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

 

[looked]

Think of images as a photo negative you use to later make a usable print. Unlike cloning, you can make images of individual partitions. Images are the best way to backup a drive or partition with an OS.

A clone is more like a Polaroid instant photo print. It's a duplicate of the source drive. One can only clone entire drives. Cloning is the fastest way to make a usable copy of a drive since it's one step and doesn't need a separate drive to store the image on.

Thanks very much, I'll choose imaging for sure since the hard disk is partitioned in 2 parts.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Think of images as a photo negative you use to later make a usable print. Unlike cloning, you can make images of individual partitions. Images are the best way to backup a drive or partition with an OS.

A clone is more like a Polaroid instant photo print. It's a duplicate of the source drive. One can only clone entire drives. Cloning is the fastest way to make a usable copy of a drive since it's one step and doesn't need a separate drive to store the image on.

Thanks very much, I'll choose imaging for sure since the hard disk is partitioned in 2 parts.

Just to clarify something I said, you can clone a drive that has more than one partition; you just have to clone the entire drive. My OS and programs are on a 128GB SSD and I use imaging to back up the entire drive; cloning would be too slow and clunky to use for that. Cloning is best used for making a duplicate drive, such as when changing out an old drive for a new one.

For backing up an OS partition, imaging is the most practical way to go. For backing up data, however, imaging and partitioning are inefficient, taking too long, takes up way too much drive space, and puts too much wear and tear on the drives. A folder/file syncing program is far more efficient. I use FreeFileSync to back up my data drives. The only things that gets written or deleted when I run FreeFileSync are the files and folders that have been added, changed, or deleted since the last backup was run. Cloning my main data drive would take as long as three hours every time whereas I can do a daily backup of the same drive in as little as one minute using FreeFileSync if little had changed since the previous backup (the most a daily backup has ever taken was about 20 minutes). Considering that I make two identical backups of my main data drive everyday, that makes a huge difference.

 

[kado897]

The other thing about imaging is that you can store more than one on the same target disk if it is large enough and organise them in folders because to Windows they are just files.

I also agree with Milady that something like FreeFileSync is better for data backup. In fact that is what I use myself. A daily backup in my case rarely takes more than a few minutes.

 

[whs]

Is the image option a non bootable snapshot that needs WinPE to be restored?

Yes

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Sorry I can't see the difference.
Both options create a snapshot in that right moment that I can use later.
Is the image option a non bootable snapshot that needs WinPE to be restored?

One creates a file that can be stored like any file. The other directly creates an immediately working replica on another drive.

Clones are most often used when moving a good working system to a larger hard drive, in one step, in real time. They are not a backup in the traditional sense. You'd use one when things are going well. They don't create a single file representing one or more partitions and don't need restoration. You could make one on August 1 and let it sit until the next Aug 1 in case your existing install went bad, but you'd tie up that drive for a year in the meantime and the replacement installation would be a year stale at that time.

Image files are most often used to recover from a bad situation. If things go well over months and years, you might never use the image--never have to restore. As they are just a file like any other, they can be stored in a (relatively) small space and can be replaced at will in maybe 5 to 20 minutes, depending on the occupied space of the imaged partition(s). So they needn't be stale by more than days or weeks. Individual files can be recovered from an unrestored image as needed.

If you are moving to a new drive and have a good working system, you could use either method to get the new drive up and running. Those who are already familiar with imaging are more apt to use imaging for that process. Cloning is certainly worth a try if moving to a new drive, but I'd definitely have an image as a fall back position. I'd guess cloning might be less reliable, but I don't have any stats to prove it.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Cloning is just as reliable as imaging for copying a disk and is simpler since an intermediate disk isn't needed.

 

[mjf]

Clone - creates a bootable duplicate
Image - is a snapshot of the system at that time which can be restored

I recommend to work with images.

Sorry I can't see the difference.
Both options create a snapshot in that right moment that I can use later.
Is the image option a non bootable snapshot that needs WinPE to be restored?
I think that the tutorial is missing this information for noob people like me.

Think of a clone as a total bit copy. Almost always you'll clone to another ready to go drive. If this is all you want then I guess it's simple.

Imaging uses an intermediate file format to store ALL the relevant information for a fully functional system. It doesn't store unnecessary pagefile contents or blank space etc. Furthermore, because it uses an intermediate file format you can get decent compression using programs like Macrium Reflect. You shouldn't store lots of static data on your OS partition and you end up with images typically 20-30GB. So even on a small 500GB external it's easy to store 10+ images with plenty of room left over. These images can span a period of months so you should always be able to go back far enough to get yourself out of trouble. Some people keep an image after a clean install and all updates rather than start at the very beginning. Finally, every OS partition image can be restored to a new HDD to give a fully working system.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hum well I am leaning towards imaging these days because it takes so little time now and is not dependent on the size of the drives involved as it is in cloning.

Having said that tough I recently cloned my partners laptop machine by just dragging and dropping the partitions I needed to the recipient drive. (Usually one has to clone from small to large) But in this instance the recipient drive was larger than the donor.

I am shortly going to try again this method of drag / drop partitions in the "wrong" order to make sure cloning can be done from large to small on a laptop that I now have spare.

But for sheer "blandness" and not having to use much grey matter and ease the clone is the choice.

 

[whs]

Here is an option for those that do not understand this tutorial but have money to buy a book.

Saved! ? Backing Up with Macrium Reflect ? The Ask Leo! Store

 

[kado897]

You could have made some cash Wolfgang.

 

[whs]

You could have made some cash Wolfgang.

And you too. We are just too kind, LOL.

 

[bawldiggle]

.
@ Lady Fitgerald

I use FreeFileSync to back up my data drives

I got all excited at the developers web page and sourceforge web page ... until I downloaded and scanned with VirusTotal. :shock:

Do you use the portable version (to side step Open Candy) ?
fosshub.com download ... link from developers home page ... has OpenCandy (VirusTotal 5/55)
- fresh scan
sourceforge.com download ... has OpenCandy (VirusTotal 5/54)
- historical scan (3 hours ago)

Were you able to opt-out of OpenCandy ?

 

[kado897]

If you do a custom install you should be able to avoid Open Candy.

Also, if you install Unchecky it will untick the boxes for you.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Open Candy is a trialware/crapware installer that gets integrated into a program installer. It only runs when the program installer is running. It always provides the option to not install the trialware/crapware du jour as long as you select custom install (if it is an option) so it's mostly just a minor nuisance. Since I always keep my program installation files in a folder for possible future use, to avoid getting hits from my AV/anti-malware programs, I rename the program installer by adding .disable to the end of the file name. If I need to use the program installer later on, I just delete the .disable from the filename and run it.

 

[looked]

Thanks to everyone for kindness and patience.
I finally got the image and have realized that it's just too easy and practical to make as many as I want and save them to a secure place.
I got the 1st image which contains only the fresh install of the operative system with all drivers then one with all the essentials like Office, Photoshop, cleaners, antivirus etc. etc and so on.
The compression is quite good from the original 30GB resized to around 10GB!
It's a life saving backup which is very useful for someone like me who always installs and tests software.

Have a good week!

 

[kado897]

Good news.

Make sure that you create and test the recovery disk. Use the PE version rather than Linux. It is more reliable.

 

[Anak]

.
@ Lady Fitgerald

I use FreeFileSync to back up my data drives

I got all excited at the developers web page and sourceforge web page ... until I downloaded and scanned with VirusTotal. :shock:

Do you use the portable version (to side step Open Candy) ?
fosshub.com download ... link from developers home page ... has OpenCandy (VirusTotal 5/55)
- fresh scan
sourceforge.com download ... has OpenCandy (VirusTotal 5/54)
- historical scan (3 hours ago)

Were you able to opt-out of OpenCandy ?

GrayGhost2,

kado897 has a good suggestion to use Unchecky, but if you still get bit by any type of unwanted PUP and want to get rid of it try: AdwCleaner Download | BleepingComputer this is not a direct download link.

 

[miker70]

boot cd

I have created a CD ( in less than a minute ) but you mention a 1.7GB WAIK (Windows Application Installation Kit.
The CD is only 156mb and contains what appears to be 2 folders headed

Files currently on the disc ( 10)
Files ready to be written to the disc ( 1 )

What have I done wrong

 

[whs]

No idea what you have there. Download the WinPE .iso from my One Drive and burn that to CD. Then you have the reovery disc.

 

[miker70]

Thanks for your unbelievably quick reply