Restoring Windows 10 Image using Macrium Reflect  

Hi,

@Steve:

One thing I will mention, I did not create the recovery stick or put it on the External 1 TB Drive you mentioned. When I first started Macrium, I received a window with the title Rescue Media, it said important, you have not created Rescue Media to enable system recovery of your PC. Do you want to create Rescue Media now? I chose the No option as the procedure in the link above had no mention to it, probably not a good choice.

It's always a good thing to have around in case your original HD refuses to boot for some reason.
I'd also recommend to have Macrium install a bootmenu entry so it can load its recovery environment (actually a previous version of MS WinPe but you can easily replace that with the latest version should you feel inclined to)

Topgun's method works fine.
Macrium Reflect is a great tool allowing for several ways to actually skin that cat. It's also pretty intuitive to use and blazing fast.
Throughputs well over a Gig/s are no exception.

It does create a xml file that is saved in a subfolder of your "documents" folder but it doesn't require that to do a restore.

Cheers,

NavyLCDR said:

It's an extra measure of confidence to ensure that the restore process completed successfully and doesn't hurt anything to do.

Fair enough, but is it really necessary? If you can't trust the backup/restore process then maybe it's time to look for another program?! I've used Acronis TI for ages and it's never let me down. Recently switched to MR because TI is getting overloaded and dosen't feel safe anymore. I really, really hope MR is reliable and robust. Your comment makes me wonder ...

topgundcp said:

No, it is not neccessary. Same as you, I was a long time user with Acronis until I had some bad problems.

1. Acronis gave errors when restore even the verification passed.
2. Acronis Shell Extension caused Explorer to freeze.
3. And worse, Acronis modified the MFT and have 2 services running at all time and even if you uninstall it, the 2 services are still there and you get a night mare trying to remove them.

To be fair, I quit using it since Acronis 2012 so I don't know if they fix any of these problems.

And that's the reason I switch to Macrium and can confirm that I never have a single problem with it.

It is always advisable to create a Macrium Rescue USB/DVD. However, all these years I have been using Macrium and never have any problem booting.
The suggestion I made above is pretty safe since he still has the old HHD for backup and the restore the image from within Windows to another disk is also faster.
It is worth noting that there is a difference between Restore and Clone. When we clone a disk, the destination disk must be equal or greater in capacity and cloning will perform bit by bit, sector by sector copy and sometimes will create problem with disk signature collision. With restore, it does not matter if the destination disk is less than in capacity as long as the Backup image size will fit the destination disk and Macrium will attempt to align the partition size accordingly. With new version 6, if the destination disk is a SSD, Macrium will also perform trimming.

In addition, Using Macrium to fix the BCD does work well if your Windows was installed using MBR partition scheme. Not in the case with GPT style installation.

Thanks, good to know and also very important to know that MR can't handle GPT disks well.
Don't try to fix startup problems if you have GPT disks

DoItJust said:

Thanks, good to know and also very important to know that MR can't handle GPT disks well.
Don't try to fix startup problems if you have GPT disks

Just because 1 person had problems with a program does not mean the program doesn't work. It's always worked on the UEFI laptop with GPT disk that I have as a spare. Also there is a new update to Macrium Reflect that came out this week.

Hi,

+1

It's a formidable programme but it has one big flaw:...................It's free of charge.

Jokes aside, I'd say that once you have it installed you can pretty much forget all the in-built W10 Recovery options and just rely on MR instead. YMMV.

Cheers,

@Steve: You should definately create a recovery CD/USB. Having that you will allways be able to restore your saved image.

DoItJust said:

@Steve: You should definately create a recovery CD/USB. Having that you will allways be able to restore your saved image.

Steve:

I just used MACRIUM free to do all that. First connect all your devices to the system that you will need when you later boot from the DVD I will ask you to make... create a Macrium dvd, and then boot from it to learn what you need to do when using it later... Boot from it 2-3 times and know that procedure well, and then you can do a test load of the IMAGE file that you will create (making sure you are able to reach the folder/file for reloading the system. I have done all of it about 4-5 times, and am also currecntly using it to make a image backup file every 4+ days.
The entrie procedure all worked fine for me. best to you. Cliff M. acmanten

Thanks for the advice everyone, I really appreciate it. I just have a couple of questions.

1. Can I create the recovery media to the same External 1 TB that has my saved Windows 10 Image I created last night?

2. Was I was wrong to assume the process of installing the new HD into the laptop and connecting the 1 TB External drive then copying the image to the new HD? It does however make sense to connect both the new HD and the External Drive and then use Macrium to copy from one to the other.

3. Once I do run the Restore process to the new HD destination drive then shut down the laptop, remove original HD and replace with new HD. When I do boot the laptop with the new HD for the first time, will there be any issues with the BIOS? The new HD is just slightly larger and is direct part replacement for what I have according to what HP has told me.

I currently do not have a SATA to USB connector, a co-worker has one I can borrow in the next couple of days, I'm not going to be able to get the SATA to USB connector until Sunday my buddy works on a different team and we never really see each other so he's just gonna dump it my desk drawer for me when I work on Sunday LOL

I will let you know my results early next week.

I look forward to anymore suggestions, I really appreciate everyone jumping in on thread, you guys are great!

Thanks so much

Steve

Hi,

1. I don't think so. Macrium's using a WinPE version (of your choice) so that's likely going to wipe the external drive clean before it installs itself onto it. You can of course do that and then backup your current HD to external one.


2. Yes, copying the image across won't do you any good. It needs to be restored properly for it to work. Which is why you need Macrium's recovery environment which contains a copy of the backup program which will do all the hard work for you even when there's a blank drive at the other end.

3. Once you have done all that you can shut down, remove the old drive, build in the new one. You reconnect your external drive and boot from it. Macrium Reflect will launch it's environment and the backup programme. Select your image for restoring, the destination drive and click finish.
Assuming your external drive is a HD in a box with a USB lead that's all you'll need.
When the restore process is done you can shut down, disconnect the external drive and boot from your new hard drive.
Normally the bios will recognize it and Macrium doesn't care if it's bigger. Once in Windows you can check using diskmanagement if there's unallocated space. If so expand the partition in front of it and that's that.

Cheers,