Solved Image your system with free Macrium

[stonebear]

I installed Paragon (Advanced) Free yesterday and it didn't add a partition, it does use some kind of virtual thing I think (wasn't paying attention).

 

[JDH1]

You can put all your partitions in the same backup file with Macrium but you have to restore them one at a time.

I don't know whether one backup file would be more or less confusing than using separate folders and separate files. WHS's recent post (#213) explains his reasoning on this quite well. I want to go over WHS's tutorial materials today -- hopefully things will make more sense to me after that <g>!

A different but related matter here is using Macrium to go from a HDD to an SSD. Obviously they have dissimilar structures, so maybe this is impossible to do. However if I eventually have three separate image files of the three partitions I now have on one physical HDD, I hope I will somehow be able to transfer all these to one physical SSD.

Yes I see your point. I have 4 partitions on my laptop internal HDD. I backup Recovery and HP tools together because they wont change and do System and C together regularly because they are a "working set". Other disks I do file and folder backups as and when needed (I have the paid version).

It sounds like your situation is quite similar to mine. On my single internal laptop HDD, I have two partitions which I believe will not change daily, and one which will (obviously C.

 

[kado897]

Reasons to get the paid Macrium.

1. Incremental / Differential backups.
2. File and folder backup.
3. In version 5 cloning.
4. The WinPE recovery disk.

I got it mainly for the file and folder backup and the WinPE recovery disk (The linux disk didn't recognize my backup drive consistently).

 

[JDH1]

I installed Paragon (Advanced) Free yesterday and it didn't add a partition, it does use some kind of virtual thing I think (wasn't paying attention).

So Paragon does add a virtual drive. I wonder why? Regardless, even it it were temporary, that could get confusing if it meant that drive letters were changed. And if it were permanent, this would be even worse.

 

[whs]

jdh1, answers to your earlier questions:

1. I never had a need for the paid Macrium. For me the free version is full function.

2. For moving the OS from the HDD to the SSD, see my tutorial on the matter. If you have further questions,, let me know.

PS: If you open Macrium images (just double click on an image file), you also get a virtual drive. But it disappears with a reboot.

 

[JDH1]

Reasons to get the paid Macrium.

1. Incremental / Differential backups.
2. File and folder backup.
3. In version 5 cloning.
4. The WinPE recovery disk.

I got it mainly for the file and folder backup and the WinPE recovery disk (The linux disk didn't recognize my backup drive consistently).

My habit is to do full backups, so item #1 isn't much of a benefit for me.

On item #2, can't you retrieve single files and/or folders as needed from a Macrium full backup file? Ghost has a tool for this called "Ghost Explorer", so I hoped Macrium would allow this too. Maybe I have your meaning backwards though. Maybe you mean that paid-for Macrium lets you ~backup~ less than whole partitions, down to files and folders?

On item #3, I find cloning and imaging confusing since in my frame of reference (Ghost.exe) they are more or less the same thing. Evidently not with Macrium though. I suspect cloning means backing up a whole drive to one file even if that one physical drive has multiple partitions, whereas imaging means backing up up one partition at a time to individual files. Do I have this correct or is cloning something entirely different?

On item #4, I have read that the kind of recovery disk a program makes is important due to compatibility issues. Some favor (or bad mouth) Linux, some like BartPE, and now you have mentioned WinPE. Is the paid Macrium's WinPE based recovery disk an important benefit, something I would want? If so, I will certainly get the paid version.

 

[kado897]

Reasons to get the paid Macrium.

1. Incremental / Differential backups.
2. File and folder backup.
3. In version 5 cloning.
4. The WinPE recovery disk.

I got it mainly for the file and folder backup and the WinPE recovery disk (The linux disk didn't recognize my backup drive consistently).

My habit is to do full backups, so item #1 isn't much of a benefit for me.

On item #2, can't you retrieve single files and/or folders as needed from a Macrium full backup file? Ghost has a tool for this called "Ghost Explorer", so I hoped Macrium would allow this too. Maybe I have your meaning backwards though. Maybe you mean that paid-for Macrium lets you ~backup~ less than whole partitions, down to files and folders?

On item #3, I find cloning and imaging confusing since in my frame of reference (Ghost.exe) they are more or less the same thing. Evidently not with Macrium though. I suspect cloning means backing up a whole drive to one file even if that one physical drive has multiple partitions, whereas imaging means backing up up one partition at a time to individual files. Do I have this correct or is cloning something entirely different?

On item #4, I have read that the kind of recovery disk a program makes is important due to compatibility issues. Some favor (or bad mouth) Linux, some like BartPE, and now you have mentioned WinPE. Is the paid Macrium's WinPE based recovery disk an important benefit, something I would want? If so, I will certainly get the paid version.

On Item 2. Yes you can very easily. Yje point of the file and folders backup is that I use it on data on external drives and I wouldn't want to image the whole drive every time I wanted to back up some files. It just adds to the flexibility.

On item 3. In Macriums case this is essentially copying one drive to another block for block.

On item 4. Test out the linux recovery first. If it works for you that's fine otherwise a WinPE recovery disk will probably be necessary. I V5 allows you to create a WinPE recovery disk provided you download the WAIK first. Version 4 didn't. I'm not sure which version the free is at the moment.

 

[JDH1]

jdh1, answers to your earlier questions:

1. I never had a need for the paid Macrium. For me the free version is full function.

2. For moving the OS from the HDD to the SSD, see my tutorial on the matter. If you have further questions,, let me know.

PS: If you open Macrium images (just double click on an image file), you also get a virtual drive. But it disappears with a reboot.

Okay, I will read your tutorial on the SSD question.

I tend to dislike the virtual drive letter, but as you say, maybe it's no big deal if it's temporary. Still, it really depends on how Macrium does this. If the new virtual drive letter is inserted logically at the end of all the existing drive letters, no problem (actually in that case it wouldn't be problematical even if it the new drive was permanent). But if Macrium always creates the virtual drive as letter D:, and so bumps all the existing drive letters down the alphabet by one letter, I'd find that less acceptable.

This was just mentioned in another post... Do you see a benefit to the WinPE recovery disk available via the paid version of Macrium?

 

[kado897]

Macrium selects a free drive letter and also gives you the option to change it.

 

[whs]

If the new virtual drive letter is inserted logically at the end of all the existing drive letters, no problem

That's what it does.

I never had a need for the WinPE yet. But if you have external disks attached to USB3, that may be required. The Linux recovery disk does not support USB3 yet. But I understand it will support it with the next version.

 

[jmm]

whs, i wish i had the time to read all 23 pages of this thread...
did you give up on me on the htg forum?
also, here's my email to macrium's support:
"hello, although i'm not a registered macrium user, i'm a potential one depending on your response to my issue:
Basically, restoring an image to my new hdd is impossible due to the new hdd not appearing as an available target.
All details can be found in these threads: http://www.sevenforums.com/backup-restore/182686-problem-macrium.html and problem with macrium « How-To Geek Forums .
It seems this particular issue already occurred, as reported 2 years ago in macrium's forum ( Macrium Support Forum - Problems Restoring - Linux boot ); now the main conclusion i retain from this latter thread is Nick's statement (last post) that "[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetic]The purchased version of Reflect includes a Windows PE 2.0 rescue CD that's guaranteed to work[/FONT]" - if you hereby confirm that statement, i am willing to pay (do i have another choice?)...
thank you,
jmm"

 

[JDH1]

Macrium selects a free drive letter and also gives you the option to change it.

Okay, it's good to know that no drive letters need to be "bumped" for Macrium's temp partition.

 

[JDH1]

If the new virtual drive letter is inserted logically at the end of all the existing drive letters, no problem

That's what it does.

I never had a need for the WinPE yet. But if you have external disks attached to USB3, that may be required. The Linux recovery disk does not support USB3 yet. But I understand it will support it with the next version.

Glad to hear about the drive lettering.

I don't own any USB 3 devices yet, but certainly this will be in my future for an external HDD (that, or maybe eSATA). It begins to sound like the paid version of Macrium might be appropriate for me.

I was just reading the tutorial "SSD - INSTALL AND TRANSFER THE OPERATING SYSTEM". And there I found this note:

"Most free imaging programs cannot shrink the originating partition to fit into the usually much smaller C: partition on the SSD - even if the amount of data in that partition would fit."

If the above quote refers to free Macrium, I hope the paid for Macrium does not have this same limitation. Being a long time Ghost user, I suppose I'm spoiled by not having this worry. Whenever a HDD fails, you just do a Ghost restore from your last image to a new HDD, larger or smaller, it makes no difference (obviously as long as the newly created partition is big enough). Maybe paid Marcium is the same?

 

[whs]

Regarding restores to smaller partitions I am not sure the paid version can do that. This is a quote from one of their tutorials.

You must create enough space for the restored partition. If the total space of the selected partitions is less than the size of the partition to be restored then the 'Next' button will be disabled.

Reference

Note that free Paragon can do a "Restore with shrink". http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/

 

[kado897]

Regarding restores to smaller partitions I am not sure the paid version can do that. This is a quote from one of their tutorials.

You must create enough space for the restored partition. If the total space of the selected partitions is less than the size of the partition to be restored then the 'Next' button will be disabled.

Reference

Note that free Paragon can do a "Restore with shrink". http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/

I can't find the reference ATM but I'm pretty sure V5 the current paid version can do it.

 

[whs]

kado I think you are right. I found this reference: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/archive/index.php/t-302740.html

What I posted earlier probably applies to 4.2.

 

[kado897]

kado I think you are right. I found this reference: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/archive/index.php/t-302740.html

What I posted earlier probably applies to 4.2.

Yes Wolfgang. That was the reference I remember.

 

[mjf]

"if you have little use for bit locker and/or the F8 function."

I use F8 to use safe mode when needed, I wouldn't loase that ability would I?

I'm pretty sure you loose the F8 function when you dispense with system reserved. However, a system repair disk will give you the same capability.

F8 function "Repair your computer" requires only 2 things to function- the RE files (these are automatically installed on the computer when win7 is installed on the computer) and some bcd entries. It is not dependent on the Sysres partition.

All you need to do after making whatever changes you are making is- first check whether "Repair your computer" is present or not. If not the 2 simplest ways of creating it are by using reagentc or with easybcd (easybcd doesnt create the F8 thing but it can be used to create a bootmenu entry for the recovery options which is as good).

Yes and SIW2 provided a post sometime back on the use of reagentc etc to do this. The Winre is stored in the normally "difficult" to access recovery partition on the OS/Boot partition.
This gives the F8 functionality or the F8 THING as you call it.
It requires some mucking around and a substitute F key. Can you substitute the specific F8 as the function key??? If so detailed instructions would help the OP next time.
I also find it relatively simple but many would not! Again the simplest solution as I stated is you use your System Repair disk.

Here is the SIW2 link if you want to give it a go.
http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/126522-100-mb-partition-3.html#post1094097

 

[mjf]

Reasons to get the paid Macrium.

1. Incremental / Differential backups.
2. File and folder backup.
3. In version 5 cloning.
4. The WinPE recovery disk.

I got it mainly for the file and folder backup and the WinPE recovery disk (The linux disk didn't recognize my backup drive consistently).

As far as the Winpe recovery disk is concerned you can make one using the trial of version 5 (I have done it) Alternatively you can use the Macrium Reflect included in the Hirens boot CD under the min XP environment (I have used it to make and restore complete system images).
Sandy Bridge processors can present problems with the linux boot disk. The "free" pe recovery disk or Hirens do not.

 

[JDH1]

Regarding restores to smaller partitions I am not sure the paid version can do that. This is a quote from one of their tutorials.

You must create enough space for the restored partition. If the total space of the selected partitions is less than the size of the partition to be restored then the 'Next' button will be disabled.

Reference

Note that free Paragon can do a "Restore with shrink". http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/

That quote sounds like they mean the Restore's Next button will be grayed out if the selected target partition is too small to hold the image. Well I'd certainly hope that this would happen! Anyway, maybe not though; maybe it means what you implied.

As for "Restore with Shrink", I thought this referred to the function some programs possess of being able to optionally shrink a target partition during a restore operation. But again, maybe not, maybe it means what I wish to be able to do.

Way too many "maybes". Time for some more reading.....