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]

See, patience does it.

 

[lehnerus2000]

See, patience does it.

"Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Sorry late reply and yes I was surprised how long it took and what threw me a bit was the greyed out buttons on the bottom of that window as I took it to be a non responding program

It is booting up very slowly but I am putting it down to the stick being a 2.0 USB one don't know if the 3.0 would be any quicker (I do have 3.0 ports and I guess an SSD in an enclosure might be a tad quicker) and if I was at home I would put it on the SSD as I think I mentioned before but all I have to do now is to set up the wifi connection for the net. ( Always the worst part of setting up to me at least)

 

[whs]

A USB2 stick is slow by nature. I am sure you would do a lot better with a fast USB3 stick. I use the one below and I have no problems in terms of timing. Even on a modest PC from 2007 (where I added 2 PCI-e USB3 ports), booting was in no time and operation was fluid. The same on my little Asus Transformer that has a USB3 port.

And this is the stick I use:

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Ok Wolfgang I will just have to get a 3.0 stick and they are still quite expensive here unless one goes onto Ebay and I do like to stick (nice pun??) to quality stuff when it comes to my machines.

 

[mjf]

I recently bought a couple of Kingston 16GB USB 3/2 (DT100G3) from an Australian supplier (MSY) for $10 each. Maybe they aren't the fastest flash drives but pretty cheap. The 32GB is $18 I think.
The problem I have is I don't think my motherboard allows native booting to USB 3. So I'd check that you can boot to a USB 3 before spending too much.

 

[whs]

Ok Wolfgang I will just have to get a 3.0 stick and they are still quite expensive here unless one goes onto Ebay and I do like to stick (nice pun??) to quality stuff when it comes to my machines.

I use a whole collection of USB3 drives. But those are my preferred two for booting from USB:

Sandisk Extreme USB3.0 64GB USB Flash Drive (Black) - Newegg.com

PNY 128GB Turbo USB 3.0 Flash Drive Model P-FD128TBOP-GE - Newegg.com

And here are the performance measurements - note the access times. A SSD is 0.1ms.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Try MSY Technology

Ok Wolfgang I will just have to get a 3.0 stick and they are still quite expensive here unless one goes onto Ebay and I do like to stick (nice pun??) to quality stuff when it comes to my machines.

USB 2.0 sticks are too slow.

I tried using a USB 2.0 stick for Ubuntu 10 and it was appalling.
The Ubuntu Live CD outperformed it (I don't know how)!

Here in Adelaide:

• High performance USB 3.0 sticks (SanDisk Extreme - 190 MB/s) cost about $1/GB for the 64 GB version
• Medium performance USB 3.0 sticks (SanDisk Ultra - 80 MB/s) cost about $0.50/GB for the 64 GB version

 

[whs]

The interesting thing is that my USB3 sticks perform quite well on a USB2 port. I guess the secret is in the access time of the sticks.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

I recently bought a couple of Kingston 16GB USB 3/2 (DT100G3) from an Australian supplier (MSY) for $10 each. Maybe they aren't the fastest flash drives but pretty cheap. The 32GB is $18 I think.
The problem I have is I don't think my motherboard allows native booting to USB 3. So I'd check that you can boot to a USB 3 before spending too much.

mmm I might zip over and see them MJ as the new laptop is all 3.0 ports and Wolfgang I tried out the HD tune app and I see what you mean by the speed difference in that my SSD came up in excess of 430Mbs and the stick a really terrible 11Mbs. So I shall have to get the other 3.0 stick.

 

[mjf]

I recently bought a couple of Kingston 16GB USB 3/2 (DT100G3) from an Australian supplier (MSY) for $10 each. Maybe they aren't the fastest flash drives but pretty cheap. The 32GB is $18 I think.
The problem I have is I don't think my motherboard allows native booting to USB 3. So I'd check that you can boot to a USB 3 before spending too much.

mmm I might zip over and see them MJ as the new laptop is all 3.0 ports and Wolfgang I tried out the HD tune app and I see what you mean by the speed difference in that my SSD came up in excess of 430Mbs and the stick a really terrible 11Mbs. So I shall have to get the other 3.0 stick.

I had a quick look and I definitely should have bought the SanDisk Extreme 16GB at $20 - they blitz the Data Traveller - I didn't do my homework
UserBenchmark: SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0 16GB SDCZ80-016G

But again make sure you can BIOS boot from a USB 3 port. If you need to boot with it plugged into a USB 2 port then I don't know what performance you'll get. But at $20 live dangerously.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

mm MJ I just been on that site and I tried getting a 32GB 3.0 stick (SanDisk) and found the costs of shipping to be really excessive for such a small item - $13+ that made the total $40+ so have not got it - for the time being anyway.

However I must admit the specs on that drive were impressive being claimed at 120Mbs

 

[whs]

I recently bought a couple of Kingston 16GB USB 3/2 (DT100G3) from an Australian supplier (MSY) for $10 each. Maybe they aren't the fastest flash drives but pretty cheap. The 32GB is $18 I think.
The problem I have is I don't think my motherboard allows native booting to USB 3. So I'd check that you can boot to a USB 3 before spending too much.

mmm I might zip over and see them MJ as the new laptop is all 3.0 ports and Wolfgang I tried out the HD tune app and I see what you mean by the speed difference in that my SSD came up in excess of 430Mbs and the stick a really terrible 11Mbs. So I shall have to get the other 3.0 stick.

Yeah, that is a slowpoke transfer rate. But even more important is the access time. Wjat was that on the stick ??

Btw - it is MBs and not Mbs. that HD Tune shows.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hmm well the only thing the HD Tune shows me is transfer rate now what that means to me is what rate the data is going back and forth??

 

[whs]

You have to let it run to the end - you have no patience, LOL

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yep you are right Wolfgang I am a bit gung ho with most stuff though you will be glad to hear not at work LOL!!

I actually left it running thinking it was probably going to be around what it would result in.

Anyhow I have just bought a 16GB 3.0 SanDisk Extreme which is claiming up to 120MBs read although it didn't give the write rate - at a reasonable price too. So as soon as I get it I shall be up and firing on all six cylinders LOL!!

PS I just noticed too that the CPU usage is -1 %?? how can it be less than 1??

 

[whs]

Forget the CPU usage thing. I never knew what that means. It seems to be a random number.

And don't get too held up with the read/write speeds. Good speeds are helpful but what really counts is the access time. And 3ms is too slow. It should be 1ms or less. SSDs are typically 0.1ms. Just to give you a perspective.

 

[nevergiveup]

hai guys i have question regarding storing system image created.
1.if i create system image to external hdd can keep other data along withit that is system image backup + other files
2.can i burn system image created and stored in internal hdd to dvd disk that is changing storage media after system image created.

 

[mjf]

1. Yes the Macrium system images are just a big file. You can have as many of them plus other data as your HDD has the capacity for.
2. I don't think so. If you could it would be the last thing I would do since DVD image storage is unreliable and slow. An external HDD or perhaps another internal (not a partition on the OS drive) HDD is really the only way to go. Some may suggest a large flash drive as an option but not IMO.

 

[nevergiveup]

thank you so much you guys are awesome. what do you think about aomei backupper standard free edition is it reliable ? which software makes high compression of system image because i have no external hdd right now so i have only option to save them in internal hdd later to move to external hdd.