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Using Macrium Reflect to create an image of a brand-new system. The C: drive has 41GB on it. The Macrium Image literally only took only about 3-5 seconds and the image file is only 35MB.

So I'm wondering... did it back up properly? Do I actually have an image of my 41GB SSD? Or need to redo it somehow? Thanks

[[edit: That was for "create an image of the partitions required to backup and restore Windows." So maybe that's why it was fast and small.

When I clicked "Image Selected Disks on This Computer" and clicked the 41GB C: drive though, it still only took 7 seconds and 442MB file."}}

What am I doing wrong or how do I get a complete image?

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    "An image using standard compression will be around 60-70% of the size of the used space of the imaged partition." - from Macrium's website. That means my image should be around 24GB, not 35MB. So how do I get the full C: drive imaged properly?
    – Hoff
    Nov 21, 2022 at 23:11
  • That's what I thought. Thanks for confirming.
    – Hoff
    Nov 22, 2022 at 0:31
  • @Ramhound while this is of course not applicable for this situation, both 40GbE and 100Gbe would be easily capable of such transfer speeds. Also there are NVMe drives which are perfectly capable of 6GB/s, which would result in 6.5s transfer time. While you presumably stand correct with your statement that the backup was unsuccessful, the reasoning for that statement is absolutely incorrect in regards to the technology available today.
    – mashuptwice
    Nov 22, 2022 at 0:58
  • @mashuptwice Yes I saw in Macrium Reflect my "I/O Performance Write = 35.9 GB/s" and both my Image and Verification were achieved in only 7 seconds. So the speed makes sense but why my 41GB hard drive Images down to only 452 MB I do not understand.
    – Hoff
    Nov 22, 2022 at 1:07
  • There is no point of making a backup if you do not test to restore it. Nobody will be able to tell you if the backup was successful if you do not test it. Do you want to rely on a internet strangers opinion if you are in a situation where you need a working backup? I bet you don't.
    – mashuptwice
    Nov 22, 2022 at 1:14

3 Answers 3

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Without knowing about the particular backup strategy of Macrium and subsequently not knowing if such a small backup could contain all the data you need for a restore:

There is no point of making a backup if you do not test to restore it. Nobody will be able to tell you if the backup was successful if you do not test it.

You said you made a backup of a fresh installation, now is the right time to test a restore without any risk for data loss.

Note that according to Macriums documentation the currently selected option will not create a backup of any data on your computer, except for the partitions required to backup and restore Windows itself.

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    This. Truth. No testing of backups means that you should assume you have no backups. If you think it's a real hassle to test a backup, you might ponder the cost of the alternative.
    – Ram
    Nov 22, 2022 at 2:03
  • If we try restoring from a backup that is broken or incomplete, what will happen to my system? Given that is my only backup.
    – Hoff
    Nov 22, 2022 at 22:04
  • @Hoff Well, you would have to start from scratch, but at least with the knowledge that you should work on your backup strategy.
    – mashuptwice
    Nov 23, 2022 at 1:26
  • @mashuptwice lol I AM working on it. And you've been instrumental in helping me get there. I'm now creating also a Windows Restore Media usb and an image created in Windows 10. So I will now have two different methods of restoring an image. Soon will try restoring this Macrium image and will update this post. Thank you x10.
    – Hoff
    Nov 23, 2022 at 2:43
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    Update: The Windows 10 Images backup and restore did not work. I will not be using it. The Macrium image backup and restore worked very well and very quickly too.
    – Hoff
    Nov 23, 2022 at 5:17
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The problem was due to using too old a version of Macrium Reflect. I updated from Macrium Reflect 7.1 to 7.3 and that solved it. The image now completed in 23 minutes and image size is 10.5 GB.

I also tested restoring from the image, and it did restore properly.

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-3

I've used the older Reflect for decades and know it can be set to skip all the empty areas on the drive to speed the imaging process.

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  • Skipping the free space on a disk, still does not explain how the application read and wrote the entire contents of the disk, in 3 seconds. The application didn’t actually do that, what it actually did, is likely in a log.
    – Ramhound
    Nov 22, 2022 at 18:34
  • @Ramhound There are logs of the "successful" images but i cannot determine from them what went wrong. I had a few images that did NOT work, and gave Error Code 9. But then I found out to turn off "Verify file system before backup." With that on, it would not image at all. With that turned off, it created images that were seemingly too small.
    – Hoff
    Nov 22, 2022 at 21:24
  • Sorry, I don't have an SSD. I thought 7 seconds for 400 MB might be feasible.
    – kackle123
    Nov 23, 2022 at 16:21

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