Windows 10: Issue with creating Image on Laptop with Macrium Reflect

Hi,
If you like give this free AOMEI backupper a try :Best Free Backup Software for Windows 10, Windows 8.1/8, Windows 7, Vista, XP

 

I think I've spotted it... in your picture, the My Passport disk is selected (little tick box underneath the disk logo). So when you select 'Image selected disks...' it will try to copy a backup of the My Passport drive onto itself.... which won't work.

In the earlier screenshot you can also see that the Destination Disk (at the top) is My Passport (D: ) and the error comes when it is 'Saving Partition' of My Passport D: .

You need to untick the drive you're saving onto, before you use Image Selected Disks.

 

Sorry, that's not it. The check mark on the lower drive just means all the partitions will be imaged if that disk is selected. Actually the selection for imaging IS his first disk. Note that the link for "Image this disk..." is below the 1st disk. PLUS, hard to know unless you've done this up close in Macrium, but the first disk ONLY selection for imaging is indicated by the highlighted display of that first disk, whereas there is no highlight around the second disk. If OP were to simply click in the middle of the disk 2 display, they would then see the highlighting shift to that disk and the "Image this disk..." link shift to displaying below that disk.

P.S. This response was a bit hasty and off target, please see my next post below - will delete or edit later if I was totally wrong on the check mark.

 

So why does it say (first screenshot) "Saving Partition My Passport D:", just before it fails, when it's clear (from further up the screen) that D: is also the destination partition?

 

My apologies for not reading your post thoroughly enough, DavidY, before I refuted it!*Redface I only looked at OP's second screenshot and didn't grasp what you said about the 1st screenshot!

You have a valid point and that could the source of OP's problem - however, OP said they tried to send image(s) to a 3TB external - is this screenshot of that exact attempt? I'm not even sure how OP ended up with both disks selected for backup by Macrium - I normally only image one disk at a time with Macrium.

I'm still interpreting the 2nd screenshot (in isolation) as one taken independent of prior imaging attempts and showing only Disk 1 selected - but admit I should verify that when I get home by actually getting into the interface and checking it out.

@steveh69 , it's up to you, but if you wanted to continue trying to get Macrium, we can help more with more clarity on exact source disk(s) and target disk being attempted.

OTOH, the pursuit of Macrium could be moot if you decide you want to followup the AOMEI suggestion from brummyfan - let us know which way you want to go.

 

Thanks guys for what was spotted in my source selections. I actually spotted that myself this morning and tried it again on both laptops by deselecting my destination drive from the image disk list screen. It fails exactly the same way so I don't think by leaving it that way by default had any bearing on this error, however it makes perfect sense since I did not need an image of the content on that external drive. So essentially I'm still in the same boat. I always like to get problems solved if I can, I don't give up too easily but there's a point of frustration and wasted time, I do have a lot of patience.

 

Is this just backup software or can it be used to create a complete system image?

 

These pages will give you an idea about the software:How to Restore System Image with AOMEI Backupper

 

I use Macrium and I have a laptop which was due a backup so I thought I'd try backing up from the USB to see what happens.

There is a log file as you say. It's in .html format, and as suggested it's on the X: drive (and also as suggested I don't think it persists on a physical drive when you reboot). There's also rescuepe.log which is created when the machine boots up, and may also give a clue to driver problems - having said that I had an error here even thought it all worked for me.

To get the log, the trick is to go into the X:\ProgramData folder, which is hidden. So something like the steps below might work, from the command prompt option in Macrium

In this example my backup USB drive shows up as drive D: . I find WinPE is a bit random about which drive gets which letters so the OP's will most likely be different. These steps also have the virtue of testing whether you can actually write to that drive from the WinPE environment.
Code: d: md d:\MyLog cd d:\MyLog x: cd \ copy rescuepe.log d: cd \ProgramData\Macrium\Reflect copy *.html d: dir /a {If there are any other files with a date/time corresponding to the backup, copy these too... you could just "COPY *.* D:" I guess} exit[/quote] I still wonder if there's a hardware issue somewhere- that loose-fitting USB seemed a bit suspect.

Or a driver issue with the My Passport drive, where the Rescue Disk version of Macrium doesn't have the drivers? (But I know I've used a My Passport drive with Macrium before now.)

@steveh69,
Is there any reason why you're trying to backup from the Rescue environment by the way? Obviously there are times when you need to Restore from there, but Backup should be possible from within Windows, and it may be an idea to try it within Windows to see what happens - if it still crashes then the log should be easier to find for one thing.

 

Thanks DavidY for your valuable information I will save it for the future. In your closing sentences it was key to my ultimate success this evening "Is there any reason why you're trying to backup from the Rescue environment by the way?" To be honest with you that is way I learned to use Macrium Reflect in backing up an image and also restoring it successfully to address a failing hard drive, that worked perfect before the last round of MS updates. I tried it as you mention from Macrium reflect within Windows and worked PERFECTLY! You don't know how happy I am about that. I want to thank you again and also Wordman for your assistance as well, both you went above and beyond in helping me out and I really appreciate it. I will mark this thread solved.

Happy New Years!

I still wonder if there's a hardware issue somewhere- that loose-fitting USB seemed a bit suspect.

Or a driver issue with the My Passport drive, where the Rescue Disk version of Macrium doesn't have the drivers? (But I know I've used a My Passport drive with Macrium before now.)

@,
Is there any reason why you're trying to backup from the Rescue environment by the way? Obviously there are times when you need to Restore from there, but Backup should be possible from within Windows, and it may be an idea to try it within Windows to see what happens - if it still crashes then the log should be easier to find for one thing.[/quote]

 

Hey, same to you steveh69! Glad you got it figured out!

 

Hi Steveh69,

You're welcome - glad you made some progress.

The only thing I'd add is that, if there was a lurking problem with the rescue media, you wouldn't want to wait to find out when you come to restore the backup from some disaster.

Unfortunately I can't think of an easy way to test the full Restore except by running it... but if that test goes wrong you'd have a big problem as you'd have overwritten your system and not have a working backup.

But I would at least boot up from your Rescue Media, and see if you can use the option to open up the image you just created in Windows Explorer. I think there may also be an option to Verify a backup image. There is also an option (under 'Restore', I think) to 'View unsupported devices' which is worth checking in case it indicates driver problems.

Happy New Year to you (and Word Man) too. *Smile

 

Happy New Year to you also, DavidY!

I just got done doing a test backup of (the smaller recovery & boot) partitions of my disk from the rescue environment and indeed found the log file in html format at the path you pointed me to. It was a simple matter to copy to the data partition of the USB external drive that I had booted from. Thanks for closing the loop on that for me.

@steveh69 , I am seconding the suggestion that you do need some assurance that the rescue media will work properly, especially for restoring. You can do image verifications but nothing can replace the assurance you get from actually doing the restore. For me, I had other means of doing a "backup backup" when I started using Macrium (i.e,. both a Windows native system image and an Image for Linux (Terabyte software) image stored separately) and before I did the brute force test of restoring from the Macrium rescue boot. Not sure if you have that means (to have a "backup backup") at your disposal to get the best test of Macrium restore done - otherwise, I would follow DavidY's suggestion, which would have been my choice if I hadn't had other means to test it.

BTW, just as follow-up. I did explore the combinations of check marks and see how one can image multiple disks and, yes, the check mark to left of a given disk graphic does have that disk selected for imaging. Multiple disk imaging is easily accessible from the Backup menu at top (Image selected Disks...) and I confess I had never accessed backup by that route. I had only ever used the "Image this disk..." link below the intended source drive and thus never had to account for which disk had a checkmark when I performed a backup.

Thanks for both of you being polite about my own misconceptions and helping me polish my knowledge of Macrium.