I've got the free version of Macrium Reflect installed on the laptop, but Windows 10 has thrown me a curve: The network connection to the PC that has the back-up drive connected to it has disappeared from my network listing in Windows File Explorer on the laptop.
The PC and laptop both Windows updates a day or two ago, so I suspect those updates may be the culprit.
So, I'm going to have to try to get that PC back onto the network before I can proceed.
You said that this is an external drive: "I've got a ginormous external USB drive that I luckily bought before the pandemic hit..."
Simply connect the external drive to the PC you want to image. Macrium will be able to see and use it. Apart from anything else, saving the image to a local drive should be faster that saving across the network.
When I used Windows Image Backup the backups use to take a few hours and didn't always work. Macium Reflect takes 10 minutes and has never failed to work.
I always feel like I should toss this in but never do because it's obvious. I have no connection with Macrium, but please, if you use the free version for a bit, purchase the Pro version. If Macrium doesn't make money and goes away, that would be a sad day. Whenever someone I know says they are buying a new computer for $xxxx, I always tell them "No, that computer should cost xxxx + ~70 (or whatever Reflect is these days). Without proper backup, you don't have a computer." JMHO
Thanks, Bree! It hadn't occurred to me that a direct connection to my laptop would be much faster than a network connection. My plan was to just start the backup at bedtime, and hope that it would be completed by the time I woke up the next day.
But, now that my Windows Home Network has crashed (again!), it looks like I don't really have a choice in the matter.
Here's the main reason I would prefer leaving the external drive permanently plugged into the PC:
I use a little app called Allway Sync to back up my document, music and picture files and folders to my PC on the fly as I make changes on my laptop. If I remove the external USB drive from the PC, then Windows may change the drive letter assignments on the PC, and then Allway Sync won't be able to find the back-up drive.
This happened to me a week or two ago when I had to disconnect the external drive so I could take the PC to the computer repair shop. When I got the PC home and plugged the USB drive back into the PC, all of my back-up scripts in Allway Sync stopped working. I finally figured out what the problem was: Prior to unplugging the external drive, Windows had assigned drive letter E: to it. But when I reconnected it to the PC later, Windows assigned it another drive letter, ("F" I think). So I had to go through all my back-up scripts one-by-one and edit them.
So I'd like to eventually get the network functioning again. But for now, it looks like I'll have to get down on my hands and knees amongst the cobwebs under my desk to disconnect the External USB drive from my PC and take it, along with its power cord, over to my bed (where I spend the better part of my time these days) and hook it up to the laptop.
But right now, it's nap time!
Yes, I get that sometimes when moving an external drive around. It will happen if you already had another drive or usb stick plugged in that's using the letter E: when you connect the drive. Windows will assign the next available letter.
If it happens again, rather than editing your scripts, it's easier to open Disk Management and change the drive's letter back to the one you want.
Change and Assign Drive Letter in Windows 10
In response to my complaint that both of my computers had disappeared from my network:
BINGO!!!
Thanks a gazillion quandary! That did the trick!
I have to confess that I had to Google to find out how to get "an elevated command prompt."
After all these months of trying to get my Windows 10 network stabilizedI'm flabbergasted to learn that such a simple trick was waiting here for me all the time.
Why didn't someone tell me this sooner?!
Oh well, "All's well that ends well," eh?
Now, to try making a disk image via my home network. Do you think it will take more than 8 hours? My plan is to start the process at bedtime.
P.S. The distinction between backup, disk image and clone is not clear to me.
Last edited by CluelessInSeatl; 15 Oct 2021 at 23:00.
A clone is a copy of the source drive on a new target drive.
Am image is a copy of the source drive stored in a compressed file (basically like a zip file).
You can have multiple image files as they are just datafiles.
A clone is more for having a second drive that you can swap with existing drive if it fails.
An image file needs a Rescue drive to restore a ln image backup to the ezisting drive (or a new one).
For normal backup, you should use image backups.
Will,
Even though it might not always be shown in the File explorer, Network section you should still be able to access it by typing this into the File explorer address bar
\\COMPUTERNAME\
- Use the correct ComputerName, of course
- You can type into the File explorer address bar by first clicking in a blank area of it to the right of all the current addressing info. Doing this selects all the current address and allows you to overtype it with whatever you want. [You can also use right-click or Crtl-C to copy an address which can also often be handy]
All the best,
Denis
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