Solved Image your system with free Macrium

[SIW2]

Lots of posts already, some people are obviously interested in how macrium does the pe creation, and what it requires.

There was also this question:

cutypie
I have already downloaded the WAIK file as an .ISO but how do I actually 'install' it to drive "C"??

 

[mjf]

I guess you could mount the ISO if you have a suitable program installed. Failing that I think burning a cheap DVD is the recommended approach. See install instructions:
Download The Windows® Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows® 7 from Official Microsoft Download Centre

Although I have the WAIK I am one of those interested in how Macrium does the pe creation using just their pe downloads. I'm sure there would be others who ran the patch for the latest version of free Macrium and might like to have a pe 4 or 5 using the Macrium downloads.

Edit: If I select the "Custom base WIM" and browse to the Macrium downloaded (v4 in my case) pe then create the rescue.iso it appears to work. It also appears to be Windows 8 pe environment. I've only tested mounting images.

 

[SIW2]

I am just about to try that. I have a good idea what it does. Will check and see.

 

[SIW2]

Yep, it just mounts the image and throws in these files.

launch.exe
aesdll.dll
le5.dll
networkshell.dll
oledlg.dll
peexplorer.exe
textedit.exe
diskrestore.exe
PrimoBurner64.dll
taskbar.exe
psmounterex.sys
license.rtf
syntaxedit.ini
Winpeshl.ini
reflect.exe

as expected, winpeshl.ini is the bog standard

[LaunchApp]
AppPath = %SYSTEMDRIVE%\Program Files\Macrium\launch.exe

It tries to set scratch, but that isn't going to work running win7 dism against win8.1 image. Then it unmounts.

That will be ok ( sort of) for some custom pes. But reflect will be the shell - replacing whatever shell you had carefully set up in your custom pe. If you aren't using winpeshl.exe as the cmd line, you will have a bit of a mess.

 

[mohab]

I have a USB rescue media and restore from a portable USB hard disk. Does Reflect load the restore software from the rescue media or from Program Files on my hard disk?

 

[kado897]

It loads the program from the media you booted from. It will usually detect your saved backups wherever they are.

 

[mohab]

It's loaded in the rescue media.Phew! ( I couldn't find a smiley for 'redlief')
Thanks for telling me that because I was worried about the possibility of a virus ruining the reflect Program Files

 

[kado897]

Another Macrium Update correcting a few issues.

Bug Fixes: 5.2.6515:

USB rescue media
Some USB pen drive configurations were not supported by the USB rescue media wizard. This has been resolved.
Windows PE
On specific windows XP configurations, the PE based rescue environment build can fail. This has been resolved.
Image verification Problems
A rare situation could cause Images created with v5.2.6504 to fail verification due to a race condition during image creation. This has been resolved.

 

[whs]

Thanks Keith for the heads up.

 

[SIW2]

Also new version of winpe maker,which will include macrium for you. Some nice improvements, it looks pretty, too



HERE

 

[kado897]

New Update - 5.2.6526:

What's new? 5.2.6526:

Windows PE drivers

When creating the WinPE rescue media, specific drivers that could cause Windows PE to crash at startup are now excluded.

USB rescue media

Flash media drives formatted using 'USB-ZIP' are now supported


Bug Fixes:

ReDeploy

Win8/8.1 redeploy failed with some mass storage drivers. This has been resolved.

Pre-snapshot user script problem

The VSS snapshot could begin before the "_before_snapshot_wait.bat" script had completed. This has been resolved#

Extended partition support

Improved compatibly with non-sequential, Linux configured, extended partition layouts.

PE 5 Auto restore

When restoring a Windows system partition from within Windows the auto boot into PE 5 would not be available. This has been resolved.

Encrypted NTFS filesystem clone

Clones including encrypted NTFS filesystems could fail. This has been resolved

more...

 

[mjf]

When talking about the Winpe are you talking about the free or paid version of Macrium?
I ask because the title of the thread is "Image your system with free Macrium".

 

[kado897]

Either. The free version just has some features missing.

 

[grant56]

I've been using Macrium Free for some time and am happy with it. Never had to actually do a full restore yet, but give it time.

I just IMAGED the C partition on my Windows 7 X64 installation. Just for kicks I mounted the image and looked at the Pagefile.sys, and was surprised to see it seems to be fully copied WITH data. This is contrary to what the docs say and what Macrium claims.

It's only 1 gig on a system with 8 gig or ram, but that should not have anything to do with it.

Anyone else see this??

 

[whs]

I think it will only get fully compressed if it contains no data. But as soon as there is any data, the data is imaged too. In your case it looks like 7GB were compressed and 1GB was imaged.

 

[grant56]

No you are totally mistaken . First of all the Pagefile.sys is set at 1 gig max. Nothing to do with the ram size. They claim they do not actually save the data of the pagefile, but I see it. They are supposed to empty it to zero bytes, and save an empty space with the pagefile size intact but containing nothing, so it doesnt take any space.

 

[kado897]

I wonder why. None of it is needed on a restore.

 

[grant56]

Don't know. They dont support the free edition, so I cant post on their web site.

 

[kado897]

They also appear to be imaging Hyberfil.sys. I have the paid version so I will ask.

 

[BJB]

How can you see that it actually contains data?