^Looking at your posted log, I noticed a lot of Microsoft Office related files are on the exclusion list. Since I also have MS Office installed that might account for the difference ...... still, 1 GB is a huge number. This would imply that Macrium does indeed exclude certain files and folders from VSS enabled backup. So, was Nick from Macrium lying? or did he mean that Macrium ignores the entries in the registry keys, but has its own custom exclusion list?
I don't have System Restore Points either and my C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder was empty when I did my tests. The image sizes in MB were VSS 15997 Phylock 16140 Cold 16125 VSS with 3 GB file in excluded folder 15975 Nothing in it.
Brian, if you have some spare time can you do these tests with Macrium? They are on my to do list for the last month and a half, but I could not find time. The tests should be like this: Enable both pagefile and hibersys files: then enter sleep state and hibernation state at least once in order to populate these files. Then Live image by Macrium Immediately Reboot Cold image by Macrium Immediately Reboot Live image by Macrium The difference in the file sizes between live and cold images should tell us what is happening here. By the way, the whole SoftwareDistribution directory is supposed to be excluded, not just the Download folder inside the directory.
My SoftwareDistribution directory is 77 MB. I keep cleaning out the Download folder. I'll try and get motivated to do the Macrium test. Standby.
Thanks. My Download folder is also 0 byte, but the DataStore folder is 0.5 GB, that is what makes up the bulk of my SoftwareDistributation folder. By the way, you can do the Macrium tests in your spare time, it is about 3:00 am in the morning here is US and I am going to sleep. Talk to your later.
Raza, I followed your Macrium directions but the results aren't really helpful. This is from my Test computer. Win10 UEFI. No System Restore points or files in the Download folder. Hot1 is 8963 MB Cold is 8987 MB Hot2 is 8958 MB
Thank you both. YES, I always do a full Image with all partitions included, so I guess the answer is that IF I wanted to go back to 8.1 it would do a full restore and I would get 4 Partitions.
This is great work Brian, so it proves that Macrium does not backup pagefile.sys or hiberfil.sys during cold imaging. As for the other files and folders, since Macrium considers its exclusion list proprietary, so I can not say anything about it. But your tests seems to suggest that only a few megabytes are added to the cold image, so perhaps Macrium does not exclude any files. I was not sure about it myself because of a recent experience. I did a fresh format and clean reinstall of my Windows 7 this February and after installing just the device drivers, it occurred to me to make a image of the system partition. Since I did not have Macrium installed at that time, so I made a cold image. Later, I installed other software, including Macrium and ran a scheduled live image of the same system partition at night and I was surprised to discover that this new image was about 1.6 GB less in size than the earlier cold image. This confused me because after installing 7-8 software including Macrium and my antivirus, I had expected the image size to be bigger. I naturally assumed that Macrium backed up my pagefile during cold imaging. I wanted to do some more tests on this but did not get any time. All I can say now is that perhaps, during the first cold image my system restore was still active and a few restore points were created when I installed the device drivers. I normally turn off the system restore after installing Macrium. I will keep an eye on it during my next format and fresh install of Windows. Anyway, thanks for conducting these tests Brian. By the way, you do not have a DataStore folder in your SoftwareDistributation folder? Inside my DataStore folder there is a huge 0.5 GB file, labeled DataStore.edb.
I am wondering why I cannot see an image file in the recovery environment to mount in explorer when I can clearly see it for restore? As this is a laptop and I don't have any additional backup/image, I am not keen on trying the restore function unless I have to. I took the first image and probably will take another one but was just testing the recovery cd and got stumped at this stage. Any ideas?
I'm not quite sure what you're getting at, Beethoven. The image is clearly available and seen under the RESTORE TAB, which is where you would MOUNT it (via the "Browse" function). If you use the PE Explorer, you can easily drill to where the images live and see them, but there's no MOUNT function available under the PE Explorer. I may be missing something here... maybe explain a bit further what you're trying to do.
sorry, Froggie - it's late and I am tired. Yes, I obviously confused the options in the live environment and the PE environment. Maybe it's the terminology, I seem to remember even in PE there was an option to either browse for an image to restore or to open an image in explorer. Since I am doing another image at the moment I can't check but will look at it again tomorrow after a good sleep to recharge the batteries. edit: Just rebooted again with the recovery disk and yes, it does look like there is an option, though giving a some thought you would not use the recovery disk just to mount an image. If the system is still up and running, you can everything from the live environment, so why use the recovery disk in this case?
If the system was non-BOOTable, the only way to retrieve files from REFLECT images on that system would have to be from the Recovery Media... I can't think of any other use for that function at the moment.
hi may i ask 2 question ? 1) may i know why does macrium reflex 6 change the disk ID after the restore process ? for example after a restore i can read .. 2) why does not the log include such information ? thanks
Does anyone know if it's possible to edit the comment section on the incremental backups, cause it's always the same as with the first full backup in the chain, which is a bit stupid, you don't know what is changed in the incremental. or does there exist some external 3rd party macrium utilities to do this?
I want to ask two questions about macrium. 1. Can macrium restore to a smaller partition? 2. While restoring C drive/ partition, is there an option to restore a standard windows MBR rathé than the one that was backed up? Both of these features are present in some other recovery programs. Thanks
I think this post might answer that question. Else, I am not sure if Macrium recognizes if your image is based eg. on a OS with 1TB partition (HD),with only like 100GB of it used, and if it can automatically restore it to eg. 256Gb SSD drive. If it can't do the trick automatically, i think the instructions in that linked post should work the other way around too. If not, please do correct me.
Yes... with the same limitations as most other imagers that can do this. It can restore down to the "sector spread" of the partition being restored (up to the last sector in use in that partition's disk map). Reflect offers the following options when using the Recovery Media to "Fix Windows BOOT Problems"... The MBR replacement at this point is the recreation of a standard Windows BOOT record, not a replacement by the one included in the image... that is done elsewhere during the restoration.
Stode, this cannot be done if you're using "scheduled" backups, of course, and it cannot be done "after the fact." If you're doing MANUAL backups, there are (2) ways to do this prior to the actual imaging operation IF you have a DEFINITION established for the type of backup you're doing. Using the "Backup/Backup Definition Files" TAB functions, SELECT the definition you want to use as a reference for the image you're about to do, then use the "Run the Backup Definition" TOOL in the bar above and SELECT "Prompt." "Prompt" will allow you to SELECT the image type and add a comment at this point. If you do a lot of MANUAL ops using the same definition, do the above and when you get to the ToolBar, instead of using the "Run the Backup Definition" tool, use the "Create a DeskTop shortcut of the selected file" TOOL. This will allow you to select the "Prompt" function and create a DeskTop shortcut. In the future, anytime you want to take a MANUAL image, <double-click> that shortcut and you will be taken directly to the "Prompt" function where you may comment at will. I use this exclusively for all my MANUAL imaging with REFLECT.
During the restoration process, options are available to... 1)restore to the minimum used sector spread of the image in question, 2)restore to the original partition size (if target partition is larger than the original partition), or 3)restore to the larger partition being targeted. If the target partition is smaller than the original imaged partition but larger than the sector spread of the original imaged partition, that option is available as well. The target partition size is adjustable if the target partition space is large enough to allow that.
