Macrium Reflect and W10!

donetao

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Enid Oklahoma
I consider myself to be well versed on Macrium Reflect. If you haven't upgraded to W10 yet, I would like to make a few suggestions.
I upgraded to W10; but before I did, I created a image of my C drive with Macrium Reflect. Instead of using the option that the upgrade provided to roll back to W7, I used the image I created with Macrium. It worked with with out a hitch. I rolled back to W7 in about 20 minutes.
I also created a image of my C drive when I upgraded to W10 with Macrium.
I noticed that the up grade created another partition on my C drive, which I believe was where the option to roll back was created. I chose to use my image to roll back to W7 instead. IMHO that is the way to roll back your OS.
I now have the original 3 partitions on my C drive. The partitions with my OS and the hidden partition to restore to factory. I'm back to where I was before the upgrade and all is well. Here's a screen shot of the USB where I have back to factory on the left and a mounted image created by Macrium on the right. You can see they are identical.
I'm not sure when I'll upgrade my W7 to W10 again, but I believe I have all my bases covered when the time comes. I also have a USB with W10 on it and a image of W10 on a external hard drive.
As always, I would like to hear your thoughts and correct me where you think I'm full of it!:D
PS the screen shot on the bottom is what the USB looks like with W10 on it!!
 

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I will never understand why Computers users never take the time to learn how to use a imaging program like Macrium Reflect. I can't count the times Macrium has bailed me out of serious trouble. I will continue to preach, but I'm afraid it will fall on deaf ears.
If just one person reads this and starts using a image program, it will have been worth the effort I spent creating this thread. It doesn't get any simpler than this sport fans!
Gary!
 

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I can't begin to describe how important a back up image can be. Here's the deal. I always have a back up image of my OS on a external drive. I'm always 99.99% sure the image is clean and malware free. I can restore that image on my working hard drive or even restore that image on a brand new cold hard drive the same size or larger. I can do that in less than 30 minutes. What a great feeling to know that. It amazes me why every PC user doesn't want that kind of security!!
Gary!!
 
I used to do stuff like this, then i stopped putting stuff of any real important on a PC anyway, and instead keep it on shockproof external drives and a NAS :)

If my PC decides to take a crap (any of the three of them), I'll fix it and not have to worry about data :)
 
I pretty much agree with the conclusions that cloning is for changing the hard drive and image files are for backup but they fail to mention the reasons. When you clone a drive that's an exact copy. When you image the drive you have the options to make the image file way smaller by compressing the image file which allows you to put more image files on the backup drive and you can change the sequences IE to create dvd backups vs external or internal drive backups. Many believe in the clone approach so that when disaster strikes, you simply change out the hard drive and off you go but what of the files and data. The longer you keep that cloned drive, the more it will miss your recent changes in data or perhaps a new software install or two as well, and that is where the backup image file becomes so much more important,

The next thing to do is backup your files and data. There are plenty of free programs like Karen"s Replicator that do a great job of that or Argentum and Handy Backup that are paid software that allow more options available.
 
Hi! Good stuff Rich! Thanks!! Also a good idea Darkseeker, but that image is good if your HDD dies. A image is also nice if you don't want to take the time to undue your screw ups. A lot of people prefer a clean install, but I like my image back up!!
 
I'm a clean install, start fresh sort of guy. All that rigamarole to make a back up that may or may not be corrupted to me is not worth the time or risk. I save everything of value to my NAS, a separate hard drive just for data back up, and a USB external drive. I have the keys to all my software I paid for so getting them back up and running is small taters.

You run the risk of your image being corrupted and not knowing it until you go to use it and it fails. I had that happen once with my old lappy when I first got it. They said burn the recovery disc and put them in a safe place. I did that not knowing the windows disc burning program had more bugs than a bait shop. The burned discs were all bad and that's how I wound up buying Vista and installing that on the lappy.
I will not ever trust a burned image for my systems. It flopped once and I won't let that happen twice.
 
I have been using Macrium Reflect for most of my computer life, which started in 2004. I have never had a image fail me and believe me, I have restored my PC a few dozen times. I just used a image to roll back to W7 and it went perfectly. I have the restore discs and Flashes also, but I have only restored to factory twice. If I never used things that flopped once, my wife of 55 years would have been gone a long time ago. In fact we probably would have never got married in the first place.LOL
PS Man you only give some thing one shot. I believe in second and even third changes!
Gary!!
 
I have been using image making software since 1999 and in all that time I once did I ever have an image file fail to restore, and that was with Acronis in 2013 and it really pissed me off, but then I abandoned Acronis, not the whole idea.
I was a beta tester for "Drive Image", still to my mind the best software ever for this. It's file and data backup "Datakeeper" is still by far the best of any I have ever used. Unfortunately they sold to Symantec who scrapped their Ghost and replaced it with Drive Image and then proceeded to ruin the application also while ending DataKeeper. Then I was a beta tester for Acronis 2006-2013 and then switched to Macrium Reflect and never looked back after Acronis blew away two of my systems, one was brand new.
 
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