Image your system with free Macrium

It can also fail with a VSS issue if trusted installer is running.

my bad, posted in the wrong place.

Please ignore.

Thanks,

Emil

Given this post is about free Macrium, can anyone comment on the stability of free V6. Also, comments on making a suitable free restore pe CD/ISO could be very useful to users as well as me:).

Specific comment on pe v3 vs v4 vs v5 and the need for new WAIK downloads is a bit confusing for me at least.

The paid version is stable. Since the free version uses the same code it should be stable too.

Installation of the free version on Windows 7 also install the needed WAIK components for PE3.1 about 200MB. I don't know what would be installed for Windows 8 or 8.1 but the install dialogue says it selects the most suitable components so it may install different PE components. I haven't tried PE4 but for PE5 there is an additional download when you create the rescue media of the WADK which is around 500MB. The main reason for using PE5 is it supports UEFI and secure boot.

Very useful Kado897 - thanks.

My 1T seagate barricuda drive that came in my dell Insperon is heading south. I have a new wd 2TB inbound. This is the way I want to go but I can't determine if the clone will have any phantom errors or will the clone recognize the new drive is 100% good?

If your existing HDD has faults then cloning or imaging it is not a good idea. It is best to get your personal data off the old HDD as a high priority then do a clean install and transfer your data back. I think Dell are pretty good at providing disks to do this. Keeping system images using the likes of Macrium Reflect is your best insurance policy in the future.

If the PC has the sata ports and bays you may want to consider an SSD as your main OS drive and the 2 TB as a data drive.

BTW you generally don't need to clone. A system image is a more efficient approach.

You need to physically disconnect your cloned backup SSD. Swap it over if/when you need it.
If you force the clone online then a different disk signature will be assigned but I think you will find it will not boot.
I would recommend using system images to restore to a new drive in the case of drive failure. It is more efficient and you have a number of recent images to restore from.