I just re-installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit onto my PC. I've also added a bunch of programs, files, etc. Also, there's a file called Windows.old on my C drive. Total size of my C drive is 115GB. I'm now trying to create a System Image to a brand new 2TB external hard drive. I keep getting this error message (see screenshot). Can anybody help me with this?
Thanks!
As a first operation I would delete the Windows.old folder - unless you still have to recover files from it.
Windows.old Folder - Delete
Then I would not image with the Windows 7 imaging. That is full of pitfalls. Use the free Macrium. It is a lot better and safer.
Imaging with free Macrium
I don't want to delete Windows.old yet as I'm afraid that there may be something in there that I'll need later. I'll probably delete it in a couple of weeks. Anyway, I used Macrium per your suggestion. On the external hard drive, there is now a "Disk Partition Image" file, size of 77.7 GB. I'm assuming this is what I need, but please tell me if this is not correct. I can restore my entire system including files if I need to?
Also, I know you are advising against using the Windows backup utility, but just for my own knowledge, could someone please tell me why I get that error message and how can I correct it?
Thanks
Macrium will make a file with an mrimg extension.
Is that what you see?
In my experience, they are not named "Disk Partition Image".
Instead, it should be named something like WQ66JO33054-00-00.mrg. A bunch of letters and numbers, ending in mrimg.
You CANNOT restore unless you made a recovery disk aka rescue disk within Macrium. Did you?
You'd need to boot from that disk in order to restore.
77.7GB is a big image. That corresponds to appr. 130GB of data. If you have checked all partitions for your image, then you should have it all. For checking, double click on the image file and see whether all partitions are there - then Cancel. Btw - that's how you can mount an image file and look at it or retrieve data from it. It will appear in Computer.
And here is an iso for a recovery disk that you can download. Saves you a lot of time. Just burn this iso to CD.
ignatzatsonic,
Yes, the disc name is similar to what you're saying with .mrimg extension. The file type is "Disk Partition Image." The file contains System Reserved and C. I have no other partitions on this computer.
Thanks for telling me about the Rescue Disc. I went ahead and made one using Macrium even though I had already made one from Windows. I'm not sure if they're the same thing, but two is better than one, right?
whs,
How big would be "normal?" I think mine is inflated first of all by the windows.old file, which is 47GB by itself plus I already loaded a bunch of programs + my documents, videos, pics, music, etc.
Still would like to know what happened when I tried creating the image using Windows. Just bothers me when stuff like that happens.
Normally a Macrium OS image is about 60% of the data that is on the C partition. To that you have to add the appr. 60% of the other partition's data if you imaged more than just C and the system partition (which is minute).
They are categorically NOT the same.
You need to confirm that disk you made in Macrium will in fact boot your PC. If it won't, it's useless.
Did you choose the "WinPE" rescue disk or the "Linux" method? The former is far better. If you boot from the a WinPE rescue disk, you should land at the Macrium interface, just as if you had opened Macrium from your C drive. If you boot from a Linux rescue disk, you will end up in a slow and cryptic Linux interface that you may find confusing.
Ignatz is right. Testing the recovery disc is a good idea. But you don't want to do that with your whole system.
Create a little 2GB test partition. Populate that with some copied data and image/restore that partition. That will show you how it works and if it works you know the recovery CD is OK.
I rebooted using the Rescue Disk and it goes to the Macrium interface exactly as you describe. Yes, I used Windows PE.
Thanks for all of your help!
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