Solved About to install macrium reflect and image..

[David Bailey]

Hi,

Ok i'm going to try Macrium Reflect, select all my partitions/disks and then just backup/create image.. I may or may not do compress but I probably will have to if it doesn't fit on the USB.

thanks. I will mark this as "solved" once I fully finish the backup.

Later on, after I imaged the entire drive once. Then, I would only have to back up the windows partition (C:\) later on if I wanted later images.. correct? and with that, It wouldn't overwrite the "efi" and other "partitions" if I don't have them checked/ticked in Macrium Reflect correct. I would only select/check/tick the C: and then backup that.. it would then only overwrite the C: I'm assuming from what I read earlier.

Hope that makes sense. I think we are on the end of this post here.

I've never tried to make an image on a usb that already had an image on it.
You could experiment.
It won't hurt your usb as you can always reformat it.
You might end up having to use a 64 GB usb.?

 

[brooksndun]

Hi,

yes perhaps.. will let you know.. usb are so cheap on amazon now-a-days.. but i guess you have to find a reliable brand.. I like Silicon Power and the better PNY usb's.. I'm also looking for a really good usb hub.. maybe anker 9 port usb..

 

[David Bailey]

Most of the time I let the imaging process work in the background or start it & go out or to bed.

 

[stringjunky]

Hi,


Later on, after I imaged the entire drive once. Then, I would only have to back up the windows partition (C:\) later on if I wanted later images.. correct? and with that, It wouldn't overwrite the "efi" and other "partitions" if I don't have them checked/ticked in Macrium Reflect correct. I would only select/check/tick the C: and then backup that.. it would then only overwrite the C: I'm assuming from what I read earlier.

Hope that makes sense. I think we are on the end of this post here.

Your understanding is correct to all. You can have as many images on your usb as will fit on it. You just select for restoring the image you want from those listed when you browse for an image in the usb drive. Can't remember why, but I was advised not to change the names of the images; just go by the dates, which is with each image. I would leave compression at the default medium setting because further compression prolongs the imaging time considerably. 25GB of data, at default compression, takes 11 minutes on my laptop to the data partition on it and 8 minutes if I send it to my external drive; the hard-drive head isn't working so hard in the latter scenario writing from one partition to another on the same hard drive so it's quicker.

 

[PlatypusKnight]

@brooksndun I read you posts, and was in your shoes almost exactly a year ago. I don't think the way these guys have their setup is how you imagined the solution to your problem.

Allow me to present the contrary viewpoint. Perhaps my setup comes closer to what you envisioned, and a hybrid middle ground between the two will work for you.

 

[brooksndun]

ok i'm ears, but I can see absolutely no reason cloning a drive with macrium reflect would be some setup I did not "imagine" which is what I believe their setup is..?


so where is your suggestion?

(though I'm already doing the macrium boot disk setup!)

 

[brooksndun]

Oh, and David, the only thing I read about compression in general is it requires strain on the cpu.. as it uses more to decode/ read/etc.. etc.. but I guess who cares about strain on a cpu.. i Have an i7 in one laptop and that is meant to do work is it not? ha.

 

[PlatypusKnight]

ok i'm ears, but I can see absolutely no reason cloning a drive with macrium reflect would be some setup I did not "imagine" which is what I believe their setup is..?


so where is your suggestion?

They really shouldn't let people on the internet when they're inebriated. What a night last night.

I'll go through what I wrote last night, and if it's not too embarrassing I'll post. Basically, rather than image the entire drive, I image only the OS with updates and customizations. I use another backup routine for documents, files, music etc. I don't need to image my entire 1 terabyte of data. I just need the OS to be up and running in 10 minutes if anything unforeseen should happen.

 

[stringjunky]

ok i'm ears, but I can see absolutely no reason cloning a drive with macrium reflect would be some setup I did not "imagine" which is what I believe their setup is..?


so where is your suggestion?

They really shouldn't let people on the internet when they're inebriated. What a night last night.

I'll go through what I wrote last night, and if it's not too embarrassing I'll post. Basically, rather than image the entire drive, I image only the OS with updates and customizations. I use another backup routine for documents, files, music etc. I don't need to image my entire 1 terabyte of data. I just need the OS to be up and running in 10 minutes if anything unforeseen should happen.

That's all I do. My OS is on a 50GB partition and the rest is data ...I backup as well again to an external for important data stuff.

 

[brooksndun]

Alright well, I made the Macrium Boot disk, tried my first backup/clone it worked and then restored it. it worked..

so Macrium is the way to go. (free version used)

-by the way, used no compression as my first initial backup fit on a usb stick uncompressed! (had nothing installed i guess in windows yet)

solved..

 

[stringjunky]

If you use the 'intelligent copy' choice it only copys those sectors with data on it, keeping your image size down. Nice to hear it went ok for you.

 

[brooksndun]

Yes, I believe it was set to Intelligent Scan copy,

so that also must be why it was a tiny image.. but in anycase, I factory restored a toshiba satellite laptop, and then uninstalled the bloatware/crapware.. (toshiba eco apps and etc..)

then using Macrium usb disk I saved the (all partitions selected) to the usb and it was all under 15 gigs If i remember.

then I restored the disk to see if it worked using the image I just backed up. It worked.

 

[stringjunky]

Yes, I believe it was set to Intelligent Scan copy,

so that also must be why it was a tiny image.. but in anycase, I factory restored a toshiba satellite laptop, and then uninstalled the bloatware/crapware.. (toshiba eco apps and etc..)

then using Macrium usb disk I saved the (all partitions selected) to the usb and it was all under 15 gigs If i remember.

then I restored the disk to see if it worked using the image I just backed up. It worked.

You don't need to use 'Clone' unless it's imperative you need to copy every sector.

What you could do now is put that full copy aside and do a copy of C only;put that aside. The next 2 copies you make you could remove the oldest one when you make subsequent ones so you always have two fairly current copies. Your first C image or the full system image is the base image if you want to start again. I aim to have one full system base image; a C drive base image and two images that I just roll over each other, deleting the oldest one. The rolling copies are ones I use to normally restore my system with because they are the most up to date.

If at any time you want to have a look at the contents of an image or copy something from it just right-click on it and choose 'Explore Image' and it will be mounted for you to view.

 

[whs]

Keeping only 2 images in the backup is a bit skimpy. I always keep at least 10 and always the first 2 I made right after the installation and the one when all programs were installed and settings done. I image at least once per week and I spread the images over 2 external and 1 internal disk. Same for the data partition.

 

[brooksndun]

Hi,

Those sound like good plans, I particulary am just using these "images"/backups as a way to just go back after I install something that causes conflict or after problems occur using the internet/downloading trying new programs/Games.. this is my "no care Worry-free" leisure fun computer that I don't care about what happens to it.. (it's actually quite nice not caring about virus or maleware or security.. ( I don't bank or do anything with passwords on this computer except login to my secondary semi-fake for spam and junk emails)

 

[whs]

Another 'care free' approach is to run Windows in a virtual VMware Player machine from a small Linux distro. The virtual machine is only 1 folder that you can easily copy in no time and restore when needed with the linux running. No need to boot from CD or any other complications. If you run all that from a SSD, you will not really notice a performance difference to a native installation.

A different approach for imaging is AOMEI OneKey Recovery. There you can recover from the boot menu - quite nifty. I have tried that out in a virtual W8.1 and made a summary on page 3 post #25 in this thread.

 

[brooksndun]

Windows in a virtual VMware Player machine from a small Linux distro.

Ok what/where can I install and start going through this process? I like..

 

[stringjunky]

A
A different approach for imaging is AOMEI OneKey Recovery. There you can recover from the boot menu - quite nifty. I have tried that out in a virtual W8.1 and made a summary on page 3 post #25 in this thread.

Guess what I'll be playing with later?

 

[KYHI]

hold shift key + restart for windows recovery

or power on and off 3 times before booting into windows will also trigger windows recovery

 

[whs]

hold shift key + restart for windows recovery

or power on and off 3 times before booting into windows will also trigger windows recovery

Right, I forgot all about that. Make your own refresh images.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/3610-refresh-windows-8-create-use-custom-recovery-image.html