Image your system with free Macrium

lehnerus2000 said:

whs said:

LF is right. Macrium recovery does not care from where the image comes as long as you can properly point to it. This is not Windows imaging where moving an image would be fatal.

I save my images to an internel HDD and then move them to an external HDD...

That's pretty much what I do. I image my C: drive to a folder on my data drive, then I make a couple of clones of the data drive. I have restored from those clones as well as from the data drive. I don't know if the free version of Reflect has this feature or not (I use the Pro version) but I have mine set up so I can do a restore during the boot up sequence directly from the computer without using a rescue disk or USB stick (although I also have the stick just in case).

[QUOTE=mjf;2594420]

alan10 said:

I'll clarify. I am talking about one of (NOT incremental or differential) images - (made by Windows imaging and Macrium free. Macrium free is what the sticky is about).
Singling out my comment as a doozy (doozie your spelling) makes an unnecessary comment. Let me make it simple. There appear to be some concerns with Macrium cloning. If so then this a good place to document them.

1.
I use a professional version with a licence awarded as a result of my having assisted Macrium with Beta testing of series 5.
So far as I am concerned 99.9% of my experience with creating and restoring Macrium Backups should be relevant to the use of Macrium Free series 5.

Sorry that you got confused, I was NOT criticizing your comment about images.

Confusion was caused by your post no.1273 where you asked the question
"What's the doozie? "
and then in the same post followed this with a comment.

In my single post I both answered your specific question with an Internet Link with a definition of doozie,
and then also as a separate issue I added my thoughts upon your comment.

I was NOT calling your comment a doozie.

The ONLY thing I have ever called a doozie in this topic was in the post #1263,
where I answered your request for information upon potential problems arising from the use of Clone instead of Image,
and I gave you a DOOZIE of an example where clone backups had been religiously created on a Flash Drive by a user who had no idea how to use it when his system failed.

I would certainly recommend soon after installing your PC and getting it to a condition you like making an image AND THEN restoring it to check that it restores. I have a couple of images, one with the key software configfured but a while since I installed Windows, the other a recent one. Having tested the earlier one I know if the recent fails, the old one will still image itself OK. I once made a clone as well and tried to restore from that but the restoration failed so I had to use one of the other images. Not sure why that happened, but it put me off making clones (not to mention the huge storage space required for more than one) when I know images do what they need to.

For the same reason I use (free) Macrium rather than Windows backup - a couple of years ago I used the built in Windows 7 backup and when I had to reinstall after a failed Windows update it refused to reinstall from the image. Once bitten forever shy asnd I determined never to use Windows backup again.

Can I throw in two random questions please. If my hard drive fails so I get a new harddrive but a different make or model, would a simple restoration of the Macrium image onto it work or would I have to reinstall Windows (I'm using an SSD for my operating system disk by the way; all my personal files are on a second drive that I backup separately).

And if I upgraded my system by adding say a new motherboard or new graphics card, but kept the same processor and hard drive, will I be able to boot straight up into Windows and will earlier images be restorable? Or do I have to reinstall Windows even though the hard disk is unchanged? Somewhere the Macrium website mentioned something called Redeploy in the paid for version - is it what it's for, and is it worth getting the paid-for version just for that feature (on the grounds that if my machine is ever stolen or a vital piece of hardware fails, if the image made by the free version is useless in that situation, it sort of defeats the point of having imaging software).

Diddlededum said:

I would certainly recommend soon after installing your PC and getting it to a condition you like making an image AND THEN restoring it to check that it restores. I have a couple of images, one with the key software configfured but a while since I installed Windows, the other a recent one. Having tested the earlier one I know if the recent fails, the old one will still image itself OK...

Testing an image is a good idea but there is a better way to go about it when using Macrium Reflect. Create a test partition on an internal drive or use an external drive. Copy some easily checked data, such as a few photos, onto that partition or drive. Image it, saving the image somewhere convenient other than the partition or drive being imaged. After the image is made, delete the data. Use the recovery disk or USB stick you made earlier to recover the partition or drive, using the image you just made. This will assure you that the recovery media is working and that you are doing things correctly.

Rather than testing your latest image as you suggested, when making the image, set it to verify the image after making it. That will ensure the image is valid without risking anything you have on the drive the image came from. Verifying takes almost as long as making the image but, by letting Reflect do it automatically at the end of making the image, you can just set it and forget it until Reflect alerts you the process is complete.

Diddlededum said:

...I once made a clone as well and tried to restore from that but the restoration failed so I had to use one of the other images. Not sure why that happened, but it put me off making clones (not to mention the huge storage space required for more than one) when I know images do what they need to...

The amount of space required by a clone is a downside but clones do have their upsides and uses. Normally, they are not the best choice for backups, images being the preferred choice. I use clones to backup my data drives so I can just plug one into my computer and use it as is if a data drive completely dies.

I ran into a situation last Sunday when something went wonky with my data drive (my fault, I'll spare you the details) and I tried to clone the data to another drive so I could reformat the wonky drive (I could access my data on the wonky drive but it was unstable and kept dropping out). The clone failed, stating drive errors as the cause. Fortunately, I had a second identical clone drive with data from a backup last Friday night on it and the only data I had added/changed since then was in two folders so I copied those folders from the wonky drive to another internal drive, then reformatted the wonky drive. I then cloned the data from the good clone back to the reformatted drive and copied the two folders to the reformatted drive. I didn't lose a thing.

When cloning, I have Macrium Reflect set to verify the source drive is error free so, if a clone is going to fail due to drive errors, I find out within minutes instead of hours. That saved me a lot of grief last Sunday even though it gave me a bit of a scare.

Diddlededum said:

...For the same reason I use (free) Macrium rather than Windows backup - a couple of years ago I used the built in Windows 7 backup and when I had to reinstall after a failed Windows update it refused to reinstall from the image. Once bitten forever shy asnd I determined never to use Windows backup again...

I've seen that same complaint many times about Windows backup. I also feel Macrium Reflect is easier to use and is more versatile.

Diddlededum said:

...Can I throw in two random questions please. If my hard drive fails so I get a new harddrive but a different make or model, would a simple restoration of the Macrium image onto it work or would I have to reinstall Windows (I'm using an SSD for my operating system disk by the way; all my personal files are on a second drive that I backup separately)...

Generally, imaging from one disk to another will work just fine, even if the disks are different make and model. In the case of your SSD, saving an image of the SSD to a HDD then restoring back to the SSD is no problem. Moving DATA and/or an OS from a HDD to a SSD via is a bit trickier since they use different "cylinder" alignment but there is at least on tutorial here on how to do so successfully.

You are wise to keep your data and OS backed up separately.

Diddlededum said:

...And if I upgraded my system by adding say a new motherboard or new graphics card, but kept the same processor and hard drive, will I be able to boot straight up into Windows and will earlier images be restorable? Or do I have to reinstall Windows even though the hard disk is unchanged? Somewhere the Macrium website mentioned something called Redeploy in the paid for version - is it what it's for, and is it worth getting the paid-for version just for that feature (on the grounds that if my machine is ever stolen or a vital piece of hardware fails, if the image made by the free version is useless in that situation, it sort of defeats the point of having imaging software).

I don't feel that Redeploy is worth paying for by itself but, from what I've read, it does work. There are ways to get a drive from a previous system to work with a new MOBO (I think there is at least one tutorial here on how to do that) but, generally, it's better to do a clean install. A new graphics card will just need a new driver so no worries there. I did get the Pro version because I was already getting the other paid version for other reasons and it wasn't that much more to get the Pro version

SIW2 said:

You would need something to fix restoring to different hardware. See here: Make Windows 7 bootable after motherboard swap

It works perfectly.

whs said:

If my hard drive fails so I get a new harddrive but a different make or model, would a simple restoration of the Macrium image onto it work

A simple restore works. Macrium does not 'register' from which disk the image came.

But new hardware is a problem - especially mobo - because your system would not have the drivers for that.

The Pro version of Reflect has a feature called Redeploy that will supply the necessary drivers.