A Question About Macrium Reflect

Runnerbean said:

I forgot about that. Thanks for the tip. Is there a tutorial on here for that?

It's explained in tutorial, in a TIP box in Part Two Step 7: Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect Backup Restore Tutorials

Runnerbean said:

I see you personally don't recommend that though, preferring to use the Recovery USB instead. I think I would prefer that too rather than do it within Windows.

I do not know how you came to that conclusion? Adding Macrium to Windows boot menu is the second thing I always do after a clean install, first thing being installing Macrium Reflect.

I use Macrium USB very seldom, in fact almost never. I usually use the boot menu option.

Runnerbean said:

Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect Backup Restore Tutorials

Part Five
Restore a system backup
2.) Although restoring an image backup is fully possible when started from Windows desktop, I recommend restoring only when PC is booted with Macrium Rescue device you created in Part 2. An old school geek as I am, I get bad feeling when replacing system files on a running system, therefore always using restore from WinPE, booting to Macrium Rescue environment instead of Windows

OK, I see I have caused this misunderstanding by myself.

When restoring an image Macrium needs to get full access to absolutely everything which is not always possible if Windows is online. Starting restore from desktop, at some point Macrium can't continue and informs you that it needs to restart to PE to finalize restore process. I am old school. I prefer not even start restore process from desktop but instead boot to Macrium PE and run restore when Windows is offline.

That's just my recommendation, only to use restore when booted to Macrium PE, nothing more.

I've now edited the part in tutorial you quoted, it is now as follows:

2.) Although restoring an image backup is fully possible when started from Windows desktop, I recommend restoring only when PC is booted to Macrium Rescue console (PE), either by selecting Macrium Rescue from Windows boot menu or booting with Macrium Rescue device you created in Part 2. An old school geek as I am, I get bad feeling when replacing system files on a running system, therefore always using restore from WinPE, booting to Macrium Rescue environment instead of Windows

Personally, I can't even remember when was the last time I've used Macrium USB. I have it on Windows boot menu which launches Macrium PE from RAM disk.

Of course if Windows drive is totally inaccessible, HDD corrupted or something similar, you can't boot to Macrium Rescue on RAM disk. In that case you will need the USB boot device. I'm not saying you don't need the USB, I am just saying that if and when possible, I'd rather use boot menu / RAM disk option.

Kari

Although restoring an image backup is fully possible when started from Windows desktop

@Kari
might to elaborate a little bit ? How is this fully possible while Windows is running ? The minute you hit <Finish> button, Macrium will stop and tell you it cannot lock the drive and give you the choice to boot into WinPE provided if only you have already set up the "Recovery Boot Menu Option".

topgundcp said:

@Kari
might to elaborate a little bit ? How is this fully possible while Windows is running ? The minute you hit <Finish> button, Macrium will stop and tell you it cannot lock the drive and give you the choice to boot into WinPE provided if only you have already set up the "Recovery Boot Menu Option".

Yeah, Macrium Reflect will not let you restore an image to a drive with OS, if that same drive is the current boot drive.

However, Macrium Reflect will backup the current OS drive whilst running same OS. Many say this is not a great idea and you should boot from winpse to Reflect to backup. This is predicated on use of historical imaging tools that were less reliable.

This is not applicable nowadays. If one thinks about it, it would not be possible to run scheduled backups otherwise (winpse version does not handle scheduled backups).

So, in simple terms, you cannot restore images to OS drive whilst runnning same OS. You can RELIABLY backup images from OS drive whilst running same OS.

I have very rarely backed up OS drive using WinPSE version.)