Restore to another drive with Macrium Reflect

websquad · 19 Jun 2012

My objective: multiple backups of my "C" drive. And I would like the "other" drive to be bootable (I can easily switch boot drives in my BIOS) -- which means it can't be in the compressed format and has to have a correctly populated boot sector.

I've just loaded the free trial of Macrium Reflect. Here's my disk line up:

C: System/Program
D: Backup of C
E: Data
F: Backup of E
G: Spare hard disk

I first made an image copy of C: and loaded it on D: ... noticed that there was (I hope) considerable compression in the image backup process. I then downloaded "Linux Rescue Wizzard" and found that I could not restore my backup on anything but "C:" ... I really wanted to restore it to G. So I next downloaded "Windows PE" for a more advanced rescue process; alas, met the same situation: I could not restore the "D" backup to "G".

Other than using something like xcopy or robocopy to just copy the backup to "G", is there a way in Macrium Reflect to do this? Of course, I have the 30-day trial free version, but would not be upset if I had to buy the paid version.

kado897 · 20 Jun 2012

I've not done it myself but I think you will need the WinPE version of the recovery disk. There is a pre-built ISO provided by whs here. FileSwap.com : Macrium 5.0 WinPE.zip download free. You will just need to burn it to CD.

mjf · 20 Jun 2012

The pe restore CD/DVD as Kado mentioned is the way to go. But one thing to remember is that when restoring to another HDD you should disconnect the original. They will both have the same disk signature and this can cause problems.

kado897 · 20 Jun 2012

Good point.

websquad · 20 Jun 2012

Thanks for all your input. Finally decided to use the internal Windows 7 image backup to make a backup to a USB-connected hard drive and to an extra hard drive in my computer tower ("G"). Very easy to follow directions. Accessed utility through the control panel. Also made a recovery disk during one of the backups.

Thanks to all for your input.