Image your system with free Macrium


  1. Posts : 46
    Win7 Ultimate 32bit
       #1941

    dsperber said:
    (1) No. You don't need to do anything to pre-format your new drive in any way. Just use the WinPE "rescue media" (i.e. standalone WinPE boot with Macrium Reflect auto-started) and begin your image restores to the new drive. That restore process of the partition images you select will accomplish the formatting required.

    (2) No. You select those two partitions (system reserved and C) for restore, and that accomplishes the formatting.

    (3) No. After you restore these two partitions (both are required in order to boot to Windows as you've seen, because Boot Manager lives in "system reserved" which is the "active' partition that the BIOS goes to in order to begin the machine boot process) you then boot to the restored Windows are now you can create your other additional partitions on the new drive. I always use Partition Wizard Free for all of my partitioning needs, but you can do whatever you want.
    Thanks for helping.

    Sorry I have a few more questions.

    1. The backup is from a WD HDD. Will restoring it to a Seagate HDD cause any problems?

    2. After the Windows is restored, would I be able to use Windows Disk Management to create the partitions or is a third party software required?
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  2. Posts : 2,752
    Windows 7 Pro x64 (1), Win7 Pro X64 (2)
       #1942

    (1) No. Brand of target drive for the restore is not relevant, nor is size of the target drive. You can use Macrium Reflect to restore an image to the same size or smaller or larger target drive, with the expected responses from the program if available space on the target drive is smaller than the source partition(s). Also, you can reduce the size of the restored target partition as compared to the actual original size of the partition that got backed up in the image, of course as long as it's not smaller than the absolute minimum space required.

    Reflect knows how much actual non-empty space was in the original partition, and clearly that is the absolute minimum you must have available in the target. But beyond that, you can restore to a larger target drive which will leave free space on the drive after the restore, and you can then do whatever you want with it. You can create new partition(s), you can enlarge adjacent partitions utilizing some/all of the free space, etc. And you can even make the restored partition larger than the original was at the time of the restore using Reflect, if you want.

    You can even restore an image to an SSD although the original drive which produced the partition image was HDD spinner.

    Macrium Reflect is very very smart.

    (2) Once the restore is finished you can use whatever tool you'd like to do partitioning, including DISKMGMT.MSC. I just happen to prefer Partition Wizard and its whole range of flexibility and functionality, and superior GUI (in my opinion).
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  3. Posts : 54
    Win 7 Ultimate 32-bit
       #1943

    Hi all,
    I just used "Clone this disk" and I wanted to report the findings so to speak, as I think most people use this program for imaging.

    I cloned an old laptop hard disk of C and D partitions (total 75 GB) to an external 250 GB disk in a USB enclosure (USB 2). This external disk was partitioned before and it was used for back ups, in other words it was full of data. I threw it in there without reformatting/repartitioning it to see how Macrium would handle it.

    Macrium took about 50 minutes to complete cloning (intelligent sector copy), probably longer than I expected. It did clone perfectly the original C and D partitions to, respectively, H and F partitions on the external disk (yes, strange drive letter sequence), it left an unallocated space of about 82 GB and, most strangely of all, it left a partition (I) with data that was in the external disk before the cloning.

    Obviously this external disk needs some repartitioning now with Disk Management. I already double-checked with disk management and the sequence of drives is correct and "partitionable".

    So, all in all this is a great program.

    The only question I have now is, do I need a Rescue Media to boot (as Macrium correctly keeps reminding me when I start the program)? I am under the impression that, WITH CLONING, I don't.
    It's just good to have any way?

    Thank you.

    Edit: With Windows Disk Management I deleted that Partition (I), which now gave me Unallocated space of 158 GB, which I can only create a new primary partition out of it, as "Extend Volume" is not available on external USB disks.
    Perhaps Partition Wizard can Extend Volume, I haven't tried it.
    Last edited by sunsetlover; 25 Jun 2016 at 23:19.
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  4. Posts : 9,746
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit sp1
       #1944

    You don't need the Rescue media for a cloned disc, it should start straight up after you have disconnected the parent disc.

    If you do regular images as I & most sensible users do on a regular basis, you will need the Rescue Media in the event of a major system failure. So set up your Rescue Media & be sure to test it, as you don't want to find it wont work in an emergency. After you have imaged your normal OS drive run the Verify option to check the integrity of the image.
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  5. Posts : 2,752
    Windows 7 Pro x64 (1), Win7 Pro X64 (2)
       #1945

    sunsetlover said:
    I cloned an old laptop hard disk of C and D partitions (total 75 GB) to an external 250 GB disk in a USB enclosure (USB 2). This external disk was partitioned before and it was used for back ups, in other words it was full of data. I threw it in there without reformatting/repartitioning it to see how Macrium would handle it.

    Macrium took about 50 minutes to complete cloning (intelligent sector copy), probably longer than I expected.
    It took that long because you were using a USB 2.0 external enclosure. USB 2.0 is slow, compared to USB 3.0 which is probably 4-5 times faster.

    Cloning is effectively "copying", and it just takes that long to copy maybe 80GB of partitions to a USB 2.0 target, no matter whether it's your SATA-3 spinner drive installed in a USB 2.0 enclosure, or using a USB 2.0 key drive inserted into a USB 2.0 port. The copy speed is a function of the USB 2.0 interface speed, not the speed of the HDD spinner being used.


    It did clone perfectly the original C and D partitions to, respectively, H and F partitions on the external disk (yes, strange drive letter sequence)
    The new partition letters are simply for the new partitions suddenly visible while still booted to your existing Windows (on current C) under which you are running Macrium Reflect to do the cloning.

    But once you re-boot to the new drive (after performing appropriate "surgery" to swap drives and install the external one inside your machine, thus accomplishing the replacement/upgrade), those partitions will once again be C and D. The booted Windows is always C, and any additional partitions get lettered starting with D, E, etc. You can then use DISKMGMT.MSC to change the letters of any partitions you want to, other than C which cannot be re-lettered since operational indows is running from it.


    it left an unallocated space of about 82 GB and, most strangely of all, it left a partition (I) with data that was in the external disk before the cloning.
    Unless you first deleted all partitions on the target drive, nothing there would be deleted by the cloning process. Cloning means copying, and it is FROM the source partitions on the source drive, TO UNALLOCATED FREE SPACE ON THE TARGET DRIVE. That's where the cloned partitions get located, in whatever unallocated free space exists... having nothing to do with where those partitions lived on the source drive.

    You're copying data (i.e. in-use space in the source partitions) when you clone. You're creating a new partition on the target drive out of free space available, and then copying FROM source partition TO this new target partition. Anything else already on that drive remains untouched as a byproduct of the cloning, unless you delete it yourself before or after.


    Obviously this external disk needs some repartitioning now with Disk Management. I already double-checked with disk management and the sequence of drives is correct and "partitionable".
    I recommend you give Partition Wizard Free a try. I feel it to be much more user-friendly with a much superior GUI and much richer functionality than DISKMGMT.MSC. But of course you're free to use whatever you're comfortable with and that accomplishes the objective.


    The only question I have now is, do I need a Rescue Media to boot (as Macrium correctly keeps reminding me when I start the program)? I am under the impression that, WITH CLONING, I don't.
    It's just good to have any way?
    You're misunderstanding the terminology here, which is a bit poorly worded by Macrium.

    The so-called "rescue media" is actually a standalone boot CD/DVD version of Macrium Reflect. It is actually a WinPE disk, bootable directly, with Macrium Reflect auto-launched (instead of getting a WinPE desktop). It is to be used if/when you say replace your internal hard drive (maybe to a larger one, or to replace one that crashed) and you now want to restore a latest copy "system image" (of all the partitions on your internal hard drive) that you've got on an external backup drive, to to brand new replacement hard drive. This gets you back up and running after installing a new blank drive, without needing a running operational Windows on the hard drive. You run Macrium Reflect via WinPE from the optical disk, to perform the restore of the "system image".

    Normally, you would add Macrium Reflect as a "boot manager menu item" (so that it appears at machine boot time along with your Win7 and/or Win10 partition). This gives you the option of restoring a "system image" from your backup drive, should some irreparable corruption occur in your operational Windows and you decide to just restore last weekend's "system image" of your C-partition which you know to have been perfectly operational. So for this type of operation, where the current hard drive is operational and you just want to restore C to a backup version, you would re-boot the machine and choose Macrium Reflect via Boot Manager. Or, you could also boot to your optical disk "rescue media" and accomplish the same result, but at least the Boot Manager option also exists. In the case of new hard drive you don't have the Boot Manager and MUST use the standalone optical boot CD/DVD "rescue media" to run Macrium Reflect.


    Edit: With Windows Disk Management I deleted that Partition (I), which now gave me Unallocated space of 158 GB, which I can only create a new primary partition out of it, as "Extend Volume" is not available on external USB disks.

    Perhaps Partition Wizard can Extend Volume, I haven't tried it.
    I guess I don't understand why you are copying C/D to a second drive unless you planned to use it as a new internal drive, perhaps replacing a smaller one with this larger one. As to whether Partition Wizard can manipulate partitions on external USB, the answer is yes. It can do anything, anywhere... move, delete, create, resize, copy, merge, etc.

    I never use DISKMGMT.MSC for anything. No reason to, and PW's GUI and functionality is far superior.
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  6. Posts : 1,167
    W10 32 bit, XUbuntu 18.xx 64 bit
       #1946

    ThrashZone said:
    I still have an unknown device,
    ACPI\PNP0A0A\2&DABA3FF&0
    ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum- ACPI\AWY0001\2&DABA3FF&0
    Unless, you found a fix, here is an idea Thrashzone.


    I don't know if this will work, try temporary enabling windows 7 to check windows update for drivers. I actually choose no let me choose what to do. Then I select Install driver software from windows update if it is not found on my computer. Then I right click on the driver, the select windows update.
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  7. Posts : 183
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1
       #1947

    Hi, I've been using Macrium Reflect Free for a wile now, for full system images (backups).

    Now I'm planning to buy a SSD and clone my HDD to it (for my laptop). Will I be able to do this properly with a Rescue disk made with the Macrium Reflect Free? Will the cloning from HDD to SSD take care of enabling trim and aligning the partitions properly on the SSD?

    A sub-question. On the HDD I have 2 partitions C and D (3 actually, if I count the reserved partition which doesn't have a letter as well). I'd like to merge C and D together into single big partition before cloning to the SSD. How can I do that properly?

    Thank you!
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  8. Posts : 9,600
    Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       #1948

    Bellzemos said:
    Hi, I've been using Macrium Reflect Free for a wile now, for full system images (backups).

    Now I'm planning to buy a SSD and clone my HDD to it (for my laptop). Will I be able to do this properly with a Rescue disk made with the Macrium Reflect Free? Will the cloning from HDD to SSD take care of enabling trim and aligning the partitions properly on the SSD?

    A sub-question. On the HDD I have 2 partitions C and D (3 actually, if I count the reserved partition which doesn't have a letter as well). I'd like to merge C and D together into single big partition before cloning to the SSD. How can I do that properly?

    Thank you!
    First, I do not recommend merging your System (C:) and data (D:) partitions. Backing up is easier and more efficient if you keep your System files (OS and programs) and data files segregated from each other (imaging is best for backing up System files and a folder/file syncing program is best for data). That is the way I have my notebooks set up.

    When I put the SSDs into my two notebooks, all I had to do was set up the stock HDD the way I wanted it (I added a partition for data), then use the Macrium Reflect installation on each notebook to clone the HDD to the new SSD, using an external dock to hold the SSD during the cloning. After cloning the HDD and swapping the SSD into the notebook, the OS partition automatically reverted to C:. I had to reletter the data partition back to the original drive letter. There was no need to use the rescue media.
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  9. Posts : 183
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1
       #1949

    As far as I know, cloning and imaging should always be done via boot USB/CD, rather than in the system itself (the one you're cloning). Regarding my questions, Windows 7 will take care of enabling trim of course, I'm concerned about partition aligning. Will Macrium Rescue CD take care of that? Will it align the partitions properly when cloning HDD to SSD? Is there a tick I have to put somewhere in the settings?

    Regarding subquestion - I am aware of what you are saying and I've been using that method so far (having system on a separate partition and then another partition for data). But I have different needs now and would like to merge it all into one partition - but only if it's possible to do it properly, meaning having no problems whatsoever afterwards. :)
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 9,600
    Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       #1950

    Bellzemos said:
    As far as I know, cloning and imaging should always be done via boot USB/CD, rather than in the system itself (the one you're cloning). Regarding my questions, Windows 7 will take care of enabling trim of course, I'm concerned about partition aligning. Will Macrium Rescue CD take care of that? Will it align the partitions properly when cloning HDD to SSD? Is there a tick I have to put somewhere in the settings?

    Regarding subquestion - I am aware of what you are saying and I've been using that method so far (having system on a separate partition and then another partition for data). But I have different needs now and would like to merge it all into one partition - but only if it's possible to do it properly, meaning having no problems whatsoever afterwards. :)
    Every time I've cloned an HDD to an SSD, as long as it was MBR to MBR (MBR to GPT is another story), the partition alignment was fine and TRIM was enabled. I have no idea if that would happen when using Rescue Media because I've never done that.

    When imaging from the computer, make sure Auto Verify Image has been turned on (Click on Other Tasks at the top of the screen, click on Edit Defaults, then click on Auto Verify Image). Also Click on Cloning and make sure all options for Intelligent Sector Copy are checked.

    Again, I've cloned the HDD to an SSD on two different notebooks without problems. It's not necessary to clone or image using the rescue media even though you can (although I don't know why you would want to since it is much, much slower). Also, I cloned all the partitions at once. I've never cloned or imaged a drive or partition using the rescue media and I have restored images many times on all three machines I have in service.

    Why do you want to merge your System and data partitions? I know of no advantage to that.
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