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Macrium Backup Question

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4K views 44 replies 2 participants last post by  spunk.funk 
#1 ·
Hi All...

I previously had a Toshiba Satellite C655 with a Win7 Ultimate SP1 O/S.

My question is since I backup up to a 1TB external drive using Macrium Reflect and now I have a totally different computer (AMD10...Win7 Home Edition SP1)) do I just continue backing up after a full backup to the same external drive? Or do I wipe it clean and start all over again?

Thanks!
 
#2 ·
Any backups of personal files (music, pictures, documents etc) will be fine, but if you have done a clone image of your Windows OS, Programs and personal files, then you should wipe your backup clean and do a fresh backup.
Since you have different hardware it will affect the Windows OS and Programs.
 
#4 ·
O.K., I've about researched this to death. One last question. If I wipe the entire peripheral drive (my emergency boot is on that peripheral), is there a problem with partitioning the peripheral using MaxiTool Partition and then creating my emergency boot on one partition and then doing the O/S image on the other?

It seems like I tried this once before (not with MaxiTool) but it refused to then take the image on the other partition. Help me please! I'm really out of the realm of my expertise.

Thanks!
 
#5 ·
If you are cloning your HDD and saving the clone to an external USB HDD, it wipes the external HDD in the process before it clones it. So, you cannot have a partition on the drive. If there is disaster, you just swap the internal drive with the external and be back in business.
If you make a Clone Image file, you can save that to a partition you created. If disaster strikes, you must boot off of the Clone software CD or USB flash drive, and choose Restore Image, and browse it to your Image File on your external USB HDD to restore to the internal HDD
 
#6 ·
Great info...I have got some more reading to do. I think I was to do the imaging method.

I was pondering what happens with a disaster. If the computer just shuts down and (in addition to the OEM disk) I've got a prepared emergency boot for this Win7 Home Edition...how in the world do I access it? I'm sorry because this may sound like a very stupid question but I've never had that happen. But that's the reason for backups...just in case. So what are the recommended steps? I've got Macruim. I've got MaxiTool. What should I do. I'm not in the middle of any disaster. I'm just trying to get setup (in advance for a change) just in case I have one. I need to know if I can take that Samsung 1Tb external and shrink the existing NTFS into two parts...one for the emergency boot (if that will work) and the other for the Macrium image. Then I seem to recall that the Macrium image contains its' own boot???

Sorry for the rambling. It really is coming but just a little slow for my 77yr old brain!
 
#7 ·
If you have a Windows DVD, you can create an ISO image with IMGBurn in my signature. If you have a Windows 7 Home Edition Setup ISO image file, you should create a Bootable USB Flash Drive or DVD with that. You do not want to boot from the same drive that has Emergency boot and the Clone Image on it as well. Using https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool Or using Rufus in my signature.
If you have a Clone Image file on a USB HDD, you should create a Boot CD or USB Flash drive in the Clone software. Starting with the rescue CD
Disaster can come in many ways. Your Windows install won't boot, your HDD has failed etc. Let's say the HDD failed, You would replace the old HDD with a new one. If you have a Clone Image file on a USB HDD, you would Boot off of the cloned software boot CD or USB and choose Restore Image. With the USB HDD plugged in, you would browse it to the cloned Image file you created as your Source. The Destination or Target drive is the new HDD. Once that is finished you remove all USB drives and CD's and restart the computer and it should boot normally to the HDD with Windows and the files that were cloned on that day.
If you want to create 2 partitions on an External drive, If there are no files on the drive you want to keep, you don't need to shrink the partition. With the drive attached, go to Start/Search and type diskmgmt.msc, Right click the diskmgmt results and Run As Administrator. In the Elevated Disk Management window, right click the External drive and Delete all partitions. Now right click the Unallocated Space and choose to create a New Simple Volume. Set the size of the partition you want, leaving enough space for another, Format NTFS. Then Right click the remaining space and do the same thing.
 
#8 ·
Spunk, Funk...great tutorial!

O.K. I've done the external (H Drive) Backup.

I am going to printout your lesson here and begin to do exactly as you've suggested. I could not have even begun to comprehend this total process without these instructions. I may still run into an obstacle or two so I'd appreciate you staying with me until I've got it worked out.

Any idea as to how many other like me that woke up one a.m. like Rip van Winkle and realized that 20+ years of technology had bypassed them? Thanks for being so patient!
 
#10 ·
So creating a system image is totally separate from creating an emergency boot. I thought that Macrium did them both but I had to make sure the boot was separate from the image on my peripheral hard drive. What I think I'm understanding now is that the image is merely a picture and in the event of a crash and I have to get a new hard drive I can then Restore that image of my Win7 O/S. Apparently it does not provide me with a means of booting my computer back up if necessary and it requires a cd (I don't have a cd device only a dvd) or a usb flash that is setup for NRSB. Am I on the right track?
 
#11 · (Edited)
Macrium can create an Emergency Boot CD, and it can create and Image file and it can Clone one disk to another.
There are two kinds of Clone jobs.
1. There is the Clone. In which you boot off of a Clone software CD and choose your C: drive as the Source drive, and another drive, say a USB HDD, as your Destination or Target drive. You then Clone the C: drive (source) to the External HDD (Destination) any data on the Destination drive will be wiped. This will be an exact mirror image onto the other drive of the C: drive. If Disaster strikes, you remove the HDD from the USB Enclosure, and replace the old C: drive with the cloned HDD that was previously in an enclosure. Boot the computer and it will be just like you were with the other drive before it failed.
2. The second option is the clone Image file. This also is a mirror image, but it is put into a compressed Image file, which you can store on a USB HDD. You can store more then one image on an external USB HDD.
It's also best to boot off of the Clone software Boot CD, because you cannot copy Windows files in use. You start the Clone software and choose to make an Image file of your C: drive. You then save the image file to a USB HDD or internal HDD that is not a boot disk. You can store more then one image. If disaster strikes, you must boot off of the Clone Boot CD and choose Restore Image, browse to the drive with the Clone Image file (Source) and choose a New HDD or one that will be wiped (Destination) and choose to Restore Image to Destination drive.
 
#12 ·
Macrium is not recognizing the SanDisk usb flash I just bought. My system sees it so why isn't Macrium?

This usb flash comes with a 'Vault' for added security. The .exe and the folder with their Guide take up a lot of space. I'm told they can be deleted which would just leave the basic usb flash. Any chance Macrium would then recognize the 'E' drive on my computer?

If I can get this solved, I think I'm ready to create the emergency boot on the usb flash drive and then do a fresh 'image' on the peripheral 'F' hard drive. Does this sound about right?
 
#13 ·
Here are instructions to make a Macrium Bootable USB Flash Drive: v4: Create a bootable Windows PE USB stick (v4, Windows PE)
If you Macrium still doesn't recognize the USB Flash drive, then wipe it in DiskPart using the Clean command before making the drive Active. Or Format it in Disk Management in Windows.
 
#14 ·
I'm concerrned. I used the Windows format to make the flash FAT32. I'm reading that I've only got one free shot at doing the formatting right...and that Windows leaves out the MBR. So I may have screwed up a brand new usb flash. What to do? If I follow your instructions with the Clean command in DiskPart for sure I've lost my free shot at Windows PE. Is there a way I can check the usb flash to see if by some chance it does have a master boot record?
 
#15 ·
What do you mean you only have one shot at formatting a USB Flash Drive? If you mess up the formatting on a USB Flash drive, you just format it again.
Remember, this is not a Windows OS you are booting to, it is a Windows PE Boot disc. It does not contain a Windows OS, it just allows you to boot the computer outside of Windows and use the Macrium program from the USB Flash drive to Clone your Windows HDD.
 
#16 ·
Sorry...I should've taken note of the exact article I read (many!). The gist was in dealing with usb flash drives and partitioning the flash with WinPE the particular author made the statement that you could only do this one time but afterwards it required a MS license. That was the first article I read thru and apparently MS takes seriously their rights to people possibly creating non-licensed O/S's. After reading a lot more I see that it's not all that cut-and-dried. Below is cutting to the chase...

Expert
227 posts

Interests:K-Mart-ian Legend

United States

Posted 22 April 2015 - 03:42 PM
The redistribution rights for WinPE has never existed, however there was a time (wonko aludes to) where you could get a license from MS to redist a WinPE product. One example of this was Norton Antivirus which you could boot the DVD into a WinPE. Since MS discontinued this program (it applies to any PE, 1.5-5.0), companies like Symantec have moved to using Linux.

It is a gray area if you are using a customized WinPE for internal or personal use. I think technically, still not allowed... similar to how you can't modify a Windows OS but people still do by changing the pictures in the boot up or install screens.

So what you are saying is that the O/S is not involved with this flash...i.e., there is no MBR.

Macrium says The MBR resides on the first sector of the disk and is loaded at system start-up, after loading control is passed to the partition boot sector code of the active partition, this is the MSR partition if it exists, if not it will be your 'C" drive.

About the time I think I've got a handle on this I find out I don't. What is the difference in the WinPE with its' partition on the flash drive and going thru booting a computer back up onto the same computer O/S (that may have gone down)...and using the Macrium Program? I know this has got to be a-b-c's to you guys who cut your teeth on it...that wasn't me!
 
#17 ·
Macrium is talking about the MBR on the HDD with Windows on it not the Flash drive.
WinPE does not have a Windows OS on it, all the programs on a WinPE Flash drive are free. Microsoft does not have any licenses for WinPE. You can download it again and again and format a Flash drive several times and reload WinPE.
Though, all you need to do is create one bootable USB Flash drive with the Macrium program on it.
Boot the computer with the Macrium program on it, then you do the clone process where you must be very careful to pick the right drives.
Here are two other ways:
How To Create Macrium Reflect Bootable Rescue CD/USB
MACRIUM REFLECT - Create Bootable Rescue USB Drive - Windows 7 Help Forums
 
#18 ·
O.K....this is a big sep-by-step help. The fog is lifting!

In the 1st of the two other ways, you mention, Macrium is recommending Windows PE4.0 and the screen shown in the article is abbreviated from the actual when I load the program. The actual says PE4.0 is for Win8.1 while PE3.1 is especially for Win7.

Waiting to hear furrther on which PE to choose for Win7 x64. Thanks again for your persistence and really good info.
 
#20 ·
Been gone since the last chat. Tried to pick up the pieces and may have done something really stupid. :sad: First I created the bootable flash drive using Macrium (this was done before I had to leave). But I failed to remove the usb flash from the slot. When I started familiarizing myself again with Macrium, somehow I started the boot process again...and it installed to my C=Drive...the boot, PerfLogs, Program Files, Program Files (x86), Users, Windows, bootmgr, Reflect_install...they're the only things showing on the C Drive!

What I see is the x86 so this boot was connected to my Win7 Ultimate notebook which runs parallel to my x64. I've now got several other externals that are solely x64 and with PE4.0. But what have I done to my C Drive?...and how do I un-do what I've done? Is it even possible? What has happened to everything that was previously on the C Drive?
Sorry, spunk.funk.
 
#21 ·
Not sure what you are trying to do anymore or what you have done.
From what I gather, you restored an image from another computer that you stored on an External Drive? to a computer that you wanted to clone as the Destination instead of the Source? I'm not sure.
When you restore an image, it wipes out the drive you chose to restore to and restore the image you selected. There is no way back from this.
If you have an image you would like to restore to this computer, you can boot off of the Macrium Boot USB, choose which image you would like to restore and choose the previous C: drive as the Destination.
 
#22 ·
I'm not sure what happened. I wasn't restoring anything. I was in the process of setting up an emergency boot using Macrium. It either did not give me the option as to where to create the boot...or I flat out did not see that it was creating the boot on my C Drive.

My computer seems to be working fine. However when I right click on my C Drive all that's there now are the booting files. This is a AMD10 with Win7 Home Premium OEM...so what was on my C Drive (as I understand it) were the essential drivers since the Win7 OS original disk is with the manufacturer? So should MS Win10 get aggressive again (shouldn't since I disabled it!) and install Win10 without my permission...and I have to prove to MS that this is not a pirated Win7 Home Professional that they wiped out, am I in trouble again trying to prove this was OEM and valid? Is an OEM system nothing more than a boot with all the bootable files? And if so, even though I know I'm looking at a set of boot files + PE4 on my C Drive now, then what is the difference?

My system comes back up whenever I shut down...so that seems to be in order. Sorry for rambling but since I don't know what I did, I'm trying to comprehend the disaster and the reprocussions. I could be in trouble having to prove the validity of my O/S though.

What I was trying to do was 1) create a good boot; and then 2) image the entire Win7 Home Premium to an external drive. What I failed to do was to do it on only one computer at at time and make sure I did it right all the way thru booting off the flash drive. Sorry if I confused you...I needed some sort of sounding board since I was so confused myself. So if you can answer my questions in this post, I think I'll have a better understanding of what I've done. Can't say I know what to do about it other than purchase my own licensed Win7 Home Premium and install it from scratch though.

Thanks for the response!
 
#23 ·
You have my head spinning, as I have no idea, what you did.
From what I understand, you have a functional computer (eg) it boots to Windows fine? Is that correct? If so, remove the Macrium USB Flash drive.
Go to Start/Search and type diskmgmt.msc, Right click the diskmgmt results and Run As Administrator. In the Elevated Disk Management window in the lower pane. if you have removed all secondary HDD's and USB drives you should see the Disk # or your System drive on the Left panel (eg) Disk0, but maybe Disk1 etc. It should list a Small Hidden Partition without a drive letter in front of the C: drive called System Reserved, and then it should show your C: drive. Any other drives including your DVDRW and/or Card Reader with Disk #'s will also show saying No Media if there is nothing in the drive. If there are no other partitions on that Disk0 you should be good to go.
Now go to Windows (File) Explorer, expand the C: drive, you should see a Windows directory, you would have to or you wouldn't be able to boot into Windows.
 
#24 ·
Good analysis!

When I shut down (restart) the system has clearly changed. I'm now given two options 1) come back up Win7; or 2) come back up Macrium. If I hesitate it comes up Windows.

Attached are 2 screenshots: 1) DiskMgmt; 2)Expanded Windows 'C'. It appears I really did it!!!:banghead:

The secondary questions are now very important to me. Could you please look at my last email afresh and comment? It's like I'm operating a virtual drive but what complications have I gotten myself into? Do I need to reorder my Bios and make certain that if the system does crash that my bootable Flash drive is in a priority position?

Thanks!
 

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#25 ·
Good job on the Windows install, but you did not follow the instructions of removing all USB and Secondary HDD's. (eg) Drive J: and Drive H: This is necessary to see if you installed Macrium to one of them.
Could you please look at my last email afresh and comment?
I have received no Emails, and we do not do support through PM.
You may have added Macrium to the Boot file. Download EasyBCD and remove Macrium boot entry.
As for your flash drive, Put into your USB port on the computer, once it is recognized, restart the computer, press F12, move USB device to first boot device, restart, if you get the message Press Any Key To Boot From USB, then it is working. Do not Install Macrium.
 
#26 ·
Sorry...did not mean 'email'...I meant a couple of questions I asked in the body of my post!

Now I disabled the two other usb's and repeated the Diskmgmt.msc and expanding 'C' drive after shutting down. I depressed the F12 upon restart and once again when it came back up I got the black screen w/white letters offering me the two choices of 1) Win7; or 2) Macrium. I chose the Win7 and everything 'looks' fine...just the strange startup. Is there a way to determine exactly what is in that reserved space showing in Diiskmgmt.msc? Are those the same files appearing when I expand the 'C' drive in WinExplorer?

The 'F-drive' (flash) for the record did appear and it does not look as though Macrium is on it. See for yourself and thanks again!
 

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