Should I Be Concerned and Extra Cautious  

Hi.
This all looks correct to me. I would just uncheck the box that says Save backup and schedules as an XML file....We're not saving the instructions, as this will not be a recurring backup.

You should be able to navigate to your image target right from within the selection area in Macrium, to be sure you get it to the correct destination, by clicking on the three dots (circled in red):

baumgrenze said:

I believe that the information below created by ZTreeWin tells me that I've made 2 successful images on G:

Disk Volume: BackupDrive 7-26-16 14:11:18 Page 1
Available space 1878837,665,792 bytes
3 logged files using 118,903,576,864 bytes
3 tagged files using 118,903,576,864 bytes

Path: G:\$RECYCLE.BIN\S-1-5-21-4184463267-209652737-2113205021-1001
1 tagged files using 129 bytes

7-25-16 6:45:33 129 .ash desktop .ini

Path: G:\SystemDiskBackups
1 tagged files using 59,451,909,607 bytes

7-26-16 13:39:43 59451909607 .a.. 100EC656633555DB-00-00.mrimg

Path: G:\SystemDiskBackups\Win7_0072516_Win10UpgradePrep
1 tagged files using 59,451,667,128 bytes

7-26-16 13:05:23 59451667128 .a.. 4B455E7727A8BA27-00-00.mrimg

Yes, it looks like you've got 2 images saved there.

baumgrenze said:

In the process I sorted out the BlacX access question. If I start the eSATA box after I've booted I need to Control Panel, then Device Manager, then expand Disk Drives and find the Toshiba and Right Click it and select "scan for hardware changes" and the drive will be found in Windows Explorer. I was told to do it again if I elect to stop the drive while Win7 is still running.

Interesting. Can you "eject" the drive from Windows Explorer, or no? I would feel a little better myself if I could eject it before physically removing it while the OS is running....just to make sure it wasn't being written to at the moment I go to remove it.

baumgrenze said:

I'm still not comfortable with the step where I enter the name of the backup. The first time I thought I put in a proper full path for the new file I wanted to create. I got 2 error messages but the backup ran anyway and named the saved file "4B455E7727A8BA27-00-00.mrimg" which must be a default name. I had not yet sorted out the XML file that is saved to allow return to the same 'definition.'

You're not naming the backup, it's asking you to name the backup instructions - which we're not doing right now, because we're not making scheduled, recurring backups yet. So, that's why I said to uncheck the box where it says Save backup and schedules as an XML....

baumgrenze said:

In the future, once you are upgraded to W10, we will setup regular, recurring, scheduled backups, of which that name will only be something like "weekly full HDD backup" or something else to recognize the instructions. That's all it is - the name of your instructions.

baumgrenze said:

When I ran the second backup I got no error messages and the file called "100EC656633555DB-00-00.mrimg" was created.

Good! Did it say "Image and verification completed in Xhrs X minutes"? That's what we wanted.

baumgrenze said:

It is time to explore booting to the rescue disk so that I still have time to download the upgrade.

thanks

baumgrenze

Yes, okay - you can download the ISO to your desktop any time, so to have it ready.
Tech Bench

.

baumgrenze said:

I have the ISO downloading as I write. I trust I only need the 64 bit version?

Yes!

baumgrenze said:

Macrium's last message (in a box) was "Image Completed Successfully in 00.17.51"



Is this where would it report "Image and verification completed in Xhrs X minutes"? If so, I managed to miss the radio check box for verification. Ugh...

Yes, you must have missed the box to verify. It's okay - you can verify your existing images (or make a new one)

baumgrenze said:

I will do one more image once I am done following your check list.

Thanks for confirming my understanding of the XML file.

The check box for verifying is in the Advanced Options:





No problem. I know it's a bit confusing at first, but you get used to it real quick.

baumgrenze said:

I do not find the Toshiba in the menu that is accessed via the double chevron on the left end of my taskbar.



The 'ordinary HDD's' in this double bay are described as 'hot swappable' but I see your point about making sure there is no activity. There is an activity light on the device.

I see - then you cannot "eject". But still, you want to make sure there is no activity when you disconnect the disk, yes.

baumgrenze said:

The Rescue Disk worked fine and found both images.

Excellent!

baumgrenze said:

Your last instruction is:

"Remove any 3rd-party anti-virus software, hard drive monitoring software, and Speccy if you have it."

I've been using Avast Free for a long time. Does Remove mean 'formally uninstall?' I have CrystalDiskInfo (someone here recommended it.) I probably have the install exe file saved, so I could reinstall 6.1.14. I've seen some grousing about 'included gift software' where 'gift' can be taken in the German sense, toxic (or at least mildly so.) Is there a good list of popular 'hard drive monitoring software' you can point me to? I tried a quick search and decided I didn't want to go down that path. Is the risk that one of these might screw up the upgrade process?

I've upgraded one W7 system with Crystal Disk Info on it and it had no problem, so you can leave that on. But Avast has to go for now. No 3rd-party AV - it's just asking for trouble.

baumgrenze said:

I discovered Belarc years ago when we had problems with my wife's PC. I like it.

I've only used Ccleaner a few times, and some time ago. I will go get a current copy.

Thanks again for your patient guidance and attention. You rock!

baumgrenze

No problem!

Let's just recap here to I am thinking straight:

• DONE (pending verification)-Install Macrium Reflect Free and make an IMAGE of your entire hard drive as it is now, on an external drive. Make sure you have the verify option selected, so you know you have a good image. Be sure to create the rescue media it needs to boot your system from, should you have to restore the image. Then, make sure you can boot the system from the rescue media. Restoring an image will put everything back exactly as it was, including all programs and data.
• Is this done? Go to your OEM's web support site and download all updates relevant to your system, especially BIOS and chipset updates.
• Use ShowkeyPlus to grab your current W7 keycode and write it down. Note: This does not work for an OEM:SLP W7 key. You must use the code on the COA sticker if it is an OEM Installed W7.
• Is this done? Remove O2000 and install LibreOffice.
• Is this done? Did you get "No integrity violations found? Open an Admin Command Prompt and run sfc /scannow
• Is this done? Install 7-zip
• Is this done? Install Driver Magician Lite (free) - to back up your current drivers (in red) to an external hard drive.
• Is this done? Scan your system with Malwarebytes Antimalware Free to verify it is clean.
• Is this done? Update all software to current revs and delete any software that is not active/updated regularly or compatible with W10.
• Is this done? Please save the file to your Toshiba drive. Run Belarc Advisor and print out the system inventory it provides.
• Crystal Disk Info will be OK to leave on; I can confirm it lives through the upgrade without issue. Remove any 3rd-party anti-virus software, hard drive monitoring software, and Speccy if you have it.
• Is this done? Run Ccleaner Free on the registry.
• DONE-Download the W10 ISO from MS TechBench
• Disconnect everything from the computer except, keyboard mouse and monitor. Do not have any drives besides the OS drive connected during the upgrade.

Yes, I pretty much have this in the order it should be done. :)

baumgrenze said:

Oh, dear!

I ran one more Macrium backup, this time with the verify option on and got this:

Hmmm....I don't know. We need to have a look at the log; post it here, and we'll see if we can figure out what went wrong.

baumgrenze said:

I might as well ask about this, too. Here's the stats from ZTreeWin on the Win10 ISO download:

Disk Volume: New 1 Tb WD Black 7-26-16 18:00:34 Page 1
Available space 612,704,174,080 bytes
2,390 logged files using 36,841,467,654 bytes
1 tagged files using 4,458,960,896 bytes

Path: D:\My Documents\DownloadsTempMD
1 tagged files using 4,458,960,896 bytes

7-26-16 17:22:44 4458960,896 .a.. Win10_1511_2_English_x64.iso


7-26-16 ` 17:22:44 4458960,896 .a.. Win10_1511_2_English_x64.iso

Does the file size of 4,458,960,896 bytes sound right?

It is time for bed.

thanks again,

Yes, that sounds about right. See you tomorrow.

Here is the log. I confused the 'History' with the 'VSS Log'

(Gathering writer metadata...)
(Waiting for the asynchronous operation to finish...)
Initialize writer metadata ...
- Get exclude files
- Enumerate components
- Get file list descriptors
- Get database descriptors
- Get log descriptors
- Get exclude files
- Enumerate components
- Get file list descriptors
- Get database descriptors
- Get log descriptors
- Get exclude files
- Enumerate components
- Get file list descriptors
- Get database descriptors
- Get log descriptors
- Get exclude files
- Enumerate components
- Get exclude files
- Enumerate components
- Get file list descriptors
- Get database descriptors
- Get log descriptors
- Get exclude files
- Enumerate components
- Get exclude files
- Enumerate components
- Get file list descriptors
- Get database descriptors
- Get log descriptors
- Get exclude files
- Enumerate components
- Get exclude files
- Enumerate components
- Get file list descriptors
- Get database descriptors
- Get log descriptors
Discover directly excluded components ...
- Excluding writer '' since it has no selected components for restore.
- Excluding writer '' since it has no selected components for restore.
- Excluding writer 'MSSearch Service Writer' since it has no selected components for restore.
- Excluding writer 'BITS Writer' since it has no selected components for restore.
- Excluding writer 'Shadow Copy Optimization Writer' since it has no selected components for restore.
Discover components that reside outside the shadow set ...
Discover all excluded components ...
Discover excluded writers ...
Discover explicitly included components ...
Verifying explicitly specified writers/components ...
Select explicitly included components ...
* Writer 'Task Scheduler Writer':
- Add component \TasksStore
* Writer 'VSS Metadata Store Writer':
- Add component \WriterMetadataStore
* Writer 'Performance Counters Writer':
- Add component \PerformanceCounters
* Writer 'Registry Writer':
- Add component \Registry
* Writer 'WMI Writer':
- Add component \WMI
* Writer 'COM+ REGDB Writer':
- Add component \COM+ REGDB
Creating shadow set {18afb34c-6eab-4aa8-874d-c37b1654ae59} ...
- Adding volume \\?\Volume{dde490fc-d637-11e3-8adf-806e6f6e6963}\ [C:\] to the shadow set...
Preparing for backup ...
(Waiting for the asynchronous operation to finish...)
(Waiting for the asynchronous operation to finish...)
Creating the shadow (DoSnapshotSet) ...
(Waiting for the asynchronous operation to finish...)
(Waiting for the asynchronous operation to finish...)
Shadow copy set succesfully created.
Saving the backup components document ...

List of created shadow copies:


Querying all shadow copies with the SnapshotSetID {18afb34c-6eab-4aa8-874d-c37b1654ae59} ...

* SNAPSHOT ID = {c9295ed8-861b-4125-81b1-b1a9c94ceefe} ...
- Shadow copy Set: {18afb34c-6eab-4aa8-874d-c37b1654ae59}
- Original count of shadow copies = 1
- Original Volume name: \\?\Volume{dde490fc-d637-11e3-8adf-806e6f6e6963}\ [C:\]
- Creation Time: 7/26/16 10:04:51 PM
- Shadow copy device name: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy5
- Originating machine: JohnBaum-PC
- Service machine: JohnBaum-PC
- Not Exposed
- Provider id: {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}
- Attributes: Auto_Release Differential

I hope you find the problem when you see it.

thanks

baumgrenze