Imaging with free Macrium

   Information

This tutorial shows imaging with free Macrium Version 5.0. If you are still using Macrium Version 4.2, go to this Vimeo site where the tutorial of that version is stored.

The Video does not show the recovery part because I have no setup to screen capture it. But Keith (Kado) made this excellent recovery tutorial with text (but no sound) that he captured from a virtual partition.

   Warning

Note that the external disk to which you image must be formatted in NTFS. A disk that is formatted in Fat32 will accept an image, but the recovery programs cannot restore that image. You can, however, mount (open) a Fat32 image as VHD.

   Note

The production of the WinPE recovery CD (which is highly recommended) may take up to 3 hours because Macrium needs to download the 1.7GB WAIK (Windows Application Installation Kit). For your convenience I have uploaded a ready made .iso of the WinPE recovery disc. That can be downloaded in appr. 8 minutes which clearly beats the WAIK download. Once you downloaded and unzipped the folder, you can burn it directly to a CD with e.g. ImgBurn.

Here is the link to my Skydrive site.

Here is an alternate link from FileSwap (courtesy of Gary - Britton30)

I draw your attention to the fact that this WinPE CD can also be used to make images. That may be convenient in case you do not want to install Macrium on your PC.

This video tutorial explains the full cycle of the imaging process which is:

· Initial setups
· Image definition
· Image scheduling
· Image production

The imaging program that was used for this tutorial is free Macrium. But the basic principles are the same for other imaging programs although the user interface will be different.

This video runs for appr. 7 minutes.
There is a related thread on the Vista forum which gives a brief introduction to Macrium followed by a discussion.
You can download the free Macrium edition from here.

Note: If you have a problem with the loudness of the sound output of the video, check the "Loudness Equalization" box in your Playback device. It is under the 'Enhancements' tab.

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Create a System Image Backup in Windows 7
• How to Do a System Image Recovery in Windows 7
• How to Backup User and System Files in Windows 7
• How to Restore Backup User and System Files in Windows 7
• How to Restore your System with a Broken Windows 7 System Image
• How to Create a Bootable Rescue USB Flash Drive for Macrium Reflect

 

[SIW2]

Hi whs,

you could provide the sha1 hash for the iso, then people can check if the d/l is ok.

 

[bawldiggle]

@joebots

The two Seagate 250GB 7200.10 drives that I RAIDed were purchased in 2007, and originally on my ASUS A8V Deluxe mainboard. They never faltered, and I used them every single day across two builds. You'd think in all that time I would have had a glitch that required restoring from an image, but it never happened.

I had problems with a WD External USB drive (2006 vintage) recycled into service as data-drive with my 18month old Toshiba laptop.
The WD was "glitchy" -- not always in WinExp -- saving files and safely remove were temperamental.
WD did not have a solution ... and I hounded them :devil:
Some of my very-old thumb drives were unreliable on the 2012 Toshiba ... but on a 2003 WinXP rig they were fine.
(None of these are your issues I know, but in my case I am sure it was hardware age)

Your RAIDed HDs are 7 years old and I wonder about their compatibility with new smarter hardware?
(What do you mean by RAIDed ? Cannibalized hardware or RAID as in redundancy ?)
- I am a squirrel when it comes good-old-stuff. So I know how you feel about letting go of older gear.

A new USB disc drive ... the glitches have stopped.
Replaced the ancient thumb-drives 12 months ago ... no problems since.

 

[fr0zensphere]

How much data is in the partition that you wanted to image.

But you seem to have more problems. If the WinPE iso from my OneDrive does not work, then you have either a corrupted download of the iso or the burning did not work correctly. Try ImgBurn.

Hi whs,

I found out something strange. Apparently the disk that I burned does work ... on another computer. I took it home and tried it out on my PC. It booted just fine, and there were no graphical glitches as I described earlier. But it refuses to work on the PC that is in the laboratory where I work.

It's really frustrating... I'm trying to transfer an existing win 8.1 installation (x64) to another PC using sysprep. Why would the disk boot fine on my computer at home but refuse to boot on the other computer? Could it have anything to do with the hardware? The PC I'm trying to work with is actually supposed to be a server, with an intel C226 (not 100% certain) chipset. But we're using it as just an ordinary desktop.

 

[Britton30]

@fr0zensphere:
Some CD drives are finicky with disks. Try burning another on your home PC and try it in the lab one using a CD/R not RW if you have.

 

[sameer1987]

Dear WHS,

I truly appreciate your tutorial about MACRIUM, it is very helpful.

I recently ran across an issue during partitioning of my internal hard drive to Dual-Boot WIN7 with UBUNTU and messed up my boot-loader. Had created a complete system image earlier using Windows back and restore utility and had also prepared a recovery CD from it.

So, when I booted from the recovery CD and asked to look for the previous image it couldn't find it and showed a blank table. After several painful hours and a lot of research I was able to recover my PC with no data loss.

I thought that perhaps i did something wrong in creating the backup image so i repeated the process and successful created a new system image on my TOSHIBA External 3.0 HD

Booted form recovery CD to see if it would pick up the restored image and much to my Dismay the same empty table.

So, i looked further in several forums and found out that the Windows Recovery Utility is in its INFANCY stages and I should definitely look into 3rd party backup software.

I have just now Downloaded MACRIUM Reflect free version 5.2.6551 with the MACRIUM rescue 5.2.6504.iso file from the link you provided back in March 25th, 2010 in this THREAD

Q1. Will this Macrium Rescue ISO CD burnt through IMAGE-BURN replace the windows 7 x64 recovery CD that i can use to BOOT from??

Q2. Will it be able to locate the images that MACRIUM images saved on the External HD in separate folders or do the images have to be saved in ROOT folders on the EXT HD ??

Q3. Need suggestions on how to manage image/folder backups from Macrium on my External HD ??


Will highly appreciate your response for it will prevent me landing in the same predicament


Thanks and Regards

SAM

 

[sameer1987]

DEAR WHS,

Forgot to ask the following important stuff as I am a little confused

Q4. In your tutorial you mentioned to use both WIN PE3.1 and Linux for backup ? could you specify what are the benefits of one over the other and how are they both helpful ??

Q5. Create Bootable rescue media (on the TOP left corner with an ARROW) does it mean that after i save my systems image in my External HD than i can boot from it

Thanks
SAM

 

[kado897]

Hi Sam and welcome to Seven Forums. I will attempt to answer your questions. WHS can add his comments later.

Q1. Yes for backup but you may need the W7 rescue CD for its boot repair options.

Q2. Normally Macrium will find the images and present them to you as a list, Newest to oldest. If for some reason they don't appear you can browse to the location in Macrium's version of explorer.

Q3. The free version of Macrium can only do images not File and Folder backups. For File and Folder backups I recommend FreeFileSync (link in the sig). I made a video on using that. It is a bit out of date but it will give you the idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX37AifCJ6Q

 

[kado897]

I was too quick.

Q4. You only need the PE disk.

Q5. You can't boot from the image. That is what the PE rescue disk is for.

 

[sameer1987]

Hi Keith,

Many thanks for the response.

Please tell me if i got this right ?

Q1. I will need a Windows backup and recovery generated rescue CD to boot from initially if i mess up on the BOOTLOADER as i did earlier and it cannot be replaced with the MACRIUM rescue CD ??

See here in lies the problem i.e. to boot from the rescue CD it is not picking up the image from the external Hard disk so how will it pick it up and restore that image from there ?? my understanding is that until Windows boot into normal mode than you can use the MACRIUM CD to load images that you backed UP in the external HD, if not than when will you use the MACRIUM rescue CD

Q1.a lets say that my images don't show up using windows rescue CD than do i insert the MACRIUM's CD to go into their explorer version and access the images saved on the external HD that way??

Q3. Maintaining the MACRIUM generated image folders is what i was pointing to see if we need to make a folder for each backup image MACRIUM generates or one giant folder with all the image backups in it or NO FOLDER at all ??

I appreciate the VIDEO it was cool. Downloaded the FREE FILE sync and will use it to schedule backups and do I have to have 3 folders in the destination LOG / MIRROR / Version.

Thanks
SAM

 

[kado897]

Q1. Restoring an image will normally also restore the boot record and give you a bootable syste. If you wish to fix boot problems without doing a restore you will need the Windows recovery disk or a Windows installation disk.

Q1a. Your Macrium images can't be restored using the Windows recovery CD.

Q3. It is best not to write them to the partition root, although Macrium will not complain. It is really up to you whether you store them in one or more folders. It makes no difference to Macrium. You can also move them from folder to folder on the disk with no problems.

FFS. You don't need to set the folders up as I did. That is merely a suggestion that works for me. That said, if you are going to keep the logs they have to go somewhere and if you elect to use versioning you need a versions folder. One change since I made that video. The version folder name now needs a date macro to create a unique name. it is in the help file.

 

[whs]

I think I came too late. Keith answered most questions. Here are some little additions:

Q1a. I don't really understand what you want to do with the Windows rescue CD. To recover with a Macrium image, you use the Macrium WinPE CD.

Q3. I put all images for one system into a folder which carries the name of the system. This is because I have images of different systems on the same disk(s). I never placed images into the root, but I guess it can be done.

 

[sameer1987]

KEITH / WHS ,

Please look at the attachments and tell me what you think this ERROR might be reflecting to as I move forward in generating the system image through MACRIUM, It displays an ERROR code 9.

I wish I could catch a break here.

Appreciate the response again KADO !!!

Lets see if we can work this out and what might I need to fix on my end.

HMM MM!!!! on second thought this will leave a record for others to look at and correct similar issue as it arises


Regards
SAM

View attachment MACRIUM ISSUE CODE 9.doc

View attachment media_usb.log

 

[Britton30]

This is the preferred, best way to upload an image or a file to a post.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html#post93869

Press the ALT and PrntScrn keys at the same time, this will capture only the active window to use in Paint or your preferred graphics editor.


You may also upload a photo or image you already have on your PC, as you would a file, without using the Snipping tool.

 

[kado897]

Is the USB stick write protected?

 

[sameer1987]

OK I tried using a brand new DVD for MACRIUM to create the recovery disk and it didn't work. So, I erased the disk first and went back and asked to create the Rescue Media and it worked

I didn't even realize that by default it was pointing to my 2TB External HD.

OK so the windows PE 3.1 recovery media is created.
When would i use it is the thought in my head ??

Now I am gonna create the backup image of the entire internal hard drive to begin with.
Can I do incremental image backup later with the free version??

Thanks KADO


HELLO BRITTON30,

I am new here and hopefully will catch up to the way tasks are carried out in this Forum.
Been used to CTRL+PRINT SCREEN and open up WORD DOC and pasting there, adjusting to make the image larger.

I will use PAINT from now on. Thanks for the TIP

 

[kado897]

The free version doesn't do incremental or differential backups. If I were you I would create an image and boot to the CD to make sure that you it can see the image. You can fully test the procedure as follows.

1. Create a small (1 GB) test partition and copy some files to it.
2. Image that partition.
3. Modify the files on the partition.
4. Boot to the CD and restore the test partition.
5. Boot back into Windows and check the contents of the test partition.


I did a video of the restore process which can be found here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkSX5OzI-TA

 

[ignatzatsonic]

see comments in bold

OK I tried using a brand new DVD for MACRIUM to create the recovery disk and it didn't work.

Meaning what exactly? You couldn't create a recovery disk? Or you could create it, but it wouldn't boot your PC? Or it would boot your PC, but you could not then restore an image?



OK so the windows PE 3.1 recovery media is created. When would i use it is the thought in my head ??

You would boot from it when you need to restore a partition you have imaged. Like when your hard drive drops dead or you want to move your Windows installation to a larger hard drive or an SSD.

Now I am gonna create the backup image of the entire internal hard drive to begin with.

If you have multiple partitions and want to backup all of them, I'd probably make separate images of each partition. You need to make an image of your "system reserved" partition if you have one----or an image of whatever partition contains your boot files.

Can I do incremental image backup later with the free version??

I don't think so. I think you need the "Standard" or "Pro" versions to do incrementals, both paid.

Many would advise you to instead do full images anyway. Easier to manage and less prone to have issues.

 

[sameer1987]

boy oh boy you guys in this FORUM are very ACTIVE and AWESOME

So much help on demand, this is the best Forum ever and the Awesomeness is off the charts.

Great Work guys . Two THUMBS way up for all of you

I opened up the Help site for MACRIUM and since it is pictorial I shouldn't have any problem understanding the features and definitely going to do as mentioned above by KADO

FOLKS your responses reflect sincerity in your concern for helping and reaching out and contributing to the community and displays excellency !!!!

Feels good to be a MEMBER here

 

[kado897]

Thank you sameer.

 

[sameer1987]

Dear ignatzatsonic / KADO,

What brought me here is the fact that i tried to dual boot WIN7 with UBUNTU and it messed up the BOOTLOADER.

My first thought ignatzatsonic when you said "make separate image for each partition" tells me that the System Reserved partition will get changed after the dual boot, so do you recommend a full internal hard disk image at first than later-on as I download UBUNTU to a separate partition on the internal HD to make separate images for each partition??

If not than please suggest a good strategy.

ALSO any help i can get to do a safe DUAL BOOT would be much appreciated. I need that desperately for creating Networking LABS at home.

Thanks
SAM