macrium backup destination

[lukis]

Hi,

 

I tried the Macrium backup & end up with 52 or 31 GB file to store, which is too large for CD/DVD or partitions on my HD.

 

As an OAP external drive is expensive.

 

Is this backup only for Companies?

 

thanx ......nick

[DennisD]

Hi nick, and welcome to Piriform.

 

That's a large file you're talking about there. Is that just your Operating System? I have a lot of software and all the stuff that goes with it, and my Macrium Image is in the 13GB area.

 

As you say, yours is pretty big for DVD's.

 

How big is your Hard Drive in total, and how is it split up?

 

No nick, Macrium is for everyone, and used by a lot of our members.

[lukis]

Thanx Denis,

 

ExcelStor Technology 260GB HD

238.73 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity

168.77 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

 

Perhaps am doing something wrong, I used the create image of entire disk.

 

How do you use it to get 13gb.

 

When you restore it will it get the registry file as was with all the prgrams recognised & working, or will have to reinstall all programs again?.

 

Also how do you restore it on same or another HD, do you have to delete all first, format it, install windows first or what?, as you see am totaly confused with these operations. .....nick

 

EDIT....... and have 5 paritions

[DennisD]

EDITED POST:

 

What you need to do nick is watch the "Wizard" process, and select the following options:

 

 

Which leads to this:

 

 

That should make a tremendous difference to your Image size.

 

Have a read of these recent topics if you haven't already seen them:

 

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=25733

 

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=26709

 

 

Your other questions.

 

The Backup Image is a snapshot of your System Drive with everything included. The registry, all your software and data etc etc.

 

The idea with an Image Restore is to return your System Drive to the exact state it was in when you made the Image.

 

If you ever need to Restore your backup, you do that using the Rescue CD, which Macrium will make for you from within the program. Just follow the "Make Rescue CD Wizard":

 

 

 

If you need help with any of it, just post back.

[lukis]

"...........to return your System Drive to the exact state ............", can this be done on a different HD provided it is big enough?.

 

Do you have to delete all on the receiving HD? or leave it as it is with whatever it has on & will be ovewritten.

[DennisD]

Yes you can restore to another Hard Drive as long as it's big enough.

 

To confirm I just had a look at this by setting up my Image stored on my second internal drive, to restore to my external drive, and Macrium progressed through the "Restore" Wizard right up to verifying the Image before restoring.

 

As long as you have sufficient space Macrium will create a new partition on the target hard drive, which will be the size of the Operating System at the time of making the Image.

 

And it won't overwrite anything in the process.

 

I've edited your second question out of the post nick as you've asked the same question in another topic you started.

 

You'll get more response from the separate topic.

 

 

EDIT: Edited out wrong info about the new partition size. Deliberate mistake of the day would you believe?

[lukis]

"............will create a new partition on the target ........", so if there is a windows installed on target, the restore will create another lot ending up with 2 windows installed, creating the problem of how to get rid of the first one.

 

I thought the idea was to override all old rubbish & give me a clean system as the backup.

 

perhaps I am confusing you? .......nick

[DennisD]

No nick, you're not confusing me, you are confusing yourself by asking questions you don't need to ask, and making a relatively straightforward process unduly complicated.

 

I've answered all the questions you've asked in great detail, including is it possible to restore onto another drive.

 

The answer to that question has raised the issue of another Operating System on that partition, which is an issue you have created yourself. I merely gave you an answer to your query.

 

I've gone out of my way to try help you make a successful backup, and there isn't any more information I can give which you can't find out yourself by reading through my answers and links and the very detailed Macrium help file.

 

And I will add that I find your "am I confusing you"? comment to be totally unnecessary and mildly offensive after the effort I've put into this.

 

Good luck with your backups.

[lukis]

I am terribly sorry if I offended you, it was not meant to be so.

 

Thank you very much for your help & the effort you put into it, which unfortunately it fell on hard rock as I am too old & thick to understand & still unable to backup. ......nick

[DennisD]

No worries nick.

 

The printed word can be easily misread, and that appears to be the case here.

 

Don't run yourself down either, as we all knew absolutely nothing about computers at one time, and had to start somewhere. Post back, and we'll get a handle on exactly what your setup is, and how we can achieve a result for you.

 

All we're trying to do is to make an Image of your System Drive, usually "C:", where you have all your programs etc, and in the process of making it, place it preferably onto another drive, or at least a partition of the same drive.

 

The Image is just a single file which looks like this:

 

 

The basic idea is to restore that Image of your System Drive, back into exactly the same location it was made from, if you ever have any problems with your Operating System, or an Operating System failure. In other words, something gets screwed up, and/or your computer won't boot.

 

Raising the possibility of "Restoring" that Image to another drive just complicated things really, especially if you have other Operating Systems on your other drives, and is something to consider after you get sorted out with simply making your first backup Image successfully, and deciding where to keep it.

 

Looking forward to your reply nick.

[lukis]

SOLVED the barte, but Linux one is easier ......nick

[DennisD]

SOLVED the barte, but Linux one is easier ......nick

 

If you've put yourself together a BartPE rescue package nick, hats off to you as it isn't the easiest thing to do.

 

Just make sure you test the Linux Rescue CD right through to the point shown in this link.

 

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

[lukis]

Yes I will BUT,

 

Unfortunately the restore failed with error :- GRUB Stage 1.5, & tried it with keepold, use same & do not change MBR, nothing helps.

 

the uncompressed Reflect file is 62gb & the directory is 160gb.

 

any ideas ? ..........nick

 

PS the link did not work

[Andavari]

PS the link did not work

Here: http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=25993

Then scroll down to post #17 which is by DennisD.

[DennisD]

The link is still working OK for me, but Andavari's supplied another.

 

After reading your posts on the Wilders Security Forums, I would say the error is because it sounds as though you were trying to restore an Image of your Laptop onto a Desktop, which isn't really possible.

 

As there's quite a bit of effort gone into the Wilders thread as well as this one, I would suggest carrying on there, as there's little else I can explain to you here.

 

If you read carefully through all the stuff on this forum and in this thread about Macrium, about the importance of "Verifying" your Image after making it, and the importance of "Verifying" again before you restore, and also the importance of testing the Rescue CD by booting your computer with it as shown in the series of photographs I took, then you shouldn't have any problems making a reliable back up..

 

As explained in post #10 above:

 

The basic idea is to restore that Image of your System Drive, back into exactly the same location it was made from, if you ever have any problems with your Operating System, or an Operating System failure. In other words, something gets screwed up, and/or your computer won't boot.

 

Raising the possibility of "Restoring" that Image to another drive just complicated things really, especially if you have other Operating Systems on your other drives, and is something to consider after you get sorted out with simply making your first backup Image successfully, and deciding where to keep it.

 

All the information you need is here and in other recent forum threads, as well as in the very detailed Macrium Reflect help file.

 

http://www.macrium.com/help.html

[lukis]

Thanx,

 

just got the link OK.

 

First was from the laptop HD but now tried my desktop XP C:\ on my spare HD which I cleaned up completely with "Maxblast" & used both Barte & Linux ones several times.

 

I just get : "GRUB Loading Stage1.5." & just hungs there.

 

So much for backups really, if you lost your HD completely & could not load it all on a new one. .............nick