First use of Macrium Reflect: Questions

Because it has been highly recommended by several 7forum posters, I downloaded and installed Macrium Reflect Free (version 5.3.7220; in the meantime I have updated to 5.3.7253).

On first use of the program, a couple of unexpected things happened.

First thing I did was create a Rescue Disk (Win PE 3.1). Because I was expecting a 1.7 gigabyte download of WAIK, I took my notebook to the Library which has fast internet. However, no WAIK was downloaded as far as I could tell.

Next, a message box appeared:
So I thought, maybe this happens because I did not bring my external hard disk drive with me? There were a few errors in Event Viewer that maybe had to do with that...

Back home to grab the external disk, back to the Library.

Again, the message box warning. I clicked on "Continue". Then it tells me an update has been found for Windows PE. I proceed to download that. (Again, only a few kilobtes dribble over the line.)

Again I get the message box with the "Check that your rescue media, etc." warning! Again I click Continue, which returns me to Rescue Media Wizard. Leaving the radio button for "CD/DVD burner" selected (the other radio button is the USB-connected external hard disk drive), I click Finish.

The software then burns the Rescue Disk. There are no errors in Event Viewer on the second try.

The biggest file on the Rescue Disk is in the "sources" folder, a boot.wim 148,6978 kilobytes large. All other files on the Disk are much smaller.

Now come my questions:

• Where is the "Check for unsupported devices" feature? How do I use it?
• I have not done a Backup using Macrium Reflect Free (MRF) yet. But what use is it going to be to me if it misses essential drivers? Will the Restore even work at all?

1. Download the Winpe rescue disc .iso from my OneDrive and burn that to CD. Then you are done in a few minutes.

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=475A0A48CA6D4035&id=475A0A48CA6D4035!1812

2. Just forget the 'unsupported devices' check

3. The restore will work exactly like the system you restored. No problems.

4. Here is a tutorial I made for Macrium beginners. It may be useful.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html?ltr=I

5. Create a small 2GB partition and populate it with some random data. Then practice imaging and restore with that. This will give you an idea how it works and you don't have to scramble when you really need it on the real thing. Here is an additional tutorial by my friend Keith for the recovery part.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rkSX5OzI-TA

Thank you for the quick reply!

Do you mean that the Rescue Disk I burned using MRF is worthless and I should chuck it for your ISO?

Is your ISO up to date with the latest additions?

It's troubling to me that a software throws up a serious warning but offers no way to do something about it; doesn't really inspire confidence.

I believe I can't create another partition as I already have three NTFS and one FAT. Am I wrong?

No, your rescue disk is probably good. Test it the way I suggested. But next time it would be easier to get it from my Onedrive. I keep that pretty much up-to-date.

Yeah, I never understood that warning. It probably makes some sense in certain circumstances, but I have not yet discovered what those are.

You should be able to create another simple logical partition

O.K., so create a FAT32 partition on my internal hard disk drive?

Currently I have System, C:, D:, and E: (from memory, I haven't looked at Disk Manager right now). So I set up another logical partition which cannot be NTFS but will be FAT32. Then I write some data to it, back it up to the external hard disk drive, restore it from there, and check that the data were restored in full?

Will the drive letter for the new logical partition be assigned automatically?

Thank you for your patience

Edit to add: It's not really a full-fledged dress rehearsal, is it?

If and when the time comes to do a full restore of the entire hard disk, it still will be nail-biting time!

2nd edit: Out of curiosity, would you happen to know why WAIK was not downloaded? Does this mean it is already on my computer? Where would I look for it? (If you don't know, no problem.)

It can be NTFS - but Fat32 works too. A drive letter will be assigned. And if not, that is easy to assign one (in disk management).

Funny, I always thought one could have no more than three NTFS volumes on one disk drive. But maybe I am mixing that up with how many "Primary" partitions one is allowed to have? The new test partition can be NTFS but can't be "Primary", then?

Yes, on an MBR disk the maximum is either 4 primary partitions or 3 primaries plus one extended under which you can create over 200 logical partitions Fat32 or NTFS.

On a GPT disk you can have up to 128 partitions and do not need to distinguish between "primary" and "extended" partitions.

Beg your pardon for asking a stupid question, but what steps do I need to take in order to create an extra logical partition for testing MRF? You can see my present disks here.

Go to disk management and right click on your C partition. Then shrink 2000MB from that. Into that unallocated space that you gained, create a new simple partition - also by right clicking on the unallocated space.

Okay, done. Got a warning about conversion into a dynamic storage medium and that I would not be able to start another operating system in future except from this volume.

No idea what that meant, but as I don't have another operating system on this machine, I went ahead and did it. Now all the volumes (partitions?) have a new color bar above them, in olive green.

Will do the test backup-and-restore next, followed by a full image backup. Will report back after that is done.

Darn, It should normally not have done that. Delete the last partition you created. Then reconvert the dynamics to basic. For that you need the bootable CD of Partition Wizard..

Then we'll regroup and we will look at this again. But you cannot stay with the dynamics.

Aaand... I'm stuck.

The newly created volume has drive letter I:. I copied 1.2 GB of files into it.

When I select only I: and ask MRF to image it, a message box pops up:

whs said:

Darn, It should normally not have done that. Delete the last partition you created. Then reconvert the dynamics to basic. For that you need the bootable CD of Partition Wizard..

Then we'll regroup and we will look at this again. But you cannot stay with the dynamics.

Click to expand...

Saw your message after I posted my latest. According to Windows Help (apologies to non-German readers for not translating):

• Nach erfolgter Konvertierung einer Basisfestplatte in einen dynamischen Datenträger ist es nicht möglich, die dynamischen Volumes in Partitionen zurückzukonvertieren. Stattdessen müssen Sie alle dynamischen Volumes auf dem Datenträger löschen und anschließend den Befehl Convert To Basic Disk verwenden. Wenn Sie die Daten behalten möchten, sichern oder verschieben Sie sie auf ein anderes Volume.

How safe or risky is Partition Wizard? I really would like to do only very low-risk things.

Yeah right. You have to get away from the dynamics the way I explained. And before you have done that DO NOT REBOOT - else you will be stuck.

This German note is bullshit (sorry). Do as I suggested. Partition Wizard is a top program and very safe.

I have to leave the house for an hour. Will be back later.

I really wonder what happened and why you got into the dynamics in the first place.

Well, I did exactly as you suggested. Right-click on C: -> Shrink -> by 2000 MB -> Select NTFS -> Accept defaults (formatting) then Right-click on new unallocated space -> create new volume (accept I: as suggested by Windows).

I don't think I deviated in any way to do something unusual.

Edit to add: As indicated in my System Specs, my hard disk is encrypted. I think encryption program is SecureDoc by Win Magic, it came with my computer. Might that have something to do with what happened?

Whilst I am out, post a picture of your disk management so that I can study the situation.

Here it is:

I now see where the problem is. You had a 4th primary partition (the system partition without a letter). that we did not consider. So what happened is normal. But don't panic. We'll fix it.