Using Macrium Images

[login123]

Some time ago I said I was going to install a new HD, then zap it with active @ killdisk, then reinstall a macrium image. Mostly for my clarification, but might help others also. That thread is HERE , ... it is sort of tedious.

 

I got called away to other duties in the middle of that project. Had made some progress and in the process developed a lot more empathy for the frustration felt by Tigerllc74. Here is what has been done.

 

Installed macrium v. 4.2.2525

 

macrium adds to explorer right click menu:

- Explore Image.

- Restore Partition: this leads to " C: drive is locked" or "reboot using boot cd ", can't get these to work, see below.

- Unmount an image you are exploring.

 

Made macrium backup images:

- to DVD, 4 disks

- to U: drive, a 42 gb logical partition, backup size is ~ 17 gb

- an .iso, about 2.9 gb, copied to dvd

 

Made macrium boot disks

- linux, without compatibility mode.

- linux, with compatibility mode

- bart pe

 

Neither linux boot disk will find U: drive, where the full image is.

- linux boot disks go to C: or C:\ISOLINUX and nowhere else.

- - There is no C:\ISOLINUX.

- - There is not room on C: for the backup image.

- bart pe will boot to bart logo, then runs and allows the use of the built in file manager and some other apps.

 

Macrium software:

- Will not explore the DVD image (4 DVDs) from right click, says the there is one or more files missing. Of course.

- Does not recognize the image on any of the DVDs from within the program (same file missing issue?).

- will not restore the complete image from U:, says drive C: is locked, offers 3 options

- - close all windows apps and try again (won't work).

- - reboot and select...Reflect recovery environment (only in paid ver?)

- - reboot and start the reflect rescue cd (no boot CD will find U: drive, nor recognize the image on the 4 DVDs)

- Will explore the complete image from U: drive

- - Will copy files from U: to C:

- - Will run apps from the image on U:

 

Apps can be run from the macrium image on U:, and Files & folders can be copied to the "real" C: drive. Is that how you restore from an image, or is there a way to reinstall the entire OS by rebooting and using an image?

 

Also, do you think that the unallocated space problem cited by Tigerllc74 requires a disk formatting app of some sort...that is, macrium alone might restore the image, but if the image is smaller than the partition you will have leftover space?

 

There is no rush on this, the new HD is in, partitioned, and running OK, but what I am missing here?...it would help me and maybe others to know. I have about 40 screenshots of various stages of this project, and about 4 more days to experiment, so if there is anything else I can do I will. After 4 days, its back to the salt mine.

[marmite]

Ah yes ... that thread

 

Being a few glasses of wine past my optimum mental acuity, I'll not try too much to address your points but say what works for me.

 

At the moment, I'm almost exclusively using Macrium free (also v4.2.2525) on a netbook, which of course doesn't have an integral optical drive. So I work with images of my system drive which are backed up to another partition; and like your U drive it's a logical partition. This image also happens to be split into 4Gb chunks (not for optical media, incidentally).

 

I use a bootable USB stick to fire up the Linux rescue iso image (which is on said USB stick). From there I can happily restore my system image ... tried and tested.

 

ISOLINUX, btw, is the root folder within the Linux iso itself. Your booted Linux image should, as you suggest, be able to see your U partition.

[login123]

Mental acuity is much overrated.

 

Thanks for the information. Will now tinker with the iso for a bit, see what may betide.

[DennisD]

Before I got my second internal HD, I had my single drive partitioned and an Image stored on the "new" partition. As a second line of recovery I also stored the Image on 4 DVD's.

 

I did this by using one Image saved in DVD sized chunks onto my partition, and then copied to DVD. The 4 parts saved and verified on the Hard Drive with no problems, and eventually, quite some months later, those 4 chunks verified and restored from the Hard Drive with no problems.

 

But during that time, the DVD version of the Image was completely useless. Once on the disks it wouldn't verify at all, and on trial run "restores", I couldn't get any further than being asked to insert another of the DVD's.

 

Making the Image onto a hard drive first, and then simply transferring to DVD, is the OK way to do this according to the guides ....

 

You can enter a fixed number of MB or GB for the maximum file size. This is useful if you want the speed of a local hard disk for the initial backup, but later want to transfer the image files to CD / DVD where space per disk is limited. As soon as the file size is reached a new image file is created and the file number (at the end of the image file name) is incremented.

 

... so it should have worked OK.

 

I do know that the information Macrium looks for to start a verify or restore process, is stored on the last DVD in the sequence, but it didn't matter which one I inserted, it wouldn't play ball at all.

 

As a result of that, I always try to remember to mention, when recommending Macrium, that the DVD backup option may not be as reliable as the Hard Drive one. I would personally never tempt fate with that option alone.

 

The other issue you have with your U:Drive.

 

I now have a new 320GB portable USB Hard Drive, on which I created an Image. But I haven't actually tried a trial run restore with it.

 

In fact I wiped it clean today, and have just successfully split it into 3 partitions, and tomorrow I'll be creating a new Image Backup onto one of them, and as soon as that's done, I'll whip in the Recovery CD and try a trial run Restore.

 

The difference I can see with your situation, (that is if it does make a difference), is that I didn't do any zapping of this drive with killdisk or similar, I simply formatted it with Paragon Partition Manager.

 

I then created 3 "primary" partitions, all formatted as NTFS to be used for data storage.

 

And tomorrow, as I say, I'll save an Image onto one of them, and try the dummy run both with the Rescue CD and the Rescue Thumb Drive.

 

I've read through your post a couple of times, and the other thread, and I don't think I've missed anything, so I'm hoping this process tomorrow later today, may be of some use.

[Anomaly]

As a result of that, I always try to remember to mention, when recommending Macrium, that the DVD backup option may not be as reliable as the Hard Drive one.

 

I would say this goes for anything not just Macrium. Discs are just not nearly as reliable as hard drives. Too much potential for things to go wrong compared to hard drives.

[marmite]

I would say this goes for anything not just Macrium. Discs are just not nearly as reliable as hard drives. Too much potential for things to go wrong compared to hard drives.

And these days it's not an expensive option is it. My local HD images are also copied to an external HD, and that too is accessible via my USB boot iso.

 

If you back up regularly then HD is a far more practical approach anyway ... unless you have a job lot of DVDs!! I'll tend to keep a recent couple of back ups locally, and an additional few on the external drive, even though the chances of wanting to go back more than one or two are very slim.

[login123]

My efforts so far almost exactly parallel DennisD's, including not zapping w/ active @ killdisk (until I'm sure the bootdisk will work).

 

The new 250 gb hd is partitioned as shown. A macrium image, in one single chunk, is on U:.

 

The macrium image on Disk_U will mount (right click > explore), and apps will run from it. I can also copy some, not all, folders from the image on U: to the "real" C: drive. The mounted image on U: looks like this

 

The linux boot disks will not find U:. The boot disk leads to this:

 

and eventually to this:

 

and all boot options eventually get to this:

 

Trying to restore from the hd itself (U:) eventually leads to this:

 

None of the 3 options listed in that picture will work. So, I figure I'm doing something wrong but cannot see what.

[marmite]

What I find strange is that what your booted CD is browsing is, er, your booted CD, not your hard drive. I don't necessarily think it's something you're doing wrong.

 

Try searching the macrium forums. I got a load of hits just searching for 'isolinux'. Also post there (maybe the content of your last post); you should get a reply reasonably quickly.

 

ETA: Also one article linked to a 'how to' for creating a Bart rescue CD manually (more long-winded than with the paid-for version but gets there). There seem to be many examples of compatibility issues with the Linux CD.

[DennisD]

I think there's something not quite right with the way your PC is recognizing your drives. And remember I'm no technician, so have nothing solid to back that up with.

 

I made my new Image about an hour ago, onto one of the 3 new partitions on my USB Portable, and the Macrium Rescue CD (and Rescue Thumb Drive), picks up every one of my hard drives including all used and empty USB sockets.

 

 

And immediately picks up the new Image:

 

 

Just in case it has any relevance, these are also picked up and appear in the boot menu:

 

 

I can't think at the moment why your Rescue CD is only displaying your C: drive. Have you checked the boot options menu to see if your external hard drive is being picked up?

 

In the last screenshot the "WD 3200" is my USB Portable, and the "Cruzer" is the thumb drive.

 

Marmite has a point about the "Isolinux" appearing in the Rescue CD file tree. That's odd.

[marmite]

I think there's something not quite right with the way your PC is recognizing your drives. And remember I'm no technician, so have nothing solid to back that up with.

I'd tend to agree with that - though I don't know to what extent it's likely to be the PC, or the fallibilities of the Linux rescue CD, given what I've read on the macrium forums.

 

I can't think at the moment why your Rescue CD is only displaying your C: drive. Have you checked the boot options menu to see if your external hard drive is being picked up?

 

Marmite has a point about the "Isolinux" appearing in the Rescue CD file tree. That's odd.

What I should have added is that I have sometimes found that the rescue CD sometimes seems to allocate drive letters in almost a 'speculative' manner ... not necessarily the ones actually allocated when you're booted into Windows. So I think the thing is that it hasn't found the system drive at all. Just the CD, which it has decided to call C drive ... hence the ISOLINUX folder.

[DennisD]

The drive letter allocation is a bit odd, and had me thinking the first time I used the Rescue CD.

 

Although it does allocate them the same way each time. Alphabetically. And depending upon what is connected at the time, the drive letters change, but the order based upon System (C:), System Partition, 2nd Internal, External, CD Roms, is always the same. (On my PC at least).

 

And after outlining that earth shattering revelation, it could have no relevance whatsoever.

 

One thing I said above isn't correct by the way, and that is the Rescue CD doesn't pick up empty USB sockets. A rush of blood I think when I saw something that wasn't there.

[login123]

In that first picture, all the partitions except the one called "Freeagent" are partitions on the single internal HD. Freeagent is an external usb drive.

 

Based on your comments, I am wondering if the problem is somehow related to my use of Acronis to partition the disk before starting any of this.

 

This is a picture of the BIOS boot menu. The "Freeagent" drive is picked up. It is not normally highlighted, I did that; normally the BIOS tries the CD drive, then goes to the internal HD. If other USB drives were connected, they would be shown same as the Freeagent. To boot from one, you would have to enter this bios screen and select it. Bet nobody knew that, huh?

 

 

Marmite, I did make a Bart PE disk also, it boots and has a file manager. As you suggested, I'm off to the macrium forums to learn about boot CDs. However, my brain is now full, so I will have to sleep a bit and forget something to make room for it.

 

Thanks to all for the suggestions so far. Will file another report in a little bit.

[login123]

The Acronis recovery disk is also unable to see the recovery archive on the DVD drive. This picture shows the drive with the last dvd in it, with an Acronis recovery archive on it called ???.tib. Maybe important, it is possible to boot from the DVD drive, by default, when the computer is powered on. But autoruns is turned off.

 

I think Marmite and DennisD are right about the problem, something to do with the way the computer recognizes the drive.

 

 

It does see the recovery archive on U:

 

 

Edit: have just read the tutorials provided by macrium, and it may be that I did something wrong when installing the software. Will do some reinstalling and rearranging. I would not have caused this big foofaraw before reading the macrium stuff, but I thought it would be an easy fix. Thanks for the kind help so far. Be back when the next step is done.

[DennisD]

Touching on what Marmite mentioned about the fallibilities of the Rescue CD, I thought it worth asking if you update your Rescue CD?

 

The latest version is 2.1.2525, although I've just tried two older versions, which are 2.0.198 and 2.0.180, and they still work OK with an Image made from the latest Macrium.

 

They work OK for me, but older versions may not be as kind on other PC's. Worth a mention I thought.

[login123]

...if you update your Rescue CD?

 

Yes, thanks for asking. I actually just made it them for this project, a week or so ago. And am using the newest version of macrium.

 

What I am going to do is restart the entire process...reinstall the software, remake the linux rescue disks, and put a rescue image back onto U: drive.

 

I really do appreciate you and Marmite for watching after me, and will post back later how the "redo" goes.