Safe to rely entirely on Macrium to rescue the comp. from a crash?

Stevekir · 12 May 2017

I use Macrium. People on this forum strongly recommend it. I have twice rehearsed a rescue using my Macrium Rescue Disc and they worked. But I am not relaxed relying on one method only. I would like to have a second way of restoring my machine.

Please note: my C drive is on an SSD (OS plus programs). That is what I need to restore. My Documents, Music, Video and Pictures etc. are on an internal spinning HDD. I back up these using FreeFileSync, and that works. All I need is a way to restore the OS and programs.

I have of course had Windows Backup and Restore (Windows 7) for years, more recently using the option "Let me choose" and unchecking all Documents etc. both in Users and in those relating to my computer name. But it is said to be rather unreliable. I would like an alternative restore method which does not rely on a working Windows 10 to be on the computer. (Macrium passes this test). Booting on a USB stick would be ideal.

>> How many of you rely solely on Macrium?

>> Could I have recomendations for a second backup method please?

Thanks.

Samuria · 12 May 2017

It should be enough you can mount a image and recover just some files if you need. For docs, photos etc I use Google drive and Onedrive anything saved there is uploaded automatically and its safe on the cloud so I can get files back from anywhere in the world adn between them I get 25gigs of backup. Using cloud if you pc blows up or stolen its all safe

CountMike · 13 May 2017

I just use offline backup to several HDDs to manually back up all important stuff, some of it (according to importance level) two two disks. System disk on the other hand I never use for storing any personal files, downloads or anything of great importance but make a regular MR backup of whole disk replacing second to last backup. Resulting *.mrimg file of last backup I also store to offline backup disk.
Too many eggs in one basket is not my favorite thing. Long time experience thought me to always use multiple disks instead of one large one and spread files among them, never leaving anything irreplaceable on system disk/partition because that's most vulnerable part of whole system. One bad update or system glitch can take everything out in one moment.

tomseys · 13 May 2017

I have a few quick questions related to this. I just installed Macrium reflect. All I want to do for now is create a single image backup of my laptops hard drive (I guess c drive and all the partitions) one time. I just want to create the backup and put it on a usb flashdrive and keep it on the side. I've never done this before with windows or with any program like Marcrium.

1. Can I save this backup to a usb flash drive - assuming I have enough space?
2. Do I need to also create rescue media - and can this go on the same flash drive as the image backup?

CountMike · 13 May 2017

tomseys said:

I have a few quick questions related to this. I just installed Macrium reflect. All I want to do for now is create a single image backup of my laptops hard drive (I guess c drive and all the partitions) one time. I just want to create the backup and put it on a usb flashdrive and keep it on the side. I've never done this before with windows or with any program like Marcrium.

1. Can I save this backup to a usb flash drive - assuming I have enough space?
2. Do I need to also create rescue media - and can this go on the same flash drive as the image backup?

Yes, when you finish a backup you will gave one large file with extension .mrimg of about 80% the size all your partitions have on disk which you can copy to any place that has enough space and as many times you want to. If and when you want to return it to that or any other disk you can just boot from rescue disk(USB and point MR to the place .mrimg is stored.

tomseys · 13 May 2017

Ok thanks CountMike.

tomseys · 13 May 2017

Quick stupid question: So when I select "image this disk", under destination it lists "folder", and cd/dvd burner. Can I choose "folder", and from there select the flash drive?

CountMike · 13 May 2017

tomseys said:

Quick stupid question: So when I select "image this disk", under destination it lists "folder", and cd/dvd burner. Can I choose "folder", and from there select the flash drive?

Yes, you can chose any storage with enough space. Just be advised that with USB2 stick/disk whole process will be pretty slooooooooow.

tomseys · 13 May 2017

Ok, thanks again.

Stevekir · 13 May 2017

tomseys said:

I have a few quick questions related to this. I just installed Macrium reflect. All I want to do for now is create a single image backup of my laptops hard drive (I guess c drive and all the partitions) one time. I just want to create the backup and put it on a usb flashdrive and keep it on the side. I've never done this before with windows or with any program like Marcrium.

1. Can I save this backup to a usb flash drive - assuming I have enough space?
2. Do I need to also create rescue media - and can this go on the same flash drive as the image backup?

Yes. Definitely. A Macrium Rescue disk is important. This is because, by booting on the Rescue disc, you can restore from a Macrium image even if Windows on the C: drive will not run. The Rescue disk seems to have a cut-down version of windows which it runs sufficiently to allow access to Macrium and its images.

Mine is on a DVD but you could probably put it on a USB stick. If I remember correctly, I tried that with a USB stick with ample capacity (32 GB) but for some reason my comp. decided, without permission, to put it on an external HDD which contained my backups! How that happened is a mystery. Part of the process was to wipe the target drive (and my backups). If I ever do anything again that wipes the target drive, I will ensure that my external USB backup drives are switched off.