Image your system with free Macrium

Hello all,

First, sorry for my naive questions . It looks like I am lost in the jungle of crashes, partitions and recoveries. In the last two weeks have had 2 crashes! Luckily I am copying most of my data to an external HD as a backup. Before the last crash, few days ago, I tried to backup the whole C drive Of 1 TB (actually there are 2 drives installed as Raid 1) using the Windows backup possibility to an external HD. This did not help me to restore the system for a reason or another , so I re install the computer with the original Windows 7 (ultimate) CD. Of course I lost all the favourites of the Firefox and now trying to put it back manually.

To overcome such problem in the future I was looking in the forum and found this useful thread. Downloaded and install MiniTool Partition Wizard and Macrium Reflect. Went to Macrium (Backup Tasks) and chosen (Create a backup image of the entire HD) and let it be saved on the external HD as (Backup image C HD). It is a directory full with files which I have no idea about! Now trying to make the rescue CD and got the question: choose Linux or BartPE ? The same about the partitions, both programs shows that there are two partitions: Recovery of 6.34GB (active) and Windows C: of 925 GB primary. The question is: What I have to do with them?

I will highly appreciated if anyone of you will tell me if I did it good or more things should be done.

Best regards,

Anne

I vaguely recall one of the OEMs (?Dell?) doing something odd with the "recovery" partition also making it the active system partition.
I assumed any logic could have been to do with the ability to boot directly into the recovery partition when needed.
I thought at the time the recovery partition should be quite separate from daily activities.

whs said:

Hmm, something is not right here. An active recovery partition is at least unusual and not right. I suggest you post a picture of your Disk Management so that we can have a look. Also tell us whether your current OS installation is on Raid0. That would complicate the matter.

With the free Macrium you have to use the Linux CD.

Hello whs & mjf,

Thank you for your reactions. The current OS installation is on Raid1. Here you see 3 screenshots for the partition Wizard and Macrium Reflect which I hope it will give more information about the Disk Management of my computer. Yesterday I made a check for the image which I made using Macrium Reflect for errors using The (Other Tasks) which says that the verification is OK.


Will be happy to hear from you,

Best regards,

Anne

I don't think that's a good idea.

I would use the macrium pe media - it supports many raid configurations natively - or you could load your controller drivers into it if necessary.

If you don't have the Macrium winpe media - you will need to make your own.

Fortunately, macrium provide afree plugin.

Hello SIW2 & whs,

As you see from the following screenshot that BartPE is not compatible with Windows Vista or Windows 7. As I honestly mentioned in my first post, I have no experience with backups and partitions. Macrium pe media does not say that much to me nor I know how to load and install the controller drivers.

whs, you asked me why am I complicating my life with a Raid setup. To answer your question I should tell you that 2 months ago I have had a HD failure in my old computer in which I lost lots of my data. Before buying this computer (2 months ago) I consulted a computer shop about the best way to avoid such problem. He advised me to have this computer with this construction (2x HD's WD Caviar Black 1TB, 7200rpm, 64MB, SATA3). Later, I found out that this advice is not as good as he pretend. Now I am having a new computer with 2 crashes in 2 weeks time. Some people advised me to use (AcronisTrueImageWDEditionUM) which is free to the users of WD. The question is it a reasonable easy software for some one who has no experience with backups.

Best regards,


Anne

Hello whs,

I think it is a good idea to dismantle the Raid1 setup and do a daily image to the second disk. This will save space and not to forget that most of the crashes comes from software problems which Raid1 can not help because same fault is mirrored directly to the second HD. Now, I do not know if this is a safe and easy operation to do without having a 3rd crash within the 2nd week (lol).

Best regards,

Anne