HDD clone

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  1. Posts : 204
    Windows 7(64) Home Premium
    Thread Starter
       #31

    I need to do some more reading and watch the video again before I can ask any intelligent questions. I've never used software like this and it's a bit daunting at first but, I'll come around. It's like downloading Adobe Photo Shop. That's quite a mind blower for a long time and most never do use it to it's fullest capacity.
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  2. Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       #32

    It takes maybe 8 clicks to open Macrium and make an image. Same with cloning.

    You can copy your files to that other drive through drag and drop with the mouse to the drive in the dock or by using the clone feature of Macrium.

    If you intend to use Macrium for imaging purposes (backup of C), you need to burn that recovery disk using WinPE. That's the most complex thing you'd need to do with Macrium and that is just a one-time task. Once the disk is burned, you set it aside and then make your new image files periodically--perhaps monthly if your C drive changes gradually. You'd use the burned disk ONLY if you actually had a disaster and had to restore an image file.

    You need a place to save your image files---that can't be on C if C is the partition in the image. Imaging is done on a partition basis, not a drive basis. You select the partitions to be included in the image file. In a typical installation, that would be C and System Reserved. Treat the image file as just another valuable data file that you'd probably want to back up. You could make separate images of C and System Reserved, or include both in a single image file.
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  3. Posts : 204
    Windows 7(64) Home Premium
    Thread Starter
       #33

    From what I understand I could use the doc and another HDD to make an image of C-drive. If down the road, say two months later when Microsoft has beckoned you to add updates and maybe you add another useful program to C-drive, you can also make these changes or additions to the image already created. It's sort of like a differential or incremental backup. Was that close?
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  4. Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       #34

    No. You can make incremental images, but most would tell you to avoid them as they are a complication. It only takes a few minutes to make another full image. Full images don't take up a lot of valuable space in this era of cheap big drives. I keep the 2 or 3 most recent images of C, done monthly. So I'm never more than 30 days stale. They occupy about 15 GB per file. If you are about to make a significant change in your system (such as testing a complex or unfamiliar application), you could of course make an image just before making the change and then restore it if the application is a horror story and fouls you up in some way.

    You don't add to or change an image file once created.

    You can drill into an image file and extract files as needed, but you normally wouldn't. You'd just let it sit and hope you never had to even look at it. And you wouldn't---unless you were in a jam and wanted to restore for some reason.

    You could use an image file to back up your data, but that's typically frowned on also. No reason to complicate data backup with imaging. Just make ordinary copies of your data without imaging. Something like FreeFileSync can backup your data in an ordinary manner daily or more often. Might take 20 seconds to 5 minutes, depending on how many files have been created or modified since the last backup.

    If you make images monthly, you probably wouldn't still want to keep January's image in September. You'd most likely delete all but the few most recent, according to your preference.

    You don't need "another" hard drive in the dock. You need ANY hard drive in the dock that has enough space to hold the image file. Macrium image files will have an mrg extension. You can continue to use that drive for any other purpose. The image file is just another data file residing on the drive, presumably in a folder made for that purpose.
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  5. Posts : 204
    Windows 7(64) Home Premium
    Thread Starter
       #35

    They occupy about 15 GB per file.
    I didn't realize the would be that small. This is all beginning to fall together now. Ive read several of the tutorials in conjunction with many of the past posts on MacriumImaging and they're most enlightening.
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  6. Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       #36

    Macrium image files are typically 40 to 50 percent of the size of the occupied space on the partition being imaged. My C partition is about 35 GB. If your C partition occupies 100 GB, figure maybe 40 to 50 GB per file.
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  7. Posts : 204
    Windows 7(64) Home Premium
    Thread Starter
       #37

    Macrium, for lack of a better work, clones your entire C-drive in the form of an image. In the event of a HDD failure you can put that drive you have the image on in place of the one that failed, use your bootable recovery disc to start and you're back in business. Have a missed anything or am I all wet?
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  8. Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       #38

    ColColt said:
    Macrium, for lack of a better work, clones your entire C-drive in the form of an image. In the event of a HDD failure you can put that drive you have the image on in place of the one that failed, use your bootable recovery disc to start and you're back in business. Have a missed anything or am I all wet?
    Not quite.

    You make an image file of C and System Reserved and store the image on a totally separate drive. Let's call it image file X located on drive Y.

    If C drops dead or becomes problematic, you:

    1: Decide where you want to restore. If the C drive literally died, you need to buy a new drive. If it simply is fouled or corrupted, you don't. So, you may want to restore to the same C partition on the same drive (over-writing the original contents of C) or you may want to restore to another drive entirely.

    2: boot from your WinPE recovery disk. That lands you in the Macrium interface
    3: Tell Macrium what image file you want to restore and to where. That is--you locate image file X on drive Y in the Macrium interface and tell Macrium that you want to restore to C or some other location, such as to new drive Z. This is "restoration". If it works, C is then immediately bootable and you are back in business. If it doesn't, you go to plan B---presumably a clean install. Macrium is highly reliable (98%??), but not foolproof. So you need to have plan B.

    You DON'T replace the broken C partition/drive with the drive containing image file X. Image file X is sitting on an ordinary data drive. Image file X is not bootable. It becomes bootable ONLY when restored.

    Lastly--clone and image are different terms for somewhat similar procedures, but are often mistakenly used interchangeably. One creates a file to be restored at some unknown future date. The other copies files as they are right now, in real time. Macrium can do both, but they are separate and distinct procedures.
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  9. Posts : 204
    Windows 7(64) Home Premium
    Thread Starter
       #39

    You DON'T replace the broken C partition/drive with the drive containing image file X. Image file X is sitting on an ordinary data drive. Image file X is not bootable. It becomes bootable ONLY when restored.
    If I have an image X on a new drive for future purposes and let's say that C drive did indeed go belly up, how can I restore the image file X to make it bootable?

    I read back over #3 again and it makes sense now.
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  10. Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       #40

    ColColt said:
    You DON'T replace the broken C partition/drive with the drive containing image file X. Image file X is sitting on an ordinary data drive. Image file X is not bootable. It becomes bootable ONLY when restored.
    If I have an image X on a new drive for future purposes and let's say that C drive did indeed go belly up, how can I restore the image file X to make it bootable?
    ??

    How?

    By using Macrium as outlined above--boot from the recovery disk, etc.

    Suppose you make image file X today and store it on drive Y.

    10 minutes later C becomes corrupt and unusable.

    You restore FROM drive Y to C on the original drive if it still works or to new drive D if it doesn't.

    You DON'T restore image file X to drive Y. You can restore it anywhere except where it is stored---maybe other drive Z or to the original drive.

    Most commonly: you store image file X on an external drive and restore from that external to the original internal or a new internal.

    I have multiple internal drives, so I store my image files on an internal D. And restore from D to C as needed.

    I could NOT restore from D to D. Just as you can't store an image of C on C.
    Savvy?
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