First and foremost, I do not backup from within Windows. I only use the boot CD.
Why? After many years of backup and restoring Windows and Linux I have seen just about every method fail at one time or another.
It is my belief that the only way to do an Operating System backup and restore is:
1 – Only use system images.
2 – Not to be using that OS. This is referred to as being offline.
Macrium Reflect Free is an easy way to clone a drive. Cloning a drive makes an exact duplicate of the one you're using. This comes in handy when replacing a drive with a new one. 2) You should be using system imaging and free or paid Macrium Reflect is excellent for the job. You can reimage back to your existing OS drive; restore to a new or even smaller drive (provided the original image data fits). If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to Macrium Reflect and 14 are available for Mac so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Mac alternatives to Macrium Reflect are Acronis True Image (Paid), Rescuezilla (Free, Open Source), MSP360 Backup (Paid) and Retrospect (Paid). Just to clarify for some people complaining about the free product – there’s a difference between the FREE version of Macrium Reflect and the 30 day TRIAL version of Macrium Reflect Standard. I’m quite happy with the Standard Trial and will most likely pay to continue its use after the 30 days.
Creating The Boot CD
– Download Macrium Reflect Here: https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
– Install it.
– Plug in USB flash drive. It only needs to be 1GB.
– Go to Other Tasks > Create Rescue Media…
Choose Removable USB Flash Drive and follow instructions.
See also: Macrium Reflect KnowledgeBase: Creating Rescue Media
Creating A System Image
Boot from your flash drive.
*note – When possible I isolate my OS drive from everything else. Then I backup the ENTIRE disk.
Choose Backup > click inside the large box containing the disk you want to backup >
Choose Image this disk
To do just a partition right-click on that partition and choose Image this partition only…
Choose a location to store the image
Name it and click Finish.
video: Macrium Reflect Boot Disk In Action
How To Use Macrium Reflect 7
Advanced Notes
My backup scheme
When a new Win10 build comes out I restore to first backup of last build > upgrade to newest build > backup. For example:
Restore initial backup of 1703 > install 1709 > backup > restore initial backup of 1709 > install 1803 >
restore initial backup of 1803 > install 1809> backup
How To Use Macrium Reflect
The Macrium Reflect Service
After you install Macrium Reflect and create the boot disk you can set the Macrium Service to Manual.
***Important – If you update or so much as open Macrium Reflect it will reset the service setting and you have to re-do this. It does this even if you disable the service. That sucks but what can ya do?
Disable Update Check
Go to Other Tasks > Edit defaults… > Uncheck everything
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