What if your image restore fails?

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Let’s say you make a backup image of your main HD including OS, and store it on an external HD. We are commonly advised to immediately Restore this image back to the original HD as a kind of test, to make sure the image is valid. But what if it isn’t???

It occurs to me that if the image happens to be defective, or the Restore operation goes awry somehow, you’ll end up with an inoperable main HD, or you trash the OS, or you lose data or programs. If you then resort to a previous (hopefully, more valid) image, all you have accomplished with the day’s effort is to regress your computer system a few days/weeks/months/whatever. A backup should not entail that kind of risk.

Is there some way to test the validity of an image without risking this damage to your HD/OS/data?

Specifically, I use Macrium Reflect Free to make backup images. I can’t find any way to verify the image before committing to a Restore operation. (You can only verify as part of the Restore operation.) Do any of the other free backup utilities (such as Acronis) offer verification after creation of an image? I would like to verify it immediately, so that if it were found to be defective, I could immediately re-do the image.

Or am I just worrying about a non-existent problem? Is verification during Restore a sufficient protection against my nightmare of getting partway through a Restore operation, then having the program report a damaged Image and stopping, leaving me with a partially restored system that won’t run properly.

TIA, and cheers.
Collier

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You WILL need to test the software you have chosen.
No way to get around it

Is there some way to test the validity of an image without risking this damage to your HD/OS/data?

Yes and no. The only true way to test the integrity of an image just created is to restore that image. And the best way to
do that would be to do so by means of the bootable recover disk that you just made. (or should have made)
Many 3rd party imaging applications will provide an option to “verify” the integrity of the image just made.
But you will still need to test it.

It occurs to me that if the image happens to be defective, or the Restore operation goes awry somehow, you’ll end up with an inoperable main HD, or you trash the OS, or you lose data or programs. If you then resort to a previous (hopefully, more valid) image, all you have accomplished with the day’s effort is to regress your computer system a few days/weeks/months/whatever. A backup should not entail that kind of risk.

You would have had to have seriously messed things up in order to get that outcome. It sounds to me like you need to go back to the documentation
and spend more time reading up on all aspects of the procedures involved in creating and restoring an image.
[You don’t need to test every image you have created for there everafter, you just need to be confident in the regimen you have chosen. One test is sufficient if the software is new to you and you have not previously used it].

Specifically, I use Macrium Reflect Free to make backup images. I can’t find any way to verify the image before committing to a Restore operation. (You can only verify as part of the Restore operation.) Do any of the other free backup utilities (such as Acronis) offer verification after creation of an image? I would like to verify it immediately, so that if it were found to be defective, I could immediately re-do the image.

Macrium Reflect is fully capable of verifying an image upon creation:
32067-3
But this by no means negates the need to test by restoring the image just made.

Or am I just worrying about a non-existent problem? Is verification during Restore a sufficient protection against my nightmare of getting partway through a Restore operation, then having the program report a damaged Image and stopping, leaving me with a partially restored system that won’t run properly.

Not in itself. In order to be confident in your backup regimen you will need to test it by doing a full restore. You will also need to test your
boot disk as well.
Would prefer to test your backup regimen only when you are faced with a situation where you are forced to restore a backup?

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I had this problem the other day after my hard disk failed. Turns out I had the boot files on the second partition and only had an image of the first partition – partition 2 is data.
You only find out when you try to restore and the only way to test properly is to start with a blank disk. I suggest you beg, borrow or steal a blank disk to test with.

cheers, Paul

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Yes, I know. That happened to me too Paul when my drive recently failed.
But with the creation of a properly configured boot disk, preferably one created with WinPE, one can restore the boot files that were
placed on the other drive.

I had to restore the image, then separately go back in with the boot disk and restore the bootfiles.
That does not happen too often thankfully, but it is recoverable.

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I actually go a little further and Create my Images using my Rescue Boot Disk as well as test my Images using this disk. I used to create my Images from within Windows, but found the Images created from outside Windows (from the Rescue Boot Disk) before Windows even starts is a little quicker, and this eliminates problems with Windows somehow creating errors in my Image. Should not happen, but then again Imaging is so important that I just feel better taking this extra precaution.

To be absolutely sure your Image will work, you really do have to Restore it. That’s why I advocate keeping your Images Up To Date. My newest Image is always less than one month old. I also keep my data separate from my OS and back the data up separately

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