Windows 7: Imaging with free Macrium

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Last edited by whs; 23 Feb 2013 at 07:28 PM..

On this machine it looks like C: is (active, system, boot). It appears you have no separate system reserved partition.
You would restore C: as active and not replace MBR unless you knew it had been damaged.

Probably a different situation on your new PC.

Note: The MBR Macrium refer to is the real MBR and it is the first 512 bytes of your disk. It contains partition tables etc. Normally it is static in nature and doesn't need to be changed. It is not movable and does not exist on any partition.

As mjf says, you must mark C as active when you restore. Replacing the MBR is a matter of choice - I always do. But any of your other partitions would not be active. Nor would it have any MBR.

Further to the mbr replacing. As WHS does you can choose to replace.

Thanks whs and mjf, got it :-)

I plan on buying a new computer with Windows 7 Ultimate ( I currently have Windows XP). Do I need an external program like Macrium or Acronis True Image or does Windows 7 Ultimate have all of the tools in these external programs built into it?

thank you

Joe

Hello -

Windows has a built in program for imaging. But if you go over most of the material here; most of us prefer Macrium.


Thanks to WHS, nice tutorial.


Best regards,

Eldin

The problem with the Windows 7 imaging is that it always plays an act on you. You never know what it is doing and at the end you are always stunned. Besides it is very retarted when it comes to functions and options.

I have used and tried about 10 imaging programs (including the Windows 7 one) in the last 4 years. My bottom line is the Macrium is the easiest to use, the fastest, the most reliable and I always know where I am with it. And it is free.

That cannot be said for many others - and especially not for Windows 7 imaging. But some people use it and were even able to recover. Others were less lucky. With Macrium I recovered about 50 times (many for demo in my classes) - and it has never failed.

I use Windows imaging (primarily) and Macrium and have a good level of knowledge of both products.
I have reimaged with the Windows product well over 10 times (I've lost count actually). These are not little test partitions, these are full blown system restores. It has never let my down even to new HDDs.

When Windows imaging lets me down and I cannot explain it I'll call it a dog. For some it has met the "dog" criterion and MS do need more work on the product.

I also use and understand Macrium well. It's a good solid basic product.
You always have the option to try the two (like I do) and hedge your bets. You will never know which is a "dog" until you personally restore your full system from a disaster.

To call Windows imaging "retarded" (a poor choice of words) fails to realize it's intent. It is intended for the average user as well who knows nothing about "MBRs", "100MB system reserved". To use Macrium with confidence you do need to understand these concepts or else you're winging it.

LOL, I was sure mjf would rebutt. He is fortunate because he gets along with Windows 7 imaging. And he has one good point - try them both, or a few more even. Go by your own judgement, not ours.

@mjf, just for your info, I made many real system recoveries too - not just the little class excercises.. I srew up my system on average once per week and rather than chasing the problem, I just restore the latest image. That's why I image so frequently. For the data I rely a bit more on the shadows. You get a lot of data partition shadows into relatively little space. And since I install and uninstall stuff relatively frequently, I get a good collection.

This is a fair point, although it is not quite as simple for the uninitiated as they think. I see that all the time with the people that use it. One of my instructor colleagues teaches the "average" users to use Windows 7 imaging. I could tell you many war stories how the average user gets along with it.

LOL, I knew you'd bite.

Joking aside I do take my comments seriously. 99%+ of people (a guess) who use Windows for work and play don't visit these sort of forums and before Windows 7 they wouldn't know what an image was it it bit them.
So big tick for MS for including it - just make it more robust.