Macrium Reflect: a short sad story

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But with a happy ending.

I had made a couple of changes this week to my PC (Win 8.1 Pro). I decided to roll back to my latest image created by MR – last Sunday’s. Having remembered how to get to the images using WinPE, I restored that day’s image. So far so good.

But it failed at 3% saying the image was corrupt. I then rebooted into Windows and lo and behold, it couldn’t. It did a diagnostic and repair. Only it wasn’t successful. No matter I thought, I’ll restore from an image from the previous week. That got to 5%, but now when booting into windows I got a screen telling me (in the end) to contact my system admin (me!) or the PC manufacturer. Nothing worked other than just shutting the PC down. I then tried Linux (Ubuntu on a memory stick I have – it couldn’t even see the c drive – saying there was a problem.

So it looked like the image restore failing had screwed the disk and it was hosed (a quaint Americanism?). I tried a couple of more images and finally the one from the 27th October worked. Phew! It took just over an hour, and another hour updating Windows and other programs (good thing I keep stuff in the downloads folder).

Lessons to learn. Verify the image after you create it. And before you use it to restore.

I would say that my decision a few months ago to separate OS and data also helped greatly as the time to restore was so much less than it might have been. And also I didn’t have to download anything I had added since the 27th Oct.

So, has anyone any ideas what caused the corruption? I think it was error 5 that was quoted.

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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Access,

Where where the images stored? Were they all on the same device? Did you set the Verify Image switch when making the images? Did you try to mount the images after creation? :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Hi RG, should have said that! They are stored on a network attached Seagate 2TB disk. I have mounted some (but not all). A verify image switch – I’ll have to look for that. I can see where it is in the XML file but I’m not sure how it’s set in the application. I’ll try setting it in the XML and see what happens when I next do a backup. I’ve just mounted one of the failed images and it works fine (but then I don’t know where the corruption is). It did fail the verify test when I was trying to get things working again.

Just tried it – it’s a pro function, I only have free being cheapskate. So it’s manual verify for me.

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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An image verification is important. Not totally sure why they get corrupted, though, but you made a good justification for keeping multiple images – well done for that :).

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Access,

You can verify in the Free Version. When you get to the final screen with the Finish button if you look at the bottom right of the window you’ll see Advanced Options link. Click it and one of the options will be Auto Verify Image. Click on it then check the box.
35684-MRAdvanced
HTH :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Thanks, just done an image (just in case) and it’s verifying right now. I think my point in all this was that verifying (whether auto or manual) is essential. I hadn’t given it a thought and I wonder if others had also not given it a thought.

Ted has “Backup, backup, backup” in his sig ? Perhaps it should be “BACKUP…BACKUP…BACKUP, then VERIFY…VERIFY…VERIFY…VERIFY”

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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Thanks, just done an image (just in case) and it’s verifying right now. I think my point in all this was that verifying (whether auto or manual) is essential. I hadn’t given it a thought and I wonder if others had also not given it a thought.

Ted has “Backup, backup, backup” in his sig ? Perhaps it should be “BACKUP…BACKUP…BACKUP, then VERIFY…VERIFY…VERIFY…VERIFY”

I have mentioned often that as soon as I create an Image, I turn around and restore that Image. Since I always have several monthly Images saved, if one image tanks, I can restore to the previous months image. This is scary the first time, but after that no sweat. Restoring the Image proves the Image and the boot disk are correct and working.

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Access,

You may want to look at post #7 in this thread. I think I got it confused with your thread when I answered. :confused: :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Yes I did see it thanks. I know there’s a file entry I can’t delete on that disk (I think the index entry is there but not the file, so I can’t delete whatever I try). So it might be my less than 2 year old Seagate is crock (or about to go crock). Oh well, I’ll just keep verifying after I do the images.

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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Check your HDDs too (both SMART & checkdisk). Quite often restore failures result from issues on the storage drive as well as the primary drive.
Crystal Disk Info
Hard Disk Sentinel

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Ya, in fact I’m a bit surprised any image worked because I was thinking drive (or connection) going South on one end or the other.

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CLiNT, I’ve got Hard Disk Sentinel and it says my main drive is excellent. I can’t see how to check the NAS disk though, either using HDS or chkdsk (can’t check a network drive, even with a drive letter).

Hmm F.U.N., on this side of the pond we would say go west.

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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Hmm F.U.N., on this side of the pond we would say go west.

Seriously? That’s interesting, I’ve never heard that expression before. It means manifest destiny here…or it did a long time ago now eh.

Ya, NAS devices don’t give much warning in my experience. Goes something like this; no problems for many hundreds of days, then email from NAS; SMART failure. Then I wake up and hear a screeching drive 30 ft. away and then read the email!

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Hmmm F.U.N., on this side of the pond we would say go west.

Seriously? That’s interesting, I’ve never heard that expression before. It means manifest destiny here…or it did a long time ago now eh.

Or on this side of the pond we say “belly up” as in dead fish, or some other equally obscure saying.

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Access,

My WD MyBookLive NAS has a builtin diagnostics feature.
35691-MyBookLiveDiag
Of course it only gives you a Pass/Fail but it is something.
HTH :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Ted and I share more than just old age……we both believe in frequent Backups, followed by a Verify and then a Restore.
I do my backups “Weekly”, not ‘weakly’. (my little joke)

The Restore is important, especially for me, because it re-writes my HD in a completely Defragmented manner.
So I just do my weekly Backup, Verify and Restore and never have to do a Defrag.
Keeping my hard drive defragmented, is just one reason why my PC runs so good. (it’s now 8 years old and still runs better than
many brand new PC’s.)

Trying NOT to insult anyone, I’ve said this before….”If your backup and restore program is not working for you, then
most likely you need to use a different program”.
No problem with that here, because I’ve been using essentially the same program for the past decade+.
(wish just a few updates)

I use Ghost 11.5, which only runs in DOS, from a DOS boot disk. That boot disk can be a CD, a Flash Drive or even
an SD Flash Memory card. I have an older version of Ghost on a Floppy Disk.
But the main thing is, that I use a program that I’m familiar with and that I know works good.
It also works for all OS’s from XP to Windows 8.1, without fail.

Anyway, Backup! Backup! Backup!, , , then Verify and restore!

Cheers mates and Happy Holidays!
The Doctor

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The Restore is important, especially for me, because it re-writes my HD in a completely Defragmented manner.
So I just do my weekly Backup, Verify and Restore and never have to do a Defrag.
Keeping my hard drive defragmented, is just one reason why my PC runs so good. (it’s now 8 years old and still runs better than
many brand new PC’s.)

Backup, Verify and Restore, what a great idea. I did that and my computer likes it.

jkitc

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I use Acronis True Image. I set it to verify every full backup/image. But I don’t do a restore. I have mounted the image and selectively restored files to a “test restore” directory and opened them to see that they are not corrupted, but of course that doesn’t test system files. If you do a full restore and the image is flawed in any way, it would trash the system, wouldn’t it?

So what kind of restore are you doing and to what system?

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I use Acronis True Image. I set it to verify every full backup/image. But I don’t do a restore. I have mounted the image and selectively restored files to a “test restore” directory and opened them to see that they are not corrupted, but of course that doesn’t test system files. If you do a full restore and the image is flawed in any way, it would trash the system, wouldn’t it?

So what kind of restore are you doing and to what system?

Yes, there is the possibility of a restore trashing the system. The issue was discussed to some extent here: http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread//157568-Macrium-Reflect-Pro-v5-2-How-to-test-a-system-image-safely

Maybe have a look and see if it helps answering your concerns.

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as a separate disk maintenance tool, get Steve Gibson’s SpinRite tool from GRC. Search Gibson Research Center, not sure if .org or .com

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One thing to consider is that in addition to the Macrium Reflect Free Program updates, there are frequent updates to the WinPE download and Recovery Disk. When these are available, it is wise to make new recovery CDs. Failure to do so in recent updates resulted in issues with GPT and with NAS devices. See Macrium Free’s Release Notes on these updates for details.

-- rc primak

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