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

 

[studiostarstuff]

thank you DavidE and kado897 for the help!

i can't get into "Burn Rescue Media" screen because im stuck in the "Prepare Windows PE Image" screen,

i checked the ReflectDL.exe and ReflectDLFull.exe and they are the same,i used WinMerge to check.

i don't have a 500mb file, could it be the downloaded pe5x64.zip? i selected the PE 5 rescue components only, and got a 188mb zip file, i test the zip file using 7zip and it does not show any error, so i assume its fine.

will download it again and see. will report back soon.

UPDATE:
something is not right, i was downloading a 460mb size pe5x64 component, but end up with a 188mb zip file, just like before. is this right?

extracted it and got a 208mb size folder, its missing 200mb+ that i downloaded.

also, is there a http url of the pe5x64.zip component? i like to download it using FreeDownloadManager or wget.

Thank you again guys!

 

[DavidE]

I downloaded the pe5x64.zip and i see similar results as far as sizes reported vs actual.
I don't think that is the issue, it's a multistep process that "repackages" the WADK components.
You can read about that here: Unable to create rescue media (USB) on an offline Macrium Reflect Installation (V6)

In your Prepare Windows PE Image screen print it looks all the fields are disabled, and i think that is an issue.
If you click on View Log do you see any permissions or security errors ?
Try starting MR with "Run as administrator" and see if that makes a difference getting the fields enabled.
Do you have UAC turned off ?

whs, the tutorial author has a Skydrive link at the very beginning of this tutorial.
You could try downloading and using that ISO to create recovery media.

On the first Create Rescue Media window I clicked on Change PE Version.
That got me to the Prepare Windows PE Image window like yours, but you can see my fields are enabled.

 

[kado897]

It's not a good Idea to use WHS's ISO as I believe that is for Macrium V5 which is not compatible with V6 Images.

 

[DavidE]

Good point, and you're absolutely correct
However, it might still be a good idea to try it, just to test if studiostarstuff can create a rescue media that can boot up ?
I have no idea why those fields are disabled (as i see it)

 

[kado897]

Me neither.

 

[whs]

Yeah Keith is right. My iso is for a backlevel version and at least 18 months old. Not a good idea to use it with V6. Maybe someone can upload a more recent version. I would do it but I am currently under the weather fighting that nasty lung cancer.

 

[kado897]

Sorry to hear of your troubles Wolfgang. I wondered why we hadn't heard from you recently.

I would do it but I don't have the free version. I don't think Macrium would be too pleased if I posted that as it has extra features.

 

[Kari]

Yeah Keith is right. My iso is for a backlevel version and at least 18 months old. Not a good idea to use it with V6. Maybe someone can upload a more recent version. I would do it but I am currently under the weather fighting that nasty lung cancer.

Wolfgang, I am very sorry to hear your news. From the bottom of my heart I wish you all the best. Take care of yourself.

I have huge OneDrive storage available, using some of it to store these images would be no issue for me. If you tell me which WinPE version I should select I could create and upload both 32 and 64 bit ISO images within a few minutes:



But: will these images work for all users? I mean, in my case the image would contain drivers for my setup:



If you think the images should be re-uploaded I will do it. Just tell me which WinPE version I should use.

Kari

 

[Kari]

OK geeks, I went ahead and uploaded some images. You will find both WinPE 3.1 and WinPE 5.0 Macrium Rescue ISO images, 32 and 64 bit versions here: Macrium Reflect Free Rescue Images

The images work both on legacy BIOS and UEFI systems. The Macrium Reflect Free version is 6.0.

Kari

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

It's good to see you posting again, Wolfgang. Keep hanging in there!

 

[studiostarstuff]

@DavidE

the fields are all enabled in Windows PE Image, its when i got the error "Could not create a list of required files." that the fields are disabled, when you pressed [Ok] button everything is enabled, but then your stuck with the error.

in the view log

Beginning Wim build - 9/20/2015 11:56 AM
========================================

Unmounting the Wim - 9/20/2015 11:56 AM
=======================================


ImageX Tool for Windows
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. All rights reserved.
Version: 6.3.9600.16384

Committing: [c:\boot\macrium\WA5KFiles\mount]...

Unmount Error: Did not find an image mounted to [c:\boot\macrium\WA5KFiles\mount].

i also tried the Run as administrator but still have the same problem.

@whs

im sorry to hear this has happened to you, stay strong!

@kado897

is there a difference between the free and paid recovery media? isn't it the same winpe from microsoft, so i would assume that the recovery media in both are the same.

@Kari

thank you for creating the Rescue image, i will test it out, just a question, i want to put it on a usb flash drive, do i just copy it? or i need to use YUMI to make it boot?


Thank you all!

 

[kado897]

The Macrium code is different in the paid version. It has fast delta restore for instance.

It's not as simple as just copying to USB. It is possible to do it manually but it is complicated. It is a doddle to do it using YUMI as an unsupported ISO and you can also load other systems on there such as Linux, Windows install disks and antivirus scanners. There is a very long list of what can be loaded here. YUMI ? Multiboot USB Creator | USB Pen Drive Linux

 

[studiostarstuff]

i see, i didn't know about fast delta restore, is that a proven way to restore? i always thought you restore using a full image to be safe.

thank you, will test try burning it using YUMI into the usb flash drive.

 

[kado897]

Fast delta restore is new in V6. It compares the image file with the HD contents and only restores sectors that differ. It can make a considerable difference in the restore time if the image is recent. I have used it twice to restore to an image taken the previous day on a slow USB2 backup drive. This would normally take 30-35 minutes to restore a partition with 80GB of data. Fast delta restore does it in 5 minutes. It is the default option but you can override it. This is a comparable time to what a Windows System Restore takes so it is now my preferred method of backing out unwanted changes as I image every day (Weekly full and daily differential).

 

[DavidE]

Wolfgang, good to hear from you and best wishes with your recovery. That's most important!
Kari, thanks for building the recovery ISO's!

@studiostarstuff
You can search for a winpe.wim and make sure it exists in the folder your Prepare image is looking at in post #1520 screen print.
If there is a winpe.wim there, my guess is something on your PC is preventing building the required file list.
Perhaps your AV, or some other program you have running ?

You could try a clean startup and see if that makes a difference for the error:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html

If that doesn't help fix your issue, hopefully one of Kari's ISO's will work for you.

 

[techusa]

So I'm curious. Does this software have ability to instantly restore backups to any machine, regardless of platform?

 

[kado897]

Hardly instantly techusa but it is reasonably fast especially the paid version.

 

[whs]

Thanks guys for all the good wishes. I am in the middle of the treatment. Up to now it goes well. But I will only have the final result in 2 months from now. I think I will be OK. Right now it is just a pain having to travel for 2 hours every day to travel to the radiation machine. There is none near by - they cost 2 million Euros. And the weekly chemo is no fun either - a lot of unpleasant side effects. But that will be over in 3 weeks. So I am hanging in there and work myself from checkpoint to checkpoint hoping the end result will be good.

 

[kado897]

Stay positive Wolfgang.

 

[lehnerus2000]

So I'm curious. Does this software have ability to instantly restore backups to any machine, regardless of platform?

It's a lot faster than reinstalling your OS and (worse) software.