Windows 7: Macrium utilities and tools for imaging: large capacity pen drives

So far I have read the 8 or so printed pages availabel which show the intro to Macrium.
I could follow that in the post here with the pics that didn't print.

But a couple of things. First to gather the right hardware. 1 PC, one or more HDDs, the external USB storage and-- what (?) the dvd drive to run the rescue disk at a time when a rescue is needed?

Just now I have the PC, 2 HDD and a DVD drive.

What sort of format is on the USB?-- something set up by Rufus to use a boot source?

This all seems like the long way around for the simple straight line of a clone job.

After the hardware setup, should one just start from scratch and make a partition for Win7 which
can be imaged, then retrieved if, as happened to me, a meltdown occurs that only effects
Win7 and not repairable with just the bootrec procedures?

No rush on answering. I have another task that needs doing. What I have for Macrium is just
using one PC I have to practice on.

Oh, and I copied out that AOMIE driver that hanged a machine that had the program itself removed-- one reason I wanted to avoid using that. Macrium seems more stable and non invasive:

windows\system32\drivers\ambakdrv.sys\ or something close.

You could use a DVD or a USB stick as the rescue boot media. In Macrium open 'Other Tasks > Create Rescue Media'. What you see in the list of media it can create depends on what hardware is available on the PC. If you have an optical drive it can create a DVD directly, if you have a USB plugged in before you open the media creation tool this will also appear in the list.

The USB should be Fat32, with about 600MB free for the Macrium boot files. Macrium will mark it active to make it bootable and add its own boot files on the USB. Macrium just adds to what is already on the USB, existing files and folders will be left intact.

There is also an option to make an ISO file which you could burn to DVD (or use to make a USB) later.

The rescue usb is a full copy of Macrium, so it can also be used to backup any PC that can boot from it.

I'm still going over the need for Macrium for a single user.
Then I saw some info from HowToGeek (a trusted source) in a tutorial on getting partitions right.

But what it said at the end seemed an answer to my situation:

I'm quoting so I get it right:

"Is this (referring to the partitioning) something every Windows user should do? Well, probably not — especially now that Windows 8 offers an easy way to effectively reinstall Windows without losing your personal files, named “Refresh Your PC.” But, if you regularly reinstall Windows or dual-boot several versions of Windows, this can be a useful trick."

Well, in my case it has already saved me having to reinstall from scratch when my machine's HDD started to die...


Unusual HDD fault Solved - Page 2 - Windows 10 Forums

I have the how to written out. The difference between image and clone is just difficult for me.
Only today I found one of my regular hardware sites to visit mentioned Windows 8 still in use
for a HTPC he had.



I'll begin the Macfrium because it's free vs new OS though that might be severely discounted someplace.
Other things are in need of doing first so I will not be making jack rabbit responses.

In my experience Macrium Reflect Free does everything that a home user would need.


The Premium features are available on a 30-day trial basis if you want to test them, after which it reverts back to Free. None of the Premium features are 'essentials' though, IMHO.

Good advice. While I'm on the topic and in the midst of recovering from the hardware problems
where this question began, I wondered what was meant by incremental backups. In other words; Does that mean that you can select a large data file and have that backed up in the background without
taking the system down for six hours it takes as a clone job runs? Just wondering.


But I still want to at least find out more about Windows 8 which I never considered.
I'm getting a manual on it from our library-- one of the Missing Manual series.

A Full backup does what it says on the tin.

After that you have a choice available of Differential or Incremental backups (Incremental is a Premium feature, Differential is available in Free).

A differential backup is just the changes made to the partition(s) since the last full backup. It can be a lot smaller than its associated full backup. However, you will need to keep both the full and the differential backup in order to restore it.

An incremental backup is all the changes since the last incremental backup (or full, it this is the first incremental) so can be even smaller than a differential. However, you will need to keep the Full and all subsequent incrementals in order to restore it.

In either case, the restore is simple, you won't be asked to restore each in turn. Just select the latest differential or incremental to restore and Macrium will do the rest.

Individual files or folder can only be imaged in the paid-for version. File & Folder backup is a Premium feature.


However, you don't need to take the system down to make a Full or Differential image of your system if Macrium has been installed on it. Macrium uses the Volume Shadow Copy service (VSS) to take a snapshot of your system, you can continue to use it while the partition(s) are being imaged.

Are you partitioning a USB flash drive?
If so, WHY?
How to use Macrium Reflect
Unless you use the premium/paid for versions of Macrium or AOMEI, you cannot merge the incremental or differential backups into one image.
If you cannot do that, incremental and differential are a pain in the ...
I run a full image backup once a week and if I need another backup of something, cloud or external HDD.
I keep several weeks of images on 8tb HDD
Bill