On 08/07/2025 18:03, Jeff Gaines wrote:
Imaging Win10
I have discovered that Ventoy offers both a UEFI and non-UEFI menu if
the computer's BIOS allows legacy mode, that made today's tasks much
easier! (tips hat to SH...)
I have tried the following for imaging the OS drive:
Windows
Windows own tool for creating an image works but is desperately slow.
Using it to restore the image was a total disaster. I had a legacy/MBR
setup with the NVMe partitioned into "C" and "D" drives. Windows restore deleted the whole NVMe, converted it to GPT/UEFI then installed Windows.
It lost all my data, all my apps and one complete partition. Total
disaster.
Macrium free version (not a trial of the latest version but the old free version).
Couldn't make any sense of it, I chose a source and a destination but
ended up going round in circles so gave up. It seemed to be saying I had included the destination in the source but I really couldn't see the
problem.
Clonezilla
The installation instructions I found yesterday said download the zip
file and copy to a thumbdrive when it will boot. Not true, today I found different instructions which say download the iso and use Rufus to set
up a thumbdrive which worked. (side issue but every time AI answers a question it gives a different answer, anybody else noticed that?)
I am proud to say I did manage to create a backup with it to a USB
drive! I do have a Linux box, but only use it to create iso files from
DVDs using graphical tools. Clonezilla uses text screens with raw Linux terms, some of which I nearly understood. Having made the classic
mistake of mixing source and destination I finally ended up with an
image but it was slow. I haven't tried to restore it.
Acronis 2018
I used the recovery option with this as I have used it for many years
and know my way around. For a legacy/MBR install of Windows it works
very well and is reasonably quick for both creating an image and
restoring it. I plan to stick with it.
Miscellany
I did about 5 or 6 fresh installs of Windows 10 today each time I messed
up. I discovered (or re-discovered):
If your BIOS has a built in key Windows will install an appropriate
version for that key, makes sense but I wanted Pro and got Home. I then remembered you need to put a "ei.cfg" file in the "Choices" directory on
the install iso and it will give you the option of which version to
install.
On the Asus Z170 mobo you have to disconnect every single drive except
the one you want to install to otherwise it just won't install and it
doesn't give intelligible error messages. I tried 3 different install
options before I remembered this.
My notes on free Image/OS migration programmes.
I have used all 4 programmes previously with great success but the
DiskGenius & Hasleo Disk Clone GUIs make things very easy.
Imaging/OS Migration
Some of the popular free programmes will only image a partition, not a
complete drive, whilst other have size limits.
Just something to watch out for.
Clonezilla -
http://clonezilla.org
DiskGenius (D) -
https://www.diskgenius.com/free.php
Hasleo Disk Clone -
https://www.easyuefi.com/disk-clone/disk-clone-home.html Macrium Reflect Free -
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/macrium_reflect_free_edition.html
Acronis True Image, Paragon Drive Copy need the non freeware versions.
Hasleo also do a well recommended Backup Suite
- Hasleo Backup Suite -
https://www.easyuefi.com/backup-software/backup-suite-free.html
--
Regards
wasbit
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