Some issues with windows update

Is it possible to make the backup into a single file with macrium? I have tried it previously, and found it confusing because it was creating several files and folders.

Cerawy said:

is it possible to make the backup into one file with macrium? I tried it previously and found it confusing because it was creating several files and folders...

Yes it is. Perhaps you were making incrementals or differentials? Or, you may have been making an image to a FAT32-formatted device. That limits the size of files to 4GB, so Macrium chops the backup into 4GB chunks. You want to have an external drive that is NTFS formatted; that will give you a single file for your image. Image the complete drive, full image, not incremental or differential.

Have you seen our tutorial on using Macrium?
Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect - Windows 10 Backup Restore Tutorials

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I'm not really sure if i understand what you mean, but im going to give the tutorial a try and get back with the results.

Cerawy said:

Im not really sure if I understand what you mean but Im going to give it a try and some back with the results...

Have a read of the tutorial; ask any questions you have. It's really not as complicated as it looks. Really - it's quite easy once you get the hang of it.

When you create the first- base- image of Windows, Macrium will select all the relevant partitions for Windows including the EFI, System, Recovery and 'C:' partitions (for an EFI installation) and create one compressed file (assuming you select option 'Windows Backup')

Thereafter, with the free version (which supports differential imaging, not incremental), each differential image which you could create
- on a schedule
- manually

as you wish, represents the difference between the current state of those partitions and that when the base image was created.

Thus to restore Windows, you would then need the base image and one differential.

By default, Macrium maintains a limited number of differential images (limiting the max amount of storage used for images).

All you do then is keep creating a differential image. You don't need to worry about the number of image files. That's only of interest when you come to restore, when you can restore to any date at which an existing differential image was created, or that of the base image.

Of course then you may wish (and should) to create images of other partitions or disks, so you will then have more than one image set.

Should i select the reserved for the system and ntfs primary options?

Backup, Backup Windows, should show you a picture of your partitions and those related to your complete Windows installation - that would be necessary for restoration to a new drive should your old one fail is a good way to think about this - should be ticked for you.

The only oddity is that Win 10 upgrades sometimes generate a second Recovery partition (one is then redundant) and Macrium will select both.

Cerawy said:

Should I selected the "reserved for system" and NTFS primary options?

For now, I would select Image this disk, and grab every partition.




Then, go into Advanced Options:



Select "Verify", so Macrium will make sure the image is good.

I have set it to start but it says it takes 3 hours to complete. Is this normal for macrium?

Cerawy said:

I set it to start but it says it takes 3 hrs... is this normal?

If you have a very large drive with a ton of data on it, it could take a long time, yes. Another issue could be the data transfer rate between the computer and the backup drive. This can be due to something as simple as the use of USB2 instead of USB3, or even a failing drive which slows down the read/write process.



In my experience, the "verify" part will take just as long as the backup.