Macrium Reflect question: type of image

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Can a Lounger familiar with Reflect confirm something for me, please. Just got around to doing another image (way overdue, I blush to admit). 2 questions:

1. I selected “Create an image of the partition/s required to backup/restore Windows” instead of “Image all local drives on this computer”. The backup took 42 minutes (my data is on the C drive, too, unfortunately) and the report did say it did a “full” image and all of C drive was backed up. Am I okay or should I redo the image, selecting the “all local drives” instead. If screenshots would help, I’ll happily post what’s needed.

2. If I’ve done it correctly, do I need to restore from this image to test it? I did that with the first one I made, but absolutely dread the task as it adds hugely to stress levels!!!

Thanks for any advice,

Linda, the nervous Imager :huh:

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As long as you are backing up your data separately on a more regular schedule than imaging usually affords, that is probably exactly what you want. You can verify the image, which means it’s a good image, but to be absolutely sure one does need to restore from it.
One way of doing that stress-free is to use a different hard drive just for such tests; restore to the test drive, and then swap drives and boot, or swap drives first and use boot media (USB or CD) to restore the image In situ, creating the same conditions as if there were a real failure you were recovering from.

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Thanks for your prompt reply. Now I can close Reflect!

I do backup daily to the cloud (using Mozy) and have managed to restore files successfully from there occasionally.

I liked your stress-free option. Could the test hard drive be an external HD? If so, I could purchase a second one so the test drive is not the same as the image one.

Linda

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Could the test hard drive be an external HD? If so, I could purchase a second one so the test drive is not the same as the image one.

Linda

It can be an external drive that you restore the image to; however at some point, either before or after restoring, that drive as to take the place of the drive the image was made from in order to test it fully. I use a 2.5 inch bare laptop drive (500gigs) so I can swap it for a laptop drive or just open the case of a desktop and pull the data and power cable off the system drive and temporarily connect the little test drive.

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Linda,

Personally, I image the whole drive but only one drive at a time. Thus, for my main machine I do 2 images one for the Boot Drive (SSD) and one for the Data Drive (HDD).
34723-MacriumImages
HTH :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Got it, thanks. Will do that for next image – which I’ve scheduled for September.

It really is challenging to keep up with all these programs when you aren’t using them regularly. Heck, I’ve been using MS Office for years and still feel comfortable only with Word and PowerPoint and, even then, am using only about 10% of their capabilities! AGH!

Linda

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Drive imaging should just be confined to the operating system’s (primary drive) and nothing else.
It’s very inefficient to image a purely data drive, not to mention that you will be adding an unnecessary degree of complexity
over hard copy backups of this type of non operating system related data.

Just keep a close eye on where your “checkmarks” are when you go to create an image.
Also ensure the backup location is verified, even if it means double checking it.

You already have a cloud based backup, which is good, but I would also want a portable external and
maybe a few DVD’s for the really important stuff. [Hard copied data, not images]

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Personally, I keep all my data on a second partition from the OS and apps. In this way if I have to restore the Image, my data is not touched. If your Image is, say, 1 month old, the data in the Images is also 1 month old. You would then have to restore the data from a different back up. In my case I do not have to worry about that because my data is on a different partition.

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FWIW, I use Macrium, I keep my data off of my OS partition, and I take frequent images of my OS partition AND my data partition. I don’t find it inefficient nor complex. I’ve used Macrium to set up one backup for each. When it’s time to run my images, I just select the named image “program” and execute it. It takes me 8 minutes to do the OS, and 2 and a 1/2 minutes to do my data. Easy peasey.

Dick

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Clint et al,

Oh, wow. I think one of the issues is that I have never learned how to “partition” a drive. Guess that’s why my image takes so long to do! And I don’t really need the data images since it is backed up in the cloud (and key items, on DVD when I remember to do so!).

Somehow need to figure out how to image just the OS and do that each month. In addition, I think it would be a good idea to back up data on the external HD as well as in the cloud.

Of course, part of all this is that I don’t get into this whole back up issue often enough that it is a habit yet so each incident involves a new learning curve. Not terribly efficient, I know!

Thanks for the input,

Linda

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Partitioning is easy. Use a partitioning app such as Partition Wizardthen follow the instructions shown: (just be careful getting the free edition from Download.com. They often piggyback unwanted apps. You have to opt out of these)

31143-Partition-Wizard

Highlight the partition you wish to create a new partition from and slide the slider, choose OK, then apply. Some changes have to be made outside of Windows, but the app takes care of all that.

Once you have created the unallocated space, open the app again, select (highlight0 the unallocated space , right click and select Format, then set as Logical. Now you are ready to use this newly created partition for something else.

The proper way to move data to a new partition is shown by PC World. You can even move your mail client store (where your email is saved) if you know where it is saved now.

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Partitioning is easy. Use a partitioning app such as partitionwizard

Since Vista, that IMO has been BAD advice. Windows has really easy partitioning built in. Just reduce the size of the operating system partition to a reasonable level (I use 150 gigs) then cut up the rest into as many partitions as you want.

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If you are doing a monthly full image 42 minutes does not seem excessive. Is it really that big a deal? All partitioning a single drive gets you is the ability to restore the OS separately from the data. IMO, partitioning a single drive gives many people a false sense of security. If the drive goes belly up all the partitions are shot anyway.

How often have you garbaged up the OS to the point of a restore? I’m constantly installing, uninstalling, upgrading, and otherwise modifying software at work and at home. Now, I realize I may be the exception and extremely stubborn when it comes to trying to figure out an issue but nevertheless I can only remember restoring an image once in the last decade.

You can start a backup, walk away for an hour, spend the hour doing something enjoyable, and let it run.

Joe

--Joe

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Clint et al,

Oh, wow. I think one of the issues is that I have never learned how to “partition” a drive. Guess that’s why my image takes so long to do! And I don’t really need the data images since it is backed up in the cloud (and key items, on DVD when I remember to do so!).

Somehow need to figure out how to image just the OS and do that each month. In addition, I think it would be a good idea to back up data on the external HD as well as in the cloud.

Of course, part of all this is that I don’t get into this whole back up issue often enough that it is a habit yet so each incident involves a new learning curve. Not terribly efficient, I know!

Thanks for the input,

Linda

I agree with Joe. My desktop disk usage is about 300 GB. Imaging it takes between 1 hour and a bit or 2 1/2 hours, depending on whether I image to my e-sata drive or my regular USB 2.0 drive. When I image it, I usually do it during dinner time or during the night – I leave it on and start the image just before I go to bed.

Using multiple partitions, although with some advantages regarding imaging, has also some drawbacks – you can’t upgrade Windows without using a clean install, for example. Although configuring a system to use multiple partitions is not overly complex, it can be a bit of work, as well.

My advice would be to leave things as they are, if they work for you. No need to introduce additional complexity if your current setup works.

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Using multiple partitions, although with some advantages regarding imaging, has also some drawbacks – you can’t upgrade Windows without using a clean install, for example. Although configuring a system to use multiple partitions is not overly complex, it can be a bit of work, as well.

Rui,

I upgraded from Win 8 to Win 8 Pro on my new computer w/o a problem and I had both the Documents and Swap folders on separate partitions on a different drive. If memory serves, not always the case, When I originally installed Win 8 on my previous desktop it was upgraded from Win 7 HP (same partition setup) w/o a problem. YMMV :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Rui,

I upgraded from Win 8 to Win 8 Pro on my new computer w/o a problem and I had both the Documents and Swap folders on separate partitions on a different drive. If memory serves, not always the case, When I originally installed Win 8 on my previous desktop it was upgraded from Win 7 HP (same partition setup) w/o a problem. YMMV :cheers:

Bruce,

I don’t think your 8 to 8 Pro upgrade qualifies, here. It’s just an in-place upgrade, where the new key releases “locked” features, it doesn’t really involve the setup of a new OS.

I am pretty sure I read about this impossibility on Windows Secrets itself, but I can’t find the reference now.

P.S: One thread relative to this, on the answers forum, regarding a Vista to 7 upgrade. http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/cant-upgrade-to-windows-7-because-user-files-are/b7dfe9a4-40f7-47b2-a6f5-ed63823f805d
Not sure what the situation is with Windows 8 upgrades.

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Rui,

I upgraded from Win 8 to Win 8 Pro on my new computer w/o a problem and I had both the Documents and Swap folders on separate partitions on a different drive. If memory serves, not always the case, When I originally installed Win 8 on my previous desktop it was upgraded from Win 7 HP (same partition setup) w/o a problem. YMMV :cheers:

I believe Rui meant upgrading from one version (i.e. Win7) to another (i.e. Win8) as opposed to upgrading to a different SKU within the same version.

Joe

--Joe

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Wow. Stay away for a couple of days and there is lots of great new learning here. I am glad to have the knowledge about partitioning in my “personal database” -thanks, Ted.

Right now, the whole area of image backup is still pretty new to me and I’m not at all comfortable with it yet. Given that, I probably should just try to master it first before trying any other technical item, such as partitioning. As Rui suggested, it works for me (or I’m at least trying to get comfortable with it working for me!) so why add more complexity. The time the backup took wasn’t a problem: I just thought it meant I was doing something wrong.

Thanks for all this information.

Linda

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I have restored Images numerous times. Sometimes it’s just a shortcut to an objective that could have been accomplished another way without the restoration, but since I’m impatient this works for me.

If a person is never “experimenting” with there OS, then perhaps there is little expectation of the need for Image restoration, but for many of us this just makes our lives easier. The other problem we see quite regularly is the virus or malware that fudges things up to such an extent that Image restoration might save days of work, then crossing your fingers that it actually works.

Joe is such an experienced and expert user that he will undoubtedly have far fewer problems than us average people at getting back to where he was without Image restoration.

I suspect Image restoration as a result of a disk failure is one of the lesser used reasons for Imaging and restoring from those Images.

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FWIW, I’m glad I followed the advice here long ago to create a separate data partition. Since I love to try things and “fool around ” on my computer to learn things (I have lots of time as a retired non-geek), I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to restore an OS image using Macrium to get my system back to normal. YMMV.

Dick
PS,
By the way, one of the other great pieces of advice I received here was to test the restoration the first time I imaged my OS partition. I know many people here are happy with Acronis; on my system I couldn’t successfully do a restore with it. For me, Macrium worked flawlessly. Again, YMMV.

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I upgraded from Win 8 to Win 8 Pro on my new computer w/o a problem and I had both the Documents and Swap folders on separate partitions on a different drive. If memory serves, not always the case, When I originally installed Win 8 on my previous desktop it was upgraded from Win 7 HP (same partition setup) w/o a problem.

I think it’s just the opposite isn’t it? Unless I’m thinking of something else, a clean install breaks the other partition(s) usage scheme necessitating re-linking to the moved folders. I thought an upgrade keeps those user settings intact, though I didn’t know that applied to the swap file.

Doesn’t really matter for me anymore though, I’m strictly a dissimilar hardware image master blaster now and forever more, no ifs, ands, or upgrades.

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I think it’s just the opposite isn’t it? Unless I’m thinking of something else, a clean install breaks the other partition(s) usage scheme necessitating re-linking to the moved folders. I thought an upgrade keeps those user settings intact, though I didn’t know that applied to the swap file.

Doesn’t really matter for me anymore though, I’m strictly a dissimilar hardware image master blaster now and forever more, no ifs, ands, or upgrades.

No, Windows won’t upgrade if the said folders are not in their default location. It will only allow a clean install.

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What I had to do when moving from Win 7 to Win 8 (I did a clean install with a format) was just change the data folder locations again to point to my existing data on my data drive. This included my WLM Store. In this way my data remained untouched and the new OS pointed to the existing data. This worked flawlessly for me.

I believe I will not have to do this when I move to Win 8.1 because, as stated previously, this is an in place OS Update similar to an SP update. Perhaps my assumption is in error. If so I will just change those same pointers again in the new OS.

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I have never been able to restore a backup image. I have used BounceBack, TrueImage, Windows Backup, and Macrium Reflect.
None of these ever worked for me. The closest I have come is to use system restore, and roll back to an earlier time.
I am in the process now of trying to restore a Macrium Reflect image, from an internal 1TB drive (using a drive dock) to my old computer.
When I start the restore, I’m told can’t restore, because a partition is in use, of course it is, I’m trying to restore it.
I hope everyone has better luck than I have had.
All the best RGSmith.

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I have never been able to restore a backup image. I have used BounceBack, TrueImage, Windows Backup, and Macrium Reflect.
None of these ever worked for me. The closest I have come is to use system restore, and roll back to an earlier time.
I am in the process now of trying to restore a Macrium Reflect image, from an internal 1TB drive (using a drive dock) to my old computer.
When I start the restore, I’m told can’t restore, because a partition is in use, of course it is, I’m trying to restore it.
I hope everyone has better luck than I have had.
All the best RGSmith.

True Image would offer to reboot and restore the image, in such circumstances. In any case, restoring an image can also be done by booting from the boot disk, regardless of whatever app you used to create the image.

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Hi Lounge Friends, I have successfully restored my old Gateway, with a Macrium Reflect Free image.
Thanks to Ruirb, Dick-Y, CLiNT, and Bobprimak I went to YouTube, and followed a video there outlining
how to restore a Macrium image.

I thank each and every one of you for helping a 73 year old man to get back a lifetime of pictures, slideshows, and documents.
I had, through my own ignorance, deleted most of my treasures, when I tried to move them to my new computer.

I had luckily, made a Macrium image, August 4th, 2013, this is what saved my bacon.

Again, thanks to everyone, and best regards, RGSmith.

Macrium Reflect Free, with a Rescue Disc Rocks….!!!

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Hi Lounge Friends, I have successfully restored my old Gateway, with a Macrium Reflect Free image.
Thanks to Ruirb, Dick-Y, CLiNT, and Bobprimak I went to YouTube, and followed a video there outlining
how to restore a Macrium image.

I thank each and every one of you for helping a 73 year old man to get back a lifetime of pictures, slideshows, and documents.
I had, through my own ignorance, deleted most of my treasures, when I tried to move them to my new computer.

I had luckily, made a Macrium image, August 4th, 2013, this is what saved my bacon.

Again, thanks to everyone, and best regards, RGSmith.

Macrium Reflect Free, with a Rescue Disc Rocks….!!!

Hi,

Well, your post made my day :). I am very glad the collective knowledge of our members was able to help you get back your valuable files. That’s what the Lounge is about!

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Hi Lounge Friends, I have successfully restored my old Gateway, with a Macrium Reflect Free image.
Thanks to Ruirb, Dick-Y, CLiNT, and Bobprimak I went to YouTube, and followed a video there outlining
how to restore a Macrium image.

I thank each and every one of you for helping a 73 year old man to get back a lifetime of pictures, slideshows, and documents.
I had, through my own ignorance, deleted most of my treasures, when I tried to move them to my new computer.

I had luckily, made a Macrium image, August 4th, 2013, this is what saved my bacon.

Again, thanks to everyone, and best regards, RGSmith.

Macrium Reflect Free, with a Rescue Disc Rocks….!!!

Wonderful! Glad I could help.

The key in all backup operations is to keep things as simple as possible, and to keep the hard drive you want to restore to as inactive as possible, in my experience.

-- rc primak

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I have never been able to restore a backup image. I have used BounceBack, TrueImage, Windows Backup, and Macrium Reflect.
None of these ever worked for me. The closest I have come is to use system restore, and roll back to an earlier time.
I am in the process now of trying to restore a Macrium Reflect image, from an internal 1TB drive (using a drive dock) to my old computer.
When I start the restore, I’m told can’t restore, because a partition is in use, of course it is, I’m trying to restore it.
I hope everyone has better luck than I have had.
All the best RGSmith.

That’s a big part of the problem (repeated failures) that people new to imaging have. It tends to turn people off to using it at all.
What you really need to do is sit down and figure out what you are doing wrong and try to correct it.
Thoroughly reading all of the fact sheets and how-to’s are a good start.

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One of the benefits, for me anyway, of the paid version of Macrium Reflect, was the ability to easily set up WinPE.
When I want to restore my W7 system image, I reboot and select WinPE, and from there I can choose any image, including a system image, and restore it.

Because I “play around” with my system, I have had to do this probably 6 times this year; and it was done successfully and flawlessly each time.

If you do, please report back your successful restoration.

Best,
Dick

You might want to try this approach RGSmith.

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I have never been able to restore a backup image. I have used BounceBack, TrueImage, Windows Backup, and Macrium Reflect.
None of these ever worked for me. The closest I have come is to use system restore, and roll back to an earlier time.
I am in the process now of trying to restore a Macrium Reflect image, from an internal 1TB drive (using a drive dock) to my old computer.
When I start the restore, I’m told can’t restore, because a partition is in use, of course it is, I’m trying to restore it.
I hope everyone has better luck than I have had.
All the best RGSmith.

My best efforts have come when I used image archives which I verified using a bootable Rescue CD, from external Hard Drive locations. The Partitions are never in use in that scenario.

One of the benefits, for me anyway, of the paid version of Macrium Reflect, was the ability to easily set up WinPE.
When I want to restore my W7 system image, I reboot and select WinPE, and from there I can choose any image, including a system image, and restore it.

Because I “play around” with my system, I have had to do this probably 6 times this year; and it was done successfully and flawlessly each time.

If you do, please report back your successful restoration.

Best,
Dick

You might want to try this approach RGSmith.

The option to build Rescue Media from a WinPE4 (or WinPE3) partial download (making a WinPe Macrium Reflect Rescue CD) is now available in the free edition as well. I just finished updating my own 64-bit WinPE4 Rescue CD. There was a 187MB download from Microsoft, but otherwise, it was a pretty straightforward process.

When compared with the Linux Rescue CD, this environment does have a few added features. One is the ability to restore to a different location or different size Partition from the original one. You still need to get the paid Macrium Reflect version to restore individual files from within an Image Archive.

@IreneLinda — For now, keep things as simple as possible. Use the backup and recovery program as it is installed into Windows. Leave partitions to more advanced users. 42 minutes is not bad for a backup operation. Verifying the image will take an additional 42 minutes. The default options are usually just fine, so click through to actually making the backup image. Use an external hard drive for the “target” (destination) of the backup image. Make the image of “all the [partitions] needed for Windows” which in Macrium Reflect is the default. In 64-bit Windows 7, this will include the small “system” partition and the C:Windows partition, in a single archive. And this is also how the system should be restored if needed. Verify is sufficient to test the image archive. It is not necessary to go through any full restoration operation after making a backup image. I have never had a verified archive fail in a restoration operation. Do verify the archive immediately before restoring it if the need for restoration arises. Keep as many backup archives as will fit onto your external drive, up to a year’s worth (assuming monthly backups). If the most recent archive doesn’t verify or fails to restore properly, you can then go back one or two months with minimal impact other than having to do more updates on the restored Windows system. Learn how to set your BIOS to boot from a CD or DVD first, then try the internal hard drive. (This is usually not the default BIOS configuration.) When backing up, stay within Windows. When restoring, use the Rescue Media. (Most of my Restore operations have happened because Windows would not boot.) Finally, remember to actually do the backup operation once a month, and verify the result after doing the backup operation. (This can be set up to happen automatically by checking off the option to verify when the backup is completed.)

Once learned, Backup discipline can provide a good measure of peace of mind. The only better insurance policy you can add is a good Full Scan with anti-virus once a week. These virus scans take a long time (several hours per run) but imaging and virus scanning are worth the effort and time, for the peace of mind both of these measures can provide.

-- rc primak

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RGSmith:
I’m glad that worked for you; and thank you for posting back about your successful recovery of your “lifetime” of
pictures etc.
Blessings,
Dick

PS,
I’m older than you and I know I wouldn’t want to lose all my “stuff” either.

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That is your opinion, but I have found the 3rd party apps are much better at these chores than the built in apps. For example the Windows partitioning tool is unable to set unallocated space at the front of a partition as this involves moving data during a reboot. A 3rd party app must be used for this.

The built in app is just too limited with a much smaller feature set.

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Hi all, and especially Bob Primak: great step by step directions to follow to keep me safe and out of trouble. I feel much more confident with a “track” to follow and specific steps to implement. I scan regularly (Microsoft Security Essentials, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware), but with a quick scan. I will switch to Full ones on a regular basis now. The whole backup and image thing is tricky, but – as Clint and you have said – doable if you proceed slowly and read/follow all instructions as you proceed. I know this Lounge guided me safely and successfully through my first image backup and system restore (despite the scariness) a few months ago. Getting into the “once a month” routine is what will make it a less stressful and more comfortable habit. All these suggestions will definitely help to do that.

Many thanks to everyone – again. I know just how RG Smith feels: the first time Loungers help you through a technically overwhelming task, the feeling is hard to describe. BUT it’s sure a positive one!

Linda

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Being lazy, my OS and data are on the same drive/partition. I do a full image backup twice a month. In addition, I run a continuous “non-stop” data backup whilst using my system (In both cases, I use Acronis True Image). Valuable data that is unlikely to change is removed from my system after “permanently” storing on BluRay discs . This maintains my total OS/data size at around 120GB. I test restoring my verified backups from time-to time to a “clean” spare internal hard drive and then try booting from it. So far, this has worked just fine for me. But I suppose, “different strokes for different folk”(!)

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

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Peter, impressive routine! I have heard the “test on a second internal HD” method before and may try it one day. After all, this Lounge did guide me through finding, ordering and installing a new hard drive not too long ago so I should be able to gird myself to open the PC again and insert a second one! That will come later, however. First, perfect current backup routine!

Linda

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