Solved Image your system with free Macrium

[whs]

Also another area I'm digging in to is acpi registry entries; Any changes made there would not be applied during a Macrium Recovery Disk boot-up, correct?

Correct.

 

[PCG]

Update:

I 'loaded drivers' during Recovery Disk start-up, but the problem still occurs: After 6min 52sec, power save mode initiated.

Yesterday, I also received notification that Macrium patch # 5.1.5529 was available. In hopes of stumbling upon a fix I installed the patch, burned a new WinPE Rescue Disk and rebooted. Nada... power save mode kicked-in at 7minutes 50sec.

Is there a WinPE expert here who can answer this question:

Is it possible to customize my Macrium WinPE Rescue Disk/USB to prevent Power Save Mode from automatically activating when I attempt to restore an image?

 

[bigmck]

Update:

I 'loaded drivers' during Recovery Disk start-up, but the problem still occurs: After 6min 52sec, power save mode initiated.

Yesterday, I also received notification that Macrium patch # 5.1.5529 was available. In hopes of stumbling upon a fix I installed the patch, burned a new WinPE Rescue Disk and rebooted. Nada... power save mode kicked-in at 7minutes 50sec.

Is there a WinPE expert here who can answer this question:

Is it possible to customize my Macrium WinPE Rescue Disk/USB to prevent Power Save Mode from automatically activating when I attempt to restore an image?

If you can get to your Control Panel, go into Power Options and in Change Plan put everything to "Never".

 

[PCG]

bigmck, thank you. I originally thought the settings in control panel (Power Options), may have been causing this problem. However, I was informed by whs that the settings used during normal startup in Windows 7 are not the same settings that are used when the rescue disk boots-up (I already had mine set to "Never" any way).

The BIOS was the next logical place to look and I did that as well. I have two options in the BIOS, S1 or S3; The default setting is S3, but I tried both to no avail.

I've searched high and low, and I'm now exploring whether a WinPE custom solution (if it's even possible), might be the answer I'm looking for. When not booted-up in the rescue mode, I have no problem with the Power Save Mode. So here's what I'm thinking: If there is a way to customize the power configuration in my WinPE rescue disk to mirror the normal Windows 7 start-up power configuration, I might have a solution.

 

[bigmck]

bigmck, thank you. I originally thought the settings in control panel (Power Options), may have been causing this problem. However, I was informed by whs that the settings used during normal startup in Windows 7 are not the same settings that are used when the rescue disk boots-up (I already had mine set to "Never" any way).

The BIOS was the next logical place to look and I did that as well. I have two options in the BIOS, S1 or S3; The default setting is S3, but I tried both to no avail.

I've searched high and low, and I'm now exploring whether a WinPE custom solution (if it's even possible), might be the answer I'm looking for. When not booted-up in the rescue mode, I have no problem with the Power Save Mode. So here's what I'm thinking: If there is a way to customize the power configuration in my WinPE rescue disk to mirror the normal Windows 7 start-up power configuration, I might have a solution.

I am pretty sure that the WinPE is just one way and that is it. Did you try putting your Power Options to Never? It is worth a try.

 

[Britton30]

You can try disabling S1, S2, and S3 in BIOS until you get the imaging done.

 

[mjf]

I'm a bit puzzled here. When you run Winpe this in effect is a totally different mini Windows OS to your normal Windows environment. This would suggest that some power saving mode set in the BIOS is the culprit. I would support the comments made re S1, S2, S3 above. Also check to see if your BIOS has another power saving option.

 

[0pTicaL]

I'm getting the same consistent results with Macrium Reflect Free, imaging times are around ~22mins and recovery times take 5x as long at ~1hr 35mins.

I just remembered I have a OEM version of Acronis True Image HD what was included with my purchase of a OCZ Vector SSD and I compared ATI HD to other ATI versions and it has everything I need, full backup, disc cloning and GPT support.

I installed ATI HD, rebooted and performed a image, time ~23mins. Recovery was just as fast coming in 24mins 38secs.

I'm starting to think there's specific drivers that need to be loaded with the WinPE disc. What I don't get is how everyone else here seems to have no issues with recovery using whs's provided WinPE build without loading any drivers. Gonna figure out how to load drivers and see if that makes any difference.

 

[Britton30]

I have done a few image restores in the past few days. I tried with and without loading drivers but the time stayed about the same to restore an image. I really didn't need them, just experimenting on my own.

This was with WHS's WinPE and another I made on my own after Macrium had a patch.

 

[lehnerus2000]

I'm starting to think there's specific drivers that need to be loaded with the WinPE disc. What I don't get is how everyone else here seems to have no issues with recovery using whs's provided WinPE build without loading any drivers. Gonna figure out how to load drivers and see if that makes any difference.

I don't use a Win PE Disc.

I normally run Macrium from inside my OS.
If I want to reimage W7, I run Macrium from XP.
If I want to reimage XP, I run Macrium from W7.

I've only used the Linux Recovery Disc, when I have bought a new HDD.

 

[azasadny]

Thanks for the good info here. I had some serious trouble yesterday and had to break out the Acronis TIH v13 Recovery Disk and get an image from last month and recover my main PC. The good thing is that with the SSD, it only took 20 minutes to recover everything and get back up and running!

 

[0pTicaL]

I just downloaded and installed WAIK through the Rescue Media setup process and created my own Rescue disc. Did another restore, completed in 1:32:41, same as before. When I created the WinPE disc I checked the option for scanning unsupported devices, when I booted up the only unsupported device were the network drivers. I'm dotting every i and crossing every t and my restore times are still over 1:30mins.

The only thing that's left is to use the Linux boot disc. Going to do a restore with Linux disc and see if that makes any difference.

 

[alan10]

Using Acronis I found that Restore took 3 or more times longer than backup if the backup files were held on a NTFS format partition of a USB2 connected external HDD.
I then tried using a FAT32 format partition on the the HDD and restore become as fast as backup.

Acronis running under Windows took the same time to create a backup regardless of the destination format.

I deduced that the Linux drivers and system on the Acronis Boot Recovery CD were "native to" FAT32 format,
but were incompetent when faced with NTFS.

The above was a few years ago.
I tested speed again when I switched to Macrium Reflect version 4 and found the WinPE Boot recovery took no longer regardless of which external partition held the backup file.

Macrium is always as fast (or even faster) at restoring than at making the backup - in my experience.

My suggestions :-
1.
Try using a FAT32 format partition for holding the backup file;

2.
Investigate replacing or supplementing the WinPE default drivers with those that actually work with your hardware when running under Windows 7.

Default drivers in WinPE were NOT capable of working with USB3 connected external drives.
Somewhere on the Macrium forums there was advice upon how to adjust the WinPE based Recovery CD with suitable USB3 drivers.
That is no longer a user issue - Macrium now has USB3 issues fixed.

Perhaps WinPE Recovery drivers are compatible with and fully functional on your hardware platform,
BUT one or more (not necessarily USB3 / External related) may be much slower than those supplied in your Windows 7 system,
and whatever that may be should be fixable - but I do not have the detailed knowledge to assist you.

 

[kado897]

My memory is that the Linux disk gives a slightly faster restore with Macrium from an external USB2 drive but that was some time ago and version 4.

 

[mjf]

Using Acronis I found that Restore took 3 or more times longer than backup if the backup files were held on a NTFS format partition of a USB2 connected external HDD.
I then tried using a FAT32 format partition on the the HDD and restore become as fast as backup.

FAT32 has a maximum 4GB file size

 

[alan10]

I never tried Macrium Linux because WinPE worked so well for me.

N.B.
Twice I Microsoft trashed Windows 7 with an automatic update,
and each time I had documents that were more recent than yesterdays backups.

I booted into WinPE Rescue CD and did some magic.
I created a backup of my broken system (including my user files)
and then restored from the previous backup,
and then running under restored Windows I mounted the latest backup and copied the latest version of my user files.

I doubt that a Linux Restore CD would have a similar backup capability

 

[0pTicaL]

I just performed a restore with the Linux boot disc and my restore time was 18mins 55 secs which is a long way from the 1hr 35mins it took the WinPE environment to recover the image.

There's obviously a driver issue with the WinPE disc or there's a driver I must install before performing the recovery.

Using Acronis I found that Restore took 3 or more times longer than backup if the backup files were held on a NTFS format partition of a USB2 connected external HDD.
I then tried using a FAT32 format partition on the the HDD and restore become as fast as backup.

FAT32 has a maximum 4GB file size

Exactly, and USB 2.0 is limited by bus speed and it doesn't matter if USB 3.0 is used unless the external HDD uses USB 3.0 and is connected to a USB 3.0 port with the proper drivers installed.

 

[alan10]

FAT32 has a maximum 4GB file size

That was not an issue with 3 GB image files of XP on my old Laptop

It is not an issue with my 6.? GB image files of Windows 7 on my Desktop,
because Macrium is fully capable of working with 4GB restricted "fragments" by using suitable numbered increments.

Macrium can also break up an image into 4.7 GB etc fragments for burning to DVD archives.

 

[alan10]

Exactly, and USB 2.0 is limited by bus speed and it doesn't matter if USB 3.0 is used unless the external HDD uses USB 3.0 and is connected to a USB 3.0 port with the proper drivers installed.

You failed to understand.

I am NOT talking about USB3 speed.

I am referring to the fact that people were backing up to a USB3 external,
BUT WinPE was INCAPABLE of even seeing an external drive on a USB3 PORT,
and those people with only USB3 and no USB2 ports were absolutely stuck until they obtained advice on adding "extras" to the WinPE Rescue CD.

Macrium have NOW fixed that in standard issue WinPE - no more user hassle.
It might be insoluble with a Linux rescue CD.

 

[mjf]

It is not an issue with my 6.? GB image files of Windows 7 on my Desktop,
because Macrium is fully capable of working with 4GB restricted "fragments" by using suitable numbered increments..

I didn't know that
It would be interesting to know why you are finding NTFS so much slower.