Replies

Thanks Rick. Interesting to hear your experience of TeamViewer. I’ll take a look at AnyDesk.

 

Thank you RG.

Wow, I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this app before! It sounds awesome. Thanks for enlightening me. Do both the ‘helper’ and ‘helpee’ need to have Microsoft Accounts for this to work? Neither of us currently have Microsoft Accounts.

 

Thanks Paul for the link to the newsletter article. I’m now a happily paid up member.

 

1 user thanked author for this post.

Paul T

Thanks Paul. I’ll take a look.

Thanks also for the link (in your post #2742418) on using a local account on Windows 11.

bbearren wrote:

I’ll say that unless he’s going to be editing HD video, the system you have specced will suit him just fine.

I can assure you there won’t be any editing of any video. It’ll be used purely for the purposes I mentioned earlier. My friend isn’t very IT literate so I’m struggling to think what else he might want to use the machine for in the future. I take the point though others have made, that there needs to be an element of future proofing.

It’s interesting to hear the different views on what processor to go for and the amount of RAM. Food for thought!

My friend and I had already discounted a laptop for all the same reasons you mentioned. We agree that a desktop is the way to go.

Would it not be a given that the motherboard has TPM2.0 if Windows 11 is installed on the machine? Or should I be checking the user manual?

RetiredGeek wrote:

For home I recommend turning disk encryption OFF! It’s just a hassle for nontechnical users especially when problems occur.

Many thanks for the heads up on this! Duly noted.

 

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your feedback and the link to the knowledgebase post ‘Guide for Windows Update Settings for Windows 10’. Is this equally applicable to Windows 11?

Oh really? I didn’t know that. Having to stop using your machine is quite a negative for me. I suppose I’ve been spoilt with Macrium Reflect.

 

Thanks Rick ( #2742508) for your views and experience with using MR and the questions you posed. In reality my friend is not very IT literate so won’t be performing any backups himself. I’ll be the one performing the image backups. I was going to set his computer up to sync his data files with Google Drive. I would then periodically image his ‘C’ drive (containing Windows 11 and his programs). I’m hoping this can be done remotely.

Good luck with switching to Terabyte Image for Windows. I’m interested to hear how you find it.

Paul T wrote:

MR V8 free is still available (was last time I looked).
Aomei free is good – I use it.
Paragon.
EaseUs.
etc.

cheers, Paul

Thanks PaulT. I have now downloaded MR. Thanks for naming some alternatives as well.

lmacri wrote:

Paul T wrote:

MR V8 free is still available (was last time I looked). Aomei free is good – I use it. Paragon. EaseUs. etc.

Hi bumblebee:

Further to PaulT’s post # 2742408 about Macrium Reflect Free v8 (which I also use), if you decide to go with this software be sure to scroll down to the Editor’s Note at the bottom of that official download mirror at https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/macrium_reflect_free_edition.html, which states in part:

“To get to the free version. During installation, you need to check personal use > and agree to use the software only for personal, non-commercial purposes. Then, you will need to uncheck register this installation of Macrium Reflect.”

Many of the free disk imaging programs mentioned by others in this topic were reviewed in the Sept 2024 TechRepublic article at Top 5 Free & Reliable Hard Disk Drive Cloning Software (i.e., Clonezilla, Macrium Reflect Free, DriveImage XML, EaseUS Todo Backup and Paragon Backup & Recovery Free).
———–
Dell Inspiron 15 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.5371 * Firefox v134.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.24090.11-1.1.24090.11 * Malwarebytes Premium v5.2.5.158-1.0.5135 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783

Thanks Imacri. Yes I’d spotted the MajorGeeks editor’s note at the bottom of the page. Thank you also for providing the link to the TechRepublic article. I’ll go and have a read of this.

Thanks RetiredGeek for your post #2742462. I wasn’t aware imaging programs don’t need to be upgraded. Good to know that you are still happily using MR v6 and to hear your views on Terabyte’s Image For Windows.

I’ll follow up with other replies tomorrow.

Thanks everyone. I will renew my subscription to be a paid up member again and take a look at the newsletter article on this subject.

I’m now at the stage where I can answer my own question that I started out with on this thread. For the benefit of anyone else following this thread, I will report my findings below.

I installed another pristine brand new HDD, ran a scan of the disks SMART subsystem using HDDScan [hddscan.com]. This showed everything was ok and in the green. I then ran CHKDSK (see file ‘chkdsk q drive results.txt’ attached) and it showed all was ok, particularly, no bad sectors.

Next I restored the Macrium Reflect image of my ‘D’ drive onto this new disk, ran a scan of the disks SMART using HDDScan. This showed everything was ok and in the green. I then ran CHKDSK (see file ‘chkdsk d drive results 2022-08-17 1648.txt’ attached) and it showed the exact 20kb in bad sectors as my other disk that I’d restored my ‘D’ drive image onto. Compare the results with attachment ‘chkdsk d drive results 2022-05-18-new-WD-Red-HDD.txt’ on my first post).

My conclusion therefore is that there is nothing wrong with either of the pristine brand new disks the images were restored onto. The MFT Bitmap IS copied during the Macrium Reflect imaging process (when using the default settings).

My lesson learnt from all of this? When you’ve restored from a backup image onto a brand new pristine disk, run chkdsk with the ‘/b’ parameter to force Windows to clear the list of bad clusters on a volume and rescan all allocated and free clusters for errors. I’ve discovered Microsoft’s own documentation on chkdsk /b says “Use this parameter after imaging a volume to a new hard disk drive.” [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/chkdsk]

4 users thanked author for this post.

opti1, windbg, PKCano, Cybertooth

I think I’ll try another pristine brand new disk. I’ll run CHKDSK on the empty disk, and assuming all is ok, then restore my Macrium Reflect image onto it and then run CHKDSK on it again. If CHKDSK then reports bad sectors, that confirms that the bad sector attributes have come across in the image from my old dying disk. I’ll report back here my findings.

Thanks everyone for your input.

Attached are the results for the CHKDSK /B.

Interesting to see that it DID identify the bad clusters attributes from my previous disk and make corrections.

All of my Macrium Reflect images are done with the default setting of ‘Intelligent sector copy’.

@Paul T  –  Is there still a need to run CHKDSK /R as well?

RE  ‘You would not expect bad sectors on a new disk – was it actually new?’

Yes, brand new. I ordered it directly from Western Digital themselves.

I’ll try the ‘B’ and ‘R’ switches as you suggest and report back.

Many thanks.