I've tried a system restore twice now and it won't complete. It states that it's likely an antivirus stopping it. I only have windows defender (and free malwarebytes on demand which is not active). I disabled real time protection on Windows defender and cloud etc and still won't complete. Is there anyway to get this to work.. Thanks.
Nevermind: I found a different solution. Thanks anyway
I'm not so sure.. lol.. ..
After system restore didn't work and my Macrium backup failed on my new laptop, my solution was to do a factory image reinstall, do the Windows updates, some settings adjustments, install some programs, then do a repair install upgrade since these laptops (this is my third laptop I am trying out after my original laptop got messed up with a new spectre bios) appear to have/develop SFC scan errors after initial windows updates or possibly earlier from the factory that are not fixed with Dism commands - this will remove the errors, then do the windows/stores updates, finish setting up computer etc. All together about 5 hours of work/time moving at a pretty high velocity. Then I turn off system restore since it has never helped me.
Then I did a new Macrium backup taking care to choose the option " "create an image of the partitions required to backup and restore Windows" - and then this time tested it to make sure it will initialize - all is good.
Some things I learned with all of this:
1. Never install a reatlek high definition audio driver on my HP laptop that is not specific for the model or one that the machine does not upgrade to itself when I press update driver. Because otherwise install can fail and machine can get funny and then problems.
2. Always verify the Macrium backed up image works - that it will initialize and in general, don't assume how something works, read the instructions etc.
3. Don't be so eager to try something new whether its a new driver, a new security bios, a new windows update etc since they may have problems and then I may be stuck if I can't roll back or for some other reason.
4. Wait a bit to post about it in the forum so this way I don't have to retract the asking for help.
So anyway, I knew this was a lot so that is why I didn't write this or explain this.
If you invest in a paid licence for Macrium Reflect Home, it supports incremental backups, and more importantly has a facility called Rapid Delta Restore which only restores the differences between last image (inc incrementals) and current state of pc, instead of restoring everything.
You can schedule a (say) daily automatic incremental backup. Then if you need to wind back pc a few days, it normally just takes a couple of minutes or so, and is VERY reliable.
You can do same on Macrium Reflect Free, using differential images, but they are less space efficient, and a restore restores everything taking longer but still much much faster than a clean install.
Thanks for the information. For myself with Macrium I plan on just taking system images/differentials occasionally and keeping them on a USB flash drive I have - like before major updates to Windows 10. I'm not going to use a schedule or anything.
What happened with Macrium where I got messed up was I just "imaged the disk" (which I believe copies all partitions including HP recovery) instead of "create an image of the partitions required to backup and restore Windows" and when I went to restore it with this "imaged disk file", it stated I am missing files. So now I did it the right way after reading a tutorial and I tested it with the Macrium program via windows and with rescue media and it does read the file (composed of 4 partitions) and will restore it if I choose restore.
Separately from this, I do keep some important personal files backed up on another flash drive.
So for my purposes I think I am good now with it.
Last edited by tomseys; 03 Apr 2018 at 03:39.
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