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]

1. The 100MB partition you can see in Disk Management and also in Macrium.

2. Thinking of it, if you have not unselected the 100MB partition during the imaging, there are chances you might even have an image of it. Double click on the image file and see whether that 100MB partition was imaged by chance. You would see 2 files which you can mount. And if it is there, you only need to create a 100 or even a bit bigger (like 200MB) partition on your disk and then you can restore it into there.

3. But if nothing else, your idea of making a quick install of Win7 and then dump the image of C into that new C partition will work too. That reinstallation will automatically create a new 100MB partition.

 

[mjf]

I may have missed someting in one of the posts....but
If you prepare your new HDD using Partition Wizard and you want to keep a system reserved then:
1) make an active primary partition of ~200MB (better than 100MB for good reasons) for the System reserved.
2) create a second primary partition (NOT active) for the OS.
3) with Macrium pe restore drag your images into the new HDD.

If you don't have the and image of the system reserved then that's ok because it can be created. The easy way to try first is to run the System Repair function a few times by booting into a System Repair disk.
If this causes problem then run from the boot disk command prompt:
>bootrec /fixmbr
>bootrec /fixboot
>bootrec /rebuildbcd
>exit

then reboot

 

[JerometheGiraff]

It is fixed. All that was required was to Fix the MBR for Windows within WindowsPE (Macrium Boot CD). And the 100 MB boot partition was created and Windows booted successfully. No Data Lost.

 

[whs]

Good deal. Thanks for reporting back with the solution.

 

[lala1990]

sorry if i posted in the wrong thread, but can i ask, if my operating system is 64 bit, do i need to install the 64 bit version to backup my system? or i can just use the 32 bit version?

 

[kado897]

I don't think you get the choice lala. It will install whatever is right for your system. I have 64bit and that is what it installed.

 

[lala1990]

the new v5, i'm able to choose if i want to download x32 or x64 ... so no one has tried 32 bit version on 64 bit os?
EDIT: ok nevermind, i tried installing the 32-bit version, and the installer ended in error guess i will have to use the 64 bit version

 

[kado897]

Where did you download it from? It didn't give me any choice.Use the link in my sig.

 

[whs]

What advantage would you expect from a 32bit version.

 

[lala1990]

I downloaded the wrong version , i downloaded the paid version installer, that's why it allows me to choose the architecture ...

 

[kado897]

Ah mine was an upgrade from free and v4 at the time.

 

[lala1990]

pardon me again, but can i ask, when i'm making a recovery image with macrium, does the image contain the space of the drive? for example, if my drive has a partition of size 20gb, and a main system partition drive, when i make an image, will it store the size of the partitions and remake them when i restore the image? or do i have to specify the size of each partition when i'm doing the recovery?

 

[kado897]

Yes it does. If you are using the Linux recovery disk it will create them exactly as imaged. If you use the PE recovery disk that is the default but there is also an option to change the size of the partitions if you wish.

 

[lala1990]

ok thanks for clearing up my doubt!

 

[lala1990]

sorry for the double post, can anyone tell me, if i were to change a harddisk, will i be able to restore the macrium image to the new harddisk?

 

[Phone Man]

Yes you can. The newest version also has a clone feature to transfer your system from one disk to a new one.

Jim

 

[kado897]

It's something I have only done in a VM, but yes This image can be restored to a new disk. If you use the Win PE rescue environment you can even adjust the partition sizes to suit. If you use the Linux recovery disk you will have to make any adjustments afterwords.

You beat me to it Jim.

 

[mjf]

Yes again. I've used it on a spinner and an SSD.

 

[lala1990]

thank you all for the prompt respond!

 

[kado897]

Our pleasure lala.