Solved Image your system with free Macrium

BuckSkin said:

I have Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Pro machines.
Using free version 6.3.1745
Do I need a separate individual Rescue Media CD for each machine; or, will the discs be identical regardless of the machine ?

Thanks for reading and all help is appreciated.

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You absolutetly want to upgrade your free version to the latest 7.2.6957. It's still free, and MUCH improved with enhancements over version 6.

In particular, Macrium has recently brought out some super enhancements to the "create rescue media" functionality. I like to think I might have had something to do with their development in this direction as I had submitted a large wish-list of such features several years ago. They thanked me, and put it in the pot for future work. And many of those wishes have now come true.





Now the program automatically checks both (a) the version of WinPE and (b) Macrium Reflect which you may currently have last installed into your Boot Manager version of "rescue media". If either check uncovers that a newer version is appropriate (e.g. you've now upgraded Macrium Reflect from 3954 to 3957, so that the Boot Manager copy is now out-of-date, or if WinPE for Kernel 10 has now been upgraded from 1603 to 1709, etc.) it will allow you to automatically upgrade the Boot Manager parts which need updating. This may require a new large download of WinPE but it's all done automatically for you while you watch the fuel gauge.

So in this one new "carve-out functionality" in a separate window concerning creating as many of the one or more standalone "rescue media" varieties you might want to have (e.r. Boot Manager from your hard drive if available, which of course is the most convenient, small flash drive, optical CD/DVD, ISO file, etc.) it's all now possible very very easily.


As far as using the system-generated "ID" vs. your own file names, I use my own file names. I name them whatever I want for maximum understandability if/when I ever go to use them again which might be a long time after they were created. In particular, I use MR constantly many times (e.g. typically at least once or twice a day if not more) during the week-long rebuild project when reinstalling Windows. I like to create at the very least names like "end of day #n, WMC and extenders now complete and working". These "progress" versions inform me of which version to revert to if a disaster strikes during the effort and I decide to revert to an earlier "stable" version I absolutely knew was working perfectly.

MR always appends an appropriate incrementing suffix if you run the same job multiple times without changing the file name (where it always starts with a suffix of 00-00 for the first version generated). And of course you specify how many generations to retain (with incrementing suffixes) before deleting the oldest and re-using its suffix, in a continuing circular naming technique.

The time-to-restore now present in the much-improved version 7 of the product is astonishingly clever and fast, if there's really not much which has changed in the MRIMG file you're restoring and the current contents of the target drive. The program now has a "checking for differences" pre-step (which you'd think would take substantial time, but apparently because of their brilliant indexed technique it doesn't) so that when it then actually begins the restore it might take very little time. Say you're restoring last night's image today, and you haven't done much in your system today. The restore might take 45 seconds (once it starts, after the "checking for difference")! Or, if you've made lots of changes, it might take 5-10 minutes or more depending on your hardware and file size.

I myself use the non-free "standard home version" (I buy a 4-seat license pack) for my own machines, just as my way of rewarding the software vendor for their brilliant ongoing development and support for the product... which I absolutely could not live without. I install "free" for friends and family who I don't want to ask to pay for this software since it might never be used for them, whereas it is indispensible for me and my own situation.

It is invaluable in building or upgrading machines, using either the (a) "copy out to external backup / change hardware / copy back from external backup" or (b) "clone this disk" methodology, which are conceptually identical but used for different new hardware situations. It is perfect for say what I just went through this week, having received a new Lenovo M910t with Win7 installed on a 1TB HDD spinner. I added my own M.2 Samsung 970 EVO NVMe SSD to be the new primary drive. I then booted to a flash drive standalone WinPE 10 + 3957 version of "rescue media" (which will work for pretty much ANY version of Windows and hardware, since it's based on WinPE 10 - 1709) in order to take my "initial out-of-the-carton factory partitions image" of everything on the HDD spinner to my external USB 3.0 backup drive. This is my true emergency backup, should I ever have the desire to go back to "factory state" which in truth I know will never happen since I take regular image backups of my "production" system throughout the years, and I can always revert to last night's or last weekend's working system if a disaster strikes. I NEVER need to go back to "factory" once I'm in production.

So I had to boot to the new Win7 from the HDD spinner at least for a first time and then short while in order to at the very least install the Samsung NVMe Controller Driver (since NVMe support is not built into the old Win7 as it is into Win10). Then I installed Macrium Reflect. Then I ran Macrium Reflect (while Windows 7 was running) to "clone" the three system-related boot-involved partitions from the HDD spinner (ignoring the "recovery" partition which I never use, but that's just me).

Then I re-booted and interrupted the BIOS sequence in order to get into BIOS Setup to change the boot sequence to now show the NVMe drive after (1) USB FDD, (2) USB HDD, (3) optical CD/DVD, (4) NVMe. Then I save/exit from the BIOS change and the machine proceeds to now boot to the Lenovo-provided Win7 which has been cloned over to my newly installed DIY NVMe SSD. I will eventually perform a few SSD tweaks (since the Lenovo Win7 was installed to HDD spinner), and then I will use Partition Wizard (free or non-free) to delete all the original partitions from the Lenovo 1TB HDD spinner and re-create several new "data" partitions on that drive which has now been re-purposed.

I now "create rescue media" and build (a) the Boot Manager version (automatically placed on the system-reserved and C partitions which are now on NVMe), and also (b) USB flash drive standalone emergency version. System imaging the does not involve changes to the system boot / C partitions but involves other partitions or making backups can be performed by MR while operating within Windows. Operations involving changing C or system drives / partitions must be performed "standalone", either after booting from the Boot Manager menu option (if that is available and appropriate for your need) or from standalone USB flash drive or optical CD/DVD.

I simply could not live without MR, especially when going through hell week during a situation like this week's total machine replacement. When reinstalling Windows it can either be from a retail installer for a home-built machine, or vendor pre-installed (like with this Lenovo M910t), but regardless when I'm upgrading or changing drive hardware and need to copy partitions, in my opinion there's no product superior to MR .

Okay....,
I created O/S partition backup images of three machines, saving the images to a network folder that resides on another machine.
All three O/S partitions held about 80-GB of information.
To create and verify the images took on average 01:35:00 to complete.

I then saved an image of the host machine in which the network folder resides.
With 82-GB to image, this operation took only 00:19:29 to complete.

Do those time figures look about average for saving to a network folder ?
Considering how long it took for the network saves; it hardly seems possible that the host machine could achieve the task in 1/5th as long.

kado897 said:

I've never tried but it may make it more difficult to create and maintain differential or incremental images off it.

I use a different approach. I allow MR to generate the image names but place them in folders which describe their purpose.

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I do the same thing.

I have a spare 1TB HDD internal drive that I want to use as a backup. I thought about connecting it to the PC using a SATA cable & then creating an image on it. Then at some point stick it into a USB drive enclosure.

Would Macrium or Windows still recognize the USB connected drive in order to restore an image from it? It's the same drive but I'm not sure what happens when it's connected via USB.

Mike99 said:

I have a spare 1TB HDD internal drive that I want to use as a backup. I thought about connecting it to the PC using a SATA cable & then creating an image on it. Then at some point stick it into a USB drive enclosure.

Would Macrium or Windows still recognize the USB connected drive in order to restore an image from it? It's the same drive but I'm not sure what happens when it's connected via USB.

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If the internal drive is 3.5", a cable won't work for it; sometimes even 2.5" drives don't work. Instead, put the drive into an enclosure (or a dock) first before using it externally.

Macrium Reflect and Windows will recognize USB connected drives. I do it all the time with my notebook.

lehnerus2000 said:

I do the same thing.

View attachment 406726​

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You are far better organised than I am.

Mike99 said:

I have a spare 1TB HDD internal drive that I want to use as a backup. I thought about connecting it to the PC using a SATA cable & then creating an image on it. Then at some point stick it into a USB drive enclosure.

Would Macrium or Windows still recognize the USB connected drive in order to restore an image from it? It's the same drive but I'm not sure what happens when it's connected via USB.

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I think I understand your question; if not, then please ignore what I say.
If you are connecting the disk to SATA internally, you will need connect both, a SATA data cable(the narrow one) and a SATA power cable(the wide one).
Once it is connected, if you go into disk management and assign a permanent drive letter to that disk, it will from that point onward be recognized by that drive letter, whether it be internally SATA connected or USB connected via a self-powered enclosure; thus, the "path" that the image program looks for it will be the same.
I hope that made sense.

kado897 said:

You are far better organised than I am.

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I'm not sure that's true.
I like to have "a place for everything and everything in its place".

I hate it when I'm pretty sure I have something, but I can't find it when I want it.

lehnerus2000 said:

I'm not sure that's true.
I like to have "a place for everything and everything in its place".

I hate it when I'm pretty sure I have something, but I can't find it when I want it.

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I very much enjoyed reading through that link you provided; thanks.

I am in total agreement with that last sentence, as well; my wife ---- who is a complete opposite --- claims that I have OCB. (I can't help it if I always know where my keys and other stuff are at, while she is madly tearing the house apart, trying to rush out the door with no idea where her keys, phone, etc. are at. Years ago, I even put her a key-hook right beside the door at eye level; I don't think it has ever been used.)
I didn't get this organized behavior from any of my family either, as everything they ever touched was always complete chaos, even other peoples stuff.
My father's policy was that it was cheaper to buy something again, than to spend time looking for it.

BuckSkin said:

I think I understand your question; if not, then please ignore what I say.
If you are connecting the disk to SATA internally, you will need connect both, a SATA data cable(the narrow one) and a SATA power cable(the wide one).
Once it is connected, if you go into disk management and assign a permanent drive letter to that disk, it will from that point onward be recognized by that drive letter, whether it be internally SATA connected or USB connected via a self-powered enclosure; thus, the "path" that the image program looks for it will be the same.
I hope that made sense.

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Yes, I would connect SATA & power cables.

I don't understand about going into disk management and assigning it a permanent drive letter. Other times when I connected a second internal drive the BIOS automatically detected it and the second drive appeared in Disk Management with a number such as "Disk 1" assigned to it & the partitions had letters assigned to them.

I don't recall ever assigning a number or letter. Have I been dong something wrong, and just lucky that it's worked?

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?

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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.

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.

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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?

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.

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.

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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.

essenbe said:

...change the drive letters to something like W, X, or Y...

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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?).

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

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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:

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.

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.

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.