Solved Macrium corruption / boot disc questions

[harleynut97]

A couple questions regarding macrium reflect 5 free edition

1) I just did a new image of all my drives, I also created both linux and windows pae recovery discs prior to doing it. The image is being held on an external WD usb3 drive. I am using Windows 7 home edition 64 bit

What I forgot about was, that I had some new ram on order that should be arriving in a day or so. I will be adding this ram to my computer. Currently 2 of the 4 slots have the current sticks, the new sticks will be placed in the open slots. So I'm not replacing the old ram, just adding additional ram.

If I add this ram, is this going to corrupt my current image if I would need to repair my system?


2) I would like to test my recovery discs, but I'm a little confused as to the proper way of doing it. I have made sure my bios are set to boot from the cd as the first option. I have seen tutorials on how to recover using a recovery boot disc. But I can't find any that shows you to just test the recovery disc.

I in NO way want to accidentally tell it to make the recovery, I just want to make sure it will boot and see if while in the boot, macrium can see my image. What confuses me is how I escape out once I determine the image can be seen?

If any one can give me some real specific steps or point me to a tutorial I would appreciate it. Consider me a complete newbie when it comes to using boot discs.

 

[pincushion]

Hi

Your system will automatically detect new RAM on each boot so this will not affect your current image. Basically it will do this for all new hardware and will have no problem unless new drivers need to be installed that are not part of Windows already - with RAM it has no problem - assuming that the new RAM is compatible and does not exceed the limit that the system might have.

This is a link to Macrium imaging -

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html

Note the remarks about USB 3.0 devices. I don't have any experience with these yet.

I have used Macrium Refect Free 4.2 with the Linux boot disk and have had no problems restoring images but all my images are on internal disks. If you can go through the whole restore process and locate the required image then it should restore OK. There is usually an option to back out before committing to a restore as the last step.

Hope this has been of some help.

 

[suspect008]

I have used Macrium Refect Free 4.2 with the Linux boot disk and have had no problems restoring images but all my images are on internal disks. If you can go through the whole restore process and locate the required image then it should restore OK. There is usually an option to back out before committing to a restore as the last step.

Hope this has been of some help.

surely adding additional ram does not affect on images you have made. and above you have way to test. just boot with the disk, wait till macrium loadz with it. then browse for your images and open them in fro the browse window(opening wouldnt do any harm). then you can select restore image to check whether restore is working and loading. you can check any available options until you see finish button. even tough you click on that, macrium will pop up a window and ask you to continue or cancel.

I use WinPE 3.0 disk. and can't remember for sure that there is or not a option to beowse your image while on disk. check it. that way you can be sure(not 100% because nothing is 100%, macrium is very reliable unless in worst scenarios and very bad luck ) of that your Disk is working properly. regards.

 

[harleynut97]

Thanks pin cushion and suspect008 for your input. Yesterday I purchased a program called Acronis which has awful customer support. First the program didn't recognize my one of my 2 external drives, than I was unable to boot from the rescue disc because my keyboard or mouse will not work once the boot occurs, and even more misery their system report crashes the program everytime it is generated. I've been on the phone for at least 3 hours and still no resolution. I cannot recommend any of these programs that utilize these linix based discs if your working in a windows environment. I'm really not a computer guru, and all I wanted was an easy way to make an image, and insure I wouldn't lose my data and have to reload the countless programs and utilities I have. But I have no faith in any of these software based backup programs anymore. Macrum didn't work because I had the free edition and was using a 3 TB USB3 drive. Sorry for the rant... but I'm just tired and looking forward to another call from India

 

[IcarusII]

Ive found Macrium (free) 5 to be extremely hassle free.

i took the liberty of creating the WinPE recovery disk rather than using their linux versions. It requires a 1.7Gb download but it was worth it in terms of the hassle free recovery 'just working'.

I read a lot about acronis before deciding to try out macrium first. Many people comlain about its buggyness over the last 4 or so years. However some very senior members here like it and use it.

i guess its about understanding the tool you have and how to get the most out of it (and its limitations).

Ill stick with Macrium till it cant do what I need.

Matt

 

[Golden]

Hi HarleyNut,

As an alterative, you might consider burning the rescue/recovery ISO to a bootable USB flash drive - it operates in exactly the same way as a CD/DVD.

This tutorial will guide you through that process, including all the setps required to test the rescue USB, but not to accidently perform the recovery:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/218920-macrium-reflect-create-bootable-rescue-usb-drive.html

To escape once you see the image, simply click CANCEL in the Macrium broser, and your PC will reboot itself as normal.

Post back if you have any questions.

Regards,
Golden

 

[harleynut97]

Could I ask a question regarding these Windows PE recovery discs... I am having this exact same problem happen when using the Macrium recovory disc as well as the Acronis windows PE recovory discs

-On the windows PE I stick the disc in.... I get a message that says press any key to boot from CD...I do that.... but it never actually boots from the cd... it just goes right into regular windows 7... There are no lights flashing on the optical drive after it tells me to press any key.... I assure my bios are set to boot from the opticla drive as first priority

This happens with both Macrium and acronis. Any thoughts on what I can do?

 

[IcarusII]

Can you read a normal CD or DVD in the drive?

Is the data lead still plugged into the back of the drive?

Just trying to rule out the silly...just sounds a bit odd if the drive light isnt even on when trying to boot from the dvd drive.

Does it make any sounds? Mine makes pretty distinctive sounds when it spins up and starts to read.

Matt

 

[harleynut97]

The dvd works fine, burned a number of discs today even, files can be read ect... there is definitely nothing wrong with the optical drive.

When you stick the boot drive in there is a light that flashes and you do hear some intial spinning but as soon as you reach the point where it tells you to press any key to boot from CD... the lights don't flash or any sounds and the spinning goes away. It just immediately starts to load windows in the typical way.

Awhile back I turned off the autostart feature for my optical drive...could this be causing any problems with continuing to boot from the optical drive? I can't even remember the location or how I went about turning it off it has been so long ago.

 

[HammerHead]

Rom Deck

It sounds like your rom deck is ok. To further check it and eliminate it as a problem. Find a disk you have that is bootable. Say a Win 7 repair or install disk or any bootable installation disk and try booting from it. If you can boot then the problem lies in the rescue disks you are creating. It might be that some how the boot.wim file is not correct.

I would recommend that you make a test disk with this tutorial.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/132259-windows-pe-disk-create.html

 

[harleynut97]

Since posting that last post, I did exactly what you suggested, I tried my factory restore disc, and the Windows 7 home premium disc.

They ALL exhibit the exact same problem.... I now realize that it is not a problem with the Macrium windows PE disc or the Acronis Windows PE disc... Its occuring with all my boot discs.

I just posted the problem in another area hoping for some help, I put it in the hardware and devices forum.... Needless to say, my problem has become even more concerning since I can't boot to anything right now.

 

[HammerHead]

Great

At least you know what to work on.

 

[pincushion]

If you can sort out this issue then I would recommend Macrium - like many on this forum I have had very reliable imaging and restoring (many restores all fine) although I had a similar experience using an earlier version of Acronis. Hope you find the problem quickly.

 

[harleynut97]

I wrote to Macrium sales support to confirm two things since the macrium FREE edition did not recognize my 3 TB, USB3 external hardrive. I did not include the name of the macrium sales agent who replied to me, but this is what the reply said.

Thanks for contacting us.

1. Yes we support both USB 3.0 and 3Tb drive without any issues, if you want to backup the 3Tb drive you will need to ensure that you have the professional version as it supports GPT (over 2Tb) drives.

2. We are currently working on enabling USB 3.0 support with our linux rescue CD and this support should be implemented within weeks, but at the moment to support USB 3.0 you would need to use the WindowsPE rescue CD.


So for those of you with large external harddrives... I don't think the free version is going to work for you. You would need their paid PRO version.

 

[suspect008]

I wrote to Macrium sales support to confirm two things since the macrium FREE edition did not recognize my 3 TB, USB3 external hardrive. I did not include the name of the macrium sales agent who replied to me, but this is what the reply said.

Thanks for contacting us.

1. Yes we support both USB 3.0 and 3Tb drive without any issues, if you want to backup the 3Tb drive you will need to ensure that you have the professional version as it supports GPT (over 2Tb) drives.

2. We are currently working on enabling USB 3.0 support with our linux rescue CD and this support should be implemented within weeks, but at the moment to support USB 3.0 you would need to use the WindowsPE rescue CD.


So for those of you with large external harddrives... I don't think the free version is going to work for you. You would need their paid PRO version.

I was just about to bought acronis as it was the one that keep popin up with google. but after I came here, and as senior members suggested, I did some research and then I realize how good is macrium and now Im experiencing how best it is.

for your 3TB problem, don't you have your drive partitioned? I suppose macrium free support those partitions under 1TB or 2TB, cant be sure exactly, and of course you should have it as GPT.

and here bro, I would suggest you a senior member, he will answer your any problem regarding macrium and disk imaging, I think he is the best experienced member in here about backup and restore. Windows 7 Forums - View Profile: whs

 

[harleynut97]

Well, I know that the program is well respected here, and I agree the free version has worked well for many people. BUT if you have a large hardrive over 2 tb, (mine is 3 tb) the free version is not going to recognize it. You would have to purchase their PRO version, at least according to the Macrium sales representave who wrote me.

You asked the question about partitions. I did not do anything special to the 3 tb drive when I bought it. It was purchased to do nothing but hold my image backups and I also purchased it because of the USB3 option which speeds up greatly the data transfer to the drive.

Perhaps you could partition this drive and the free program would be able to recognize it, I have no idea, and wouldn't even know how to do it, but the way it is set up now, Macrium free, will not recognize it.

Thanks for your input and suggestions- Carl

 

[suspect008]

yup agreeing with you, I purchased pro version so I'm not having this issue with larger drives unless they are connected to usb 3.0. I won't recommend you acronis because I did loadz of research on this and have found it everytime everywhere buggy but yet here some advance members use it without any issues. and of course acronis and norton ghost are most feature rich products but crap in my opinion. I suggest you to take a look at EaseUs Todo Backup and Paragon products too. good luck on your quest

 

[harleynut97]

Finally an answer!

Well finally some good news regarding what started this post. At first I thought there was a problem with the macrium discs I was making. as it turns out it was a bigger problem on my system that made impossible to boot to ANY cd no matter what types of recovery discs I used.... I spoke with 4 different techs where I bought the computer, none of them could figure out why I couldn't boot to disc.

Hours of troubleshooting later here is how it was finally resolved. I am now able to boot to any type of recovery cd providing I do the following.

1) unplug all my USB devices except keyboard and mouse
2) go into bios and ENABLE legacy USB, save and exit
3) insert recovery disc... reboot and press any key at the prompt
4) wala.... finally a boot to CD occurs properly
5) in the case of linux recovery discs for acronis... once it actually boots to their start page (within the recovery cd environment, I am able to then plug in my external drive, I can than continue on and then see the image on the external drive.
*whether it can be successfully recovered remains to be seen, but at least I can now access it.
6) After escaping out and removing the recovery disc, I can reboot... go back into bios and DISABLE the legacy USB setting.
7) Rehook up all my extraneous USB devices and carry on

The shame of all this is someone at this forum did recommend the enable USB legacy, and I did try it, but I got a catostrophic crash, and couldn't even enter into the bios to fix it. That is why I had ruled out using that advice. HOWEVER, when that all occurred, all my USB devices were connected to the computer, I made the change in the bios... and then it was instant black screen upon save and reboot.

So I guess I'll mark this solved, but I still have no clue as to why I can't boot to CD if USB legacy is disabled, and I have NO idea why it would be required to have it enabled in order to do something as important as being able to boot to an emergency recovery CD or even the Windows 7 install disc.

So thanks to everyone who tried to help! - Carl

 

[molson1020]

Good to hear you figured it out. I just thought I would quickly add my experience with backup programs since it may be applicable. I too tried using Macrium and I am still trying, but I have the free version and unfortunately, no matter what solution I try, I cannot for the life of me get the boot disk to recognize my 3.0 usb (2tb). I have tried just about every solution possible I have read in their forums and I will keep trying since I really like the features macrium offers.

In the meantime, I have been using EaseUS Todo 4.0 backup which is a free backup software that I installed and it worked perfectly the first time. I will give Macrium one more night of trouble shooting, then I will just give up and use EaseUS till it no longer works for me.