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

 

[Dave76]

Agree, the WinPE recovery disc is much better and has more functionality.

 

[rovopio]

1. Free Macrium always makes full images - which I prefer because they are reliable and easy to manage.In Macrium Pro you can use incrementals (sucks) and differentials (better).

when i want to do imaging backup to external HDD, which "image this disk" icon should i click?

2. This question I do not understand. Can you post a picture of what you are looking at with an explanation on the picture

hi mr awesome to the power of 74...


my external HDD was fat32. there were two "image this disk" icon that came up. The one you showed on your picts (under internal HDD box), and there is another one under external HDD box.

But then... i format my external hdd to ntfs, and now the "image this disk" under internal hdd box disappeared, so im good.


sorry it took me some time to get back to you


:cheers

 

[whs]

That's good to hear. Thank you for updating us. Fat32 is no good for images. In lieu of one big VHD you get a lot of snipplets (because of the 4GB limit of Fat32). You have done the right thing converting to NTFS.

 

[Kumaranil1918]

Hi Kumuranil. It looks like for some reason the recovery disk has not located your C drive.

1. Can you remember if it was shown in the tree when you looked for an image?
2. What type of disk is it and is it damaged?
3. Sometimes it helps if you shutdown your PC completely and leave it for a while before rebooting to the USB.
4. If none of that works and you have a running windows system it would be better to create the WinPE recovery disk although that will involve a 1.7GB download of the WAIK. It is a much more capable recovery environment.

1.Yes
2.NTFS no it was not damaged
3.No i dint leave for a long time
4.They r saying creating in WinPE will create errors.

 

[kado897]

The WinPE disk is much more stable than Linux and is often better able to see your disks due to better driver support. When it is created it scans your system for device drivers it may need and you can add any that it may miss.

 

[Quoth]

I always use the Linux boot without issue.

But the newest one is broken, so I am reverting to V4.

 

[JerometheGiraff]

What is the secret behind Macrium ReDeploy ? Does it require a Internet Connection ? Is it successful ?

 

[kado897]

This knowledgebase article will explain what it is. v5: How to use Macrium ReDeploy (ReDeploy, V5)

 

[rovopio]

dear everyone....

i'd lilke to ask,


1) if my computer has malware or virus today.... and then i decide to recover my system image from last week (where im still virus free), will my computer state be virus-free too? or the virus wil still stick there even though i imaged to some date before i got infected?



2) Is there any virus or worms or malware that can survice clean install...?



as always...


so sorry and many thank you's......

 

[whs]

1. If you go back to a clean system image, a virus will not survive - unless it also has attacked other partitions which is usually not the case.

2. Same as in 1)

 

[rovopio]

dear everyone....

i'd lilke to ask,


1) if my computer has malware or virus today.... and then i decide to recover my system image from last week (where im still virus free), will my computer state be virus-free too? or the virus wil still stick there even though i imaged to some date before i got infected?



2) Is there any virus or worms or malware that can survice clean install...?



as always...


so sorry and many thank you's......

1. If you go back to a clean system image, a virus will not survive - unless it also has attacked other partitions which is usually not the case.

2. Same as in 1)

okay whs... thank you for the answer... so umm...



I have Drive C (win7), D (video), and E (documents).
When I recover to (virus-free date), is it enough to only recover drive C and the 100mb system partition? (since i didnt backup D and E), or should i consider doing a full disk back-up to be safe from now on?


*i mean, how does a virus/worms/malware work. Is it only affect the windows7 partition, or it spread to other partition as well...



*Infering from your answer.... that means... recovering Drive C and 100mb only is suffice....?*

 

[whs]

Recovering the system partition and C:\ should be enough. A virus is usually focussed on the C:\ partition. But data can get infected (rarely though) I understand that there are real rare but nasty ones that even attack your BIOS. So you never know.

I would, however, recommend that you image your data partitions in the future too. There are many possibilities to lose those - e.g. when your disk fails. And it would be ashame if you lost your data. I lost a whole disk full of partitions once when I made a mistake resizing one partition - but I had all the images. These things happen.

 

[rovopio]

Recovering the system partition and C:\ should be enough. A virus is usually focussed on the C:\ partition. But data can get infected (rarely though) I understand that there are real rare but nasty ones that even attack your BIOS. So you never know.

I would, however, recommend that you image your data partitions in the future too. There are many possibilities to lose those - e.g. when your disk fails. And it would be ashame if you lost your data. I lost a whole disk full of partitions once when I made a mistake resizing one partition - but I had all the images. These things happen.

okayy.... thank you for your answer.




i'd like to consult here what actually happened.



as a prank, my friend decided to download "6000 virus collection" to my laptop.
After i found out, i blasted those with kaspersky, MBAM, and drwebcureit.

kaspersky found 6010
Drweb found another 20
MBAM found none

im about to do macrium recovery now...



my question is,
how to know/check whether my bios is infected...?
if it does, how to (generally) cure it...?



again, thank you!!!


sorry for no rep for the answer whs... >_<


have to spread some wealth around first before giving it back to you again



have a nice DAY

 

[whs]

Don't worry about the BIOS. These things are very, very rare. And you would know if the BIOS is on the blink. And should it ever happen, you download (on another PC) the latest BIOS for your board, burn it to CD and flash the board. Very similar to restoring an image.

And no problem regarding reps - that is not why I am here. I am glad to help and am happy when it solves problems.

 

[rovopio]

hi whs!


umm. nothing unusual happens with my laptop. (particularly regarding to BIOS)... so i take it my laptop (might) be good ^_^


that's good news.



about your answer can a virus survives clean install, "2. Same as in 1)"


i'd like to clarify (in case im getting it wrong)... so your answer means, "virus/malware/worms doesnt survive clean install"...? is it?


ps: sorry, english isnt my strongest language

 

[whs]

i'd like to clarify (in case im getting it wrong)... so your answer means, "virus/malware/worms doesnt survive clean install"...? is it?

That is correct. But it is prudent to scan the data that you may have to save. The case that data gets infected is rare, but it is possible.

 

[windude99]

Macrium worked great! I tried to image my system from a slower drive to a faster drive, but that Windows system image maker kept giving me errors every time I would try to restore. Then I tried Macrium and my system imaged perfectly the first time.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Well I am no expert but this is why I keep a clone of the drive I am working with (regular clone to) so in case anything untoward happens to the drive in use I simply switch to the cloned drive.

I know this leaves one a little behind what is currently on the in use drive but it's small price to pay for peace of mind.

Of course I back up important stuff to an external 3.0 USB drive and as for malware as whs says a clean install is the answer but unfortunately given the amount of it one can never be sure 100% everything goes. The level of "expertise" of these individuals is well unlimited.

For resizing partitions I have been trying the EaseUS Partition tool and I personally find it so much easier to use than anything else I have tried. Because as I mentioned I am a KIRSS person (Keep It Really Simple Stupid)

 

[rovopio]

Well I am no expert but this is why I keep a clone of the drive I am working with (regular clone to) so in case anything untoward happens to the drive in use I simply switch to the cloned drive.

I know this leaves one a little behind what is currently on the in use drive but it's small price to pay for peace of mind.

Of course I back up important stuff to an external 3.0 USB drive and as for malware as whs says a clean install is the answer but unfortunately given the amount of it one can never be sure 100% everything goes. The level of "expertise" of these individuals is well unlimited.

For resizing partitions I have been trying the EaseUS Partition tool and I personally find it so much easier to use than anything else I have tried. Because as I mentioned I am a KIRSS person (Keep It Really Simple Stupid)

to not make the discussion OOT, i've read somewhere that macrium have some issues with 3.0 usb drive when it comes to recovery... or backup...


do you have any experience with that? (and is that even true?)


but actually i just want to make a comment, i always wonder why KISS equal keep it simple, stupid


why is it not Keep It Stupidly Simple.


dont it sound more awesome?

 

[whs]

Yes, that is true. You can image to USB3 but not recover from it. Neither with the Linux disc nor with the WinPE disc. I had to switch my enclosure the other day when I wanted to recover one of my laptops. Fortunately I use open enclosures with bare bone HDDs. If you have an enclosed USB3 disk, then you have a problem. eSata, however, works.