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Using VBScript for alternate backup locations

Administrator — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:34:39 GMT

This article takes you through the steps required to enable alternate backup locations for a disk image or file and folder backup.

In a typical backup rotation scenario you may have two (or more) external USB drives that are rotated on a weekly basis. The external drive that isn't currently in use can be stored off-site for extra security.

This example assumes that you have two external USB drives that when connected to your PC, show up as drive 'E:' and drive 'F:'. Your images of drive 'C' are saved to 'E:\Images' and 'F:\Images' and the ideal solution is for Macrium Reflect to save your image file(s) to whichever drive is currently connected to your PC.

This can be achieved by using the VBScript feature of Macrium Reflect to detect which drive is connected and run the appropriate backup definition.

Here's how...

Create two XML backup definitions. One to save the image of drive 'C' to 'E:\Images' and the other to save to 'F:\Images'. We'll call them 'Image to E.xml' and 'Image to F.xml'
Right click on 'Image to E' and select 'Generate a VBScript file'.
Accept all the defaults and click 'OK'.
Click the 'VBScript' tab, right click on the VBScript file and select 'Edit'
The file will now open in 'Notepad'. Turn of 'Word Wrap' to make editing easier...
Edit the file in notepad as follows:

Replace the line:

ExitCode = Backup ("""C:\Program Files\Macrium\Reflect\reflect.exe"" -e -w ""c:\users
ick\documents\reflect\Image to E.xml""")

With the following lines:

If DoesDirExist("E:\") = true Then
ExitCode = Backup ("""C:\Program Files\Macrium\Reflect\reflect.exe"" -e -w ""c:\users
ick\documents\reflect\Image to E.xml""")
Else
ExitCode = Backup ("""C:\Program Files\Macrium\Reflect\reflect.exe"" -e -w ""c:\users
ick\documents\reflect\Image to F.xml""")
End If

Note: Replace XML path and file names with the correct names for your scenario.

At the end of the VBScript source paste the following lines:

Function DoesDirExist(byVal pathname)
Dim objFSO
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
DoesDirExist = objFSO.FolderExists(pathname)
Set objFSO = Nothing
End Function

7. Save the file.

You can run VBScript files like XML files and you can schedule the VBScript file to run by right clicking on the file and selecting 'Execute' or 'Schedule'.

Using VBScript to delete differential images

Administrator — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 11:13:21 GMT

This article shows you how to use VBScript to delete differential images in a backup set. This enables you to retain a specified number of recent differential images.

In the following example we will generate a VBScript source file that creates a differential image and then deletes differentials in the same image set retaining the '4' most recent differential images.

Right click on your differential XML definition and select 'Generate a VBScript file'.
Accept all the defaults and click 'OK'
Click the VBScript tab, right click on the new VBScript list entry and select 'Edit'. Notepad will open.

Make sure you turn off 'Word Wrap' as this makes editing a lot easier.
Edit the file in Notepad as follows:

After the line:

ExitCode = Backup ("""C:\Program Files\Macrium\Reflect\reflect.exe"" -e -w ""PATH TO XML""")

Copy and paste the following:

DeleteDifferentialFiles ExitCode, 4

Note: The number '4' above is the number of recent differential files you want to keep in the backup set

At the very *end* of the file copy and paste the following code:

'******************************************************************************
'* Function: DeleteDifferentialFiles
'*
'* Purpose: Deletes all but most 'n' recent differential file(s).
'*
'* Uses Macrium environment variables to
'* determine which files to delete.
'*
'* Input: ExitCode -The exit code of the last backup
'* NumberOfDifferentialsToKeep - The number of differentials to retain
'*
'******************************************************************************
Function DeleteDifferentialFiles(Byval ExitCode, Byval NumberOfDifferentialsToKeep)
Dim objShell
Dim objWshProcessEnv
Dim strEnvName
Dim nFiles
Dim Count
Dim strEnvPrefix
Dim strCurrentDifferentialNumber
Dim strFileToDelete
Dim objFS

' Only delete files if backup was successful
if ExitCode <> 0 Then
Exit Function
End If
Set objFS = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set objWshProcessEnv = objShell.Environment("VOLATILE")

' Get the prefix for the last backup set
strEnvPrefix = objWshProcessEnv("MACRIUM_PREFIX")

' Get the total number of files for the last backup set
nFiles = CInt(objWshProcessEnv(strEnvPrefix + "_FILECOUNT"))
' Get the last differential number. Note: differential 0 is the full backup
strCurrentDifferentialNumber = objWshProcessEnv(strEnvPrefix + "_CURRENT_INCREMENT")
for Count = 1 To nFiles
' Construct the environment variable name for the differential for eachfile
strEnvName = strEnvPrefix + "_INCREMENT" + CStr(Count)
' Don't delete the current differential or the full image
if CInt(objWshProcessEnv(strEnvName)) < ( CInt(strCurrentDifferentialNumber) -NumberOfDifferentialsToKeep + 1) AND objWshProcessEnv(strEnvName) <> "0" Then
' Construct the environment variable for the full filepath
strEnvName = strEnvPrefix + "_FILEPATH" + CStr(Count)
strFileToDelete = objWshProcessEnv(strEnvName)
' Delete the file if itexists
If objFS.FileExists(strFileToDelete) Then
ON ERROR RESUME NEXT
objFS.DeleteFile strFileToDelete
End If
End If
Next

' Clean up
Set objShell = nothing
Set objWshProcessEnv = nothing
Set objFS = nothing
End Function

5. Save the file. You can run VBScript files like XML files and you can schedule the VBScript file to run by right clicking on the file and selecting 'Schedule'.

	Note: You should only run this script on *differential* backup sets.

How to automatically shut down your PC after a Macrium Reflect backup

Administrator — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 11:36:17 GMT

This article shows you how to automatically shut-down your PC after a Macrium Reflect disk image or file backup. This enables you to perform a backup job at the end of the day without having to wait until the backup finishes to turn off your PC.

You can also create a Desktop shortcut to the backup job. This enables you to run the backup and shutdown your PC with a simple double click!

First you need to create an xmlbackup definition file and then follow the steps below :

Right click on the xml file and select 'Generate a VBScript file'
The following dialog is shown. Select the 'Shutdown' option.

Select 'Enable Shut Down' and choose the 'Shut Down' radio button.
You might want to explore the other options within the window to see if there are any you would want to enable or modify, then click 'OK'

That's it! You should now get an email every time that you run the VBscript that you have created!

How do I run it?

To run VBScript source files fromMacrium Reflect, click the VBScript tab, right click on thefile and select 'Execute'. You can schedule thescript by taking the 'Schedule' option.

You can also create a Desktop Shortcut to the VBScript source and simply double click the icon on your Desktop to start the backup.

To create a Desktop Shortcut, click the VBScript tab, right click on thefile and select 'Create a Desktop Shortcut'.

How to send backup completion emails with Macrium Reflect

Administrator — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 01:06:56 GMT

This article takes you through the steps required to send email notifications of backup completion status. Emails are sent using the VBScript generator in Macrium Reflect, and the VBScript source can easily be modified for SSL and SMTP authentication if required.

First you need to create an xml backup definition file and then follow the steps below :

Right click on the xml file and select 'Generate a VBScript file'
The following dialog is shown. Select the 'Email' option

Click 'Enable Email Component' and enter your SMTP server and email address details.

Attach log file to Email - This option attaches the log file from Reflect to the email that is sent.

SMTP Server - This is the address for the email server that Macrium Reflect will use to send the email, this can be a FQDN such as smtp.domain.com, or an IP address, for example, 86.184.0.5

From Email - This is the email address that will be sending the email, for example, backup@yourdomain.com.

To Email - This is who you want to send the email to, you can enter multiple addresses like so: bob@yourdomain.com; bill@yourdomain.com;

Success and Failure Tabs - These two tabs allow you to modify the content of the email by success or failure, the top box allows you to ammend the subject of the email, the bottom box allow you to modify the email content.
You might want to explore the other options within the window to see if there are any you would want to enable or modify, then click 'OK'

That's it! You should now get an email every time that you run the VBscript that you have created!

How do I run it?

To run VBScript source files from Macrium Reflect, click the VBScript tab, right click on the file and select 'Execute'. You can also schedule the script by taking the 'Schedule' option.

How to modify the generated VBScript to send email via GMail

Aftercreating the VBScript you can modify the source directly in notepad to add additional email settings. In this example we'll modify the settings to use GMail's SMTP server.

	Note: You can easily change the settings outlined below to work with any SMTP server.

Right click on the VBscript list entry, and select 'Edit'

This will open up notepad with the VBScript for editing.

Make sure you turn off 'Word Wrap' as this makes editing a lot easier.
Scroll down until you see the following lines:

'******************************************************************************
'* Sub: SendEmail
'*
'* Purpose: Uses CDO to send an email message
'*
'* Input: strSubject subject text
'* strBody main body of the email
'* strLogFileName file name of the log file to attach to the email
'* Output: None
'*
'******************************************************************************
Function SendEmail(ByRef strSubject, _
ByRef strBody, _
ByRef strLogFileName)
Dim objMessage

Set objMessage = CreateObject("CDO.Message")

objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing")=2
objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver")="smtp.mydomain.com"
objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Update

objMessage.Subject = strSubject
objMessage.From = "from@mydomain.com"
objMessage.To = "to@mydomain.com"
objMessage.TextBody = strBody
objMessage.AddAttachment strLogFileName
objMessage.Send
Set objMessage = nothing
End Function

The function 'SendEmail' contains all the source lines to send the email notification.
Replace the following line:

objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver")="smtp.mydomain.com"

With:

objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver")="smtp.gmail.com"
objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport")=465
objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpauthenticate")=1
objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusername")="user@gmail.com"
objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendpassword")="gmail password"
objMessage.Configuration.Fields.Item("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpusessl")=1

smtpauthenticate options are: 0 - No Authentication, 1 - Basic Authentication or 2 - NTLM authentication (Secure Password Authentication)

That's it!. Click 'File' > 'Save' in notepad. You can run andschedule VBScript source files just like your XML backup definitions.

	Make sure you use a valid GMail account and password for the 'sendusername' and 'sendpassword' lines.

How to create a bootable DVD with automatic restore

Administrator — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:23:09 GMT

Thisarticle explains how to create a Macrium Reflect image of your PC thatcan be restored from a single DVD by simply booting the DVD. This isuseful for quick, uncomplicated restores and enables simple deploymentof a 'master' image to multiple similar PCs.

Image deployment to multiple PCs requires a deployment license for each PC deployed. Please see here for information on puchasing deployment licenses
If you deploy an image to a different PC then you should make sure your installed software, including Windows and Macrium Reflect is suitably licensed for the new PC.

Your disk image must be able to fit on a single DVD. This means 4.7GB or less for a DVD+/-R or 8.5GB or less for a DVD+R DL (Dual layer). It isn't possible to boot from Blu-Ray media.

Prerequisites

Macrium Reflect

Installor update to the latest version of Macrium Reflect. You must have thepurchased edition of Macrium Reflect installed on your PC. To check forthe latest version take the 'Help' > 'Check for updates..' menuoption.

Windows PE

Installor update to the latest version of Windows PE. Windows PE is onlyavailable with the purchased edition of Macrium Reflect. For informationon installing Windows PE please see this knowledge base article: http://www.macrium.com/KB/KnowledgebaseArticle50045.aspx.If you already have Windows PE installed then make sure you are runningthe latest version by clicking the 'Updates' button in the Rescue CDburn wizard.

DiskRestore

DiskRestoreis a free utility that will restore Macrium Reflect disk images fromWindows PE without any user interaction. You need to download andinstall 'DiskRestore.msi' from here: http://updates.macrium.com/reflect/utilities/diskrestore.msi . More information on DiskRestore can be found in this knowledge base article: http://www.macrium.com/KB/KnowledgebaseArticle50004.aspx

The procedure

Create a disk image of your primary disk partition(s) and save it to a local hard drive or network share.

Make sure that you have set the maximum file size in the backup wizard advanced settings to be 4GB because the file system on the DVD image that we are creating can only support a maximum single file size of 4GB. If your image file is greater than 4GB then it will be split into multiple files.

If you don't want Macrium Reflect installed when you create the image then uninstall Macrium Reflect, boot your PC with the Windows PE rescue CD and create the disk image from there.

This is important if you are using this technique to deploy Windows to multiple similar PCs. If Macrium Reflect is also restored to each PC then you will require a license for Macrium Reflect for each restored PC.

Start 'DiskRestore' and select the image file just created. By default, your system disk will be selected as the target disk.
Click 'Restore'.
It won't be possible to restore the image while Windows is running so you'll receive the following dialog box:

Select 'Unattended mode' if you want the restore to run automatically when you boot from the DVD. Leaving it un-checked will allow you to confirm your selections before clicking 'Restore'

De-select the 'Automatic boot' option if it's enabled.

Several files will be added to folder 'c:\boot\macrium'.
Copy the image file(s) created in step 1 to folder 'c:\boot\macrium\temp'. You will need to create the folder first.
Edit the file 'c:\boot\macrium\pestartup.ini' (or 'pestartupx64.ini for Windows PE 64 bit) in notepad.

Change:

[COPY]
FILE1=diskrestorex64.exe
[RUN]
COMMAND=diskrestorex64 "X:\2B0657890DD7DF82-00-00.mrimg" --password "" --sourceid 00018D47 --targetid 00018D47 -g -u

To:

[COPY]
FILE1=diskrestorex64.exe
[RUN]
COMMAND=diskrestorex64 "D:\temp\2B0657890DD7DF82-00-00.mrimg" --password "" --sourceid 00018D47 --targetnum 0 -g -u --reboot

[OPTIONS]
runfromCD=1

Bold text shows additions and changes.

i) The path to the image file should be changed to the drive letter of your DVD reader with sub-folder '\temp'

ii) If you intend to restore to a different disk then you should also change 'targetid' to 'targetnum' followed by the disk number as shown in the Disk Management console, otherwise leave the option as '--targetid'

iii) If you want the PC to automatically reboot after restore then add --reboot to the end

iv) Finally, add two lines, '[OPTIONS]' + 'runfromCD=1' to direct DiskRestore to load these parameters from the DVD

Save and close the file.
Return to Macrium Reflect and take the option to burn a Windows PE rescue CD. You can either create an .ISO image or burn directly to a DVD.

After burning your DVD you should move/delete the image file(s) from the temp folder.

That's it! Oncebooted, the new DVD will automatically start DiskRestore and will restore your system to the exact state it was at the time you createdthe image.

Create a bootable Windows PE USB stick

Administrator — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:56:09 GMT

In this tutorial I'll show you the simple steps required to create a USB stick that boots into the Macrium Reflect Windows PE Rescue Environment.

Make sure your USB stick is formatted as FAT32 or NTFS.

Open ‘My Computer’, right click on your USB drive and select properties
Make sure that FAT32 or NTFS is selected as the file system. It’s best to leave the ‘Quick Format’ option un-checked.

Note: If you receive a message saying ‘Windows was unable to complete the format’ then in some cases the format has actually finished and this message can safely be ignored.
Use DiskPart to set the partition on the USB drive 'Active'.

From a command prompt type:

DiskPart
Select Disk n
Select partition 1
Active
Exit

Install the WindowsPE Component

We need to create an image of the bootable CD so we can transfer the contents to the USB stick.

Start Reflect, take the ‘Other Tasks’ menu option and select ‘Create a bootable Rescue CD’ The wizard opens and In the wizard window, select ‘Windows PE 2.0' and click ‘Next’.
The Windows PE component isn't supplied with the Macrium Reflect installer and is an additional 100MB+ download. Make sure you are connected to the Internet, and click ‘ OK’.

Note: To ensure that Reflect is not blocked by a firewall you may need to add www.macrium.com to your firewall allowed list,

If you receive the following dialog then you have already downloaded the Windows PE installer. Somewhere you will have a file WinPEInstall.exe (32 bit version) or WinPEInstallx64.exe (64 bit version) depending where you saved it. Running this executable will install Windows PE. To reinstall, double click the existing WinPEInstall... file.

Note: You only get one download as each copy requires a license from Microsoft. You can order another copy by clicking on the 'Purchase download' link.
In the next window you select where you are going to save your download. You may want to create a new folder titled ‘Reflect Download’ or ‘Windows PE Download’. The folder ought to be in a location where you can easily find it. Click ‘Save’.
After downloading the installer will automatically start....’.
After the WindowsPE component has installed close down Marcium Reflect and copy the contents of 'c:\boot\macrium' to the root of the USB stick.

If you cannot see the directory then please click 'start' then click run, in the box type 'c:\boot\macrium' (without ')and click 'OK' This should open a new window with the contents that you need.

Note: The location of '\boot\macrium' might be on a drive other than 'c'.

That's it! You should now have a bootable USB copy of Windows PE Rescue Environment

Macrium Reflect DiskRestore

Administrator — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:49:47 GMT

DiskRestore is a utility to quickly restore Macrium Reflect disk images. DiskRestore provides the following benefits over the conventional Macrium Reflect restore process:

Multiple partitions (whole disks) can be restored at the same time
Partition placement is exactly the same as the original imaged disk.
Disks can be restored with a few mouse clicks.
Windows PE integration enables automatic/unattended restores.

The normal Macrium Reflect restore process is a partition based restore. This enables control over partition size and placement. This flexibility comes at a cost and the restore wizard can seem overly complex for some restore tasks, plus you are restricted to restoring a single partition at a time. With DiskRestore you simply select the partitions you want to restore and click 'Restore'.

Get DiskRestore

DiskRestore .msi installer. This is required to run in Windows and integrate with Windows PE for unattended restores - download

DiskRestore Executable for BartPE - download

Note: To run DiskRestore directly from the Windows PErescue CD just take the 'File' > 'Disk Restore' menu option inWindows PE; there's nothing to download. You must be running Windows PEv2.1.2733 or higher.

How do I use it?

Start DiskRestore and click the '...' browse button to select your image file.

By default all partitions included in the image will be selected and the target disk will also be the same as the disk originally imaged.

In this example we are restoring a Windows 7 system. Both the 'System Reserved' and C partitions are selected.

Click 'Restore' to start the restore process.
If your restore target disk cannot be *overwritten then you will receive the following dialog, if not then the restore will begin.

*If a disk partition contains system files then the disk cannot be dismounted and restored. In this example we are restoring both the 'System' and 'Boot' partitions for Windows 7.

Automatic Boot - This option is only available if you have installed the Macrium Reflect Windows PE component and enabled the Windows boot menu. If selected, you only have to restart your computer and Windows PE will automatically boot.

Unattended Mode - If selected, the restore process will begin and complete automatically. The main use of this feature is to enable recovery of remote systems where you don't have physical access to the PC.

Click "Run from Windows PE".
If your image file is stored on a network share then you will receive the following dialog. Enter your network logon credentials so that Windows PE can access and read the share.

Click 'OK' to continue.

You will now receive a restart dialog.

Click 'Restart Now' to initiate the restore process.

Note: To integrate with Windows PE you must have purchased Macrium Reflect and installed v2.1.2525 (or later) of the Windows PE rescue CD .

Command line options

DiskRestore can be run from a batch file by using the following command line options:

Usage DiskRestore <imagefile> [options]:

Generic options:
-h [ --help ] produce help message
-g [ --GUI ] display the the GUI interface
-u [ --Unattended ] when combined with GUI will start and complete the restore with no user interaction
--reboot reboot after restore

Operation options:
-r [ --restore ] restores an image to a disk
-d [ --describe ] describes disks and partitions in an image file

File options:
--imagefile arg full path and name of the image file
--password arg password protecting the image file
--netuser arg network share user name
--netpass arg network share password

Restore options:
--sourcenum arg source *disk number [default 1st disk in image]
--sourceid arg souce disk identifier [default 1st disk in image]
-p [ --partition ] arg list of partitions to restore, e.g. -p 1 -p 2 [default - all]
--targetnum arg target *disk number
--targetid arg target disk identifier
-v [ --verify ] verify image before restoring
-e [ --continue ] continue on errors

*Note: Disk Number refers to the number displayed in the Windows Disk Management console and the DiskPart utility not the number that is displayed in Macrium Reflect. Macrium Reflect disks are numbered from 1 DiskRestore numbers the same disks from 0.

Examples:

To display the image information of file 'e:\80794226B5928CAE-00-00.mrimg' and information on locally attahed disks

diskrestore.exe "e:\80794226B5928CAE-00-00.mrimg" -d

Example output:

File name: e:\80794226B5928CAE-00-00.mrimg
Backup Date: 17/01/2010 10:58
Image ID: 80794226B5928CAE

Disk 5 [FF346F5E] - Samsung S2 Portable <596.162 GB>

Drive Type Start End Size Used Free
1 [M:] Primary 1024 625130495 174.00 MB 907.12 MB 3.284 GB

Local Disks

Disk 0 [000139F3] - ST3500320AS SD15 <465.762 GB>
Disk 1 [4C832380] - SAMSUNG HD501LJ CR100-11 <465.762 GB>
Disk 2 [0000F9D8] - SAMSUNG HD501LJ CR100-11 <465.762 GB>

To restore all the partitions in image file 'e:\80794226B5928CAE-00-00.mrimg'

diskrestore.exe "e:\80794226B5928CAE-00-00.mrimg" -r

To restore the first partition in image file 'e:\80794226B5928CAE-00-00.mrimg'

diskrestore.exe "e:\80794226B5928CAE-00-00.mrimg" -r -p 1

To restore all the partitions in image file 'e:\80794226B5928CAE-00-00.mrimg' to a different disk with Disk ID '0000F9D8'

diskrestore.exe "e:\80794226B5928CAE-00-00.mrimg" -r --targetid 0000F9D8

Troubleshooting

The image file is part of a backup set...

It's only possible to use DiskRestore if all parts of the image are in the same directory. If you have saved an image to multiple DVDs then copy the contents of each DVD to a single directory and try again.
You are creating a clone disk...

You are restoring an image to another disk and the original is still attached to your PC.

A restored image will update the unique Disk ID ( Disk Signature ) of the disk that is being restored to. This will result in duplicate IDs if the original disk is still attached. When Windows mounts the restored disk it will update the Disk ID to make it unique. For this reason the restored disk will not be mounted after the restore process by DiskRestore.

Note: The Disk ID plays a crucial part in the Windows boot process and changing it will probably result in your OS being un-bootable. If a restored partition contains a Windows OS then you should remove the original disk before attempting to boot with the cloned disk attached.
The target disk is too small...

The destination disk is too small to contain the partitions being restored. The restored partition(s) are placed in exactly the same location as the original. If the start and/or end of a partition is beyond the reported size of the destination disk then you will receive this error.
Windows PE is not installed..

To use the automatic restore feature you must have purchased Macrium Reflect and installed the Windows PE component.
The installed Windows PE version must be updated...

You must have Windows PE v2.1.2525 (or newer) installed to use the Windows PE automatic restore feature. Click the 'Updates' button in the Macrium Reflect CD burn wizard to update your installation.

Note: You can also manually run DiskRestore from BartPE or from an earlier version of Windows PE. Just run DiskRestore once booted into the rescue environment and repeat the steps above to restore your image.

How to create a Virtual machine from a Macrium image backup

Administrator — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:49:47 GMT

ImgToVhd is a utility that creates VHD files from Macrium backup images. These can then be used to create a bootable virtual machine facilitating quick access to a failed machine whose repair would be time consuming or not possible.

We have created a utility, ImgToVHD to enable the conversion of a Macrium backup image file to VHD files (one per disk). The VHD file(s) can then be used as the storage component of virtual machines from Microsoft (Virtual PC and HyperV), VMWare and Oracle/Sun (Virtual Box).

This enables a previously backed up machine to be reincarnated as a virtual machine. A significant use of this is to quickly regain access to a machine that has suffered a fatal hardware failure.

Please note that this is beta quality software. It is being released to the public for evaluation purposes only. No guarantees are made for its quality or fitness for purpose. Use is not recommended in a production environment.

Feedback is welcomed as this will help us improve the quality and utility of this tool and this blog post. Comments are currently enabled for this post - constructive comments will be helpful to both us and the other users of this tool.

Please take care to ensure that you are not breaking the terms on any licences by running a virtual machine from a backup image.

Get ImgTOVHD

You can download ImgToVHD from here.

Invoke the downloaded msi as per any other installer.

ImgTOVHD Usage

ImgToVHD offers both a GUI and a command line interface.

If you wish to use the command line interface, ImgToVHD --help will emit some instructions.

The ImgToVHD user interface is straight forward.

Firstly, you will need an Macrium image file - a file and folder backup file will not work here. If you wish to create a bootable VM from scratch, and not just add a disk to an already bootable VM, then the image will need to contain an image of both the active and the windows system partition. Typically the system partition is also the active partition.

You will need enough spare disk space to store the resulting VHD file. If you have selected all the partitions from the source image and the image is compressed, then the resulting VHD file size is likely to be rather larger than the source image as VHD files don't support compression and have a larger sparse granularity than the image files. Calculate the sum of the used space of the selected partitions and ensure that you have slightly more free space than this for the VHD file.

Once you have selected a source image, a list of disks will be presented to you. Select from this, the one in which you will to convert to VHD and then you will be presented with a list of partitions. Select as many of these as you require.

There are three options that are best left unselected unless you understand the consequences.

Remap partition table. In the case where not all the partitions are selected or backed up in the first case, this option only include those selected partitions in the partition table. This doesn't effect extended (logical) partitions. If you don't remap, partitions not included in the VHD creation or the original backup will appear as RAW in the disk management console. Remapping can prevent Windows XP from booting.
Reset disk ID. This will definitely result in a non-bootable VHD. It is useful only if mounting the VHD on the machine containing the original disk.
Continue on errors. If there are errors in the source image, and this is checked then the VHD creation process will continue. However, the resultant VHD file is guaranteed to have missing data. Dependent on the location of the errors, the image might or might not be usable.
Once the disk, partitions and options have been selected, hit convert. The conversion process will probably take a significant period of time due to the large volumes of data handled. Now would be a good time to consider a hot beverage of your choice.

There are a number of caveats to be aware of. Of particular significance is the fact that the VM is likely to represent a significantly changed hardware environment from the original machine.

Windows OEM licensed installs, typical for retail machines delivered with the operating system preinstalled, do not allow a change in the motherboard.
The HAL and mass storage drivers might not match the those presented in the virtual environment. This may prevent Windows from booting. See here for further details on how to reconfigure Windows XP. Virtual Box enables some flexibility in the hardware environment so it can be made to match the original hardware.
Don't mount/attach this image on the original machine if you plan on booting from it as Windows will detect the duplicate disk ID and will change it, invalidating the BCD disk references.
The vhd file size must be limited to 127GB if you wish to use it with Virtual PC.
If the vhd is being created on a FAT32 filesystem, the creation process will fail if the created file size is greater than 4GB. This is a due to a limitation of FAT32; though the vhd specification supports splitting across multiple files, ImgToVHD doesn't currently support this feature.

Using the vhd with Virtual Box

Virtual box comes in two flavours, an open source edition (missing RDP and USB support) and a commercial version that is free for evaluation or personal use.

Configuration is quite straightforward. Note the following instructions refer to version 3.14.

From the main window, hit new to create a new VM which will launch a wizard.

Select the OS to match the OS to be virtualised as below.

The next wizard page (not shown for brevity) allows you to specify base memory. Chose a value that matches what is required for your virtualised OS, bearing in mind that there must be enough memory available on your host machine.

To specify the vhd you have created with ImgToVHD as a hard disk, you first have to add it to Virtual Box using the Virtual media manager by clicking on the yellow folder icon.

Click the Add button and select your vhd file, the hit select. Repeat this process for each vhd file you have created.

All being well, you should now have a working VM. Hit the start button and your old machine should now appear in a window on your host.

If it fails to boot, then you might have a kernel/Hal/Mass storage driver miss-match issue.

VirtualBox enables various hardware environment options to be configured. Hit the settings button to edit your VM. Select the system item on the left. Things to try are enabling the IO APIC (motherboard tab) and 1/multiple CPU's and disabling PAE/NX features (processor tab). Also, consider reconfiguring the vhd as a SATA device if that's how the original machine was configured.

Using the vhd with Hyper-V

Hyper-V is a hypervisor based virtualisation system. It only runs on x64 Windows Server 2008 and requires hardware assisted cpu features.

To create a VM, select 'New Virtual Machine from the Hyper-V Manager. Chose location, name and base memory size the new Virtual Machine Wizard.

When you get to the connect Virtual Hard Disk page, select 'Use existing virtual hard disk' and chose your previously converted vhd file.

Complete the wizard and start the VM. All being well, the VM will boot. Unlike Virtual Box, there is no flexibility to change the virtual hardware options - if it doesn't boot, the OS booting options / HAL etc will need to be reconfigured.

Note: If an error regarding incompatible sector size is raised, it does not refer to the VHD file as indicated, but the disk upon which the vhd is stored.

Using the vhd with Virtual PC

The process is similar to the hyper V configuration again specifying the generated vhd file an existing disk.

The only caveat is the 127GB disk size limitation, as previously noted.

Note that you must use imgToVhd v1.0.2597 or later.

Using the vhd with VMWare Server

VMWare Server lacks the flexibility to use vhd files as a virtual disk file and you are required to use vmware's own vmdk file format. Unfortunately, VMWareConverter will only convert complete vm configurations not individual virtual disk files.

The starwind V2V converter has been found to work well and is available cost free from here... http://www.starwindsoftware.com/converter

Once you have a vmdk file, the process of generating a virtual machine is similar to that discussed above. Note, be careful to chose the correct hardware connection for the vmdk i.e. ide or scsi. The correct choice will depend on source machine configuration.

Conclusion

We hope you find this tool and blog post useful.

The intention is for this blog to grow. Specifically, expect instructions for use with VMWare and Virtual PC to follow.

ImgToVHD history

v1.0.2544 - First beta release.
v1.0.2586 - Correct XP partition alignment problem.
v1.0.2597 - Improve Virtual PC 2007 compatibility

How to Create a Windows PE Rescue CD

Administrator — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:49:47 GMT

In this tutorial I'll take you through the stepsrequired to build a Macrium Reflect Windows PE rescue CD. The Windows PErescue CD is only included with the purchased version of MacriumReflect and is a separate download. The first time you attempt to burnthis CD the installer will be automatically downloaded.

Why do you need a rescue CD?

Enter Windows PE. This is licensedfrom Microsoft and has greater flexibility than the other rescueenvironments. You can add missing drivers to the Windows PE build toenable access to RAID volumes and include drivers for unrecognisednetwork interface cards (NIC).

1.	Start Reflect, take the ‘Other Tasks’ menu option and select ‘Create a bootable Rescue CD’ The wizard opens and In the wizard window, select ‘Windows PE 2.0' and click ‘Next’.

The Windows PE component isn't supplied with the Macrium Reflect installer and is an additional 100MB+ download. Make sure you are connected to the Internet, and click ‘ OK’.

Note: To ensure that Reflect is not blocked by a firewall you may need to add www.macrium.com to your firewall allowed list,

If you receive the following dialog then you have already downloaded the Windows PE installer. Somewhere you will have a file WinPEInstall.exe (32 bit version) or WinPEInstallx64.exe (64 bit version) depending where you saved it. Running this executable will install Windows PE. To reinstall, double click the existing WinPEInstall... file.

Note : You only get one download as each copy requires a license from Microsoft. You can order another copy by clicking on the 'Purchase download' link.

3.	In the next window you select where you are going to save your download. You may want to create a new folder titled ‘Reflect Download’ or ‘Windows PE Download’. The folder ought to be in a location where you can easily find it. Click ‘Save’.

4.	After downloading the installer will automatically start....’.

5.	After installation, return to the .‘Create a bootable Rescue CD’ wizard, select 'Windows PE 2.0' and click 'Next'.


6.	Put an empty or erasable CD or DVD in your burner and click 'Finish'. Note: It's better to use non-erasable CD-R or DVD+/-R media. This tends to be more reliable than RW media for booting.

Note: If your CD burner has problems creating the disc, you can save the image to a special file called an ISO image file. Click on the CD/DVD burner drop-down list and select 'Create ISO image; file'. You can then use any burning software that you have on your PC to create the rescue CD. Click ‘Finish’ to save, the .iso file. It is usually saved to the folder with the Windows PE download at step 3. Then Burn this .iso file using your CD/DVD burner as ISO image.

You should now have your Rescue CD ready to restore an image. Keepthe rescue CD in a safe place

You should boot yourcomputer with the rescue CD to make sure it can see all your drivesincludingthe backup location.If your disks aren't detected by Windows PE then you may need to adddrivers to the Windows PE build and create a fresh CD. You can findadditional information on this here: http://www.macrium.com/webhelp/Adding_Drivers.asp?nohead=y

How to Backup Files and Folders using Macrium Reflect

Administrator — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:49:47 GMT

A file and folder backup is a useful way to backup your working files, personal files and any precious data. Unlike many other backup solutions Macrium Reflect can even backup open/locked files by using Microsoft Volume Shadow copy Service (VSS).

In this tutorial I’ll take you through the steps to create a full backup of your ‘Outlook pst file’ (an e-mail file) and save the backup definition as an XML file for easy re-running and scheduling.

Note: If you wish to backup your Operating System, Do Not use a File & Folder Backup, you must use an Image Backup. You cannot restore Windows Operating System files using a file and folder restore. A File/Folder backup is not suitable for Windows Operating System files.

1. Start Macrium Reflect and within the 'Backup Tasks' options select ‘Backup files and folders’ to start the backup wizard. The backup Wizard starts. Click on ‘Next’.

2. In the next window leave the option as ‘Full’ (the other options are Incremental and Differential, but these are covered later). Click on ‘Next’.

3. You can now choose the folders you want to backup.

Note: Folder selections are recursive. This means that all folders underneath the selected folder are included and any new folders in the future will be automatically included. So, if you backup your 'Documents' folder then any new folders you add underneath 'Documents' will be included when you run the backup again.

You can select multiple folders, in this example I have just selected my outlook data folder.
Click on ‘Next’ after making selection.

Note: in selecting the Outlook folder I had to show hidden folders before I could find the Outlook folder as it was hidden.

To show hidden folders: Open Windows Explorer: then in Windows 7 or Vista select 'Folders and Search Option' in the Organize Tab or in Windows XP select 'Folder Options' in the Tools menu. Now select the 'View' Tab and scroll down if necessary so you can select 'Show hidden files folders'.

While you are in this Tab it may help later if you also display file extensions :- Remove the tick against 'Hide extensions for known file types'. Click on 'Apply' and then 'OK' (just 'OK' in XP). Close 'Windows Explorer'.

4. Having selected the folders, in the next window we select the files needing to be backed up within the folders. You can use standard DOS wildcard formatting to select files to include and exclude. Multiple selections must be separated by a semi colon.

e.g, *.doc; *.xls

Other examples are shown below:

Example	Meaning	Example	Meaning
*.doc	All .doc WORD files	*.jpg	All jpg files
*.xls	All xls Excel files	.	All files
Letter2010c.doc	File Name: Letter2010C.doc	.doc, .xls, *.jpg	WORD, Excel and jpg files
*.pst	Outlook email file	.doc, .docx	All WORD files

See here for a list of file extensions

In wizard window below all .pst files were chosen by entering '*.pst'. Normally we leave exclusions and ticks unchanged at defaults but in this case remove the tick against 'Exclude Hidden Files and Folders' as .pst files were within hidden folders. Click on ‘Next’

5. The next window enables the destination of the backup to be selected, you need to select one of three options (a), (b) or (c):

a) If you select ‘Local Hard Drive’ click on ▼ to get a drop down menu where you can search partitions, external hard drives, memory sticks (flash drives) etc to save your backup, you can also create a new folder there if needed.

b) If you select ‘Network’ you can search for another PC or Network Attached Storage etc. to save the backup.

c) If you select ‘CD/DVD Burner’ you can select which Drive to save the backup.

Leave the Backup file name unchanged. Click on ‘Next’ to finalise backup process.

6. The next window shows backup selection. Click on ‘Finish’ to start backup. If you have chosen CD/DVD burner you will be prompted to insert disk.

7. In the next window you should enter an XML file name for the backupdefinition. Using this XML filename you can easily find it the XML Tabif you either want to re-run the backup without going through thewizard again or want to schedule the backup. Now click on ‘OK’.

8. The next window below shows progress while backing up the file(s) and folders. When backup is complete click OK to close the small completion window and also close the progress window.

Now the Task is Complete, if you wish, you can look at the log, there is a 'Log' Tab in the main Reflect window to check what you have done.

In the next tutorial I'll show you how to backup only the files that have changed since this full backup was made, by creating an 'Incremental Backup'.

How to fix common boot problems using the Windows PE

Administrator — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:49:47 GMT

The Macrium Reflect Windows PE 2.0 rescue CD includes an option to 'Fix Boot Problems. This article takes you through the steps and options available to recover a non-booting Windows implementation.

Note: All references to Windows XP in this article also apply to Windows Server 2003. References to Windows Vista also apply to Windows Server 2008

There can be be many reasons why your PC won't boot into Windows. Fortunately, you can usually recover your system if the boot process is corrupt by taking an option provided in the Windows PE 2.0 rescue environment called 'Fix Boot Problems'.

Start your PC with the Windows PE 2.0 rescue CD and click the 'Fix Boot Problems' button.
Your system is then scanned for installed Windows operating systems.

Note: In a multi-boot environment you will see multiple Windows installations.

Add: Click this button to add a Windows installation that hasn't been detected.

Edit: Click this button to edit the name of your Windows Installation. The name appears on the boot menu for multi-boot environments.

Note: If you just have a single Windows installation then you don't have to worry about editing the O/S name as you won't see a boot menu.

Ignore: Click this button not to include the O/S in the Windows boot menu.

Search: Click this button to rescan your drives.

Click 'Next' to continue.
The next page shows disk and partitions on the disks. Windows can only start if the system partition (usually drive 'C') is marked as the 'Active' partition. You can choose which partition is 'active' by selecting it with a check mark.

Click 'Next' to continue.
The final wizard page shows the options available to correct the boot process.

i) Reset the boot disk ID: The Disk ID is used by XP and Vista to allocate and remember driver letters and partitions. It forms part of a unique identifier that Windows stores in the registry along with the offset from the beginning of the disk for the partition.

If you restore the system partition (Drive C:) to a different position on your disk then Windows can get driver letters 'mixed up'. If drive 'C' is now in a location where drive 'D' used to be then Windows may fail to boot. If you reset the Disk ID then Windows will re-allocate drive letter assignments and will correctly set drive 'C' to be the active partition.

Note: if your O/S is Vista then you must rebuild the BCD (last option) if you reset the Disk ID.

ii) Replace the Master Boot Record: The Master Boot Record (MBR) is the first part of the boot process and is a small program on the first 512 bytes of the disk.

You need to replace this if your MBR has become corrupted, perhaps with a virus.

It's also possible that your PC shipped with a non-standard MBR that doesn't work correctly with a new disk. In this case, replacing with the standard Windows MBR will allow your PC to boot.

iiii) Replace the partition boot sector code: The partition boot sector code is the second part of the boot process and is a small program that is added to the front of a partition when you format a file system. If this code has been damaged, perhaps due to a virus, then replacing it will allow Windows to boot normally.

iv) Rebuild the BCD and BOOT.INI files: These files perform the last part of the boot process and tell Windows where to find the operating system, the '\windows\system32' folder.

XP uses the boot.ini file and if you restore your system partition to a different partition number then this file needs to be rebuilt. e.g, your original disk had a recovery partition as the first partition on disk and your system partition (drive c:) as the second. You restore to a new disk but don't restore the recovery partition as this is no-longer required. The system partition has now moved from partition 2 to partition 1. In this case you may need to rebuild the boot.ini file to reflect this change.

Vista uses something called the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) as a replacement for the boot.ini. It isn't concerned with the numbering of the system partition but is dependant on the exact offset from the beginning of the disk and the Disk ID. If you have moved your system partition to a different position or reset the Disk ID then you need to rebuild the BCD.
If your PC won't boot and you are unsure which option to select then selecting every option will usually resolve the problem.

If you restore the system partition (Drive C:) to a different position on your disk then Windows can get driver letters 'mixed up'. If drive 'C' is now in a location where drive 'D' used to be then Windows may fail to boot. If you reset the Disk ID then Windows will re-allocate drive letter assignments and will correctly set drive 'C' to be the active partition.
Note: if your O/S is Vista then you must rebuild the BCD (last option) if you reset the Disk ID.

Example boot errors

O/S: Vista
Error: File: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Status: 0xc000000e

This indicates that the Vista Boot Configuration Data (BCD) is invalid. Take the option to Rebuild the BCD and BOOT.INI files

O/S: XP
Error: <Windows root>\system32\hal.dll is missing or corrupt

This indicates that the XP boot.ini file is invalid. Take the option to Rebuild the BCD and BOOT.INI files

O/S: XP
Error: NTLDR is missing

The most probable cause for this error is that your system partition isn't the 'Active' partition. If you have a multi partitioned disk then you must set the partition that contains XP as the 'Active' partition. Select the system partition as the active partition in step 2 above.

O/S: Any
Error: Boot failure - This is a typical message but different PCs may have a different message

This indicates that your Master Boot Record is missing or corrupt. Take the option to Replace the Master Boot Record

How to use RoboRestore to restore a disk image

Administrator — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:49:47 GMT

This article will take you through the steps to use RoboRestore to restore a disk image.

RoboRestore is a free utility that works with image files created with both Macrium Reflect free and full editions. RoboRestore uses Microsoft's Robocopy utilty to copy files from a disk image to an existing file system. The existing file system can be any size greater than the used space of the partition saved in the disk image. This effectively overcomes the issue with a normal disk image restore that prevents restoring to a smaller partition than the original.

The restored partition can also use a different alignment to the imaged partition which enables XP system partitions to be aligned efficiently for Solid State Disks (SSD).

Do I need to use RoboRestore?

No. In most cases you can use the normal disk image restore wizard. A tutorial for restoring with the Linux CD can be found here:

http://www.macrium.com/blog/2008/06/21/HowToRecoverYourPCUsingTheLinuxRescueCDPartI.aspx
http://www.macrium.com/blog/2008/06/30/HowToRecoverYourPCUsingTheLinuxRescueCDPartII.aspx

RoboRestore provides an alternative method of restoring a disk image by copying the files in the image to an existing file system. Use RoboRestore if you want to restore to a disk that is smaller than the original or has a different partition alignment. You can also use RoboRestore if your image file is corrupt and cannot be restored normally. Files can normally be copied from a corrupt image but the integrity of the restored files cannot be guaranteed.

What's Microsoft Robocopy?

Robocopy, or "Robust File Copy", is a command line utility to copy files and folders and includes all NTFS file permissions and alternative data streams.

Robocopy is included with Windows Server 2003, Server 2008, Vista and Windows 7. XP users need to follow the instructions in step 2 below.

How do I use it?

RoboRestore is very simple to use and only has a few options.

Preparation

Download 'roborestore.zip' and save it to any folder on your PC. Unzip 'roborestore.exe' to the same directory.
32 Bit - Download
64 Bit - Download

If want to run RoboRestore from BartPE or Windows PE 2.0 then make sure the folder will be accessible once the rescue disc boots. If necessary copy it to a USB thumb drive.
If you are using Windows XP or BartPE then you also need to download and install the 'Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools'.

Once installed, copy the file 'robocopy.exe' from folder 'C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools' to the same folder as 'roborestore.exe'.

Using it

Double click 'roborestore.exe' or use a command prompt in BartPE or Windows PE to run the program by entering the full path name.

The following dialog is displayed:
Click the '...' button and select your image file.

Note: You cannot use RoboRestore for disk images that span multiple DVD's. If you have multiple DVD's then first copy all the DVD files to a single folder on a local/network drive.
If you have multiple partitions saved in the image file then select the partition you want to restore. In the above example we are restoring an image of drive 'H:'.
Select the destination in the drop down list. If you are running from within Windows then you cannot select drive 'C:\'. In this case please start your PC with either the BartPE or Windows PE 2.0 rescue CD and run RoboRestore from within that environment.
Format destination before copy: This option enables you to create a clean destination drive before the copy. If you don't format the destination then existing folders and files, not in the backup, will remain unchanged.
Make destination bootable: Select this option if you are restoring an image of your Windows System drive (Drive C:). Click the 'Advanced' button to refine the operations executed when this option is selected.

Note: By default the Disk identifier is transferred from the original disk to the destination disk. Windows will not boot properly if two disks are attached with the same Disk Identifier. If you select this option and you are cloning your current system, then disconnect one of the disks before booting.
Run Robocopy: Select this option to run robocopy when the 'Start' button is clicked.

Once selected you can modify the parameters for the command and choose to hide the output of robocopy if you wish. Only modify the robocopy command line options if you know what you are doing.

Note: Do not modify <SRC > and <DST> tags. These are automatically replaced with the source and destination of the restore when robocopy is run.

For more information on the available command line options please see here.
Click the 'Start' button and the restore will begin. The restore process may be significantly slower than a regular disk image restore, but be patient and wait for the completion message. A full log will be created in '\roborestore.txt'

FAQ

I've restored Windows XP but it won't boot.
Make sure your 'boot.ini' file is correct for the restored system.
1. Use the 'Fix Boot Problems' with Windows PE 2.0
2. Or, use the XP recovery console and run 'bootcfg /rebuild'.
I've restored Windows Vista but it won't boot.
The Boot Configuration Database (BCD) may be invalid.

Use the Vista 'Startup Recovery' option with your Vista installation DVD

Or, use the 'Fix Boot Problems' with Windows PE 2.0
Can I restore to the same drive that contains the image file?
Yes, but don't attempt to format the drive first!
Why are there several 'skipped' directories and files shown in the log file?
Junction points: Junction points are pointers to other directories and robocopy doesn't create or follow these junctions. When robocopy has finished the junction points are automatically created by RoboRestore. Vista makes extensive use of junction points for directories such as 'C:\Documents and Settings' and many others. These are provided for backward compatibility with Windows XP.

'pagefile.sys' and 'hiberfil.sys': These files are created when Windows boots and it isn't necessary to copy these files from the image.
System Volume Information: This is a hidden system folder in the root of the volume and contains restore point information. The destination has already created this folder when the volume was formatted.
What are the 'Extras' reported in the copy summary?
These are files and folders that exist in the destination that weren't in the image file. For a newly formatted destination these refer to files in the system folder '\System Volume Information'. This is normal and expected.

Resources

Robocopy reference - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robocopy
Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools - http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd&displaylang=en

How to create a BartPE Rescue CD for Macrium Reflect - http://www.macrium.com/blog/2008/09/22/HowToCreateABartPERescueCDForMacriumReflect.aspx

Vista Startup recovery - http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/5c59f8c1-b0d1-4f1a-af55-74f3922f3f351033.mspx

XP Recovery Console - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

Windows PE 2.0 Recovery Environment - http://www.macrium.com/blog/2009/07/27/HowToFixCommonBootProblemsUsingTheWindowsPE20FixBootProblemsOption.aspx

Master Boot Record - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record

Junction Points - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS_junction_point

How to backup to a Server that isn't visible in the network browse dialog

Administrator — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:49:47 GMT

When you create an image or file and folder backup, sometimes your backup server isn't available in the network browse dialog. This article shows two methods to overcome this problem.

Normally, all available servers on the network are shown in the Network browse dialog shown below. However, there can be several reasons why servers are missing from the network tree, including NetBios name resolution issues.

There are two methods to overcome this problem:

A. Map the server as a drive letter in Windows Explorer

If you map the server as a drive letter in Windows Explorer you can select the mapped drive letter in Reflect.

First close Macrium Reflect. This ensures that the local network cache is refreshed when you reopen the network browse dialog.
Double click 'My Computer' to start Windows Explorer and select the 'Tools' > 'Map Network Drive' menu option.
Select the drive letter to assign and enter the full UNC path of your network share in the form '\\server\share'
Start Reflect again and step through the backup Wizard to the 'Backup Destination' page. This time select 'Local Hard Disk' and browse to the drive letter just mapped.

Note: When you save to your XML file the full UNC path not the mapped drive letter will be saved in the file.

B: Edit the XML file manually and add the UNC path

Alternatively, you can edit the XML file in notepad and modify the backup destination to be the UNC path for your server.

Step through the backup wizard and select any folder for your backup destination. Make sure you take the option to save your XML file at the end but don't run the backup.
Select the newly created XML file in the file list and click the 'XML View' tab. Start typing in the XML text window and the 'XML Edit' dialog will pop up. Select the 'Use the default XML editor' and click OK. This will open the file in notepad.
Scroll to the following text and change the target folder to be the full UNC path to your backup server:
Save the file when finished.

Note: If the share is password protected then you need to enter the user name and password in the network defaults otherwise scheduled backups may fail. Take the 'Other Tasks' > 'Defaults' menu option.

How to create a BartPE Rescue CD for Macrium Reflect

Administrator — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:49:47 GMT

So, you’ve created your Linux based recovery CD, you push it in and boot up and it doesn’t find your hard drives, network or both – what’s next?

If the Linux Based Recovery CD option doesn’t work for you – usually because it has trouble recognizing your disk or network cards - then you may want to use the BartPE or Windows PE 2.0 recovery CDs.

BartPE is a freely available preinstallation environment for 32-bit Windows XP or Server 2003. It's a bootable environment created from your exisiting Windows system files. It can also potentially support your RAID controller although that is not going to be covered by this article. If you do want to add RAID support to Bart PE then the best place to start is on the PE Builder website.

If you're working with 64-bit Windows, Windows Vista or Server 2008 then you'll need the full version of Macrium Reflect which includes paid-for licensing for Windows PE 2.0. The Windows PE 2.0 environment includes RAID support.

BartPE has the benefit of providing a graphical user interface and a plugin architecture that means many 3rd party custom plugins are available. Macrium Reflect provides a plugin that allows you to restore files and partitions directly once you are booted from your CD/DVD drive into BartPE.

Anyway, to business; you will need:

Access to Windows XP or Windows 2003 installation files
The latest PE Builder install file (the BartPE rescue disk creation software). You can download it via http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/#download
Macrium Reflect installed

Note: BartPE is only suitable for 32-bit Windows XP and 32-bit Windows Server 2003 environments.

To create your BartPE / Macrium Reflect Rescue CD:

Install PE Builder from the install file you downloaded earlier

Make a note of where PE Builder is installed. The default location is similar to C:\PEBuilder3110a
Finish the installation by allowing it to run to check it works.

You are presented with a Search files?
Click No

The main PE Builder dialog is displayed. We shall return to this once we’ve configured the Macrium Reflect plugin from within Macrium Reflect
Start Macrium Reflect
Select Other Tasks > Create Rescue CD

The Rescue CD Wizard is displayed
Select BartPE and click Next

This displays a dialog for copying the necessary Macrium Reflect plugin files to the BartPE plugin folder.
Click Updates to check online for updates to the Macrium Reflect plugin
Click the browse button ‘…’ and select the plugin folder below the PEBuilder installation folder. For example C:\PEBuilder3110a\plugin
Click Finish

The Macrium Reflect plugin is immediately copied to the PE Builder plugin folder.

Now when you use PE Builder to create a BartPE rescue CD it contains the files necessary to run Macrium Reflect and restore disk images or files.
Return to PE Builder

If you closed it earlier then start it from the Start menu.
Specify the path to your Windows installation files in the Source text box

For me these were on my original Microsoft installation CD/DVD which occupied the only drive bay on my server – more on that later. If you believe they may be on your hard drive but don’t know where then you can search for them by selecting menu Source > Search. Otherwise, simply select their location

Note: The directory that contains the Windows installation files is called ‘i386’ but the path that PE Builder wants is the parent directory to ‘i386’. So, if you have your installation files at ‘c:\i386’ then you need to enter ‘C:\’ as the path to the Windows installation files.
Leave the Custom text box empty
Leave the Output folder as BartPE or point it to a location suitable for storing 153Mb of data
Select the Media Output.
You may be able to directly Burn to CD/DVD at this point. I couldn’t because, as I mentioned, the DVD drive was already in use for my Windows installation files. Instead we selected Create ISO image and resolved to burn it to disk later. An ISO image is a complete disk image as a file.

Note: Your CD/DVD burning software may or may not support ISO. If it doesn’t, it is often an extra cost option that you get for buying the full version. Alternatively, you could use CDBurnerXP; a free utility that you can download from http://www.cdburnerxp.se/.
Click Build

If the BartPE folder does not exist then the Create directory dialog is displayed
Click Yes to create the folder and continue

BartPE uses your Windows XP or Server 2003 installation files and so you need to read and agree to the Windows license before proceeding.
If you agree with the terms click I agree

PE Builder builds the BartPE installation. In my case, as an ISO file:
Click Close to finish

That’s it! You may now eject your BartPE CD/DVD and check it by using it to boot your machine.

Note: If your machine isn't set to boot from CD/DVD then you need to adjust the boot settings in your BIOS. Accessing the BIOS varies from PC to PC but you will always see a brief message that tells you how to do this as the PC is starting. Power on your PC and watch the screen carefully. Look for a line of text that says something like, 'Hit Del to enter setup' or 'Press F2 for BIOS settings'. Once you've found the correct key (generally, Del, or one of the function keys), press it repeatedly until you see a BIOS setup screen - from there you can set the boot order so that CD/DVD takes precedence over your hard disk drive (HDD). You can find pictures of BIOS setup screens at http://www.hiren.info/pages/bios-boot-cdrom.

Once booted into BartPE, to start restoring files or partitions, select Go > Programs > Macrium Reflect.

How to recover your PC using the Linux Rescue CD - Part II

Administrator — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:49:47 GMT

This is the second part of the fifth tutorial in our series on working with Macrium Reflect. Last time we created a Linux rescue CD. This time I'll show you how to restore your 'drive C' image using this Rescue CD and return your PC to exactly the same state as it was when the image was created.

Don't let the word Linux scare you! You don't need to know anything about Linux. The restore program uses an XP style wizard with familiar mouse and keyboard operation.

I've included an FAQ section at the end to help those of you that may have issues with the restore process.

OK, let's begin...

Put your CD in the CD tray and start your PC. After a few seconds the first introductory page will be shown. Click Next.
The next page shows locally attached drives and partitions labelled as drive letters like Windows.

Note: These letters may be different to your Windows drive letter assignments. This is because Windows assigns, and remembers drive letters as you attach devices, the rescue CD assigns letters as devices are detected during start-up.

Select the directory that contains the image you are restoring.

Note: Clicking the folder icon or the +/- icon expands the directory/drive node. You must click the directory name to select the contents of the directory.

If your image is stored on a network share then click the 'Map Share' button.

Simply enter the share and user name details to add a network share to the 'Network Neighborhood' tree node.

Note: Make sure your network share is using WORKGROUP as the Workgroup name.

Once you select the directory that contains your image file, the right window lists all partitions in all image file in the chosen directory.

Select the correct partition image in the right windows and click 'Next'.
The next page shows the details of all partitions saved in the chosen image file. In our case we have only one, but you could have many partitions from different drives.

Select (C:) and click 'Next'
You are now presented with the contents of all locally attached hard disks.

You can restore this partition anywhere, you can even restore to free space on any disk.

For this example we'll restore our saved partition to the whole of 'Disk 1'. All we have to do is select both the tick boxes on the first hard disk. Hold down the 'Ctrl' key and select both boxes.

Click 'Next' to continue.

Note: You must select at least the same size as the partition you are restoring otherwise the 'Next' button won't be available. If necessary use the 'Total Selected' value at the bottom of the dialog as a guide.
The next page allows you to select the type of partition to create when you restore. This flexibility gives you the ability to create logical partitions from primary and vice versa. For most restores this isn't necessary and the default partition type will be the partition type you originally imaged. For your Windows system partition you should always select 'Active'. This will be defaulted for you so just click 'Next' to continue.
Because we selected a larger size to overwrite than the original partition size we now have the opportunity to extend the restored partition to fill the selected space (the whole disk in this case).

Note: If you just restore to the original partition that you saved, then you won't see this page.

Drag the slider to the right and click 'Next'.
The next page allows you to verify the image before restoring. It is rare for an image to fail verification and this step can add a considerable amount of time to the restore process. The restoration will abort if any part of the image file is corrupt. However, if you are restoring to a new disk or if the partition you are replacing is already corrupt, then it isn't strictly necessary to verify.

For this example click 'No' then click 'Next' to continue.
The next page gives you options for restoring the Master Boot Record (MBR).

The Master Boot Record a small program that executes when your PC starts up. If this program has become corrupt, perhaps due to a virus, then you may have problems starting your computer.

Each backup contains a copy of the Master Boot Record which can be recovered by selecting 'Replace with the Master Boot Record from the backup'. This is the default option, so leave this selected and click 'Next'.
Windows can run an automatic verification of your file system when it starts. The next page allows you to force Windows to run this check when you first boot after restoring.

For this example select 'No' and click 'Next'.
We're now at the final Wizard page. This shows a summary of all your selections. Click 'Finish' to begin the restore.

Your restore will now begin. At the end you have the option to click 'Back' and restore another partition or click 'Cancel' to restart your PC.

Click 'Cancel' then click 'OK' in the reboot message box.

All Finished! The time taken for the restore process may be slightly longer than backup process.

There seems to be a lot of dialogs here, but most options are defaulted for you and clear explanations are provided on the relevant wizard pages.

In the next tutorial I'll cover the Windows PE 2.0 recovery environment. This environment has many more options to help you, including image browsing to recover individual files.

FAQ

How do I restore an incremental or differential image?
Incremental and differential images are restored in exactly the same way. Simply select the image by date and the restore process will locate the relevant files and recover your image automatically.
Why is the 'Choose partitions to overwrite' wizard page empty?

The Linux Rescue CD cannot recognize your internal hard disk(s) therefore you cannot select any destination partition(s) to overwrite.
This is possibly because you are using an unrecognized SATA mode. Go to your BIOS settings for your main hard disk controller and check for an option like ‘Compatibility’ mode. If this doesn’t work or you can’t find any SATA option(s) to change then try the BartPE rescue CD or use Windows PE 2.0 rescue CD.

Note: Windows PE 2.0 is only available with registered version of Macrium Reflect.
I'm restoring an image from multiple DVDs but the restore wizard can't locate the image.

You must place the last DVD in the CD tray first. The final part of any image contains the image index.
When I select the directory containing my image file nothing is displayed.

You must click on the directory name to select the directory contents.
My computer won't boot with my new hard disk.

This can be caused by XP not recognising your new disk. XP sometimes needs a driver for recent SATA disks running in AHCI mode. To fix this problem you may have to modify your BIOS settings to enable 'Legacy Mode', 'IDE Mode' or similar. When XP boots you should then locate and install the correct SATA drivers, then change your BIOS settings to match the driver.

Alternatively, your 'boot.ini' file may be incorrectly set up. This file is automatically adjusted during the restore process so you normally won't have a problem with this. However, to correct any errors with this file and other boot related issues you should locate your original XP installation disk and start the XP recovery console. Details about this can be found here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/1ed79310-13ee-4352-8e1b-bbb59bc15b961033.mspx?mfr=true

The relevant commands for fixing boot related issues are:

fixboot: Replaces the partition boot sector
fixmbr: Replaces the MBR.
bootcfg /rebuild: Rebuilds the boot.ini file

Note: If you have the Windows PE recovery environment then there's an option 'Fix Boot Problems' that runs these commands and others automatically for you.

How to recover your PC using the Linux Rescue CD - Part I

Administrator — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 17:49:47 GMT

In part five of our series on working with Macrium Reflect, we look at restoring your system using the Linux rescue CD. In this two part tutorial I’ll show you how to create a Rescue CD and we'll follow all the steps required to put your PC back to the exact state it was at the time of your image. We'll pretend that your PC has been infected with a nasty virus and you have to restore your operating system to the pre-virus state.

Why do you need a rescue CD?

This is a good question. The simple answer is because Windows won't let you access all the files on your hard disk. Windows uses both the RAM (main memory) and the hard disk during normal operation. Many of the thousands of files in your Windows system directory are open and running to keep your PC humming along. You can't simply replace them with a different version because they may be loaded into memory and inaccessible from the disk. The only way you can freely access every part of your system partition is to start your PC with another operating system that loads entirely into RAM. Enter Linux. Linux can have a very small footprint and is ideal for this task. The rescue CD that ships with Macrium Reflect is only 6MB in size, but still provides USB, Fire wire, network and disk services and has a nice GUI as well.

Let's start by burning the Linux CD…

Start Reflect, click the ‘Other Tasks’ panel, and then click the ‘Create a boot-able Rescue CD’ option.
The Rescue CD wizard will open.

Ensure that the Linux option is selected and click 'Next'.
The next Wizard page is the burn page.

Put an empty or erasable CD or DVD in your burner and click 'Finish'. It's better to use non-erasable CD-R or DVD+/-R media. This tends to be more reliable than RW media for booting. That's all you need to do.

Note: If your CD burner has problems creating the disc, you can save the image to a special file called an ISO image file. Click on the CD/DVD burner drop-down list and select 'Create ISO image file'. You can then use any burning software that you have on your PC to create the rescue CD.

If your PC refuses to boot with the rescue CD, then return to this wizard and click the 'Advanced' button. This allows you to create a special 'compatibility mode' disc which should allow even the most stubborn PC to boot with the rescue CD.

The boot process

Now I'll take you through the boot process. We are going to start your PC using the Rescue CD. Windows is not used at all in this process, everything is down to Linux.

Normally, when your PC starts, the first action is to load a small program from your hard disk called the Master Boot Record (MBR). The MBR knows how to continue the boot process and passes control to the giant operating system that's residing on your hard disk - Windows. We're not going to let that happen this time, instead we're going to allow the Rescue CD to take control.

Your PC has to be configured to check the CD/DVD drive to see if it can boot from there. It has to do this before it checks the hard disk and this can only be configured in a special place called the BIOS. Many PC's are pre-configured to make this check and the simplest way to find out is to put your Rescue CD in the CD tray and start your PC. You should start from cold, that is, power off the PC and then press the on button. If you see your normal Windows start up screen then we've got some more work to do, if you see a message saying 'Loading Linux....' then you can skip the next bit.

Configuring your PC to start from the CD/DVD drive.

As I mentioned this can only be set up from the BIOS. Accessing the BIOS varies from PC to PC but you will always see a brief message that tells you how to do this as the PC is starting. Power on your PC and watch the screen carefully. Look for a line of text that says something like, 'Hit Del to enter setup' or 'Press F2 for BIOS settings'. Once you've found the correct key (generally, Del, or one of the function keys), press it repeatedly until you see a BIOS setup screen.

I won't repeat many articles already on the internet about setting your BIOS to boot from CD. You can find pictures of BIOS setup screens and instructions here: http://www.hiren.info/pages/bios-boot-cdrom .

Once you've changed the BIOS settings correctly your PC should load the Macrium Rescue CD very quickly. It's only 6MB in size and you should be at the first wizard page in less than 30 seconds.

In part II of this tutorial we'll step through the restore wizard and get your system back.

How to use VBScript with Macrium Reflect

Administrator — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:49:47 GMT

In part four of our series on working with Macrium Reflect, we look at using VBScript to handle a monthly backup cycle. I’ll show you how to generate a template VBScript source file and modify a couple of lines to enable selective execution of the XML definition files created in the previous tutorials.

So far we’ve created full and incremental image definitions and scheduled these to run in a weekly backup cycle. We’ve also used the disk space management option to ensure that our backup disk doesn’t overflow. But, what if you want to schedule your images using a monthly calendar cycle? Say you want to run a full image on the first Monday of every month and an incremental image for all other weekdays. How do you do that?

Macrium Reflect uses the standard Windows Scheduler to schedule all backups and images. This has the advantage of being a very well tried and tested scheduler, plus it reduces valuable program overhead by using an existing, running service. However, while the Windows Scheduler is great for repeating weekly pattern of days, it can’t handle monthly exclusions very well. In our above example we can schedule the full image to run on the first Monday of each month without a problem, but the incremental images would have to be scheduled for every weekday. This means that on the first Monday of each month you’d run both the full and incremental images. This isn’t a very elegant solution; so what do we do?

The answer is VBScript. With VBScript we have total flexibility to do anything we want. We can also reduce the number of tasks to schedule to just one.

If you’re unfamiliar with VBScript source, it can look rather daunting. The syntax seems unnecessarily complex and verbose. However, one thing to remember is that in most cases you can just copy existing code examples and modify them slightly to make them work for you. Macrium Reflect generates a great working template for you to modify, and I’ll show you a couple of simple code lines to add to achieve the scheduling scenario I’ve outlined above.

OK, let’s begin…

1.Start Reflect, click the ‘XML Definitions’ tab, select the ‘C Full Image’ XML file and then click the ‘Generate VBScript’ button.

2.The VBScript generation dialog is shown. Modify the VBScript file name to ‘Monthly Schedule’, and then click OK.

This will generate a VBScript template file using the default options. The defaults will simply run the full image and create a log file in the directory where the XML definition is stored. A VBScript source file can be scheduled in exactly the same way as an XML file, but first we’re going to modify it to run both the full and incremental images on the correct days.

3.Click the ‘VBScript files’ tab. You should see your new VBScript source file in the list of source files. If you select it with your left mouse you can see the automatically generated code in the lower half of the window.

This view has the advantage of syntax highlighting. This means that keywords, conditions and certain variables are displayed different colors, making viewing the source (and potential errors) much easier.

4.Right click on the VBScript file and select ‘Edit’.

This will open the source file in the default editor, Notepad.exe. Make sure that Word Wrap is turned off. This makes editing the source code much easier.

Locate the following line of code:

ExitCode = Backup ("""C:\Program Files\Macrium\Reflect\reflect.exe"" -e -w ""C:\Users\Annette\Reflect\C Full Image.xml""")

And replace it with:

If Weekday(Date) = 2 AND Month(DateAdd("d", -7, Date)) <> Month(Date) Then
' Run the full image
ExitCode = Backup ("""C:\Program Files\Macrium\Reflect\reflect.exe"" -e -w ""C:\Users\Annette\Reflect\C Full Image.xml""")
Else
' Run the Incremental image
ExitCode = Backup ("""C:\Program Files\Macrium\Reflect\reflect.exe"" -e -w ""C:\Users\Annette\Reflect\C Incremental Image.xml""")
End If

Note: Your XML file paths will be different to the paths above

A quick summary of the functions used above:

The Date keyword is the current system date.

The Weekday function returns the day of the week as a number. 1 = Sunday, 2 = Monday etc.

DateAdd simply subtracts 7 days from the current date. The “d” means that we are subtracting (or adding) days. The other possibilities are, “yyyy” - Year, “q” – Quarter, “m” – Month, “y” - Day of year, “w” – Weekday, “ww” - Week of year, “h” – Hour, “n” – Minute, “s” – Second.

The Month function returns the month (1-12) of the DateAdd result and compares this with the current month using the ‘<>’ not equal to operator.

So, if the current day is Monday and the Monday of last week is a different month, then this must be the first Monday of the current month. As you can see, the code then simply executes the XML definition file for the full image otherwise the incremental XML definition is executed.

When you’ve made the changes, save the file and close Notepad.

5.All that remains is to schedule the VBScript file to run every weekday.

Right click on the VBScript file in the list and select ‘Schedule’. You’ve been through this wizard before, so I won’t go over it again. You could of course, select only weekdays or every day, but the important thing to understand is that whatever you choose, it’s the VBScript code that decides whether to run the full or incremental image not the scheduler.

You’ve done it! VBScript code that modifies the running order of your images. VBScript gives you complete flexibility for any situation you can think of.

This is just a very small example of the power of VBScript. If you want to delve further into VBScript, have a look at the options in the generator. It generates separate functions for each option and provides some handy comments to help you understand the code. An excellent reference of VBScript functions can be found at http://www.w3schools.com/VBscript/vbscript_ref_functions.asp . Here you’ll find, not just the date functions introduced in this article, but every function available to you.

Italian Macrium Reflect Free Edition Video Tutorials

Administrator — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:49:47 GMT

Prof. Antonio Cantaro (http://www.istitutomajorana.it) has produced 10excellent video tutorials for Macrium Reflect.

These can be viewed here: http://www.istitutomajorana.it/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=762&Itemid=33

How to schedule your images

Administrator — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:49:47 GMT

In part three of our series on working with Macrium Reflect, we look at scheduling full and incremental images as part of a regular backup cycle.

In the last two tutorials we created full and incremental backup images of drive C. We also saved the options we used as XML backup definition files. In this tutorial I’ll take you through the steps required to schedule these disk images in a backup cycle so that they run automatically. I’ll also show you how to utilize the disk space management options in Reflect so you never have to worry about running out of storage space your backup drive.

What’s a backup cycle?

A good backup cycle is essential to optimize use of available storage space and to protect your computer from sudden failure as well as giving you the ability to recover historical data.

Example 1

A standard incremental back up routine could follow a seven-day cycle, starting on a Monday at 18.00.
The specified partition or disk would be fully imaged on Monday evening.
On Tuesday evening at 18.00 a scheduled task would run and backup any sectors on disk changed since the previous day’s backup.
The same procedure would then follow for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings.
At the beginning of the next week, the preceding Monday's image will be deleted along with all the increments (which are now invalid) and a new full image added to the destination directory.
The cycle is then repeated.

This example is quickest to execute from Tuesday to Sunday and uses less storage on these day’s as only changes since the previous day are saved. There is however, an increased exposure on Tuesday, as at that point only one day’s backup can be restored. If you need to go back to the previous Friday, for example, then unfortunately this isn’t possible.

Example 2

Example 1 could be modified not to delete the previous full image but to delete the full image from the Monday before that. Therefore this would keep a minimum of 7 Days of data and a maximum of 14 Days (or 30 and 60 days for a thirty-day-cycle).

The obvious disadvantage of this method is that double the amount of disk storage is required. But, if the storage is available, then this is a more comprehensive solution.

We can use the previously created backup definition files for both the full and incremental images of drive C and implement the 7-day-cycle example above

OK, let’s begin by scheduling the full image to run on Mondays…

Start Reflect, click the ‘XML Definitions’ tab, select the ‘C Full Image’ XML file and then click the ‘Schedule’ button.
The first wizard page shows the program, parameters and scheduled task name. Note that the program is ‘reflect.exe’ with your XML file name as a parameter. Leave the task name as defaulted and click ‘Next’.
The next page allows you to choose the frequency of your backup task, select ‘Weekly’ and click ‘Next’.
Select ‘Monday’ on the next page, enter a time that you want you task to run and click ‘Next’.
The final page shows a summary of your selections. Click ‘Finish’ to create your scheduled task.
Repeat this process for your incremental backup XML file, select ‘Weekly’ as the frequency again but this time select ‘Tuesday’, ‘Wednesday’, ‘Thursday’ and ‘Friday’ as the days to run.

That’s it! Your full and incremental backup images of drive C are now scheduled to run. If you click
on the ‘Scheduled Backups’ tab you can see the schedules you’ve just created.

Note: Reflect actually uses the standard Windows task scheduler to run backup tasks.

Managing Disk Space

These backups will now continuously run every weekday of every week. However, the drive that hosts your backup directory will soon run out of disk space. Fortunately we can automatically purge old backups to make room for the latest. We’ll delete all full backup image files in the backup directory older than 14 days.

Here’s how…

First Click the ‘XML Definition Files’ tab, then select the ‘C Full Image.xml’ file and finally click the ‘Edit’ button
Step through the Wizard to the final page and click the ‘Advanced’ button. In the ‘Advanced Settings’ dialog select the ‘Disk Space Management’ tree node. In the property dialog select ‘Enable…’, enter 14 in the edit box and click ‘OK’.
Finally Click ‘Finish’ on the wizard page.

We are done! Drive C is now automatically protected and you have retained a maximum of 14 days history.

Notes:

The purge works by deleting backup files in the destination directory of the backup task. It is therefore important that you organize different backup types into their own directory structure if your purge requirements are different. E.g. you may want to keep 14 days history for images of drive C and 30 days history for drive E.
The current backup set (the one you are creating or incrementing) is never purged.
The above example assumes that you want to retain a maximum of 2 weeks history. When a full backup is deleted, any linked incremental or differentials are also deleted. Therefore, the minimum number of day’s history kept is the purge number of days less the backup cycle period. So for a weekly cycle involving keeping at least two full backups you should set the purge days to 21. This will retain 3 full backups (and incrementals) for some of the time, reducing this to 2 when a purge is successful.
All file deletions are logged in the log window. Click the ‘Log’ tab and select dates in the calendar tree to display relevant logs.
If you are unfamiliar with backup routines then this has probably appeared quite a lengthy topic. However, the operations in Reflect have been nothing more than a few clicks. Once it is set up you don’t need to do anything else to keep your PC protected.

In the next tutorial we’ll look at some of the things you can do with VBScript. This is an advanced topic, but you don’t need to know anything about VBScript to get started. So if you wondering, “But how do I do this….” Then read on.

How to create an incremental disk image

Administrator — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:49:47 GMT

In the last tutorial we created a full backup image of drive C and we stored the image file in a local directory for easy access. In this tutorial I’ll take you through the steps required to incrementally append to your drive C full image using the backup image wizard. After completing these steps you will have created an incremental image and saved your options as an XML definition file for easy re-running.

XML definitions provide a convenient way to store your backup options. Using an XML definition you can schedule a backup, generate a VBScript file for complex scenarios or simply create a desktop shortcut for instant running of your backup by clicking the shortcut icon.

What’s an incremental image?

The term ‘incremental’ in the context of data backup is not unique to Macrium Reflect. In fact this term has been used for years by many different backup software vendors.

When Reflect creates an incremental image it only backs up the parts of your disk that contain data that is different from the last backup you made. The advantage of this is that the resultant image file is both much smaller and much quicker to create than a full image. The only slight disadvantage is that when you restore your data, Reflect needs to access all the image files in the backup set to reconstruct the disk you want to restore. However, if the image files are stored in a local or network directory then this operation is automatic and completely transparent.

You may be wondering what the other backup type ‘differential’ is. A differential backup is similar to an incremental backup. However, rather than backing up the changes since the most recent backup, a differential backup will save changes made since the first/full backup.

Note: For this tutorial creating a differential or an incremental backup would be exactly the same! Both would save changes since the full backup as this is the only backup made so far.

In the last tutorial we stored our image file in a local directory so we can easily append an incremental image to this location.

OK, let’s begin…

Start Reflect and take the option ‘Create a backup image…’ to start the backup wizard.
Click ‘Next’ on the first introductory wizard page. On the second wizard page select ‘Incremental’ as the image type and click ‘Next’
The next page allows you to choose the type of incremental image and the directory that contains the rest of the files in the backup set.

For this example select ‘Append to the most recent image’ for the first option. The directory list should already display ‘D:\Drive C Images’ if you followed the last tutorial. If it doesn’t or if your full image is not in the selected directory then click the drop down box, select ‘Browse for folder’ and choose the directory where your full image is stored. Click ‘Next’ to continue.
The final page shows a summary of your selections. The ‘Advanced’ button allows you to configure password and disk space management options. For this example we’ll just leave them as the defaulted values and click ‘Finish’.
You now have the option to save this definition and / or run this incremental image now. Change the file name to ‘C Incremental Image’, leave both options checked and click ‘OK’.

That’s it! Your incremental backup will now start and you have saved the definition of this backup as ‘C Incremental Image.xml’. To re-run this incremental backup simply select the XML definition and click the ‘Execute’ button.

You can also create a desktop shortcut to run the backup by clicking the shortcut icon. Simply click the ‘Create Desktop Shortcut’ button

In the next tutorial I’ll show you how to schedule both the full and incremental images to run automatically and look at how the disk space management options in Reflect stop your backup disk becoming full.

How to create a disk image

Administrator — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:49:47 GMT

Creating an image of your hard disk is the best way to protect your data and operating system from disk failure or accidental deletion of critical system files. Fortunately, with Macrium Reflect this process is not only incredibly fast but also extremely easy.

Note: Please see herefor considerations when creating an image of Windows 7 systems.

Macrium Reflect can create file backups as well as disk images. However, for this tutorial I’ll take you through the steps required to create a full image of ‘Drive C’ using the backup image wizard. After completing these steps you will have created an image and saved your options as a XML definition file for easy re-running.

XML definitions provide a convenient way to store your backup options. Using an XML definition you can schedule a backup, generate a VBScript file for complex scenarios or simply create a desktop shortcut for instant running of your backup by clicking the shortcut icon.

OK, let’s begin…

Start Reflect and take the option ‘Create a backup image…’ to start the backup wizard.
Click ‘Next’ on the first introductory wizard page. On the second wizard page select ‘Full’ as the image type and click ‘Next’

I’ll cover the other options, ‘incremental’ and ‘differential,’ in a future tutorial.
The next page shows your disk partitions (drives). You can save multiple partitions from multiple disks in the same image file but for this example click drive (C:) in your list then click ‘Next’
You now need to select where you want to store your image file.

Reflect can store images on one or many DVDs but it is far better to choose a local or network drive. By using a local or network drive you can easily access your image files for restoring and you can browse your images in Windows explorer. This isn’t possible if the image file spans more than one DVD.

It’s best to create a new directory for your images. Click the dropdown list for ‘Local Hard Disk’ and select ‘Browse for folder’. This opens a standard windows directory selection dialog. Navigate to the drive where you want to store the image file and click the ‘Make New Folder’ button. Name this folder something meaningful, such as ‘Drive C Images’ and click ‘OK’ in the dialog to select it.

Leave the ‘Use image ID as the file name’ option checked and click ‘Next’.

An image ID is used to identify a backup set. A backup set comprises of a full backup and all subsequent Incremental and/or differential backups. It is a unique 16 byte Hex value (128 bit) and guarantees that you won’t have any file name conflicts when creating multiple backups in the same
The final page shows a summary of your selections. The ‘Advanced’ button allows you to configure compression level, password / encryption and many other options. For this example we’ll just leave them as the defaulted values and click ‘Finish’
You now have the option to save this definition and / or run this image now. Change the file name to ‘C Full Image’, leave both options checked and click ‘OK’.

That’s it! Your backup will now start and you have saved the definition of this backup as ‘C Full Image.xml’.

To re-run this backup simply select the XML definition and click the ‘Execute’ button.

You can also create a desktop shortcut to run the backup by clicking the shortcut icon. Simply click the ‘Create Desktop Shortcut’ button~

In the next tutorial we’ll create an incremental image of this full image and schedule these to run automatically to keep your PC protected.