Safest way to make Macrium backups?

Although I do not think that it is relevant to this post, I am currently using Windows 10 Pro Version 1909, build 18363.836.

For years, I've been making Macrium backups of my OS drive the easy way: running the program in Windows and making the backup. But I've bought a new computer, and before I start using it, I would like to know whether I should change this practice when backing it up.

Does running Macrium within Windows run the risk of introducing problems into the backup's Windows installation (due to Windows being running while the snapshot is being made)? Is it safer to run Macrium from a bootable rescue DVD and make the backup from there, so as not to risk the system image having registry errors or some other such problem?

I've never heard of running from the hard drive being a problem.

But you certainly should be able and willing to use the recovery media.

Maybe do it occasionally that way even if your hard drive is functional--to at least confirm the rescue media works.

I'd try to steer you away from a DVD and toward a USB flash drive.

ignatzatsonic said:

I've never heard of running from the hard drive being a problem.
But you certainly should be able and willing to use the recovery media.
Maybe do it occasionally that way even if your hard drive is functional--to at least confirm the rescue media works.

I do frequently use the rescue media, but only to restore a backup. Any time that my computer crashes or something similar, I restore the last Macrium image in case the crash caused any problems.

What I'm wondering, though, is whether it would be safer to run the backups from the rescue media as well. I was thinking that running a backup from within Windows might cause the backups to have registry errors and such (because Windows is still reading, writing, and changing operating system files while the snapshot is being created).

I'd try to steer you away from a DVD and toward a USB flash drive.

Why?

dalchina said:

This sounds worryingly frequent- of my 2 laptops, I might have restored a disk image once in 3-4 years..

Do you restore every time your computer crashes or doesn't start up properly? That's what I do. On average, I probably restore about 6 times a year.

MR is designed to create an image when run from the internal disk, using the VSS (Volume Shadow (copy) Service):
What is VSS?
Shadow Copy - WikiwandThat's how your concern is addressed.

Ah, I see. Thank you for that information.

DVD vs flash drive:
a. every so often with major Macrium versions e.g. a new boot disk is needed. If using a non-rewritable DVD this generates waste.
b. Many PCs nowadays don't have an optical drive, so if maintaining several, a flash drive is more universal
c. DVDs can get scratched
d. Should be faster to load

Point A applies to me. I go through quite a few DVDs for this reason.

Point B doesn't apply to me. I never get computers that don't have optical drives.

Point C isn't a major concern for me, as I'm careful with my Macrium discs.

Point D is connected to the main reason why I haven't tried a Macrium flash drive: it is hard for me to boot from a flash drive on my current computer. I have to repeatedly tap ESC during bootup, and then enter the BIOS and select the flash drive. Whereas with a DVD, all I have to do is leave it in my optical drive, and during bootup, there's an on-screen option to tap any key to boot from the disc.

To consider: where do you store your backup disk(s)?
Remotely and securely: addresses fire/theft/possible virus or ransomware if left connected/longer life if not connected...

I currently use only one backup hard drive, although I intend to get another one to use as a backup for it. I leave it connected to my computer through USB 3.0, but switch it off when not in use.

New PC: Make sure when you create the first (base) image you also create a backup definition file in MR as prompted: this allows you to easily start subsequent differential images, specifying where that base image is located and managing the space used on you backup disk for you.

Is there anything wrong with always running each backup manually each time? That's what I've been doing for years, because I trust it more than a definition file.

Restart the sequence after any feature update with a new base image.

By feature update, do you mean only Windows updates, or file installations and such as well?

Trick: to ensure a given external backup disk always has the same identity, either use MR's feature of using the disk's hardware id, or allocate the disk a fixed drive letter (say 'R') by using Disk Management.

I always use fixed drive letters for hard drives. The one for my recovery drive is R.

Steve C said:

There is no problem running Reflect from Windows. Ensure you schedule automatic backups to ensure regular backups are done. Always use the verify option and check you can boot to the backup using viBoot. Keep backups on two drives since drives can fail. One drive should be stored remotely from the PC to provide a working backup in the event of a malware attack.

That's a good point about storing one hard drive separately.

Regarding automatic backups, I don't do those. I always restart Windows and then run Macrium without opening any browsers or other such programs, to make sure that there's a "clean" Windows session and nothing running that would slow down or interfere with Macrium.

There's nothing at all wrong with doing updates purely manually---on demand. I've done it for 6 or 8 years.

You certainly should NOT have to enter the BIOS to boot from a USB stick. Bring up a one-time boot menu instead and choose the stick from the menu. Done via an F key or possibly the Delete key during a restart.

dalchina said:

Thank you for the clarification.

I don't find this happening..

Just once with this laptop relatively recently I found the user profile service failed to log me on.. I used a system restore point in this instance.

For whatever reason, it's always been more frequent for me, with multiple computers that I've had over the years.

ignatzatsonic said:

You certainly should NOT have to enter the BIOS to boot from a USB stick. Bring up a one-time boot menu instead and choose the stick from the menu. Done via an F key or possibly the Delete key during a restart.

Is there any way to set it so that a USB can automatically (without having to press any of the F keys) display a message to tap any key to boot from it like I get with the DVD?

Also, is it safe to run a restore from a flash drive if the flash drive is plugged into a mains-powered external USB 3.0 hub?