Macrium Reflect Free Edition

Having just suffered the shock of my Toshiba laptop unexpectedly suffering a registry fault (I am using Vista Home Premium) that required a clean install of Vista from the rescue disks I created originally, and having spent the last week restoring everything I have vowed not to be caught out again.

The restore worked OK but I lost everything as I hadn't appreciated it would wipe the data partition as well as Windows i.e whole drive.

I have installed Macrium Reflect Free so that I can make a backup image of my working system.

I have been looking through the Help file but I am confused as to how to make the image disk(s) I create bootable.

I have read that it's possible to use the Bart PE system but this doesn't come up as an option but to does mention creating a Macrium rescue disk using Windows PE which is a rather large 1.67Gb download.

Not sure if this would make any image bootable from CD/DVD (my preferred backup option) so would appreciate chapter and verse on how to make my image disc(s) bootable if I can't access my system.

Thanks

Chris

 

That isn't how imaging programs such as Macrium work. You create the image file either from Windows or by booting to the rescue CD, and store the image file preferably on another hard disk or on DVDs. If you use DVDs the image file will require several disks so external hdd is best. The image file is not bootable, nor does it need to be.

You restore your image file either from Windows (requires reboot) or by booting to the rescue CD. The rescue CD is bootable and contains a cut down version of the imaging program. In Macrium's case I believe you can use either the Linux version (easiest by far) or, if that doesn't work for you, you can create a Win PE disk which requires a huge download and install of the WAIK. I recommend trying the Linux version first.

As you have already discovered, restoring images erases everything on the C drive including all your own stuff. You need either to backup your own stuff regularly to some other location and/or move your own stuff off of the C drive, which is my preferred solution. That keeps image files small and doesn't imperil your data files if you need to do a restore.

 

Thanks Earthling for clarifying that.

In the past I have used Norton Ghost and thought the image file it created was bootable and I used the image disk to restore but perhaps I am wrong (I am a bit older now!!!)

How can you restore an image if, like in my case, you can't start Windows, or is this where the rescue disk comes into play? I assume that if you use the rescue CD this runs in memory so that the image can be restored?

I used the data partition to store all my personal stuff and I tried as much as possible to copy that to an external hdd, well 2 in fact to try belt and braces approach, but not everything had been copied over as I had always assumed any restore would only over write the active Windows partition.

I might have to be brutal with my external drives as they don't have much space free, I suspect it depends on the compression macrium uses. At the moment macrium is showing 65GB to be backed up. Any idea how much that might be compressed to.

I will have a go at the Linux rescue disk as this will avoid the large download eating into my 10GB monthly download limit with BT.

 

Yes, that's exactly what happens

With Macrium you will choose which partitions to include in the backup, and you choose again when restoring. The MBR is always included in the backup.

That's pretty big so I suspect there's still quite a bit of your own stuff on there. My Win 7 and Win 8 are each typically about 25GB and that includes all my installed software but none of my data files. I would take another look if that's possible and transfer some stuff off before backing up. Otherwise I would guess your backup will be way over 40GB - rather a lot of DVDs!

 

You CANNOT use a bootable disk like Bart's or Win PE, you must make a Macrium Rescue Disk before you start using Macrium. The drop-down menu in the programme will enable you to do this. Having created your backup image you then boot up with the rescue disk you have made which will allow you to restore the image you have made previously. You cannot restore using Windows Restore as has been previously stated. A 60gig system will typically back-up to between 20 to 25gig and there is no need to remove any programmes at all... this would defeat the purpose of the back-up.

Note that when Macrium creates an image of your C: drive it backs up everything on that drive including your personal stuff, if there is another partition on that drive that information remains untouched during a Macrium restore

You are best advised to use an external drive for your back-ups. Do not back-up to a partition on the same drive because if the drive fails so does your backup.

There is a wealth of additional information here: http://www.macrium.com/help.aspx

 

There are two options when it comes to the rescue disk - Linux or Win PE, though Linux is far the simplest as you do not need to install the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK)

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

 

Thanks for the replies, all of which are very helpful.

According to Macrium my drive is divided as follows:

1 WinRe(None) 217MB out of 1.46GB

2 Vista(C) 36.94 out of 92.77GB

3 Data(E) 28.41GB out of 92.07GB
This represents 22.4GB for iTunes music (backed up separately on my external hdd) and 4.99GB for HDDRecovery. The remainder are small folders of personal data all of which are backed up to my external hdd or usb stick.

I don't recognise WinRe unless it is the mbr.

My thought is that all I need to backup in Macrium are the WinRe and Vista partitions so I could restore my working OS as it is on the day I write the image. This would reduce the size of the image and time taken.

If I was really unlucky and had to use the Toshiba Rescue again this would recreate the HDDRecovery partition so no point including this in the image.

I have pruned my 2 external hdd's and now have over 110Gb on one and 52Gb on the other so have plenty of space.

I have created and tested the Linux Rescue CD so I am more or less ready to go.

One thought has occurred to me, Can I copy the image created on 1 external hdd to the other, just for belt and braces, or would it be best to create a second image to the other hdd. Am I right in saying that the restore will expect the image to be on the hdd where is was created?

Thanks for all your patience, but as my user id shows the old grey matter isn't as receptive as it once was.

Chris

 

I'm not familiar with Toshibas but I would be fairly sure that is the partition containing your factory restore files, the files used in your recent restore. But I'm puzzled by the 4.99GB HDDRecovery on the data partition. Can't imagine what that is.

It would be a good idea to include the WinRe partition in your first backup, and keep that one. You don't need to include it in subsequent backups as it never changes.

Good move!

You could do either as both will work. Certainly you should keep your image files in more than one location.

That's the one place not to keep your backups. If your hdd failed your backup would go with it

 

Thanks again.

Did a bit of searching on the Toshiba site and WinRE is the Windows Recovery Environment and the HDDRecovery folder is the image of windows system itself. These are created as part of the pre-install software setup when the machine is first started.

Sorry I didn't make myself clear, I meant to say that restore would expect the destination drive of the image to be where specified at the time of creation. i.e in my case one of my external hdd's.

Think I'm ready now to take the next step.

 

You can copy your image to another location and it will still perform a restore. Macrium remembers where the locations are and if you have (for example) an image of a Linux installation or another Windows version it is best to a) stick with Macrium's default file name and b) keep each image in an appropriately named folder which you will create before you start the programme.

I also maintain a text file in each folder in which I record any changes made to the original installation so that I know what each image file contains and I keep three images deleting the earliest one as I add a new image.

 

I have now created an image of my Vista install, which I have to say was a very straight forward process, but have a couple of outstanding questions.

As I said earlier according to Macrium my drive is divided as follows:

1 WinRe(None) 217MB out of 1.46GB

2 Vista(C) which after further work restoring software came out as 50.23GB of 92.77GB.

I had both ticked but Macrium only imaged the Vista(C) partition, is this correct?

I was/am a bit confused about the backup definition file. I opted for all the default file names and folders etc and it has created My Backup.xml C:\Users\\Documents\Reflect.

The image was written to H:\Macrium\{IMAGEID}-00-00}.mrimg which is on one of my external hdd's.

When I looked at it the definition file seems to have all the settings used by Macrium for the image creation.

Does Macrium need to access this file for a restore and if so how does it do that if the drive is corrupted in someway. Should I copy this off to the same drive as the image?

Thanks

 

See my attachment... un-check the box "Save this backup as an XML definition file etc." this is only a definition file and Macrium does not need it to write the image.

The xml files are simple text files that contain the instructions for what to back up, what to include/exclude, compression ratio, etc. MF lets you save the xml files as templates for later use, scheduling, incremental/differential runs, you don't need them.

"I had both ticked but Macrium only imaged the Vista(C) partition, is this correct?"

This is correct... Macrium will only image the entire contents of the C: drive. It is not necessary to include the partition for WinRE. Have you opened the image you have made to see whether that partition has been included. Click on the "Restore" heading on the toolbar and select "Explore Image.