Can anyone help me with some info about a WD Elements please?

RonBin79 said:

Hi Dick, I have installed Macrium Free, but I don't understand how it gets into my WD Elements. I haven't downloaded the other one you sent yet, Windows 10, but will do so in a mo wce the Macrium Free is fully installed. How do I link Macrium with the WD please?

RonBin79 said:

Dick,
I have come across these, I never knew there was a cost involved. Perhaps I am on the wrong screen??

Cheers,

Ron

Ron, Macrium Free is free, there is no cost involved. There is a paid version, but the features are not necessary for doing basic backups and restores. You need to read the tutorial, and set it up for a basic image backup. There's nothing to download there, it is just a tutorial, a manual, here on Tenforums. The setup of Macrium for a backup will ask what you want to backup (all partitions) and where to back it up to (the WD drive).

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In particular, in your case, this is probably the choice you will want. In the tutorial, Part Three, under 2)....

Choose the blue highlighted option. This partitions required to backup and restore Windows.

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On your WD drive, create a folder for the backups to reside in. You can call it anything you want. Such as Macrium Backups or My Backups. That will be the destination you will tell Macrium. Reason I suggest creating the folder is to keep the backups isolated from anything else you may want to put on that WD drive.

Just follow the instructions for a basic full image backup. No need to get fancy right now. The tutorial is written for virtually all combinations under lots of different circumstances and setups. It is very thorough, you just need to follow those instructions that pertain to you and your setup.

It is important that you choose the Verify option when doing the backup. Yes, it will add a little more time, but will ensure the backup is usable when and if needed. If you needed to do a restore, that would be the wrong time to find out it was a corrupt image. That is a rare, rare occurrence, but it has happened. Not from the Macrium itself, but from hardware failures not caught. The verify helps tremendously to avoid that.

The Rescue Media is also important and takes little time to prepare. It gives you a tool to use if the OS is not bootable. That's the short version. More to it.

Please try to set it up simply, not a lot of bells and whistles to start. That can come later. Important part right now is to get you a working backup. At present, you have none. That is not good.

Look forward to hearing from you.

TC

RonBin79 said:

Hi Tom, Thank you very much for all your help and understanding, I do appreciate it very much. It's not very often that when you are aged 86 people a few people loose patients and can't be bothered in giving you a helping hand when you have trouble in understanding today's advanced technology , I struck it lucky getting in touch with you, thanks a million.
I have installed Macrium Reflect Free and have created my first back up with the system. My WD Elements is working fine! I have copied the "Back Up and Restore with Macrium Reflect - Part Two Back up and Restore with Macrium Reflect" from the link you sent but am not sure whether I should install it in case it interferes with what I have already done? Shall I go ahead and install please?
Once again, THANK YOU VERY MUCH
Ron

Good morning, Ron.

Glad to hear you have made a backup successfully. Read up on the scheduling part of the tutorial if you like, and set up an automatic backup plan. Not mandatory, some prefer to backup manually. I do. Automatic scheduling would require you leaving the drive attached to accommodate it. Not always a good idea. Your backup drive should be unplugged from the PC at all times except when doing the backup. The bad guys out there on the Internet can't get to a drive that isn't attached.

There is nothing to install from the tutorial. It is just a manual, of sorts. The Macrium is the only thing that needs installation, and you have done that.

You should, if you haven't already, create the Rescue Media. Either a small (4/8 GB) Thumb Drive, or a DVD. It can be used if your machine refuses to boot the operating system and for restores and repairs. It's insurance.

Hope I've answered your questions. Post back if any more info required.

TC

RonBin79 said:

Good afternoon Tom, What about "Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect - Part two - Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect, should I do this one or leave it alone please? I will have a look at setting up a regular back up. Hopefully I won't get lost (LOL).
Cheers,

R

Ron, if you are referring to the Create Rescue Media, yes, it is important. As I posted before, it will enable you to restore your system in the event you cannot boot to it (Get into the Operating system and your desktop). Also, can be used for repairs and other things. Yes, please do it.

From my previous post:

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You should, if you haven't already, create the Rescue Media. Either a small (4/8 GB) Thumb Drive, or a DVD. It can be used if your machine refuses to boot the operating system and for restores and repairs. It's insurance.

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@RonBin79

Ron, maybe you are thinking this Rescue Media is something that needs to be installed on the WD or your system. It is not. It's a separate Thumb Drive or DVD created with all the tools needed to run all by itself. You would boot to the Media (Later on that), and run whatever Rescue/Restore you needed to directly from the Rescue Media. The PC would be running from the Media in memory.

Maybe that clears up some confusion.

Ron, one thing great about Macrium is you have a ton of options on how to use it. I use the Free version and only do full backups manually. The simplest way to do that is set up your backup and enable verify ( I like that, some don't). Once it is set up to backup to your external drive the way you want it, go to the Backup definition files, right click the definition file and select create desktop shortcut. After that, you just have to start your external drive and click the desktop shortcut. It will run the backup in the background. It will give a quick pop up notification when finished. Then just turn the external drive off. That's about as simple as you can make it. I do that for some people I set up Windows for.

RonBin79 said:

Gentlemen, I have been looking everywhere for a VLC free CD burner. It seems to be a bit of a secret as to where the download is. I would be very grateful if you could send me a link so I can get a cd burner. I promise not to tell anyone else about it, honest!!

Ron, don't know what a VLC CD burner is, but this one is quite popular, and stable. Also, Windows Media Player can burn CD's, music and such.

The Official ImgBurn Website