Macrium Reflect

Okay so I have been talked in to using Reflect to create an image of my machine. I am feeling like Vinnie Babarino "I am so confused!"
So far all I have done is create the Windows PE disk. If someone could shed some light on what the next step is that would be great. Thanks in advance

 

Thanks for the link Tony

 

I have Macrium Reflect for some years and never failed yet. I have never burnt a boot disc. I clone the OS onto another drive and update the clone when I feel it is necessary. If needed I just swap Sata cables and up and running in about 2 mins. Bingo!!!

 

I dont know enough to know if I need to make a boot disc but if I do on the Windows 7 machine I must get some +R/RW discs. The XP laptop has a -R/RW drive so I can make one on that. Cloning and swapping seems out of my league.Only once in 18 years of computing have I ever HAD to restore a PC. Only other time I restored just to see if it worked and i then found all the images I had were corrupt and I had to do a major fix. After that I simply made 3-4 images and after a time deleted the older ones but never just "tried one" again.

 

I don't like RW discs either and it looks like the -R work in both these laptops. Guess have to just make the discs and then try them no matter what it says.

 

Make R disks BG and that is really for the rescue environment when you have the need. Make one for each pc you have installed Macrium to as each one is different.
Install Macrium to the system and start from windows where you will make image files of the entire system. Open program and the first tab that opens is "Create a Backup" and from there chose "Image this disk". The next box that opens up choose "advanced options" first and I always set compression to maximum so the saved file is the smallest possible allowing you to save more
on a gien drive. The next choice is where you want to store the image file so choose dvd or hard drive for external ot internal. I always change the name to the Date from "My Backup". Then click "next" and "next again" as I change nothing on the next to screens. After yo do those, click "Finish" and before you actually start to create the image file leave the two boxes checked as the first one is obvious the 2nd one will save it so that you can explore the image file and pull files out of it should you want to later and also you must save it as an xml file in order to use Differential or Incremental, though they are not available in the free version only all paid ones.

You need a plan first for continuity. What I do first is look at all "download" folders and delete anything which is either saved somewhere else for later or delete unnecessary files.
Then I run TFC Cleaner to remove all temp files because why would you need to copy files that are temps anyway as they take up space. Then I run a full image file monthly with incrementals for the next 3 weeks. The next month when I go to make new full file after I am done I delete all the incremental files from last month leaving only the last full file at the beginning of the first month.
And such is life. I make all image files in Windows using installed Macrium because I can continue working while the image files are made. I don't really understand those who make image files from rescue disks because then you cannot use the pc while that is being done. That is the way we originally did image files from floppies and then bootable cds but being able to do them in Windows came first from Ghost about 12 years ago and we welcomed that so as to save our time and keep working.

 

Worst experience with backup images was back when I was using Drive Image or something and I would collect images, never testing or trying them. One day I decided to see if one would work, never being aware that the first thing it would do was to wipe out the whole C drive. Then when it tried to install an image, it said the Message Of Horror...."C Drive Cannot Be Found". So I tried all the images and it said all were corrupt and I had no C drive. It it took me a month to get it back like it was, using quick restore discs then reinstalling everything, which I could do because I saved copies and made notes of all I had installed. Now I just make images but never test them. And I never had any occasion where I would need them anyway except the one time I created my own disaster.
When I begin with Macrium I have the above instruction and the user manual to assist me. A bit ill right now but should be recovered by next week. I DL the new Macrium free version very fast thanks to the high speed Verizon FiOS internet. And my bill one increased $4-5 laike the rep had told me, after the installation costs were done and now I can be on internet with all 5 computers if wish, plus use both telephone lines, and save $16 a month on monthly dial up and maybe $10 a month on connection fees. You were right- should have done it long ago.

 

When you make image files its a good idea to occasionally allow them to be tested, and the program will do that, they all do . I don't bother with that because I have never had a bad one but when I make a rescue disk, I do at least test it to make sure it works.

Yeah I know I tried to get you to switch for years, but its one thing to talk about the experience vs actually feeling the difference. Just telling you the difference is just words. Until you actually experience it you probably won't get it.

 

I have never had a Macrium Reflect image fail. I always have several on a external drive. I guess my external could fail, but I'm counting on that not happening the same time I need the image to restore to. Any thing is possible. I always have other ways to restore to also. You will love Macrium Reflect! MR rocks!!

 

I know - Just my stubbornness and unfounded fears I guess. When I talked to the Rep I could think of no reason NOT to do it. Thinking about dropping Comcast TV and switching to Verizon TV now. Acronis True Image was the one I used after Drive Image. Guess there is no other way to do it but I always thought it odd to erase the C drive then find the image wont work. With all my PCs getting older I thought I would be more conscientious about backup images and copying things to external drives.
also have an adaptor for transferring Hard Drive content to another drive but not really sure how it works. One day I am sure I will find a PC will not work.

 

Hey BG ! Here's what I use. This old cheaply! It works great for what I need it to do!
There may come a time when you need one of these to retrieve your data. If your HDD will still spin up, this can be a useful tool to have in your drawer.
https://www.google.com/search?q=IDE/sata+usb+dockng+cable&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=IDE/sata+usb+docking+cable&tbm=shop&spd=17931215589439005242

 

I see Acronis True Image is still on my PCs. Is there any reason I should keep this if have Macrium installed and am using Macrium?

 

I just looked and see I have a Sabrent USB2.0 to SATA/IDE HArd Drive Adapter to access 2.5" and 3.5" SATA Hard drives and 5.25" SATA CD/DVD-RW drives. Got this in 4-26-12, never used, tried, or even know which of the PCs it might work on.Says w7, XP , USB2.0, Serial SATA compatible so that might cover the two XP and the w7 PC. Guess I could look in Device Manager and see what kinds of drives I have, but dont know anything about this sort of thing. Thought it might be useful. Computer shop charges $100 or more to copy a hard drive to retrieve data.

 

You can uninstall Acronis BG if you are not using it.
I just remembered I did have 2 Acronis image files fail on me. One was years ago in XP and the other was the reason I walked away from Acronis in 2013. Drive Image or Ghost never gave me a failed file and neither has Macrium. I use a paid version of Macrium because I need incremental and differential image files.

 

Looks good to me BG! That should save you 100$ if you ever need it!I see no reason for keeping the other imaging programs unless you paid for them. IMHO you will never want any image program except MR. You already don't trust Acronis, so uninstall .

 

I was a beta tester for Acronis from version 6 to 2011 and I really believed in that program. When Windows 8 first came out, most of the Linux based rescue disks did not work in that environment and we all got into trouble because we could makes image files in Windows 8 but they would not restore because the rescue disks did not work. Acronis kept putting out updates to Acronis 2013 and I had the final one before the next version which not only failed, it cost me a hard drive which Acer replaced under warranty. Then I tried to forget the incident and installed Acronis 2013 on my then new Sony laptop only to have the install of it blow away the boot ability. Of course I also discovered that System Restore was defaulted to off when it was the only thing that could have save my install of Windows. That was it for me and Acronis. I still use old Acronis rescue disks to clone drives as I like it the best for that where I think it is easier to use than the others, Macrium really took a bite out of Acronis because it had a Windows rescue disk when all the linux rescue disks from everyone were failing and that is actually what caused there rise to the top!

 

Just had some issues with Macrium Reflect. I am replacing a 1 tb hard drive with a 500 gb Ssd drive in my Sony laptop. I tried to restore an image file made in Macrium and I couldn't do it because the image file shows as 1 Tb and the Ssd drive is 400 gb though the image file really was only 167 gb. So then I moved on to clone and same story. So I found an Acronis 2013 rescue disk and I know Acronis always compensated for that with restore and cloning as Drive Image always did and it completed in 40 mionutes and ran perfectly. Guess I need to get a more current version of Acronis and play with it!

 

Either that or do some foot work and Google how to restore image to smaller SSD with Macrium Reflect.
This might help. I have never tried restoring to a smaller HHD??
http://www.sevenforums.com/backup-r...m-restore-backup-image-smaller-partition.html