Image your system with free Macrium

I started reading the thread since I'm interested in trying Macrium as a cloning tool. I read on the 1st page of the thread that Macrium doesn't support cloning, just imaging.

However, when I visit the Macrium site and read about the tool, it says that it does support cloning as well as imaging.

Just wanted to clear that up and ask the Macrium users here about this.

kado897 said:

Scoop said:

I started reading the thread since I'm interested in trying Macrium as a cloning tool. I read on the 1st page of the thread that Macrium doesn't support cloning, just imaging.

However, when I visit the Macrium site and read about the tool, it says that it does support cloning as well as imaging.

Just wanted to clear that up and ask the Macrium users here about this.

All versions support cloning.. Click the link in my sig for a comparison.

I looked at the link. I think I'll give Macrium a try. I like to try various cloning tools to see which I like best.

I've been using Acronis without problems for periodic cloning the past couple of years.

I'm still reading about imaging (vs or compared to cloning). I've run one imaging process with Acronis but haven't tested the "Restore" action with it.

Cloning has worked good for me in the past with recovering from a malware/virus intrusion.

kado897 said:

Personally I don't use cloning. It wastes the target drive. Imaging is better as it just creates a file on the target drive. I have never had a problem with a Macrium restore but I would recommend trying it for yourself

That's a good point and I've considered it as well. I'm basically learning about imaging but have had some questions about the compression rates and how that may affect my choice to try imaging vs cloning.

My main objective (with cloning) is to have a plug-and-play complete bootable replacement HDD on the shelf in the event of an intrusion which either can't be cleaned or would be time-consuming to recover.

It also protects me from user mistakes, bad downloads, things like that.

The other reason that I clone (every 4 weeks) is to have a spare HDD in the event of any HDD failure with my everyday HDD.

I used to run a Raid 1 config but due to unrelated issues with it, I discontinued it. Also, it's not a protection against malware/virus intrusions since both HDD's will be affected by such an intrusion.

The main part about imaging that I've been looking at is:

How many full-disk images (complete with MBR, etc) could I store on another HDD?

In other words, my everyday HDD is a 1 tb size drive (about 40% used) with the default Windows partitions: "System Reserved" and the main partition containing the OS and all of my data.

If I'm wanting to maintain full-disk images on another HDD, how many full-disk images would I be able to store on a separate HDD?

I read somewhere where Macrium's default compression rate is 50%. If that's the case, I'm guessing that I'd be able to store 2 full-disk images on another 1 Tb HDD.

I also read where video files are not compressed efficiently or as well as other files so I moved all of my video files to a separate HDD. That also freed up a lot of space on my OS/everyday HDD.

I bookmarked your 2nd link.