Windows 7 - Image your system with free Macrium

There seems to a general problem with windows backup/recovery. Remember how many people (including myself) had problems with the Vista restore form a shadow. Then the imaging in Vista ultimate did not seem to be the yellow of the egg either. And now we get the reports in Windows 7. As long as they have not fixed it, I rather work with something that is reliable. - but, of course, it would be nice if they could get it to work.

Well me too, that's why I use and rely on Acronis. I've used it successfully for many years and since I know the program very well and it does everything I need (both cloning and imaging, plus the exciting new "plus pack" features which adds, among other things, the ability to restore to completely different hardware (different system, not just different hard drive), I'm pretty satisfied and comfortable with it.

Agree. Acronis is an excellent program. But like Ghost that I also use, it requires a lot more learning and is a lot slower and bulkier. For the person that just wants to do Backup/Restore, I think free Macrium is an easier solution because it is so easy and so fast. But if you have a requirememt for complex cloning, then it is not the right tool.

I have recently completed windows system restore from restore point with no problems (note it was just roll-back from restore point not from system image)

I sometimes was lucky too. It worked on every other Monday. But it is not 100% reliable.

I can find posts here from people who have had problems with Acronis and no doubt can also find people who have experienced an issue with Macrium.

I have personally restored a backup of my Windows 7 box using the built-in "system image tool" at least a dozen times, including the beta, the rc1 and the RTM...all 64-bit. I've done it at home, at work on a desktop and on a laptop. I've backed up each time to a external USB 2.0 hard drive. Once I even restored it to a different physical hard drive...which was the same size. So, while I cannot speak for everyone...the built-in tool has worked 100% of the time for me.

pparks, that's good to hear. My confidence level went up on notch.

small point .. you made a start up disk with a DVD. Can you use dvd's to make the image as well or is it cd's ? thanks

I used a DVD, never tried a CD. But they call it a "Rescue CD". I guess a CD would work too.

If you are talking the Macrium Linux-based Rescue CD you can use either a CD or DVD to boot to the restore program. The thing I liked about Macrium is 4.2 paid version supported my HP AMD Raid controller. I've verified that the new free version of Macrium uses the same Rescue CD image for the Linux Rescue CD as the 4.2 full version. Anyone who bought HP Pavilion m9515y Phenom machine with the AMD Raid controller this is the one for you. Restore with the Linux CD is smooth and simple esp. from a USB 2.0 external drive.

I think you could probably restore to an internal drive in a USB docking station using Macrium to create pop-in backups. Granted it's a 2 step process, but once you have the backup image you can restore several internal drives in the dock if you really want to be backed up.