System Imaging Tool W7

[mjf]

Kado
I have never had a problem with windows locating images but I know some others have. Macrium is fine as well. But I vaguely recall once I had to do something to wake Macrium up.....
was it a refresh button, reconnect the external HDD, reboot the CD ????? sorry for being so vague but it did find it.

 

[kado897]

Kado
I have never had a problem with windows locating images but I know some others have. Macrium is fine as well. But I vaguely recall once I had to do something to wake Macrium up.....
was it a refresh button, reconnect the external HDD, reboot the CD ????? sorry for being so vague but it did find it.

Yes. I had to do something like that with Macrium. Switch the drive off and on and refresh but again it would only pick it up sometimes. I just felt too uncertain about it to trust that it would work when I needed it.

 

[Roderunner]

If you have room on your back up hard drive as I do then use Windows System Image and Backup and free Macrium.
I have reimaged my C/ Win 7 OS twice with Windows Sytem Image and Backup. Did it just yesterday. They do work.
I also have the Macrium if Windows Image doesn't work.
If you have the space available you might as well use some of it.

Acronis seems to be good by all that use it. I haven't tried it myself. It would also be a good choice in place of Macrium.

Mike

Very good point, noted for future reference.

 

[Hopalong X]

I had to use the Windows System Image again today. Make it three times. LOL

So far so good!

MSE locked up the whole system. I had to use the Win 7 disk to run the System Image and it worked fine.

I'd use two no matter which two but Win 7 does work but may not every time thus Macrium for me or Acronis.

Mike

 

[whs]

In any case, what I recommend is to test whether those backups work for you. Now you do not want to do that on your real system, but on a test setup. I have detailed this little procedure (which looks like a lot but really is very easy) for the students of my classes at the computer club. Takes maybe half an hour to execute, but then you will have a much better feel for it.

Imaging Test (using Macrium)

1. Shrink 2GBs from C and define a logical drive (partition) - let's call it Y
2. Move some files (any files) into Y - I always also move the sample picture folder in (you'll see why)
3. Define a test folder on your external backup disk - call it Mtest
4. Make an image of Y to Mtest - requires that you make a new definition
5. Delete a couple of pictures from the sample picture folder on Y (I always use the 2 animals)
6. Reboot and tap (ESC, F2 or whatever it is on your system) to get into the BIOS boot sequence
7. Set your boot sequence to CD/DVD reader
8. Throw in the recovery CD and let it run, then hit Enter
9. Now you are in the recovery wizard, set it to Mtest where it says "Locate Image" and to Y where it says "Choose partition to overwrite with the image data".
Note: the partition letters may not be the same as on your system. Macrium uses its own lettering. Best is to go by the size of the partitions and open it with the little + in the front.
10. Watch out when it asks whether to replace the Master Boot Record - in this case say "do not replace" because this is only a data partition. If that were your system partition, you would replace the MBR provided you do not have a separate boot partition.
11. When you get the little window saying "Your computer will now reboot", you have to hit "Cancel" (on the bottom" to get it to reboot. That's a little strange way to end the session, but that's the way it is.
12. Check whether the 2 animals in the sample picture folder are back. That shows you that the recovery worked.

When you have done these steps, you did the whole cycle and have learned

1. That your recovery disk works
2. How to recover
3. That things work

Now you can delete the little 2GB partition and add it back to it's originating partition.
If you are not familiar with the creation and deletion of partitions, watch this tutorial: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/72427-data-partition.html

 

[mjf]

I had to use the Windows System Image again today. Make it three times. LOL

So far so good!

MSE locked up the whole system. I had to use the Win 7 disk to run the System Image and it worked fine.

I'd use two no matter which two but Win 7 does work but may not every time thus Macrium for me or Acronis.

Mike

You might be interested in this if you haven't seen it
http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/139571-mse-impact-backup-restore.html
and the linked thread.
I've said goodbye to MSE.

 

[Roderunner]

Hi All, reading all replys has got me thinking, and it poses 2 things I'm not sure about.
1, W7 backup & restore, have read BUT not understood. Does a system image,
backup the full hdd or just C: drive.
2, on the same subject, the last time I used it was when running Vista Home Prem., backup to an external hdd seemed to cause a problem with the hdd. What I found when doing a restore, was an unexplainable entry on the hdd. It caused the hdd to ask for a chkdsk to be run every time it was powered ON, the only way I could fix it was to copy all my files to another hdd then format it.
Once bitten, twice shy!

 

[kado897]

Hi All, reading all replys has got me thinking, and it poses 2 things I'm not sure about.
1, W7 backup & restore, have read BUT not understood. Does a system image,
backup the full hdd or just C: drive.
2, on the same subject, the last time I used it was when running Vista Home Prem., backup to an external hdd seemed to cause a problem with the hdd. What I found when doing a restore, was an unexplainable entry on the hdd. It caused the hdd to ask for a chkdsk to be run every time it was powered ON, the only way I could fix it was to copy all my files to another hdd then format it.
Once bitten, twice shy!

Windows 7 backup does two type of backup.

1. An image backup of all partitions to either an external HDD or DVD (Rather a lot of them). You have no control over what partitions it backs up. It also limits the number of images it keeps to approximately one third of the HDD you are backing up to. You have to get creative and do images manually and rename old images to change that.

2. Data file backups which you can configure to backup just the folders you need. These are incremental backups collected into backup sets. You have no control over when windows decides a new backup set is started.

Some people have had problems with windows imaging but I have not.

 

[whs]

All the Windows backup and imaging facilities that I have used in XP, Vista and Win7 were flawed. There were always problems of all sorts. That's why I stay away from them and use OEM products that have always worked perfectly. What good is an imaging/backup facility if you cannot be sure what and how it images and cannot rely on it the day you need to restore.

 

[mjf]

Summary of results (lets just talk imaging):

1) kado897: Windows - fine; Macrium - bad experience, low confidence
2) whs: Windows - bad; Macrium - brilliant
3) mjf: Windows - never failed; Macrium - minor trouble once

Statistical significance - quite low! But you should get the point.
Don't trust any single imaging program. Use two.
They don't need to be the above two (but they are free).

 

[kado897]

Summary of results (lets just talk imaging):

1) kado897: Windows - fine; Macrium - bad experience, low confidence
2) whs: Windows - bad; Macrium - brilliant
3) mjf: Windows - never failed; Macrium - minor trouble once

Statistical significance - quite low! But you should get the point.
Don't trust any single imaging program. Use two.
They don't need to be the above two (but they are free).

You make a good point. Perhaps I'll look around for a second.

 

[whs]

Summary of results (lets just talk imaging):

1) kado897: Windows - fine; Macrium - bad experience, low confidence
2) whs: Windows - bad; Macrium - brilliant
3) mjf: Windows - never failed; Macrium - minor trouble once

Statistical significance - quite low! But you should get the point.
Don't trust any single imaging program. Use two.
They don't need to be the above two (but they are free).

LOL, you are probably right. If I had to choose a second one, it would probably be Paragon.

 

[Maxxwire]

I have never had a problem with Macrium Reflect recognizing a drive. I did some Image Backups of my computer's 18 GB Win 7 partition to an external eSATA drive last night and all went well.

~Maxx~

 

[mjf]

Yes and if I kept screenshots I could show you the same for Macrium (+I verify and mount the image).
I could also show you the equivalent with windows imaging. Successful image - successful restore. Time and time again.

The simple logic. Others have not been so lucky and maybe one day I won't be so lucky.

 

[essenbe]

I use 3 different ones for all the above reasons in this thread. Some programs work for some users but not for others. Just out of curiosity, do you think it possible that it could be hardware setup? Some imaging programs may work better on certain types of hardware than they do on others. Just a thought.

Also: It has probably been mentioned here, but if you have a Seagate or Western Digital internal or external they both offer free versions of a scaled down version of Acronis.

 

[kado897]

I think in my case it is probably the hardware setup.

 

[Roderunner]

Hi All, this thread gets more interesting as it grows. As stated above, it can depend on system set up, I don't remember what mine was when I used Macrium, Paragon or Windows, all I do know is my current set up on both my toys means I trust Acronis.
On my L Top, I use Outpost Security Suite Free, Winpatrol, OpenDNS and a weekly 'online scan' by the various top rated companys.
On my D Top, I use Outpost FW Pro, Avast 5.0, (quick scan weekly, full scan monthly). OP FW and most AV's do not work well together, so OP is added to Avast's exclusion list. OP also has the best, IMHO, ad blocker. When both OP's were tested using Comodo's Leak Test gave a perfect score.
Are you sure their is no conflicting app's on your PC ?

 

[Roderunner]

Paragon Free

Hi All, Get it here

 

[richnrockville]

I have used Acronis for a couple of years, I seem to like version 2010 the most. I bought mine for a really reasonable price at the user group store at ugr.com . I don't have financial interest but at $25 a copy, it is cheap. I have 4 small external usb/esata drives and make images of my C on a weekly basis as well as my D on a irregular basis.

You can never have too many backups but the most important thing is to always make an image before you install any new program. Even those that might not screw up your system.

Microsoft's built in imaging program won't restore to a new drive that is smaller than the one that the image was created from. Larger, yes but not smaller. Even though you might have huge free space on the orginal drive.

YMMV
Rich

 

[kado897]

I think in my case it is probably the hardware setup.

Aha. I have found a technique to reliably find my backup drive with the Macrium boot CD. When I get the available disks display with the backup disk missing I switch off the disk, wait 10 seconds, turn it back on and press refresh. It worked 10 out of 10 times so I am now happy. I have now also done a complete cycle on a small test partition. Marcrium will now be my second imaging tool