External drive

**Just Plain Fred** · 2011-09-16 09:55

Originally Posted by Pictor

Is Macrium easy to use for an idiot proof copy of my files etc each week ?

Pictor,

Macrium Reflect Free is easy to use, However the "Free" version will only do full system images... But not to worry..The Full 'System Image" is what you want to do anyway... It' just makes sense ..(to me anyway) this way you can recover the whole "shooten match" in case you, or some virus does your OS in...Just make sure that you "burn" the recovery disk so in the case that you can't boot normally ...you boot into Macrium and recover from there. If you want to backup files you will have to "upgrade" to the Full version.

Regards Fred

PS: you can choose what compression level you want.with Macrium Free.... so the "Backups" are much smaller than what your Imaging

**Pictor** · 2011-09-16 10:48

Even better - sounds very easy to use. Thank you!
I initially had Acronis set to do incremental back ups each week, but it kept failing so I resorted to a full copy instead - only took an hour or so, but will be more now as I keep quite a number of RAW images. I use a separate external drive for backups, so Macrium sounds just what I need.

***ruirib*** · 2011-09-17 07:01

Originally Posted by Infinicore

All I would do, and have done, is make sure the new drive is formatted first, most likely NTFS as mentioned, then download and install a little program called TeraCopy, which will give you much better information as it copies from one drive to another and let you know if there were any problems such as one or more files that would not copy over for some reason. Unlike most Windows copy events, it won't get stuck if one file wont copy over and stop, it skips the file and continues.
As far as actual procedure, I open both drives up in side by side windows and either select files and right click copy move to target window and paste (preferred) or simply drag and drop.
If its a large amount of data to transfer, consider only selecting maybe a couple hundred gigs at a time to copy over, buffers tend to overload if there's to much to keep track of all in one huge transfer.

Thanks for the TeraCopy advice. I have installed it and it works very well. Smart little program

.

**Pictor** · 2011-09-20 17:17

Thanks so much for all the help - actually copied the contents of the old drive to the new one. It took around 15 minutes. I then copied it again to a folder on my computer so that I have another copy. We gave the new drive the same letter as the old, and the web programme found the file easily.

Also, as recommended I have downloaded the Macrium Reflect Free ready to start backing up the computer weekly. Once I get to know how to use it, backing up should be more straightforward than it was with my old computer.

**Pictor** · 2011-10-30 18:23

I'd like to thank Fred for advising me to download the free Macrium Reflect

I've had a lot of work to do recently, so just got around to using it. I got a new 1TB external drive purely for weekly backups, and when I used Macrium for the first time today, just selected all three drives and kept the settings as they were in each step.
I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly it did a full backup of 184GB, and have (hopefully correctly) set it to do this every week. I can always do another whenever I need to if necessary I suppose?

What I don't fully understand is, when it does a new backup each week, does it overwrite the previous one, or just full up the drive and then start discarding older ones?

**Just Plain Fred** · 2011-10-31 08:38

Originally Posted by Pictor

What I don't fully understand is, when it does a new backup each week, does it overwrite the previous one, or just full up the drive and then start discarding older ones?

Pictor,
Hello... As i understand it if you try to place a Image on your HD, and don't have enough room ...You'll get an error message ( see screen shot) ..I don't know what version of Macrium Reflect you are running ... I have had some "booting issues with Version "5" ..(recovery disk wouldn't run my OS)..So i went back to Version 4.2.3638...Which i run now on all my OS's... XP, Vista, "7" ... without any problems... Whatever version you do have ..Make sure that you "Burn" and tryout booting from the disk... You don't have to "pull the trigger" just make sure that Macrium "sees" the Images and you can click through the screens without actually doing the "Recovery" .....Regards Fred

**Pictor** · 2011-10-31 09:00

Hi Fred, and thanks for the reply.
I have MR free version 4.2- 3775build.
I haven't tried doing a rescue disk yet, but can open all the files on the external drive where the backup is stored. I've verified it too.

I'm not very clued up with backups, and just need a complete copy of everything on my computer in case of problems so that files & images could be copied onto a new computer or drive if need be.

I have a new external drive purely for backups. I'm just unclear as to what happens each time a scheduled (or otherwise) complete backup is done - does it keep adding new backups to the external drive or overwrite the previous one ?

**Medico** · 2011-10-31 10:10

You NEED the rescue disk if your PC goes belly up. This rescue disk contains the files your PC needs to boot and the files that allow the Imaging app to start. This is how you would restore the Image. I repeat, you NEED the rescue disk to make this work.

**RetiredGeek** · 2011-10-31 10:36

Originally Posted by Pictor

Hi Fred, and thanks for the reply.
I have MR free version 4.2- 3775build.

I have a new external drive purely for backups. I'm just unclear as to what happens each time a scheduled (or otherwise) complete backup is done - does it keep adding new backups to the external drive or overwrite the previous one ?

Pictor,

1st I'd download Macrium Reflect version 5. Here's a comparison of features.

2nd it depends! If your scheduled backups are full Images you will get an entire new copy of your drive everytime you do a backup. At some point your backup drive will fill and you can then start deleting the oldest Image, I usually keep the last 3 images for safety. If you are doing Incremental backups it will add to your previous backup only the changes that have been made {not supported in the Free version}.

**Just Plain Fred** · 2011-10-31 11:47

Originally Posted by RetiredGeek

Pictor,

1st I'd download Macrium Reflect version 5. Here's a comparison of features.

"Geekster"

One caveat...Version "5" is new (has a cloning function added) Tried it, and the "Recovery disk" will not work on any of my OS's XP, Vista or "7" ...so i would not venture guess if it will work on "Pictors" OS or not. V-4.2.3638 was the last Version that worked, and didn't annoy you with "advertising"

Regards Fred

**Pictor** · 2011-10-31 11:52

Fred - Thank you. I can't find anything in Macrium Reflect that looks like your attached thumbnail, but I do understand now that in time I'll need to delete earlier backups from the external drive like I did with Acronis

Seeing you had some issues with v5 I'll stay with 4 for the time being.
I left compression at Medium and was surprised that it did a total of 184GB in just over half an hour!

Ted - Point taken thanks ..I've now done a rescue disk (very fast!) and will test it. I'm assuming this only needs to be done once unless I upgrade the programme.
I have to confess I don't understand rescue discs etc - I just thought a back up was a copy of my files/photos that could be transferred to a new computer or drive if need be.
Time was, all I ever did was copy my accounts, records and documents to disks now and then. Using RAW image files etc has made things a bit different.

**Medico** · 2011-10-31 12:36

Yes only once with this version. In my case I use Acronis and I had to make separate rescue disks for both v2010 and 2011, so I suspect this is also true with Macrium Reflect although I have no personal experience.

Just think of the Image as a photograph of your entire system. It can restore that photograph to your HD in the case of a failure, but this restoration must be done from outside of Windows. This is why you need the the Rescue Disk because you have to be able to boot into the app that your Image was created from so that Image can be read and used for the restoration. I hope this simplistic explanation helps you to understand the process a little better.

**Pictor** · 2011-10-31 13:22

Thank you Ted - Yes, I do understand it better. (Good thing I had no failure with Acronis on my old XP PC, because I hadn't known about the disk necessity with that!)
Like photography, computers are a necessity with my work - but the technical aspects of both can leave me baffled

**Just Plain Fred** · 2011-11-01 04:24

Originally Posted by Pictor

Fred - Thank you. I can't find anything in Macrium Reflect that looks like your attached thumbnail

Pictor,
Hello... you need to click on the "?"...to find the "Help"

Regards Fred

**Pictor** · 2011-11-01 07:22

Ah! now I see - I thought you meant it was in the log of the actual backup! Thank you Fred!

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