Solved Macrium, Imaging the C-Drive

jro11 · Feb 19, 2024

Successful reboot from Rescue Disk

Macrium is no longer an issue. Macrium is the Imaging program I'm using. After I succeed in creating the Image, (Presumably of the whole disk, since the whole BitLocker issue, despite my historical explanation of why it is there, seems moot.) I'll be installing Win11.

Seems I have to recreate the Rescue Disk (see below) Agree??

Adding BitLocker support to Windows PE
Note: It isn't absolutely necessary to unlock a BitLocker encrypted drive when restoring an image of the
encrypted partition. The partition will restore without problems but will require re-encrypting on reboot.
Unlocking the drive in Windows PE enables intelligent sector copy imaging and cloning, RapidDelta
, and also free access to the drive's contents using PE Explorer. In addition, restoring to an
Restore (RDR)
unlocked drive will retain the encryption status of the drive when rebooting.
Automatically unlocking BitLocker encrypted drives
Macrium Reflect can include the components and decryption keys necessary to automatically unlock Microsoft
BitLocker encrypted drives in Windows PE.
In the
select
then
and
Rescue Media Builder
Advanced
Add BitLocker Support
Automatically unlock BitLocker
Volumes

Fishmill · Feb 19, 2024

jro11 said:
Successful reboot from Rescue Disk

Make an image, just to get the experience. Save it on some other drive. I think your boot drive has around 170 gb occupied? Image size should be somewhere around 100 gb.

You can accept defaults on your first attempt. See what happens.

You can delete the image easily, just like any other file.

jro11 · Feb 19, 2024

Boot Disk reformatted and tested. Will now attempt to image the C-Drive to a 1.5 TB drive. accepting defaults

Fishmill · Feb 19, 2024

jro11 said:
Boot Disk reformatted and tested. Will now attempt to image the C-Drive to a 1.5 TB drive. accepting defaults

As a first attempt, I'd choose the option in the upper left of the Macrium interface..."create an image of the partitions required to backup and restore Windows". Then defaults from that point on.

That should include more than just C.

Might take 15 minutes; might take an hour; depending on speed of your drives and occupied space on boot drive.

You can do it via your Rescue Media or direct from your boot drive.

Fishmill · Feb 19, 2024

jro11 said:
Boot Disk reformatted and tested. Will now attempt to image the C-Drive to a 1.5 TB drive.

Not quite following that.

You formatted the boot drive and are now going to image the C partition?

jro11 · Feb 19, 2024

Fishmill said:
You formatted the boot drive and are now going to image the C partition?

Yes ... Create an image of the partitions required...

Verify file system; verify image

Fishmill · Feb 19, 2024

jro11 said:
Yes ... Create an image of the partitions required...
View attachment 87739 Verify file system; verify image
View attachment 87740 View attachment 87741

Looks OK as a first attempt assuming your chosen destination is big enough.

Give it a go.

jro11 · Feb 19, 2024

While waiting I'll light the fire...

- Slight mistake: Destination drive = 2 TB
- Why it chose to image 171.94 GB (see Imaging Summary) I don't know. Oh, yes I do. I guess, thinking I only needed to select the drive, I neglected to separately choose all the partitions on the drive and it opted to go for the C-Primary...how that relates to the C-Bitlocker...this thread #57
- And what does this mean (every time I startup)?

Fishmill · Feb 19, 2024

jro11 said:
While waiting I'll light the fire...

- Slight mistake: Destination drive = 2 TB
- Why it chose to image 171.94 GB (see Imaging Summary) I don't know. Oh, yes I do. I guess, thinking I only needed to select the drive, I neglected to separately choose all the partitions on the drive and it opted to go for the C-Primary...how that relates to the C-Bitlocker...this thread #57
- And what does this mean (every time I startup)? View attachment 87746

I have no idea about that powershell thing.

Why are you surprised it is imaging about 172 GB?

Did you select "create an image of the partitions required to backup and restore Windows"?

Or something else?

jro11 · Feb 19, 2024

Fishmill said:
Why are you surprise it is imaging about 172 GB?

Thanks for asking the question. Because, depending on what disk "image (as in 'picture')" you are looking at (#57):
- The macrium 'picture' clearly marks that space as being (C) Primary - NTFS
yet the
- MiniTools Partition Wizard includes that space within what it calls C-(BitLocker)

Fishmill said:
Did you select "create an image of the partitions required to backup and restore Windows"?

Yes

Fishmill · Feb 19, 2024

jro11 said:
Thanks for asking the question. Because, depending on what disk "image (as in 'picture')" you are looking at (#57):
- The macrium 'picture' clearly marks that space as being (C) Primary - NTFS yet the
- MiniTools Partition Wizard includes that space within what it calls CBitLocker)

Yes

For Macrium purposes, I wouldn't pay much attention to Minitools. It's good software, but largely irrelevant for your task at hand.

Pay attention to Windows Disk Management and the Macrium interface.

Are you creating the image after booting from Rescue Media or after booting from hard drive?

Edwin · Feb 19, 2024

Sorry for the intrusion, but..., why Image a sh*t drive if you're gonna do a clean install anyway?

antspants · Feb 19, 2024

Fishmill said:
Did you select "create an image of the partitions required to backup and restore Windows"?

This ^
If it says 172GB, so be it.

jro11 · Feb 19, 2024

OK. Now how do I test this image to see what it imaged and if it is all in tact?

Fishmill · Feb 19, 2024

jro11 said:
View attachment 87749

OK. Now how do I test this image to see what it imaged and if it is all in tact?

You have Macrium set to "auto verify", so you don't need to do it manually. All that means is that the file is readable and not corrupt.

You can't know if it will restore properly until you actually attempt a restore. That is the acid test/gold standard.

I would NOT over-write a known good OS to find out if it will restore.

If the image includes the proper partitions, your success rate on a restore is in the upper 90 percentile range I'd say.

If you poke that mrimg file, you can look at what it inside it, BUT that is NOT how Macrium is typically used.

Did you make that image using your Recovery Media?

I'd make more images to get the hang of the interface and non-default options. Delete images as you wish. Each is about 110 GB, so you don't have space issues.

If you look through the settings, you can do stuff like retain the most recent 2 or 3 images and delete older ones; enable high compression, etc. But defaults are fine for typical purposes.

jro11 · Feb 19, 2024

Fishmill said:
I'd make more images to get the hang of the interface and non-default options. Delete images as you wish. Each is about 110 GB, so you don't have space issues.

I agree. I'm just glad something worked out right!

Fishmill said:
Did you make that image using your Recovery Media?

No. I used the app itself. I made sure no other drives (including even thumb drives) were plugged in. (Maybe I'll boot off the recovery disk and try...)

Fishmill said:
If you look through the settings, you can do stuff like retain the most recent 2 or 3 images and delete older ones; enable high compression, etc. But defaults are fine for typical purposes.

Yeah I noticed that.

Second image successful

This time the image was executed from the Recovery Media. I assume every computer to be Imaged must have Macrium Reflect installed. I also assume there is no advantage to using the Rescue Disk to do so except just to know it is available. (any other reason?) Kind of like always putting the oil in the chainsaw first...before the gas.

Should I be concerned there is an ~6GB size difference isn't important.

Fishmill · Feb 19, 2024

jro11 said:
I agree. I'm just glad something worked out right!

No. I used the app itself. I made sure no other drives (including even thumb drives) were plugged in. (Maybe I'll boot off the recovery disk and try...)

Yeah I noticed that.

Second image successful View attachment 87751
This time the image was executed from the Recovery Media. I assume every computer to be Imaged must have Macrium Reflect installed. I also assume there is no advantage to using the Rescue Disk to do so except just to know it is available. (any other reason?) Kind of like always putting the oil in the chainsaw first...before the gas.

Should I be concerned there is an ~6GB size difference isn't important.

I don't think a PC must have Macrium installed to have an image made. Macrium would be on the Rescue Media that is used to boot. Macrium from C and Macrium from Rescue Media both lead you to the same interface. No advantage to Rescue Media but consider it a must to have on hand because your boot drive can drop dead at any minute.

I wouldn't be concerned about the file size differences.

If you have a spare hard drive laying around, you might connect it instead of your current C drive and see if you can restore the image you just made to that spare and then confirm it will boot. You'd prefer to NOT be in the position of being in a real-life jam without ever having experience with Macrium restore.

jro11 · Feb 19, 2024

I was under the impression that there was a different procedure involved if one wanted to install Win11 using a Local ACCOUNT--a procedure that bypasses elements particular to MS365 and OneDrive--and that procedure was explained in this forum's technical articles.
1) Am I mistaken? If so, is there a difference between installing Win11 through a local account vs through a non-local (Microsoft) account?
2) Prior to the install, is a reformat recommended? If so, as what? NTFS?

Fishmill · Feb 19, 2024

jro11 said:
I was under the impression that there was a different procedure involved if one wanted to install Win11 using a Local ACCOUNT--a procedure that bypasses elements particular to MS365 and OneDrive--and that procedure was explained in this forum's technical articles.
1) Am I mistaken? If so, is there a difference between installing Win11 through a local account vs through a non-local (Microsoft) account?
2) Prior to the install, is a reformat recommended? If so, as what? NTFS?

I don't use 11 yet, but yes, there is a different procedure.

No need to "reformat" anything. When you do a clean install to a drive that already has something on it, you will be shown ALL partitions on the drive. DELETE THEM ALL at that point, leaving nothing but "unallocated space". Windows will do the necessary formatting during the install and make new partitions as it sees fit.

NTFS: New Technology File System. Use it.

TraderGary · Feb 19, 2024

You can open the Macrium image file with file explorer. Then you can see exactly what's inside.

Solved Macrium, Imaging the C-Drive

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