Rescue CD and image backup reassurance/confirmation

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CostaP

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Hi,

Yes you have probably seen me on the 'storage' forums the past week but rest assured, I wont be asking a bajillion questions on this thread haha! Its just some confirmation and reassurance with the rescue CD and image backup. I am using Macrium free version for Home.

I created a CD restore but I wanted to confirm that these were the correct files that should be on the CD? http://imgur.com/a/pYCcy

Also, as I have lots of space on my external HD, do I tick all the storage spaces that are shows? It shows my C drive, system reserved (which I think is the boot manager/startup of PC if I have understood correctly?), but also shows a 'None' section (not sure what it is). Can I just tick all 3 or do I just tick C drive and system reserved?

Current internal HD is 1.81 TB (888 GB full so far)
Newely purchased external HD is 1.81TB

Thank you! :)
 
Solution
USAFRet
Yes, select all the partitions (tick the checkbox) on that drive.

I use MR as my backup solution daily. Both paid and free versions.
Paid v7 on my main system, and free v6 on the others.

And yes, that Rescue CD content looks correct.
Try it.
Power off, and boot from that, just to see what happens.
Don't have to do any recovery...just get familiar with the interface.

Making a backup is only part of the solution. You have to also know how to recover. And better to learn and be familiar with it now, instead of in a panic during a drive dying episode.


And kudos to you for actually going down this road. Far, far too many people only think about the backup about 5 minutes after they actually need it.
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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2 different things in Macrium:

1. The Rescue CD.

2. The actual image(s)

For the Rescue CD, obviously you do NOT put 1TB on a 5GB disk.
That Rescue CD is simply to boot from, so that you can choose which Macrium image to restore.

The actual images.
Select ALL partitions on that drive, and designate a different drive for where it will go.
This gets saved as a whatever.mrimg file.

When you need to recover...
Put in the new drive
Boot from the Rescue thing you made, either DVD or USB
Tell it which image, and which drive to recover to.
 
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C

CostaP

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Yes, when I first opened Macrium it asked to create a rescue CD, which I did. It has, as seen in image, a few 'boot' files. I was not sure what a Rescue CD content should look like, how many files etc so wanted to be sure and ask here to see if its all correct. I will probably test the CD, or at the least choose its boot order as 1st and see it if brings up the correct windows, then change it back.

And when you say select all partitions of that drive, I presume that just means tick all the boxes it shows? Here is my DiskManagement http://imgur.com/a/wUo97 . Not sure what 'Disk 0 partition 3' is exactly.

And yes I am following a video that shows a process, but thanks also for your advice! :)

 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Yes, select all the partitions (tick the checkbox) on that drive.

I use MR as my backup solution daily. Both paid and free versions.
Paid v7 on my main system, and free v6 on the others.

And yes, that Rescue CD content looks correct.
Try it.
Power off, and boot from that, just to see what happens.
Don't have to do any recovery...just get familiar with the interface.

Making a backup is only part of the solution. You have to also know how to recover. And better to learn and be familiar with it now, instead of in a panic during a drive dying episode.


And kudos to you for actually going down this road. Far, far too many people only think about the backup about 5 minutes after they actually need it.
 
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C

CostaP

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Dec 22, 2014
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Ok thanks for confirming everything for me. I have been looking at 'how to restore' videos, but hopefully that day wont ever come. Although you are right in saying its better to know it now!

Do you backup online you mentioned to me a few days ago? Or just on many HD's? Looking at following the 1-2-3 step as well
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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My systems here are backed up to a NAS box.
The NAS box is backed up, via its own internal processes, to a USB connected 8TB drive.

Anything critical also lives on a drive in my desk at work.
This is soon to be in rotation with the USB connected 8TB.

So...
If my main PC drives die, recover from the NAS.
If the NAS has also died, recover from 'last wednesday', on the 8TB USB drive.
If ALL of those have died, are on fire, or underwater....I have other things to worry about, and anything really critical is in the desk drawer at work.
 
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C

CostaP

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Oh actually, you mentioned about me choosing the backup schedule. As I only have the free version I cannot select incremental. So the only option I have is schedule my own one (would have no idea what to select), or the 'Differential Backup Set' that Macrium offers.

This is what the schedule looks like. http://imgur.com/a/YBenX

Maybe you can help and advise what I do as you have probably the best knowledge of backup I have come across! :)
I do work on my PC nearly everyday so I guess I would want Macrium to backup edited work everyday.
Would I just click 'edit schedule' for the 'Full' and 'Differential' and select 'Daily'? And if the start time is 9:00am, only when I turn my PC on (could be any time) and plug in my external HD, it will begin backup?

The website mentions 'When deleting Differential/Full backups...' what does this mean? Why would you physically delete files on the external HD?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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For the Free version, probably the Full and then a daily Differential is best.
Full once every x weeks(?), and then daily Differential.

If you tell it to keep 2 weeks of Full, for example, it will delete the oldest as it goes.

It will run at the specified time, unless the system is OFF, or unless the target drive (your external) is not connected.
It will then try to run it at the next power up.


Your selections in the screencap are good, EXCEPT for the number of Full/Differentials.
You have the Full backup for 26 weeks. That is 6 months, once a month. 6 versions of the entire contents of your C drive.
Unless you have a LOT of free drive space, multi terabytes, this will not work.

Turn down the number of Full images to retain to 2(?), and then a daily or weekly Differential.
 
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CostaP

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Ok so turn full to 2 and differential keep at 30 still or reduce it 2 also? I think if runs differential everyday for the week, and keeps it for 30 days that is 28 files right?

 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Adjust specific retention numbers as your space needs fit.

A Full image is exactly that...the entirety of your C drive, minus a little compression and ignoring things that don't matter. Like pagefile, temp files, etc.
If you have ~1TB used space...it will take up a little bit less than 1TB for each image.

For my system, the C drive consumes 184GB.
A Full backup image of that is 132GB (done just last night @1AM)
Nightly Incrementals are anywhere from 1GB to 15GB over the last two weeks. The same would happen with Differentials.
 
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