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

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Why not make it a set forum tutorial Wolfgang? it certainly is a great piece of work it is a testament to your ingenuity. All I can say for me it is pure genius

Thanks for the tip on Firefox Peter I never had that much luck with it in the past part from accessing it with Ubuntu.

 

[whs]

It is too much trouble to put it on all the forums where I post. And the forum editors do not give me the same facilities as Word.

From OneDrive I can link it in all the forums and it can be downloaded as a PDF. In the future I should post the download link because when you left click on the OneDrive icon, you can also read it in the browser and if you right click, you can download it.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I think many of us have Senioritis. What should I say. I am one of the oldest and hardest hit around here. LOL

You may be one of the oldest but that doesn't make you one of the hardest hit!

 

[lehnerus2000]

Start Menu

Thanks for the tip on Firefox Peter I never had that much luck with it in the past part from accessing it with Ubuntu.

Doesn't it appear on the horrible (Ubuntu) Unity bar?

In Linux Mint, the default icons are different to the Windows ones.
You should still be able to find FF in the Start Menu ("All", "Internet" or use the Search box).

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Thanks for the tip on Firefox Peter I never had that much luck with it in the past part from accessing it with Ubuntu.

Doesn't it appear on the horrible (Ubuntu) Unity bar?

In Linux Mint, the default icons are different to the Windows ones.
You should still be able to find FF in the Start Menu ("All", "Internet" or use the Search box).
View attachment 343970

No mate the one I have been using for a while is the purple screen one I add as a pic for people.

But in light of the stuff I have seen here I will be using the Linux instead plus I have never tried this VMware setup either.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Well have tried several making the stick and installing but all I get is what is in the pics

 

[whs]

If you want Mint on a stick, try this or that.

If you have any questions, let me know.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Ok Wolfgang sorry late reply was really tied up yesterday. I did just what you did in the first and second videos only it was MATE and version 16 and I found another - 17 the only thing I didn't do was move that slider. I even Googled Linux Mint MATE and did it form there the installer was apiece of cake to do.

I tried five times all up with that result I sent in the pics.

I will try again after formatting that stick (16GB is the biggest I have right now).

Just as matter of interest could this be done with an external hard drive? - that would solve space problems and I have two USB 3.0 drives spare. To me this would be ideal and would just require setting the BIOS whenever I want to use the Linux.

 

[whs]

You have to move the slider. Else you have no space to install programs. The so called Casper R/W space is needed for that and the maximum is 4GB.

I think a 16GB stick is big enough. That gives you over 10GB for the data partition. And move all your user data to the data partition because you do not want to deplete the Casper R/W space with that.

I have never tried it with a disk. But in principle that should work. A spinning disk may be a bit slow because of the slow access times. But an external SSD should do well. I am going to try that once and report back. I have some SSDs lying around.

 

[whs]

Update. I just did the installation and test with my external SSD and that worked flawlessly. Went really fast. As you can see, I did it in the 15 minutes betwwen my 2 postings.

One thing, You have to check the little box to show all devices - see picture. Else it shows only the flash drives.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Ok Wolfgang I will try moving the slider this time. The idea of using an external was that I thought it gives you an "extra" machine - I know the stick does but the larger drive even better. Your idea of an SSD was brilliant I have some spare 120GB's lying around somewhere in my comp.... err clutter room Although I do have new 3.0 USB 7200 spinners (500GB & 750GB) I was keeping for doing theimages on which I have 2.0 spinners for at the moment.


Ah the fresh Linux download ahs just finished so better get on with it

 

[whs]

Use a SSD. It is so much faster than a spinner. And even my fastest stick cannot beat it. I just checked boot time with the system I made a couple of hours ago. On my 4 year old laptop it was appr. 15 seconds from USB3.

The irony is that my 2 year old high end Dell XPS system cannot boot from USB3 - only USB2 and eSata. I have to check the BIOS. Maybe there is a setting to enable USB3.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Well I don't know Wolfgang it still will not boot - it mentions something about Ubuntu in hte blackand white script and some stuff that frankly is Klingon to me.

In the pic is what is on the stick maybe it has something to do with the EUFI? or even the wireless keyboard USB device?

Maybe it is the machine it is perhaps not right as I keep losing posts in this forum and why I have to constantly copy as I go so I can paste back in when it drops out

 

[whs]

Right, it is probably uefi. Go into the BIOS and set safe boot off and set it to legacy mode. This damn UEFI is going to give us a lot of headaches.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Right, it is probably uefi. Go into the BIOS and set safe boot off and set it to legacy mode. This damn UEFI is going to give us a lot of headaches.

Ok Wolfgang I will have to see how to do this maybe it is the root cause of my posting problem too

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hmm have just had a quick look around and there references to a reinstall should the BIOS be changed and it looks reasonably complicated.

I might do thread so that someone might know what the go is. Only because I have just doe a complete reinstall and another is not - well appetising

 

[whs]

It should be pretty simple to make those BIOS changes but every BIOS is different, so I cannot really give you a lot of advice.

Btw - it is called Secure Boot not safe boot. Problem of operating in a foreign language. In German secure and safe are the same word - sicher. And my storage system under my hair was retrieving the wrong one. LOL

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Actually Wolfgang I am very loathe to go into my EUFI and touch much at all let alone set the darn thing to legacy as I saw a few comments in both Youtube and Googles mentioning reinstalls etc and like I said to Golden (Colin) am not wanting to go down that particular and tedious track and what if I couldn't reset it? another install and I cannot get my BIOS to come up on my Sandy bridge - which I know is a legacy one but perhaps because I am running 8 on it is stopping me doing that - for some very obscure reason and just to add to the problems that seem to be dogging me at the moment.

But on a brighter note I fired up my old tester machine this morning and set the boot to USB and the Mint has loaded albeit very slowly as it is just an old DDR2 Q9560 powered desktop I was given so it is to be expected but I shall have a play with it. But once in it is very quick and all I have to do now is find the internet

My Ivy Bridge well I think I am going to have to rebuild it Haswell as 1155 stuff is nigh impossible to get that stuff now.

 

[whs]

You worry too much. setting Secure Boot and Legacy mode is a 2 minute affair. There is really nothing that can happen and setting it back is another 2 minutes. I have done that already several times on my UEFI systems.

But if you are happy with your old laptop, that's OK too and you do not have to power off your main system.

Now that you are a Pro, try this one.

 

[ThrashZone]

I have a question for you or any one really,
How much space does it take for the recovery disk to be created ?
Cheers.