Using Macrium Free 30 Day Trial to Backup or Image your drives

Macrium Reflect is no longer free. It's now a 30-day Trial. They will continue updates until January 1, 2024.

The following is a tutorial to get you started utilizing the quite easy and full-featured backup program, Macrium Reflect Free 30-Day Trial

I have many years of positive experience with Macrium at work and home on multiple computers with a wide variety of configurations.

How to install it:

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Click here to download.



After downloading the file and clicking the executable, follow all the prompts on your screen. Make the choices that fit your needs.
Choose Home Use and download it to the desired folder. You can execute the program within the browser.

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Since this tutorial is for the Home version, choose Home and click next.
It will automatically populate the license key.
If it appears. I always uncheck the register box and click next. It’s up to you if you want to register or not, it does not change the functionality of the software.
Leave all checks default and click next.



Finally, click install.

Create the rescue media:

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1. Supports Windows 11/10/8/7, Vista, and XP. Also, you can choose what version of Windows PE you want to download at the next screen with the change PE Button.
2. Insert a USB stick into the PC you're creating the rescue media on.
3. From the Backup tab of the task pane, below Other Tasks, click Create bootable Rescue media.
   
   
4. Click Next, and you'll see the following as Macrium checks for Device Drivers compatibility. If you need to add Drivers, this is where you choose to do so.
   
   
   
5. Click Next to prepare and build the Windows PE image.
   
   
   
   
   You can leave this at default or choose your own WIM.
6. Click Next to begin the WIM build. Files will automatically be downloaded from Microsoft to complete the process if needed.
   
   
7. Once complete you can choose where to burn the media
   
   You can choose either CD/DVD or USB. I recommend USB.
   
   
   
8. Click Finish to create your rescue media
   
   Once you have your media created, it's wise to test it to make sure it will boot on your PC.

Create a full image of your system:

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You will choose the drive and partitions you want to image. Then, click Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows.



Make sure each partition you want to image is checked like above. Some of the partitions contain the boot files for Windows. Choose the location of the image file, preferably a separate or external drive.

You can name the image if you wish. Hit Next



You can add a schedule. As shown above, I have 2 Full backups and 12 Differentials, you can set it up any way that fits your needs. Explanation of Full, Differential backups: Incremental vs differential backup: what are the differences, and how do they compare?



Scheduling is self-explanatory.



This is your summary to check if all is well and to your specifications. You can also hit the advanced options and choose the option to verify the backup image before or after every run of the backup schedule.



This is it! You can run the backup you created now or uncheck that and let it run on the schedule you created.

What happens if you want (or need) to exclude files from your image?

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Check macrium knowledge base: Macrium KnowledgeBase v7.2 - how to exclude files from Disk Images and Clones (click)

Warning

Use caution when editing the registry, especially if you do not know what you are doing or without specific guidance from someone who is trained in manipulating the registry

In short:

1. Open regedit and navigate to:

   Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BackupRestore\FilesNotToSnapshotMacriumImage

2. It should already contain this multi-string (don't remove it):
   

   Multi-string value name: RestorePoints
   data: $AllVolumes$\System Volume Information\*{3808876B-C176-4e48-B7AE-04046E6CC752} /s

3. Add a new multi-string value, name it like you desire, fill it with the paths or files you want to exclude.
   
   Example:
   I have some films in c:\films, and I want to exclude them from the image (because it will be bigger otherwise).
   I added:

   Multi-string value name: film
   data: %SystemDrive%\film\*.* /s

   
   
   
   Be careful with system variables: given that the parameter /s is present, windows/macrium will search and exclude all \film folders (and the files inside them) in %systemdrive%.
   If you want to exclude c:\film\*.*, it will be simpler to use that one.

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One caveat that was brought to my attention by one of our experts here at Sysnative: Macrium, in some instances, breaks Windows Update in a way that prevents Windows Upgrade from completing successfully by modifying the ImagePath value of the WIMMount key. The fix for this would be to change the Image Path back to the default.

 

[DR M]

Hi, Rob!

This is exactly what I was looking for today!

I have a question:

What does the Rescue Media save? What's the difference with the full image of the system?

 

[britechguy]

The Rescue Media saves a Windows PE-based environment which you boot from, and then use to restore a backup you've actually taken.

It is not a system image itself, it's the tool that lets you take a full system image you've already created and use it to restore/recover to the system drive (or other drive, if it was a data backup) on the machine.

 

[DR M]

Thank you.

So I have to create a system image anyway, so the Rescue Media can work, right? If I just create the Rescue Media without a system image nothing will happen?

Something else:

What if I choose Windows Boot Menu?

Again, do I need a system image for this to take sense?

I'm sorry for all those questions, but I never did such a task and I would like to learn about it. :)

 

[petros13]

Good day.
I have created such a plan, full system backup every two weeks on Sunday, and differential backups on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, is this option sufficient?

 

[axe0]

Thank you.

So I have to create a system image anyway, so the Rescue Media can work, right? If I just create the Rescue Media without a system image nothing will happen?

Something else:

What if I choose Windows Boot Menu?

Again, do I need a system image for this to take sense?

I'm sorry for all those questions, but I never did such a task and I would like to learn about it. :)

A system image is a full backup of your system that you can use to restore your system to a previous date.

The rescue media is bootable and can be used to restore your system to a previous date with an image in the situation where you can no longer access Windows.

Windows Boot menu is like the rescue media, the rescue media is a last backup option to restore your system when the Windows Boot menu cannot be loaded. With Windows Boot menu and rescue media you create multiple ways to achieve the same thing, restoring Windows to a previous date using an image.


In short, you always need a system image as it is a backup of your system. The tools you could use to apply the image: rescue media and Windows Boot menu. Rescue media should always be created as Windows Boot menu is not always available.

 

[DR M]

A system image is a full backup of your system that you can use to restore your system to a previous date.

The rescue media is bootable and can be used to restore your system to a previous date with an image in the situation where you can no longer access Windows.

Windows Boot menu is like the rescue media, the rescue media is a last backup option to restore your system when the Windows Boot menu cannot be loaded. With Windows Boot menu and rescue media you create multiple ways to achieve the same thing, restoring Windows to a previous date using an image.


In short, you always need a system image as it is a backup of your system. The tools you could use to apply the image: rescue media and Windows Boot menu. Rescue media should always be created as Windows Boot menu is not always available.

Thank you!

Everything is clear now.

Another question: if I will use a USB drive to create the Rescue Media, what capacity is needed?

Also: any clue about how long it takes to create a system image for a disk 1T?

 

[axe0]

1GB is the minimum requirement.

How long it takes to create a system image depends on the speed of the disk as well as the used space. A disk that's full will take longer than a disk that's only filled with a few 100GB.

 

[DR M]

So, 1GB for the Rescue Media.

What about the image disk? Do I need 1T disk?

 

[axe0]

I have a 500GB SSD of which roughly 100GB is backed up frequently. With the default settings regarding compression (medium compression and intelligent sector copy) the last backup that was created has a size of ~60GB. This intelligent sector copy option means to not include the pagefile or hibernation file reducing the file size of an image.

It really depends on
1. How much space is used
2. The compression settings

Having said that to give an idea of what you could expect in terms of file sizes with the images, depending on how many images you want to store, how frequent you backup, and the aforementioned variables you may want to consider a disk of a few TB.

I personally have a 1.2TB partition specifically for the system images and some other backup. I do weekly full system backups and daily differential backups, and I can go back a couple of weeks.

Hope this helps you.

 

[SleepyDude]

What about the image disk? Do I need 1T disk?

No but its a good starting point :)

Image backups are stored in one big file, the software uses compression so the space needed to store the backup is less than the actual data size you are protecting.

You can save several backups to the same HDD including from different machines only make sure you create a Folder properly named so you don't mix the different backup sources.

 

[DR M]

Thank you both, axe0 and SleepyDude.

I started creating my image in a disk 1T. I left the program's default settings (not much to understand there) and it says that 3 hours remaining.

 

[SleepyDude]

3 hours seems a long time! do you have the disk full with 1TB of data?? is the destination drive connected to a USB 3 port?

 

[DR M]

I think it is a USB 3.

My hard drive has around 350GB used. Yes, it's a long time indeed. This is what makes me postrone such tasks and I am surprised when I hear you saying that you do this once a week.

 

[axe0]

I do, I do it in the weekend at a time where I know I am less active on my computer allowing the backup to run, or I force myself to be less active on my computer. The last full image took about 15 minutes to complete which is because I cleaned up recently saving quite a bit of space. Prior to that, it took about an hour or so to do a full backup with roughly 25% to 50% more space to backup compared to the last backup.

History taught me, over and over again, the importance of a good backup strategy and how big of an impact the timing of unfortunate can have on your work. That's why I have my current backup strategy.

 

[DR M]

What are full and differential copies? I didn't change something to this option.

 

[axe0]

A full backup is a complete backup of the selected partitions without free space and without the pagefile or hibernation file when using Macrium Reflect and keeping the default options.

A differential backup is a backup of all changes since the last full backup. In my case, it allows me to go back to a specific date without losing changes since the last full backup. The disadvantage to this is that it can take quite a bit more space as it is cumulative.

There's also the incremental backup, which backs up all the changes from the last backup. This saves space, but if something is wrong with an incremental backup, i.e. corrupted, then any incremental backup after that is useless because they rely on each other to work.

 

[DR M]

OK, I'll let it to get finished and I will be back for more questions. :)

Thank you!

 

[britechguy]

is this option sufficient?

This is not a question that can be answered generically. Only the person doing the backup can really know.

And the way you know, pretty much, is if you were to lose everything you've worked on, uploaded, etc., between your last full or differential backup and the next differential one that has not quite yet occurred, would you be ready to scream, rend your garments, and snatch your hair out?

There are environments that have immense amounts of work going on every minute (think something like the ordering system on Amazon.com) where, if they were to lose the orders placed in the last 15 minutes, it could mean the loss of tons of money and a lot of angry customers. They're taking backups far more frequently than once every couple of days, because they need to.

Contrast that with most home users, who mostly browse the web, write email, and similar, maybe creating a new word processing document every once in a while. Their need to do full system image backups (or incremental/differential backups afterward) is far less frequent. On my own machine, I do a once a month full system image backup, and use two different backup drives, one for the even months and one for the odd. I do not generate enough new material between those backups such that I'd have a fit were I to lose what I have done. On the odd occasions where, for instance, I might have been on vacation for several weeks and just uploaded thousands of photos that I wouldn't want to lose, I will then take an "off monthly cycle" full system image backup, tossing the previous one for that month. I have no real need for any differential/incremental backups.

What is "sufficient" is solely determined by what it is you're trying to protect and how much material you could, in theory, afford to lose. The person doing the backups needs to have thought about this in order to set up a protocol that fits their needs. There is no one-size-fits-all backup protocol.

 

[britechguy]

An additional thought: A clear differentiation needs to be made between full system image backups (and/or the differential/incremental backups that come afterward) and user data backups.

Even though a full system image backup does contain your user data, if you're someone who has little change as far as the operating system and application programs on it go, but a lot of constant creation of new user data of any type, you need to make sure that you are taking user data backups separately from your system image backups.

In fact, and I am not proposing this, were there to be a forced choice between doing full system image backups and user data backups I'd choose having a good user data backup protocol in a heartbeat. Luckily, that choice is not necessary. And my reasoning is that, in the grand scheme of things, doing a fresh install of Windows 10 and all the applications you might use, and doing the UI tweaks that you might have done over again, is a far, far easier thing than the work you had to do to generate all of the user data you have. It's often impossible to re-create user data that is lost, while it's always possible (and pretty quick) to rebuild a fully functional computing environment.

I'd be far more inclined to use a versioned file backup system like File History for doing user data backups on an ongoing basis in conjunction with something like Macrium Reflect or other full system image/differential/incremental backup tool. There are far more occasions when you need to get back a specific something that you accidentally deleted (and have already emptied the Recycle Bin) than needing to recover your entire system.

As I often say, "Tool to task."