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

 

[whs]

The main issue with double booting is that the GRUB takes over for loading the systems. In case of any problems that is hard to fix and also if you want to uninstall Ubuntu, it is not obvious how to clean up the system partition.

The best protection is to take an image of the system partition before you install Ubuntu. Then you can always go back to that.

As long as things work 'as designed', there is no problem. Unfortunately that is not always the case.

 

[sameer1987]

Dear Lehnerus2000,

Would you care you elaborate on the following please:

[*] I pre-partitioned my OS HDD, so I do not have the W7 System Reserved partition.

Does it imply that not having system reserved partition all the necessary BOOT folders MBR are installed in the same as the OS itself ??

Thanks
SAM

 

[sameer1987]

Dear WHS,

Now the question is upon installing UBUNTU, will it ask where to install the GRUB since I cant recall if it did when I tried, or it may have presented the default and I unknowingly hit OK to go along with UBUNTU's default suggestion and ended up with booting issues (I am using UBUNTU version 14)

If it gives an option, should the UBUNTU GRUB be installed in the same partition that I created specifically for UBUNTU ??

Thanks
SAM

 

[whs]

If you want double booting, the Grub has to control the bootloaders for Windows and Ubuntu. That means they have to be in the same place - typically the System partition.

I am not amazed that you got booting issues - I think I elaborated on that possibility.

Your best option is to install Ubuntu on a seperate disk - seperate from the Windows system. But you have to unplug the Windows disk during the Ubuntu installation. Then you select the OS you want to boot with the bootorder of the BIOS.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Triple Boot

[*] I pre-partitioned my OS HDD, so I do not have the W7 System Reserved partition.

Does it imply that not having system reserved partition all the necessary BOOT folders MBR are installed in the same as the OS itself ??

That is what I have been led to believe.
I should point out that I am actually triple booting (XP, W7 & LM17).

I'm not sure how Windows 7 actually dual boots with earlier version of Windows.
Some of the files may have been installed in XP.

On my PC, when I boot:

1. A GRUB menu appears with entries for:
   • Linux Mint
   • Windows Bootloader
2. If I choose Windows Bootloader, I get a new menu with entries for:
   • Windows 7
   • Windows XP

 

[Britton30]

Dear Lehnerus2000,

Would you care you elaborate on the following please:

[*] I pre-partitioned my OS HDD, so I do not have the W7 System Reserved partition.

Does it imply that not having system reserved partition all the necessary BOOT folders MBR are installed in the same as the OS itself ??

Thanks
SAM

Yes that's correct, sort of, the system Reserved is on the same partition as the OS as a folder somewhere instead of a separate partition. I just think it's a "smoother" way of installing.

 

[sameer1987]

Dear ALL,

Many thanks to all for your specificity in elaboration and support for my understanding in this challenging matter which was my first run-in with the Culprit called Boot-loader.

I will surely now give it a go on an old laptop that has no data following step by step to see if it all works out.

I am laying out the implementation plan here, please feel free to chime in if you think a step is missing or needs modification or perhaps needs to be superseded by another method


1. Saving an Initial system image file with MACRIUM in-case things go side ways (keeping the MACRIUM recovery CD handy)

2. Installing EasyBCD

3. Installing G-parted on live USB

4. Using G-parted to partition the Hard drive with a different 25GB Partition for UBUNTU and another 2-5 GB Partition for SWAP (leaving System Reserved: and OS Disk (C): as they are and taking space away from DATA Disk (D): for the above)

5. Running UBUNTU from live USB to see if there are any issues

6. Booting into Ubuntu and installing it to the proper partition. Installing the GRUB bootloader to the Ubuntu partition - not to the MBR.

7. Booting into Windows and run EasyBCD. Adding Ubuntu to the list of operating systems. Let EasyBCD install its bootloader.

8. Now when I boot my system, I can select which OS to boot.



Thanks
SAM

 

[Nosmas]

Hi there - I have been referred to this Tutorial by DavidW7ncus who has been trying to help with my problem. I would greatly appreciate someone having a look at my thread: - http://www.sevenforums.com/backup-restore/335680-problem-windows-7-task-scheduler.html On the last two occasions I have attempted to run scheduled backups my whole system has frozen after only a few minutes and I have had to power down and reboot. Additionally MR has not created any logs for these so I have been unable to see why they have failed, whereas earlier failures at least ran sufficiently long to record an error message. Image files have been created on my external HDD but they are incomplete and MR says they are corrupted.

 

[whs]

Why did you use the task scheduler to schedule the Macrium backups. You can do that directly from within Macrium. Just right click on the backup definition file in the Macrium window and you will find it.

 

[Britton30]

Yes, Macrium will create the w7 Scheduled Task so you don't have to.

 

[kado897]

I uses the Windows task scheduler so if there is a problem with that it may also fail. Looking at the entry it has created for mine, only the path to the xml file is in quotes.

 

[Nosmas]

Thank you whs and Britton30 for your replies. However there seems to be some misunderstanding. As I said in the opening post of my thread I have only recently become aware of Macrium so am still on a bit of a learning curve and may have missed something. I did NOT use Windows Task Scheduler directly, but followed the tutorial "Scheduling a backup" under Macrium Help, which creates the scheduled task but according to the video it uses the inbuilt Windows Task Scheduler. So I feel that I have done exactly as you suggest and scheduled the backups from within MR. I have also edited (e.g. changed the scheduled run times) them by right clicking and making changes.

 

[looked]

The recovery video tutorial looks nice but it shows how to do it from within a "working" Windows OS but what happens when I cannot start Windows?
I guess the PE recovery disk would help but how does it work?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

The recovery video tutorial looks nice but it shows how to do it from within a "working" Windows OS but what happens when I cannot start Windows?
I guess the PE recovery disk would help but how does it work?

When you can't start Windows, you boot from the recovery disk, then navigate to your previously made image file. Then select the destination to which you want to restore. Then restore. If it goes as expected, you can then boot from that destination partition.

You can make a WinPE recovery disk or a Linux recovery disk, both from within Macrium. The WinPE disk is much preferred as it is less prone to problems, particularly driver issues.

The WinPE disk will land you in the exact same interface you would see if you started Macrium from your C drive. The Linux disk takes you to a slow, cryptic, text-based interface.

I haven't looked at the tutorial, but the "working Windows OS" you refer to is probably a boot from the WinPE disk. That's what you see--a Windows environment.

Regardless of which type of recovery disk you have, you need to make sure it will boot your PC. If it won't, you cannot restore.

 

[looked]

When you can't start Windows, you boot from the recovery disk, then navigate to your previously made image file. Then select the destination to which you want to restore. Then restore. If it goes as expected, you can then boot from that destination partition.

You can make a WinPE recovery disk or a Linux recovery disk, both from within Macrium. The WinPE disk is much preferred as it is less prone to problems, particularly driver issues.

The WinPE disk will land you in the exact same interface you would see if you started Macrium from your C drive. The Linux disk takes you to a slow, cryptic, text-based interface.

I haven't looked at the tutorial, but the "working Windows OS" you refer to is probably a boot from the WinPE disk. That's what you see--a Windows environment.

Regardless of which type of recovery disk you have, you need to make sure it will boot your PC. If it won't, you cannot restore.

Thanks very much, that is definitely the WinPE boot screen.

 

[kado897]

The recovery video was actually made in a virtual machine so that it could be recorded. In this case the virtual machine was booted from the PE disk rather than the real machine. It is exactly the same procedure if you boot your real machine from the PE disk.

 

[looked]

The recovery video was actually made in a virtual machine so that it could be recorded. In this case the virtual machine was booted from the PE disk rather than the real machine. It is exactly the same procedure if you boot your real machine from the PE disk.

Yes I think so otherwise how could he record the tutorial?
I really wish that the image will work 100% because installing and setting Windows plus software, browser, plugins etc. etc. takes too much time!
I had to buy a spare hard disk and temporary connect it as primary only to set up the new OS then I revert back to the old disk so that I can continue my work.

 

[kado897]

In what way does the image not work 100%?

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Have a little problem imaging to an external. I have wiped the drive formatted it even tried setting it as active but Macrium is telling me it doesn't exists even though it is in the Macrium listings and keeps asking me for a volume ??

Anyway it's late and I shall pick up tomorrow.

 

[whs]

Make a folder on the external and target the image to that folder. No reason it should not work unless there is something screwy with the drive.