Image your system with free Macrium


  1. Posts : 513
    Windows 7 Pro x64
       #2031

    Mike99 said:
    I don't recall ever assigning a number or letter. Have I been dong something wrong, and just lucky that it's worked?
    When you connect a random disk to the machine, whether it be internal or external, providing that disk has already been allocated, Windows will assign it either the drive letter that it has already been assigned, or the next available unused letter; this is fine if you don't later need a path to be remembered.

    If you want to assign a particular drive letter to that disk that will remain with it no matter how many times you disconnect and reconnect, in Disk Management, click on (select) the partition you desire to assign the letter to; right-click and choose "Change drive letter and path"; click "change"; choose your drive lettter from the flyout menu; you should then see that drive letter in the partition label.

    While you are at it, right-click again and choose "Properties"; the name associated with that drive will be in an editable space; replace that name with one that makes sense to you, such as Mike's Pictures or Mike's Music, etc.

    If I have missed a step or anything, someone please correct me, as I don't want to mislead anyone.

    Let me add this: a disk can contain several partitions and each of these partitions is considered a Drive with it's own drive letter; if a disk only has a single partition, it will only have the single drive letter.
    If a disk has multiple partitions/drives, you can change any single one of the drive letters and it not have any effect on the others.

    Also, if you connect a disk with assigned letter(s) and those letters are already in use, the next available letter(s) will temporarily be assigned.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 258
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #2032

    BuckSkin said:
    When you connect a random disk to the machine, whether it be internal or external, providing that disk has already been allocated, Windows will assign it either the drive letter that it has already been assigned, or the next available unused letter; this is fine if you don't later need a path to be remembered.

    If you want to assign a particular drive letter to that disk that will remain with it no matter how many times you disconnect and reconnect, in Disk Management, click on (select) the partition you desire to assign the letter to; right-click and choose "Change drive letter and path"; click "change"; choose your drive lettter from the flyout menu; you should then see that drive letter in the partition label.

    While you are at it, right-click again and choose "Properties"; the name associated with that drive will be in an editable space; replace that name with one that makes sense to you, such as Mike's Pictures or Mike's Music, etc.

    If I have missed a step or anything, someone please correct me, as I don't want to mislead anyone.

    Let me add this: a disk can contain several partitions and each of these partitions is considered a Drive with it's own drive letter; if a disk only has a single partition, it will only have the single drive letter.
    If a disk has multiple partitions/drives, you can change any single one of the drive letters and it not have any effect on the others.

    Also, if you connect a disk with assigned letter(s) and those letters are already in use, the next available letter(s) will temporarily be assigned.

    It appears that using an external USB drive might be confusing when working with images because the drive might get a different drive letter assigned every time you connect it, depending on if other USB drives have been connected & in what order.

    As mentioned in posting 2004, "The only advantage leaving them in their original location has is that Macrium keeps a record of where they are and pre-loads a list for you to pick from".

    I already have a USB EHD drive with some Windows 7 images on it. And I just got a drive enclosure for my internal HDD which will let me connect it via USB.

    Is it advisable to assign a drive letter to each USB drive? What about my old USB EHD that already has Windows 7 images an it, or is it best to leave that one alone?
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 26,861
    Windows 11 Pro
       #2033

    Mike, if you want to keep the drive letters the same, use Disk Management and change the drive letters to something like W, X, or Y. You will most likely never use enough USB devices to get up to those letters. I use 3 external drives for images and Windows has never changed the drive letters.

    As a practical matter, I don't believe it really matters to Macrium. If you have to restore an image from a recovery USB, DVD or a partition, it asks you to find an image to restore. You search for the image you want to restore and select it. Then restore it. I copy images back and forth between drives and have never had a restore fail.

    IMO, keeping the drive letters the same is mostly a convenience to you. I really don't believe it makes much difference to Macrium, as long as you know where the image you want to restore is located. That has been my experience.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 10,455
    Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Service Pack 1
       #2034

    essenbe said:
    Mike, if you want to keep the drive letters the same, use Disk Management and change the drive letters to something like W, X, or Y. You will most likely never use enough USB devices to get up to those letters. I use 3 external drives for images and Windows has never changed the drive letters.

    As a practical matter, I don't believe it really matters to Macrium. If you have to restore an image from a recovery USB, DVD or a partition, it asks you to find an image to restore. You search for the image you want to restore and select it. Then restore it. I copy images back and forth between drives and have never had a restore fail.

    IMO, keeping the drive letters the same is mostly a convenience to you. I really don't believe it makes much difference to Macrium, as long as you know where the image you want to restore is located. That has been my experience.
    The only time it really matters is for saved backup definitions as they use the drive letter of the destination drive rather than the diskid.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 9,600
    Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       #2035

    essenbe said:
    ...change the drive letters to something like W, X, or Y...
    Excellent advice except avoid using drive letter X. It's sometimes used by some hardware and software, mostly legacy, for temporary use and just might cause a problem (granted, it's a longshot but why take chances?).
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Home Professional
       #2036

    Need help creating an Image & backup


    whs said:
    I posted this on the Vista forum. But since it works just as well on Windows7, I post it here too.

    Image your system with free Macrium

    Over the years I have experimented with different imaging programs. I started out with Norton Ghost which works very well, but is quite heavy handed. Backup and restore cycles are usually approximately one hour and it takes quite some time before you understand the intricacies of the product. I have also used Paragon and Acronis true Image. Both of those are in the same league as Ghost. They do provide though a large collection of function – which, I guess, is part of the reason why they are complex and slow.
    One that is easy is the Maxtor One Touch Manager that comes with the Maxtor One Touch Disks. My wife loves it because once it is set up, all you have to do is push the button on the One Touch Disk and off it goes.
    Not quite the same but very easy is Macrium. Below you find the four steps to set it up and the one step to run it thereafter. You will notice that the handling of Macrium is as easy as can be. To download the free Macrium, you go to this site:

    http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

    There is also a paid version with more functions. But for the normal backup/restore, the free version is sufficient.
    I did not document the restore function, in part, because I cannot take any screenshots during that phase. But it is very simple and self explanatory. All you need to do is set your BIOS boot sequence to boot from your CD reader, put the CD in (the one you burnt – see the first picture) and off it goes. The CD loads a Linux based Wizard that will guide you thru a few simple questions.
    Performance when you take the image should be in the 10 minute range for an average system. Restore is about 20 minutes without prior image verification and twice as long with prior image verification












    I downloaded the free version today, followed the above instructions except I tried to save the system image to an external hard drive 14.6 GB free, and I got this error and do not know how to fix it:
    Image your system with free Macrium-macrium-issues.jpg
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 26,861
    Windows 11 Pro
       #2037

    The error message says to run chkdsk C: /r on your C Drive. This may help Disk Check


    From your image it appears you are trying to put a 167 GB image on a 14.6 GB external. That can't happen. You will need a much larger external drive.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 2
    Windows 7 Pro
       #2038

    Hi
    I have setup Macrium Reflect on a Synology nas. I can pxe boot to the nas and backup and restore.
    To do this on all the computers I have to create a rescue iso on every machine and put that on the nas and then add it to the pxe boot menu. Is there a way to install all my computer network drivers into one rescue image iso?
    That way I could boot to the rescue image then choose which folder to backup/restore to and not have a different rescue image for each computer. I noticed in the win10 forum that Kari uses viBoot. I cannot run that on windows7.
    Currently I am running windows 7 pro on most machines and 1 machine with windows 10 home. and Macrium Reflect V7.3 build:5854.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.
       #2039

    Did you all see the popup in Macrium Reflect Free that they are ending support for free on Jan 1, 2024. If not you might see it if you pull up the check for updates.

    This means no future updates after this year (2023). I plan to keep using it anyway on my win7 for now.
      My Computer


 

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