Dell will accept *wim files to clone computers but I dont know how to create a clone of our working SOE

[MagicAndre1981]

For Vista is was not possible:

You cannot use the ImageX.exe tool as a backup tool on a Windows Vista-based computer

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935467/en-us

I haven't tried it with DISM.

[Tripredacus]

You can use Windows Backup that is in the Control Panel. I can't find the appropriate documentation on TechNet at the moment, but you can use Windows Backup to create an image of your OS. Then in case of failure, after running recovery or reinstalling the OS, you can load the System Image Backup back onto your system.

User-created Recovery Image

Windows® 7 provides end users with the ability to create a backup image of their entire operating system. End users can do this by using the Backup tool. They can store the system image on an external hard disk, on a hard disk partition other than those imaged, on a set of DVDs, or on the network. To restore the computer by using this system image, users must launch the Complete PC restore interface from the list of Windows RE manual tools.

What is Windows RE?