Use windows back-up feature or Macrium, create partitions first?

ignatzatsonic said:

On an HP (I think that's what you have), the correct key is probably Escape or F9.

Don't be nervous about it. If it won't boot, much better that you find out now, when it's not critical and you aren't in a jam.

If it won't boot, you just make another rescue disk and test it.

If it does boot, you have a near certainty you can restore the Macrium image after a disaster.

I tested (twice) just now to boot from the rescue disc, but it went to the regular desk top. I did get the boot sequence and highlighted the dvd drive and clicked the F4 to boot.

Vonda said:

Ah OK, I got that part. With data drive you mean "my Documents" I was trying to see if it would also copy the contents of my e-mail folder, but when I click on windows mail, it seems that only the program itself comes up.

All I meant was that whatever is on the partition that you imaged should also be within the image file. To include my Documents and the contents of your email folder if they are kept on the imaged partition. I have no idea of where Windows Mail keeps anything or anything at all about it.

Vonda said:

I tested (twice) just now to boot from the rescue disc, but it went to the regular desk top. I did get the boot sequence and highlighted the dvd drive and clicked the F4 to boot.

Not sure I'm following that.

In my experience, if you boot from the rescue disk, you should arrive at the Macrium interface, looking just like it does if you open it from your desktop.

I assume you got the boot menu by using either Escape or F9 or some other key?

And used your arrow (up/down) keys to highlight the DVD drive?

But you then clicked F4???? I would think the proper choice would be to hit the enter key after selecting the DVD drive. Not sure what F4 is in that situation. Did you see a message at the bottom of the screen to choose F4 to boot or something like that? If you did, that would just force the PC to boot back to the desktop---which you would not want in this case.

Try it again, go to the menu, highlight the DVD drive, and hit enter key and tell us what happens.

Vonda said:

Ah OK, I got that part. With data drive you mean "my Documents" I was trying to see if it would also copy the contents of my e-mail folder, but when I click on windows mail, it seems that only the program itself comes up.

Your email folder is most likely in a hidden folder by default, you can unhide them to browse for the "AppData" folder,

Hidden Files and Folders - Show or Hide

Did you enable Windows Mail in win 7?

From your other thread, I noticed you have Office and Windows live essentials installed.

If you are using Windows Live Mail,

C:\Users\(Your User Name)\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live Mail

If you are using Outlook from Office,

C:\Users\(Your User Name)\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

Don't forget to re-hide those folders when you're done.

ignatzatsonic said:

Vonda said:

I tested (twice) just now to boot from the rescue disc, but it went to the regular desk top. I did get the boot sequence and highlighted the dvd drive and clicked the F4 to boot.

Not sure I'm following that.

In my experience, if you boot from the rescue disk, you should arrive at the Macrium interface, looking just like it does if you open it from your desktop.

I assume you got the boot menu by using either Escape or F9 or some other key?

And used your arrow (up/down) keys to highlight the DVD drive?

But you then clicked F4???? I would think the proper choice would be to hit the enter key after selecting the DVD drive. Not sure what F4 is in that situation. Did you see a message at the bottom of the screen to choose F4 to boot or something like that? If you did, that would just force the PC to boot back to the desktop---which you would not want in this case.

Try it again, go to the menu, highlight the DVD drive, and hit enter key and tell us what happens.

Yes, I did highlight the dvd drive and a statement at the bottom said to use F4.
I shall now try with clicking 'enter"

No, it did not work this way either. I shall burn a new cd and come back with the result of the next try.

Here is what I did, I burned a new rescue disc and went through the same procedure. This time it ask me to boot from cd/dvd which I did. Then the regular desktop came up. When I opened the E drive with the rescue disc, it showed the files in the attachment. Is this what I need to do a restore when it becomes necessary or did I make another mistake?

Apparently another mistake.

All that picture shows is what is on the burned disk. Not what you need. You want to see the Macrium interface. Just like you opened Macrium directly from your desktop.

It looks like your burned disk is either not bootable or you are making the wrong choice when you get to the menu where it asks you to choose your boot device--where you should choose the DVD drive.

Since I don't know what the actual choices seen on your menu are, it's hard for me to say if you are choosing the wrong item.

What are the choices you see??

It's also possible you are making the boot disk incorrectly--making some wrong choices or perhaps burning it incorrectly.

WHS would be the guy to make sure you are walking through the steps to make the disk correctly. Let him comment in this thread.

I think you made a "Win PE" disc. Is that correct? While you wait for WHS, you might try using the other method using Linux. It's just another choice from the menu in Macrium when you start to make a rescue disk. Linux-based disks are generally not as reliable, but you've got nothing to lose by trying it and seeing if it will boot your PC.

If you use the Linux method, booting from that disc will NOT lead you to the Macrium interface. Instead, you will boot slowly and see some text messages on your screen as Linux loads. Nothing with graphics. It will be all text and you will see some progress indicators and be asked to make certain choices.

In the meantime, spell out the actual choices shown on your boot menu when you choose F9 or Escape or whatever it is.

After pressing escape, this comes up:
Please select boot device
-----------------------------
ST31000528AS
--------------------------
HP DVD-RAM GH60L
--------------------
Realtek PXE 803 D00
------------------------------
Seagate Backup+
------------------------------
Move up or down to selection
Enter to select boot device
F4 to boot using defaults
--------------------------
This time a made sure I clicked "enter" then a window came up: press any key to boot from cd-rom.