Image your system with free Macrium

I think the best thing is to try them both and choose which you prefer.

I have used macrium , but it doesn't work on my current set up.

I now use Paragon v12 - it has a new engine and is unbelievably fast.

I don't think there is a free version of v12 yet.

Paragon v11 free ( it is called backup and recovery 2012 ) works well, tho is nowhere near the speed of the new v12.


The free version of macrium has a mechanism for making a winpe disc. You do need to download the gigantic WAIK (1.7gb) to be able to do that, tho.

If you want to use winpe3.1 ( it has better support for AFD , for example ), you will need to download the WAIK supplement as well, which is another 1.3gb.

Paragon gave me a free download.

It was an email harvesting trick - they never supplied the key that should have enabled their software.
I made several attempts when I had nothing else.
Now I have Macrium I ignore anything coming from Paragon.

whs said:

0pTicaL said:

I found another imaging program called Paragon, how does that compare with Macrium? Which one is more intuitive and easier to use?

I use free Paragon at times. It has more function but it is also more complex to use. It is also slower than free Macrium (for full images). But it can do differentials - also incrementals, but those are no good.

I would agree with WHS. I tried Paragon a long time ago now and decided on using Windows own imaging and free Macrium. I think Macrium V5 (even the free which I use) is quite feature rich.
You need to see what suites you but I always thought the (old) Paragon imaging could be a little intimidating to new users.

mjf said:

whs said:

0pTicaL said:

I found another imaging program called Paragon, how does that compare with Macrium? Which one is more intuitive and easier to use?

I use free Paragon at times. It has more function but it is also more complex to use. It is also slower than free Macrium (for full images). But it can do differentials - also incrementals, but those are no good.

I would agree with WHS. I tried Paragon a long time ago now and decided on using Windows own imaging and free Macrium. I think Macrium V5 (even the free which I use) is quite feature rich.
You need to see what suites you but I always thought the (old) Paragon imaging could be a little intimidating to new users.

Thanks guys, I went ahead with Macrium v5 a few days ago and it was exactly what I expected. Simple, straightforward, no BS imaging program and best of all it's free!

Can anyone offer some advice on how to successfully restore a WIn7 image to another computer that was running XP? I am getting the boot MBR missing error every time.

whs said:

Dick Jagger said:

Can anyone offer some advice on how to successfully restore a WIn7 image to another computer that was running XP? I am getting the boot MBR missing error every time.

Was that image done with Macrium - if yes, did you also image/restore the 100MB system partition.

Yes with macrium free, is there anyway to check if the system partition was included? I dont remember if it was but I think that I probably did not include it when I made the image of my c and d drives last month.

I am using HBCD15.1 in Min Xp mode to get into the macrium restore wizard, once there I can navigate to my back up images on my external drive, but I was confused as to where to restore them to,, active or primary, etc. I did not see a 100mb partition. Thanks.