Imaging with free Macrium

mjf said:

Are internal docks basically hot swapping cradles? I assumed that hot swap drive sata connections would need to be physically pushed in and out each time they were used resulting in wear over time on the connectors.
The drives in my external docking stations are not physically inserted and ejected very often. They get connected and disconnected by a power switch. They could be placed out of sight somewhere I guess for anal retentiveness. It would look neater!

For spinners I don't think direct sata vs usb3 data transfer rates (up to 5 Gb/s) would make a difference. I don't think spinner R/W rates come close to the usb3 limit? SSDs are a different story - you probably want sata 6 Gb/s.

I haven't heard the term "hot swapping cradles" before but I suppose you could call internal docks that. Another term is "hot swap bay". The thing to watch out for is that some hot swap bays require that the drive be screwed into a tray that then gets inserted into the bay (which can be a royal pain to deal with when frequently inserting and removing drives). Another kind is called a trayless hot swap bay; that is far better suited for using with backup drives that are frequently inserted and removed.

I once wondered if repeated insertions and removal of backup drives would cause excessive wear and tear on the contacts of the drives but several years of doing so has not caused any problems. In fact, I just took a look at the contacts on my old WD Greens I retired early this year, some of which are around five years old. All of the contacts not only show no signs of wear, they still have the gold plating on the copper traces of the contacts. I sure as heck wouldn't be frequently plugging and unplugging my $1600 (current price; I didn't pay quite that much) backup SSDs if there was any real danger of contact wear.

Even though USB 3.0 is rated at up to 5.0Gbps (just shy of SATA III's up to 6.0Gbps), that doesn't mean all USB 3.0 ports and devices will run at those speeds. All a USB port or device needs to do to be rated as USB 3.0 is to have the added connections of USB 3.0 and to run faster than USB 2.0 (all but the highest priced USB 3.0 flash drives are notorious for being pokier than 5.0Gbps). A SATA III port is more likely to run at or close to full speed than a USB 3.0 port. On my machine, the SATA III ports on my HBA card are actually rated at only 5.0Gbps (the rated speed of a single PCIe lane). Some MOBO SATA ports (ones that run off a PCI-e chip, such as Asmedia or Marvell, also run at only 5.0Gbps). Even then, even 5400rpm HDDs plugged into a hot swap bay connected to one of those ports were noticeably faster than ones in a dock connected by USB 3.0 when doing large transfers (of course YMMV). Still, the biggest advantages of using an internal dock over an external dock is more convenience and better aesthetics rather than more speed.

When using an external dock, even if you shut off the power to the dock via its power switch, there still is a remote chance that current surge or voltage spike could blow through even a physical switch and barbeque any drives still plugged in. The greater danger to keeping a backup drive, however, is if ol' Light Fingers Louie decides to apply a five finger discount to acquire your computer, it's highly likely he will snag the backup drive as well. It's far safer to keep backup drives out of sight away from the computer. As already stated, wear and tear on the drive contact fingers isn't really an issue.

Also, unless doing simultaneous backups on multiple drives, it's not a good idea to have more than one backup drive plugged into an external dock. Since an external dock has only the once connection to the computer, running a backup on multiple drives at the same time will pretty much increase the time it takes to update each backup by a factor of the number of drives (example: 2 drives = double the time), negating the advantage of simultaneous backups. If running only one backup at a time, any other drives plugged into the dock will subject to the same dangers any other drive connected to the computer, either internally or externally. I'm not saying external docks shouldn't be used for connecting a backup drive—often that is the only practical way; I'm just saying only one backup drive should be plugged in a time.

Other than for software issues I haven't sorted out yet (mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble), I can get away with running simultaneous backups since each backup drive gets plugged into its own SATA port, negating the speed issue, and because I have duplicate onsite backups for each data drive in my computer so, if the unthinkable were to happen and I killed two backup drives, I would still have their duplicates.

A couple of points. A Hot swap capability does involve fiddling with your case that some people may not want to do. I wouldn't have a problem but don't see a great advantage for me at the moment.

When my external docks aren't in use the little 12v power pack is disconnected.

As to speed here are some tests I just ran.







The tests were run on the PC under my specs. Speed will vary a bit depending on whether the faster outer tracks are being used vs the slower inner tracks.

I think USB 3 easily handles the maximum capabilities of a 7200rpm spinner. The 5400rpm WD Blue (same in my earlier pic) performs well. My OS partition is around 58 GB and the system image using Macrium v5 and the USB 3 connected WD Blue takes around 8 minutes. Restore is a little faster.
I also don't plan to make more than one image at a time.

Okay; we see that their are many ways to create backup external storage.

The big thing is use one or more methods to create your backups and or clones.

Here is another option. Thunderbolt. It's fairly new but super fast if your laptop or desktop has the options.
My desktop build has Thunderbolt. I don't use it at this time because I don't need it.
One can hook up a array of external drives with super fast speeds.

Their is lot of information and videos online if one care to know more.
A little teaser.






Jack

You've been waiting a long time. If you can catch Brink, Lady Fitzgerald, or Layback Bear with a PM, maybe they can help. They're all Win 7 experts. Just refer them to post #1743 at this URL.

I've tried cloning my Samsung laptop at least 9 times using different programs, without success.
I have Windows home premium, an Intel i7 2675QM @ 2.20GHz processor. 4 GB Ram, 64bit, and a 1T HD.
I thought my HDD was starting to fail, as it would run slow, or appear to freeze up, occasionally.

I bought a Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD. I installed the Samsung Data Migration Software,
and tried to clone my HD, as Admin. It appeared to be working for about 2.5 Hours, 57%, then everything froze. The elapsed timers stopped. The HD light on my computer stayed solid, as did the light on the external device I had the SDD plugged into.
I waited for hours for it to move...it did not. I had to do a hard power shutdown to start up my laptop again.

Ok mate I ma no expert but personally I use Macrium for cloning as I am not a fan of Samsung softeawre after I hasd issues with it a couple of years back.
Now if I were you I would clean the drive you have tried to clone to using DISKPART and then use Macrium to clone the original drive to it. If that fails I woud be looking at testing the new drive for any anomalies.
To clean the drive see this Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command - Windows 7 Help Forums and you can leave the drive unallocated for the clone.

I like ICIT2LOL, clean the drive the clone will be installed. Another tool to use to clean your new Samsung ssd is Mini Tool Partition Wizard. I have found some method of cleaning a drive leaves little bits of 'junk' on the front of the drive that upsets the apple cart.
When I did use Samsung SSD's I also descovered that their copy programs where nothing but a head ache.
Now I use Intel ssd's and still do a clean before attempting a clone using Macrium Reflect. Because of my limited data I use nothing but Clones and have no problems. When using a Clone you will have to re-start the protection on the clone drive to activate Restore Points.

Jack

I agree that Samsung's Migration software is significantly less than stellar but that doesn't mean their SSDs are also less than stellar. However, I still feel Samsung SSDs are excellent products and should not be eschewed just because their migration software is garbage for anything more than two partitions.

The only time I've had a problem with cloning a drive with Macrium Reflect (MR) is when the source had some kind of corruption on it. I would suggest first using Secure Erase (you can use Samsung magician for that) to clean up the destination drive, reformat the drive, then try using MR again to clone from the source drive to the SSD. If it still fails, then try to make an image of the source drive (you will need a third drive to store the image on; you should have one anyway for backups), then try to restore the image to the drive in question.

If that still fails, try to get ahold of Jumanji here for help with determining what is wrong with your source drive.

Well Jeannie I have to agree that Samsungs as drives are really as good as they get but that Magician software wrecked my Ivy Bridge by disconnecting all my USB ports and that was some time ago and it was a member in here who just happened to see my issue and knew just what it was and it is never going back on my machines ever.
Macrium for me has never let me down for cloning or imaging etc etc and I would just not use anything else.