Solved Image your system with free Macrium

[alan10]

I am backing up to a drive connected by esta, never tried that before so that seems the obvious culprit. I forgot to mention that! Sorry.

The drive works fine in other respects though, I just recently ran WD-Lifeguard extended diagnostics on it because I hadn't used it for a while, it has lots of space on it and is not defragmented. I just dragged and dropped a 10GB file onto it and it transferred at 100MBs.

So if it the problem the problem only exists between it and Macrium.

@Golden, it isn't defragmented.

I used the Pro version 4.2 on a 32 bit Laptop with XP and no eSATA,
and created a PE Boot Rescue CD.
I was surprised to find that on my new 64 Windows 7 bit Desktop,
the same PE Rescue CD could both save to and restore from from eSATA.

I am sure the Free version 4.2 should have the ability to save to eSATA,
but as with all partition image backup software,
any Linux based Boot CD may fail to include all relevant hardware drivers.

 

[stonebear]

I am backing up to a drive connected by esta, never tried that before so that seems the obvious culprit. I forgot to mention that! Sorry.

The drive works fine in other respects though, I just recently ran WD-Lifeguard extended diagnostics on it because I hadn't used it for a while, it has lots of space on it and is not defragmented. I just dragged and dropped a 10GB file onto it and it transferred at 100MBs.

So if it the problem the problem only exists between it and Macrium.

@Golden, it isn't defragmented.

I used the Pro version 4.2 on a 32 bit Laptop with XP and no eSATA,
and created a PE Boot Rescue CD.
I was surprised to find that on my new 64 Windows 7 bit Desktop,
the same PE Rescue CD could both save to and restore from from eSATA.

I am sure the Free version 4.2 should have the ability to save to eSATA,
but as with all partition image backup software,
any Linux based Boot CD may fail to include all relevant hardware drivers.

I am sure Macrium should have no trouble in general with esta but maybe it does with my esta, for whatever reason.

I am not using the boot CD, I am doing it within Windows. Esata is just sata anyway, it doesn't require extra drivers.

I am thinking the issue is not with Macrium so much as it is with the esata connection or the drive itself.....

 

[stonebear]

I found errors using check-disk, it fixed them but now it's transfer rate has plummeted. So, despite passing Lifeguards extended diagnostic etc, there must be something wrong. It might be the esata connection.


edit
Actually, the transfer rates are the same, I got confused for a moment - but I just tried the same job to another location and Macrium did not get stuck. So that confirms that there is a problem with the esata connection or disk.

 

[alan10]

I am not using the boot CD, I am doing it within Windows. Esata is just sata anyway, it doesn't require extra drivers.

You have misunderstood me.
I am NOT saying that your Windows needs extra drivers to create an image.
I AM saying that a LINUX based Boot CD may lack ESATA capability.

I am warning that even though Free Macrium under Live Windows may be able to both backup and restore images on eSATA,
You should check that capability of the Boot CD to restore from eSATA,
and it is prudent to avoid "restoring" your vital partitions such as boot and C:\ until a successful restore to unallocated space.

 

[stonebear]

I am not using the boot CD, I am doing it within Windows. Esata is just sata anyway, it doesn't require extra drivers.

You have misunderstood me.
I am NOT saying that your Windows needs extra drivers to create an image.
I AM saying that a LINUX based Boot CD may lack ESATA capability.

I am warning that even though Free Macrium under Live Windows may be able to both backup and restore images on eSATA,
You should check that capability of the Boot CD to restore from eSATA,
and it is prudent to avoid "restoring" your vital partitions such as boot and C:\ until a successful restore to unallocated space.

OK. Got you.

 

[kado897]

The video in this tutorial shows you what to do to test your boot disk.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html?filter[2]=Backup%20Restore

 

[whs]

I am sure the Free version 4.2 should have the ability to save to eSATA

I have made free Macrium images using eSata with no problems.

 

[stonebear]

@Kado I have tested my boot disk, but not with esta connected as I only just go that. I still don't see that there would be a problem, because esata is sata, just external. I can't even backup to the esata so whether I can restore from it or not is a moot point atm, lol.

 

[stonebear]

I am sure the Free version 4.2 should have the ability to save to eSATA

I have made free Macrium images using eSata with no problems.

Yep, what I have is a problem other than Macrium - it is just that I discovered the problem when using Macrium.

I should have waited and investigated further before posting...

 

[JDH1]

While contrasting Macrium Free to the competition, someone said that Paragon can restore a Win 7 image to a new HDD, and that restored machine will then boot, run, activate, and validate, etc., but they said that this is not the case with Macrium Free.

Are they mostly speaking to the issues of validation and activation, especially with regard to what happens after a restore to the machine specific ID codes, etc.? I would think it would be absolutely mandatory for all image backup programs to have to be able to handle those things when restoring. Is this not so?

 

[whs]

While contrasting Macrium Free to the competition, someone said that Paragon can restore a Win 7 image to a new HDD, and that restored machine will then boot, run, activate, and validate, etc., but they said that this is not the case with Macrium Free.

Are they mostly speaking to the issues of validation and activation, especially with regard to what happens after a restore to the machine specific ID codes, etc.? I would think it would be absolutely mandatory for all image backup programs to have to be able to handle those things when restoring. Is this not so?

Free Macrium can restore to a new HDD as long as the receiving partition is equal or greater in size than the originating partition.

What they were talking about was probably the "shrink" facility of Paragon which Macrium has only in the Pro version.

 

[mjf]

WHS,
I think the thread's branched into system migration! As you say of course Macrium can reimage to a new HDD.

 

[whs]

WHS,
I think the thread's branched into system migration! As you say of course Macrium can reimage to a new HDD.

I think you are right. We get hit with a great bandwidth of problems on this thread. But I suppose that is OK as long as we can help the OPs.

 

[kado897]

WHS,
I think the thread's branched into system migration! As you say of course Macrium can reimage to a new HDD.

I guess that system migration using Macrium is relevant.

 

[JDH1]

While contrasting Macrium Free to the competition, someone said that Paragon can restore a Win 7 image to a new HDD, and that restored machine will then boot, run, activate, and validate, etc., but they said that this is not the case with Macrium Free.

Are they mostly speaking to the issues of validation and activation, especially with regard to what happens after a restore to the machine specific ID codes, etc.? I would think it would be absolutely mandatory for all image backup programs to have to be able to handle those things when restoring. Is this not so?

Free Macrium can restore to a new HDD as long as the receiving partition is equal or greater in size than the originating partition.

What they were talking about was probably the "shrink" facility of Paragon which Macrium has only in the Pro version.

The aspect they were emphasizing had to do with activation and validation after a restore. However if the user was doing a restore after a HDD replacement, and if this new hardware triggered a problem with the MS checks, how could Paragon (or any backup program) shield the system from this problem?

 

[JDH1]

WHS,
I think the thread's branched into system migration! As you say of course Macrium can reimage to a new HDD.

I believe the aspect they were emphasizing had to do with activation and validation after a restore, not someone trying to migrate to a new system.

 

[mjf]

I mainly use Windows own imaging and have not had a problem with activation and validation of Windows and 3rd party licensed software when transferring to a new HDD.
I would not expect Macrium to be different in this respect. The only change here is the HDD serial number. It might be a problem if more hardware elements were different.

 

[whs]

The aspect they were emphasizing had to do with activation and validation after a restore. However if the user was doing a restore after a HDD replacement, and if this new hardware triggered a problem with the MS checks, how could Paragon (or any backup program) shield the system from this problem?

I have never seen anybody run into an activation problem if you just replace the HDD - and there should not be a problem. That is different if you replace the mobo or try to dump the image on another system. And there you are right - it would be the same with any imaging program.

 

[JDH1]

I mainly use Windows own imaging and have not had a problem with activation and validation of Windows and 3rd party licensed software when transferring to a new HDD.
I would not expect Macrium to be different in this respect. The only change here is the HDD serial number. It might be a problem if more hardware elements were different.

I'm glad to hear this, and it makes good sense. So now I need to find the post where the original comment was made and see if in fact the person was speaking about system migration. It wasn't identified as such, but maybe the post was incomplete. I'll look....

 

[JDH1]

The aspect they were emphasizing had to do with activation and validation after a restore. However if the user was doing a restore after a HDD replacement, and if this new hardware triggered a problem with the MS checks, how could Paragon (or any backup program) shield the system from this problem?

I have never seen anybody run into an activation problem if you just replace the HDD - and there should not be a problem. That is different if you replace the mobo or try to dump the image on another system. And there you are right - it would be the same with any imaging program.

As just said to mjf, I'll look for this person's post and see if what they meant was system migration (as you and others first guessed).