Windows 7: Imaging with free Macrium

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

1. If you want to get rid of the 100MB partition, you have to create/transfer the MBR to C and mark C as active. You can try this with Partition Wizard. But there is an advantage to leaving the MBR on the little partition. Then it cannot get detroyed if C goes on the blink. Just follow my instructions in the warning of the tutorial (do not mark C as active and do not ask for MBR restore)
2. You cannot do a selective file/folder backup. It is always the whole partition. But you can define a backup XML definition file to backup both partitions at the same time. You can also set a schedule - just right click on the XML and go to schedule. I have set mine to when I boot the system which is once a day.
3. I don't think Windows 7 will recognize it. I am sure there is a way to turn this bugger off, but I have not yet investigated it.
4. Tip: if you want to delete an XML file definition, in lieu of doing it in Macrium, go to My Documents. There you find a folder "Reflect" - delete the definition file there. The advantage is that you can reuse the name of the deleted file.

Edit: just saw that derekimo answered one of our questions. Thanks derekimo. I had not yet gotten that far.

thanks i knew how to remove the messages, i basically was asking if using this program, it somehows tells windows 7 that i am backing up my computer.

It might just do that, because I haven't gotten one of those at all since I installed macrium right after this last install of 7, and I don't have that box unchecked.

Well, let's say we are not sure. But I also never get a problem from the action center. So maybe derekimo is right.

good stuff.... when you say do not mark as active and do not replace master boot record. is that because thats whats in my system reserved partition.

i am backing up my C drive which i thought contains all my OS stuff. maybe it doesnt? cause i really dont know what that system reserved does or contains?

good stuff.... when you say do not mark as active and do not replace master boot record. is that because thats whats in my system reserved partition. Exactly

i am backing up my C drive which i thought contains all my OS stuff. maybe it doesnt? cause i really dont know what that system reserved does or contains? It contains the MBR and it is used for Bitlocker (in Ultimate only). Your C contains all the rest of the OS.

awesome, THANK you for everything

and this program doesnt communicate with windows 7 "action center" .it still shows i need to backup, and yes i know you can disable the messages. thanks guys again~

it took just under 4 minutes to make a back up image of my C drive that only has 20GB worth of information.

Looks like you are all set to go - happy imaging.

howdy whs,

i had one more question for you, if my drive completely dies and i wanted to replace with a new drive, would i be able to put in the recovery CD and repair everything with a backup image create on a secondary hard drive.

also when i was doing my backup i unchecked the "system reserved" so if this drive does go died, i dont know if i would be able to restore everything. i under a screen shot to see how my backup images are created.

Make a backup image of the system reserved partition now.

If you need to recover , restore the system reserved first ( make sure it marked active during restore ), then the main windows partition (do not mark this active during restore)