Restore an Image with Macrium Reflect

[Tigerllc74]

I made an image of my laptop with Macrium Reflect.

Now I am trying to restore, but ran into some "weird" problems.

 

When I tried to restore, popup windos came up with "Drive C: is locked" (partition I am trying to overwrite is in use by Windows) and gave me three options.

 

First option says "close all windows applications and try again". The only program running was Macrium Reflect. But If I close it, the I cannot restore since Reflect will be closed. This is very puzzling ????

 

So I tried to reboot using rescue CD. But laptop boots back as though rescue CD didn't even exist, and boots normally by passing the rescue CD.

 

Any ideas ???

 

Also, when I made the image there were two partitions, PQSERVICE and C:\. but for restore I can only choose one. (For backup I chose both partitions at once)

 

Is there anyway to restore both partitions just like before ??

 

Any comments ??

Thanks,

Tiger

[DennisD]

You won't be able to restore your System Drive while it's running, so the "Boot with the Rescue CD" is the way to do it.

 

Did you try out your Rescue CD after you made it? If it isn't booting it could be a bad disk.

 

Either break into Windows startup as soon as your PC starts to boot, which is done by pressing the Escape key on my PC, and manually select the CD/DVD drive the disk is in, and if it still won't boot, make another one.

 

Reading your post, you can still use your PC normally, so that shouldn't be a problem.

 

I've learned that PQService is the "Recovery Partition" on your computer, and you didn't really need to include it in your Image, but if you did, then Macrium will restore them both as they'll be part of the Image backup.

 

Hope that helps.

[Andavari]

Did you try out your Rescue CD after you made it?

That's one very important step after making the backup image to at least make sure the Macrium Rescue CD works properly.

[Tigerllc74]

I never tried the rescue CD because I didn't want to get stuck in restoring process.

Can I try rescue CD to boot and not restore then go back to my normal operation ???

[Tom AZ]

Yes, I just tested it a couple days ago. I was concerned about the same thing, but it gives you the chance to "Cancel" out of it.

[DennisD]

You can try out the Restore Process right up to the final "Wizard" page which asks you to select "Finish".

 

Even if you go past that point, you should have selected "verify before restoring". The verify is read only, and you can cancel the process during the verify with no problems at all.

 

I took a series of photographs recently showing the entire process:

 

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showto...st&p=158002

 

 

All users of Macrium, PLEASE check your Rescue CD to the point mentioned above. Your backup is worthless if the CD doesn't work, and there could be a number of reasons for it not to.

[Andavari]

Can I try rescue CD to boot and not restore then go back to my normal operation ???

You can actually get way, way, way, into it like you're about to restore your system i.e.; selecting the backup image, etc., before eventually canceling out which is what I did to make sure mine worked.

 

Edit:

How did I miss this sentence by Dennis, said much better than what I wrote:

You can try out the Restore Process right up to the final "Wizard" page which asks you to select "Finish".

[Tigerllc74]

Thanks for all the input...

I want to share my "unique" experience on this matter for the benefit of the forum members.

 

Finally, I was able to access Bios and set DVD as boot priority then rescue CD loaded fine.

 

As it turned, most (if not all) of my issues were related to not able to access the Bios at startup.

I have both Compaq and Acer laptop.

 

Compaq displays bios access option EVERYTIME at startup, so press esc then I am in Bios. Also, Compaq seem to know there's a CD in Cd player so it boots from it thus not requiring Bios change.

 

Now, Acer is whole another story. It want me to determine whether boot from Cd or HD. So I have to enter the Bios.

This is where the fun begins.

Sometimes Acer screen is shown (like Compaq) and F2 will enter the Bios. BUT..BUT.. often Acer screen is NEVER shown and laptop goes directly to Windows (since there' only blank screen till windows logo, there isn't much I can do thus frustration). Then I never have a chance to press F2 and enter the Bios.

 

For some unknown reason, when I remove the battery the Acer screen is shown just on Ac power. BUT..BUT.. sometimes it doesn't matter with or without battery installed. (I found this out thru hours of playing). In short, there's no logical reasons as to why Acer screen is shown or not shown at startup.

 

Even worse...after I finally enter the Bios and set CD\DVD as priority boot, laptop still boots directly with Windows. This really is STRANGE !!!!!

 

But so some odd reason, (at this time) I was able to access Bios and I am running a complete recovery. But next time who knows !!!

 

So as you can see, my issue was just accessing the Bios. But so often comments and instructions are made from as though Bios are accessed with no problem (it's given fact)..thus chasing after wrong direction. Just access the Bios with F2 (esc) then do such and such. That's fine but what if one cannot get into bios ?? This question rarely gets addressed.

 

I tried to contact Acer support, but absolutely worthless. 99% of the time they don't even know the question being asked. They seem like a pretty girl with a big smile and short skirt holding the door open at the hotel, but have no clue where anythings are and how hotel is operated. You get the point.

 

Back to Acer. Now I know, there are tremendous difference between computer makers and it's not always Vista's fault.

I still cannot control when Acer screen is shown, but at least I know what's going on.

 

Thanks Dennis for stressing the checkout the rescue CD. As I said, often certain operations fail or misunderstood because of a simple unrelated logical step which were not covered in the instruction. But the school of hard knocks can shed much better light.

 

Thanks again.

[Tasgandy]

You can try out the Restore Process right up to the final "Wizard" page which asks you to select "Finish".

 

Even if you go past that point, you should have selected "verify before restoring". The verify is read only, and you can cancel the process during the verify with no problems at all.

 

I took a series of photographs recently showing the entire process:

 

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showto...st&p=158002

 

 

All users of Macrium, PLEASE check your Rescue CD to the point mentioned above. Your backup is worthless if the CD doesn't work, and there could be a number of reasons for it not to.

Agree, Agree and Agree. Not only should one "check your Restore CD", remember to "back up on a regular basis".

 

I have set a schedule to back up my drive "C" every week, close of business Friday night just before I leave the office hell it's only 30gig, takes about 25 minutes. (I also wait to see that the back up completed)

[marmite]

I like the 'message momentum' that's gathering on this thread.

 

A recent viable back-up is probably by far the the most overlooked thing by home users (and a good few small businesses I dare say!).

 

It's your safety net. If you have back-up system. And you know how to use it. If you keep regular back-ups. If you've tried and tested it to iron out the glitches.

 

... then you're probably in the top 0.0nn percent of home users in your ability to recover from serious trouble.

 

I dread to think how many users on these forums alone are here because of data and system recovery issues. Recuva is grand ... but if everyone backed up properly it should rarely be needed ... and generally that's just 'data' - the easy bit. Your system is a lot harder to get back and if you can recover that you're pretty much laughing.

 

I think a lot of people just don't really know how or where to start. But there is some fantastic, specific advice given on these forums and I'm sure a lot of people's systems are in much better shape because of it.

[Tigerllc74]

About rescue CD ??

I understand that rescue Cd is very important.

 

Do I need to create a new rescue Cd each time I backup ?? Another words, does rescue CD have to match a particular backup or will it work to restore any previous backups ??

Or the first one I created will work for all future backups ??

Also, if I lose the rescue CD, can I just install Macrium Reflect and create another rescue CD ??

And will this new CD work to restore all past backups ??

 

My thought was this. Rescue CD is important, but if it can be created at anytime, then why be so concern about losing it?? Even creating one. Any not create one when ready to perform restore ??

[Tigerllc74]

I found the right answer to my question about rescue CD.

http://support.macrium.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1739

 

Basically, CDs are backward compatible. So don't need to create rescue CD in advance or even check to see if it works now.

Simply create one just before restoring.

[Tasgandy]

About rescue CD ??

I understand that rescue Cd is very important.

 

Do I need to create a new rescue Cd each time I backup ?? Another words, does rescue CD have to match a particular backup or will it work to restore any previous backups ??

Or the first one I created will work for all future backups ??

Also, if I lose the rescue CD, can I just install Macrium Reflect and create another rescue CD ??

And will this new CD work to restore all past backups ??

 

My thought was this. Rescue CD is important, but if it can be created at anytime, then why be so concern about losing it?? Even creating one. Any not create one when ready to perform restore ??

Three weeks ago I mistakenly installed a boot manager that took my system out on a reboot, all I got was a blue screen with a message..........never mind what the message was, BUT I had backed up, AND I had created a rescue disc, following the back-up and tested it. I was able to restore without a hitch, took about 3 cups of coffee - 45 mins.

 

So create your rescue disc ASAP, you only need to do it once (unless you lose it).

 

You don't even need to have your DVD/CD burner connected, you can create a rescue.iso as I did on my main PC, default save in the root of C. (no room for a DVD/CD burner at present....long story). I then burned the rescue.iso with Nero on my other PC that had a DVD/CD burner on board, burnt across the network.

 

Then test the rescue CD with a loan USB DVD/CD drive plugged into the PC with no DVD/CD drive and "it's all good" the way it should be.