Question about system images

[jonnyhillow]

Hi , I usually burn a system image using Windows and use it if If I get into trouble with malware since I don't keep many files at all and nothing important.

I found that after using the system image a few times I ran into a "Cyclic redundancy check " error and my system image no longer worked .

Is this normal and how often should you make a system image ? I don't have any backups because I would rather just use something to restore the whole thing where I can format .

Backups have always confused me because if I restored from a backup I would have double the amount of files if I wasn't able to format.


Thank you

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Hi , I usually burn a system image using Windows and use it if If I get into trouble with malware since I don't keep many files at all and nothing important.

I found that after using the system image a few times I ran into a "Cyclic redundancy check " error and my system image no longer worked .

Is this normal and how often should you make a system image ? I don't have any backups because I would rather just use something to restore the whole thing where I can format .

Backups have always confused me because if I restored from a backup I would have double the amount of files if I wasn't able to format.


Thank you

Not sure I'm following your last point about double the amount of files. If you restore, your original files would get over-written and you wouldn't have double the amount. The old file X would get over-written by the restored File X. The old file X is gone.

How often you should make a system image varies according to your habits. If you install and uninstall many programs every day, maybe you make an image daily. If you have an average usage pattern where you make system changes less often, maybe you make an image weekly or monthly. If you very rarely make changes, maybe quarterly would be enough.

I don't know a thing about the cyclic redundancy check. I do know that Windows built-in imaging has its own peculiarities and isn't easily understood. Not well designed or explained.

So most of us on these forums use other products: Macrium, Acronis, Paragon, EaseUS, etc.

 

[jonnyhillow]

Thank you very much for the info , answered all my questions actually, but one. Which of the programs that you list is the most user friendly .

Thanks again

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Macrium Reflect Free Edition:

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

 

[Total]

Whenever you get a "Cyclic redundancy check " error - do a chkdsk /f /r from the elevated command prompt - this error is caused by a error on the harddrive .

 

[jonnyhillow]

I apologize for responding late , I was away and I don't have a smartphone so no access to the web.

Thank you for the info guys, regarding the" cyclic redundancy check" I routinely run checkdsk and once a week at least I do run the chkdsk/f/r in admin and I noticed a lot of the time I get an error message saying "system repair pending " which goes way back but I have been unable to correct it .


Anyways , sometimes I get no issues found and everythings fine and sometimes I get the system repair pending message which I think is set deep in the system because I believe there was a hard shutdown before the system repair was able to do anything and I have had it forever.

I would love to get rid of it though but nothing has worked.

Thanks again

 

[Layback Bear]

High light the text that is underlined and right tick on it. Go to the Big (U) at the top of the page and tick on it and the underline should go away.

 

[jonnyhillow]

High light the text that is underlined and right tick on it. Go to the Big (U) at the top of the page and tick on it and the underline should go away.

Thank you Layback Bear

Now that I fixed that does anyone have any info on my "system repair pending " trouble or just don't worry about it.

Thanks

 

[whs]

There are 2 things I would never do:

1. write images to DVDs
2. make images with Windows imaging

I make an image each week on all my 6 systems and and I place the images on external and internal disks. I have a total of 2TB reserved for images - that would be the equivalent of more than 400 DVDs - no way.

And with Windows imaging it's like on the high seas - you never know what is going to happen. An easy to use and very reliable imaging program is free Macrium. That has served me well since 4 years and has never failed in hundreds of recoveries on my systems and on friends systems.

 

[mjf]

Things I wouldn't do (when making images):
1) write images to DVDs
2) rely on one imaging program (Windows imaging has served me well along with Macrium)
3) rely on just one external HDD to store images

 

[jonnyhillow]

Ok, some more questions, in the first screenshot it shows two options to download, first is Macrium reflect , second says reflect , any differences?


What I want to do is make a full system image of my entire computer to restore from if I ever get things really messed up , what is the difference between cloning and making a system image ?

Is cloning a hard drive the same as making a full system image? When I chose to make a system image the other day using this program I checked (burn it to a DVD ) when it was successfully completed the DVD was almost empty , why is this , I know when I have used Windows disk image burning it requires two DVDS.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

see comments in bold

What I want to do is make a full system image of my entire computer to restore from if I ever get things really messed up , what is the difference between cloning and making a system image ?

You should use imaging. That makes an image file, which you later "restore" if you get in a jam. Cloning is a different procedure that does not use an image file and isn't as suitable for a "backup". Cloning is most often used when things are going well and you just want to move your system to a new hard drive. But you can use imaging for that purpose also.

You have a "system reserved" partition, so you must make an image of it as well as C if you want to restore your system. In your second picture, you'd choose "image this disk".





When I chose to make a system image the other day using this program I checked (burn it to a DVD ) when it was successfully completed the DVD was almost empty , why is this , I know when I have used Windows disk image burning it requires two DVDS.

I don't know exactly what you did regarding DVDs, but I'd advise you to give up on the idea of using DVDs for imaging. They are prone to problems. If you insist on using DVDs, I'd guess that your system would require 3 or 4 DVDs for the image.

Instead, store the image file on a hard drive. It's best to use an entirely separate hard drive than C, either internal or external. You could store the image on a separate partition on the same drive as C, but that's not recommended because if that drive drops dead, you would lose your image file and could not restore.

You MUST make a "recovery disc" in Macrium in order to be able to restore. You burn it to a DVD. Look for the menu for that in Macrium. You can make a recovery disk in two ways: Linux-based method or WinPE method. WinPE is by far the better choice.

Be SURE to test your recovery disk to make sure it will in fact boot your PC. If it won't, you cannot restore when you get in trouble.

 

[jonnyhillow]

Thank you

Unfortunately after using Macrium to backup my computer I noticed upon shutdown my screen would get stuck permanently on the Asus login screen .

It happened every time so I removed the program and it went back to normal , too bad I liked it , any reason for this ?

Thanks

 

[ignatzatsonic]

You didn't give nearly enough detail to be able to evaluate what you did or the exact sequence of events, but I've never heard of such a thing.

 

[jonnyhillow]

You didn't give nearly enough detail to be able to evaluate what you did or the exact sequence of events, but I've never heard of such a thing.

I am going to download it again and start over following your advice to see if I can figure out the issue, will keep you posted.

Thank you


Ok, I got this screen which is odd since the last Macrium download said it was just over a 40 mb file.

 

[whs]

That looks like the right size. 40MB does not sound right.

 

[jonnyhillow]

This screenshot is now showing 204 mb, very confusing.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Are you just trying to download Macrium itself at this point?

You don't need a "download agent" or any extraneous stuff.

All you need is the exe file. Get it here:

Download Macrium Reflect 5.2.6526 - FileHippo.com

From the green "download latest version" on the right side. It is 41.8 mb in size.

Or are you trying to download something other than the application itself?

 

[whs]

I am confused now - what are you trying to download. The WinPE or the Macrium program.

 

[jonnyhillow]

Thanks for the new link but after downloading it said this is the 32 bit edition, I have a 64 bit machine.