Macrium Drive Image and Restore - this saves massive amounts of time

Summary

This tech tutorial showcases how to efficiently clone a Windows 10 system using Macrium Reflect. The process involves creating a system image on one PC and restoring it onto identical machines, saving significant time during setup. The video guides viewers through downloading the software, creating a backup image, and using it to restore the system on another PC. It emphasizes the software's utility for home users, who can use the free version, and the need for commercial users to purchase a license. The tutorial also covers creating a bootable rescue media and changing the system hostname post-cloning to avoid network conflicts.

Takeaways

• 🖥️ The video demonstrates using Macrium Reflect to clone a Windows 10 operating system from one PC to three identical systems.
• 🛠️ Macrium Reflect is suitable for both home and commercial use, with the free version available for home users and a paid license required for commercial environments.
• 🔄 The software can create a system image, which is a backup of the environment, and this image can be restored easily onto another system.
• 🔍 The process involves downloading and installing Macrium Reflect, selecting the correct edition based on the user's environment (free for home, paid for commercial).
• 💾 A system image is created by selecting the 'Image this disk' option within the software, which then stores the image in a specified location, such as a USB drive or NAS.
• ⏱️ The time taken to create the system image can vary depending on system speed and the medium it's being backed up to, typically between 20 minutes to an hour.
• 🔄 To restore the system image, a bootable rescue media is created using a USB stick, which allows the software to run and restore the image without the need for an existing operating system.
• 🔧 Advanced options in the rescue media creation process include enabling multi-boot support for MBR and UEFI, as well as adding BitLocker support for encrypted drives.
• 🗂️ Before restoring, it's important to delete all partitions on the target drive to ensure a clean restoration of the system image.
• 🔄 After restoring the system image, the PC should be restarted, and the bootable and external USB drives can be removed.
• 🖊️ Post-cloning tasks include changing the system hostname to avoid conflicts on the same network, which can be done through the Windows settings.

Q & A

What is the purpose of the video?

The purpose of the video is to demonstrate how to use Macrium Reflect software to clone a Windows 10 operating system from one computer to another, saving time when setting up multiple identical PCs.

What type of PC is used in the demonstration?

An HP PC with an 8th generation Core i5 processor is used in the demonstration.

Why is a fresh copy of Windows 10 important for the demonstration?

A fresh copy of Windows 10 is important because it ensures that the system is clean and ready for cloning, with all HP drivers and Windows updates installed.

Is Macrium Reflect free for everyone?

Macrium Reflect is free for home users, but commercial users need to purchase a license to use the software legally.

What does Macrium Reflect allow users to do?

Macrium Reflect allows users to create a system image or backup of their environment, which can be restored easily onto another system.

How can a home user obtain Macrium Reflect for free?

A home user can obtain Macrium Reflect for free by searching for 'Macrium Reflect free backup at home' on Google and selecting the free edition for personal use.

What is the process of creating a system image with Macrium Reflect?

The process involves selecting the option to back up a local disk, choosing the location for the image file, and then running the backup to create an image of the operating system.

Why is it necessary to create a bootable rescue media?

A bootable rescue media is necessary to boot off the USB stick, load Macrium Reflect, and then restore the system image onto another system, as you cannot overwrite a running operating system.

What are the steps to restore the system image onto another system?

The steps include creating a bootable rescue media, booting from the USB stick, selecting the system image from an external drive, and then using the restore options in Macrium Reflect to overwrite the target system's drive.

What are some post-cloning tasks mentioned in the video?

Post-cloning tasks include changing the system hostname to avoid conflicts on the same network and renaming the PC to ensure it has a unique name.

How long does it typically take to create a system image with Macrium Reflect?

The time it takes to create a system image can vary based on the system's speed and the backup destination, but it usually takes between 20 minutes to an hour.

Outlines

00:00

🛠️ Setting Up System Cloning with Macrium Reflect

This paragraph introduces a tech video focused on using Macrium Reflect for a specific use case to save time. The narrator has a freshly built HP PC with an 8th generation Core i5 CPU, Windows 10, and all the necessary drivers and updates. The goal is to replicate this setup onto three identical PCs using Macrium Reflect. The video demonstrates how to download, install, and use the free version of the software for home users, and mentions the need for a commercial license for business use. The process involves creating a system image that can be restored easily, showcasing the software's capabilities for full system backup and restoration.

05:03

🖥️ Creating a System Image with Macrium Reflect

The second paragraph details the process of creating a system image using Macrium Reflect. The narrator guides the viewer through backing up the local disk to create an image stored on a D drive in a newly created folder named 'Macrium Backup'. Options for creating a backup job for incremental updates are discussed, but for this demonstration, a one-time backup is performed. The video emphasizes the speed and efficiency of the backup process, which took only 2 minutes and 11 seconds, and suggests purchasing a license if the software proves useful, highlighting its value for system backup in an office environment.

10:03

🔄 Restoring System Image for Cloning

In this paragraph, the focus shifts to restoring the system image created earlier onto another PC. The narrator explains the need for a bootable USB drive to run Macrium Reflect and restore the image, as it cannot be done over a running operating system. The process involves creating rescue media, selecting the appropriate drive and image file, and confirming the overwrite of the target volume. The narrator also provides a brief tutorial on how to change the system hostname after cloning to avoid conflicts on the same network, emphasizing the importance of renaming the cloned PC to maintain uniqueness.

15:04

🔄 Finalizing the System Cloning Process

The final paragraph wraps up the cloning process by emphasizing the need to change the system hostname to avoid network conflicts and to personalize the cloned system. The narrator demonstrates how to rename the PC through Windows settings and advises making a note of the new name. The video concludes with a reminder to subscribe to the channel and a note that while the software is freely available for home users, commercial users must purchase a license, as the narrator's environment has done.

Keywords

💡Macrium Reflect

Macrium Reflect is a disk imaging software that allows users to create a complete backup of their system, including the operating system, applications, and data. In the video, it is used to clone a fresh installation of Windows 10 onto other systems, demonstrating its utility in saving time when setting up multiple PCs with the same configuration.

💡System Image

A system image is a complete copy of a computer's hard drive, including the operating system, installed programs, and files. In the context of the video, creating a system image with Macrium Reflect is the first step in the cloning process, which is then used to restore the exact same setup on another machine.

💡Incremental Backup

Incremental backup is a method of backing up data where only the changes made since the last backup are saved. The video mentions setting Macrium Reflect to run as an incremental job, which would allow for continuous updates to the system image, ensuring that the backup is always current.

💡Home User

A home user refers to an individual who uses software for personal, non-commercial purposes. The script explains that Macrium Reflect is available for free for home users, emphasizing that this software can be utilized without cost for personal backup needs.

💡Commercial Environment

A commercial environment refers to a setting where business activities occur, typically requiring licensed software for legal use. The video clarifies that while home users can use the free version of Macrium Reflect, commercial users must purchase a license to use the software legally.

💡Workstation Edition

The workstation edition refers to a specific version of software designed for use in a work environment. In the script, it is mentioned that the commercial users have purchased the workstation edition of Macrium Reflect for their needs.

💡NAS Drive

A NAS (Network Attached Storage) drive is a dedicated file storage device connected to a network, allowing multiple users and devices to access and share files. The video script mentions cloning a system to a NAS drive as one of the use cases for the software.

💡USB Drive

A USB (Universal Serial Bus) drive is a portable storage device that can be connected to a computer to transfer or store data. In the video, a USB drive is used to store the system image created by Macrium Reflect and later to create a bootable rescue media for restoring the image onto another system.

💡Rescue Media

Rescue media is a bootable disk or USB drive that contains software for troubleshooting or restoring a system. The video demonstrates creating a bootable rescue media with Macrium Reflect to facilitate the restoration of the system image onto a new machine.

💡BitLocker

BitLocker is a data protection feature in Windows that encrypts the contents of a drive, securing it from unauthorized access. The script mentions adding BitLocker support to the rescue media, which would allow for unlocking encrypted volumes during the restore process.

💡MBR and UEFI

MBR (Master Boot Record) and UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) are two types of firmware interfaces for booting up a computer. The video script discusses enabling both MBR and UEFI in the rescue media to ensure compatibility with different system boot requirements.

💡Hostname

A hostname is the label assigned to a device connected to a network, used to identify it uniquely. The video mentions changing the system hostname after cloning to avoid conflicts on the same network, as the cloned system would initially have the same name as the original.

Highlights

Introduction to using Macrium Reflect for cloning a PC with a fresh copy of Windows 10.

The demonstration is for cloning an HP Core i5 machine with the 8th generation CPU.

A fresh, clean copy of Windows 10 with all HP drivers and updates installed is used as the base.

The goal is to replicate the operating system setup on three identical systems.

Macrium Reflect software can be used for free by home users, but commercial users need a license.

The software allows creating a system image for full system backup and easy restoration.

Instructions on downloading Macrium Reflect Free for home users are provided.

Demonstration of creating a system image using the software on a running Windows system.

Explanation of the process to create a drive image stored on an external drive.

The image creation process takes between 20 minutes to an hour depending on system speed.

A recommendation to purchase a license if the software proves useful.

The process of creating a bootable rescue media for system restoration.

How to use the bootable USB to restore the system image onto another system.

The importance of changing the system hostname after cloning to avoid network conflicts.

Final steps include renaming the PC and restarting it to complete the cloning process.

A reminder that commercial users must purchase the software, while home users can use it for free.

The video concludes with a thank you and an invitation to subscribe for more content.

Transcripts

welcome to another tech video so today

we're going to be looking at macrium

reflect and a specific use case that

we've got that um

enables us to save a huge amount of time

so

we've got um

we've got a pc over here this is an hp

core i5 machine eighth generation cpu

and what we've got is

we've built one from scratch so fresh

copy of windows 10 we've loaded all of

the hp drivers all of the windows

updates

and it's a fresh clean copy

and what we want to do is we've got

three others exactly the same and we

want to load

the operating system

that's completed on here onto another

system

[Music]

um in fact onto the other three systems

and we're going to show you how you can

do that today with some software from

macrium

if you're using in a commercial

environment you will need to purchase a

license however if you are a home user

then

the software is available for free and

it allows you to create a

system image

a bit like a backup of your of your

environment so you can set this to run

as an incremental job and gives you the

ability to

have a full system backup of your pc

that can be restored very easily we're

going to show you how you can do a

restore as well

first thing we want to do is we want to

go and get the software so we're going

to go to

google we're going to search for

macrium

reflect free

back up at home and you want to use

if you're in a commercial environment

obviously you need to buy the software

so we are using it in a commercial

environment so we've purchased

the

workstation edition

but as a home user you can use the free

edition to create

images of

your windows os so we're going to select

just to show you we're going to select

the reflect 8 free so we're going to

download

and we're going to select i need a

personal license and we're going to

select continue

and then we're going to install the

software

i'm going to select make sure it says

free up there

run the installer directly after

downloading perfect and then we're going

to say download

and then we're going to

install the software

just follow the guides through

so as a home user you would select home

and we're going to agree to the software

saying that yes we are a home user

don't want to register it

and then install

i'm going to say launch now

i'm going to close our browser down

there we go

right so this is a demonstration for

home users this is not to be used in a

commercial environment you would need to

buy the software like we have for our

environment so

what i'm going to show you today is how

you can use their free offering

to clone your existing windows computer

onto something like a nas drive or in

our instance as you can see here we've

got a usb

drive connected to the pc

so there are a couple of ways of doing

it and we're just going to show you

today the way that you would do it using

the software on your running windows

system so we are going to select the

option here

and that option is we're going to back

up a local disk

and we're going to create an image of it

we're not going to clone it we're going

to create an image of it and we're going

to use that image later

so we're going to click on image this

disk

and then we're going to select for

the folder location so it's going to be

on our d drive

and we are going to create a new folder

and we're going to call it

macrium

backup

and say okay

and that's going to create a drive image

of the operating system and it's going

to store it into this drive here there's

no other options that you need to set so

we're going to select next

and we are not creating a template for

any of this so we're just going to

untick all of these options here because

this gives you the ability to create a

backup job

if you want to have it running nightly

for instance to take a drive image of

your system and it would update it just

like a normal backup does

so we're going to select next

and then we're going to click on finish

we're going to untick this box because

we don't want to save it and we want to

run this back up now

so what this is doing this is taking a

sector by sector clone or image it's

cloning your drive and putting it into

an image that you can then use to

restore onto another system and we will

show you what we're going to be doing

with that a bit later on in the meantime

we're just going to let this one run

through

depends on the speed of your system of

course on how long it takes but normally

by experience this takes between

between

20 minutes and an hour depending on what

you're backing it up to and how you're

backing it up

all i suggest is

if you find the software useful do

purchase a license for it it is a

fantastic piece of software

we use it for backing up

our system here in the office and

that

has a nightly backup basically it takes

a drive image

and updates that and then we use

additional backup for data as well

okay so that was actually real time and

that was extremely fast so let's have a

look to see how long that took

two minutes 11 seconds to do uh the

whole system

now we're going to close this down and

we are going to

just quickly show you the backup on the

drive it's on the x external drive

itself

that was under

macrium backup

and there's our backup image so we're

going to use that on uh and restore this

onto another system now so we're going

to close this machine down we're going

to attach the usb drive to into the

other system and then we're going to

load the software again on the other

system and then do a system restore

okay so here we are on our system that

we're going to clone our data to so

just to make it clear we've got an hp

desktop that we've already

created our drive image and we've got an

exactly the same model of hp desktop

that we're going to be restoring to

now obviously you'll with the running

operating system you're not going to be

able to use the software to restore

directly over that operating system

because obviously the os is going to be

running but what you want to do is you

want to come in to your macrium software

you want to get yourself a usb stick and

you want to insert the usb stick into

the one of the usb ports in the machine

and then what we're going to do is we're

going to click on what's called

rescue so this is we're going to create

a bootable rescue media and the reason

we need to do this is we need to boot

off that usb stick to load macrium and

then we're going to load the image from

the drive that we've created it on and

that will overwrite the operating system

on the current disk obviously you cannot

overwrite a running operating system so

we're going to click on rescue

that's going to build a rescue media so

we're going to say

it's going to create the software in a

windows 10 environment

and what we're going to do is we're

going to create it on our e drive

and we're going to enable it to be

multi-boot so mbr and uefi so that means

that it will take care of legacy system

boot as well let's have a look at the

advanced options

so we're going to be using 64-bit

and i think probably what we'll do is

we're going to add bit locker support

and automatically unlock bitlocker

volumes

okay we're going to enable legacy efi

screen resolution support

we're not going to enable anything else

and that's it we're going to say

we're going to actually move along to

drive devices and drivers that's fine

and

click on ok

and then we're going to select build

and

yes it is only going to be used for

non-commercial use because we're only

going to be using it at home or you will

be we have a

we have a license to be able to do this

because we've actually bought software

in

a work environment so we use a business

based version of this that we've paid

for

we're going to say ok to that

that's going to create a bootable usb

drive

takes a little while

and then we have our rescue media

created so we click on ok

click on close

close down the software now

what we're going to do is we're going to

shut down the machine

okay so with the uh with the bootable

drive in place you want to power up the

machine

and then we're going to boot from our

drive so we're going to go into

boot device options

i'm going to go into the usb stick that

we just created

now while that's booting you can now add

your external

usb drive

that you've got your drive image on

okay so here we've got our system so

macrium this is so as you can see here

we are going to

look at existing backups so we're going

to browse for an image file we're going

to go to our

this is our

this is our drive here local drive f

we're gonna go into there we're gonna go

into macrium backup

and here is our image that we created

earlier

so we're gonna double click that to

select it and we're now gonna go in and

we're gonna use the restore options

we're going to click on restore

and we're going to select our drive to

restore to

and

this is our drive that we're interested

in here this is our external usb drive

and this is our bootable drive so we

want to overwrite this drive

and what we do is we delete all of the

partitions first now you do want to

double check and make sure that

the drive that you are about to

overwrite is the correct one so we're

going to delete the partitions on that

so we've got our

drive image up here and we've got our

drive in the system that we're going to

restore it to

we're going to click on next and then

we're going to click on finish and it's

going to confirm if we want to overwrite

or it should do there we go

we're going to say yes all target volume

data will be overwritten confirm to

proceed

we're going to continue

and that will then go through and

restore everything that's on our

image

onto the drive that's in the system

so that's the restore completed so now

what we can do is

simply

click on ok

close

and then we're going to shut down the

system

and now we're going to remove the usb

drive bootable usb drive and we're going

to remove the external usb disk which is

now done

and then we're going to power up the

system

and we're going to log in

and there we have

a fully restored system as you can see

here it's the uh macrame reflect that we

originally put in now so

once you've cloned your system there are

a couple of things that you need to do

so the first one is you need to change

the system hostname because it's going

to be on the same network

um your computer is going to have the

the same name so we want to go in

and

we want to have a look at that and we

want to rename this pc so to do that you

go into settings and about and then

click on rename this pc

and it gives you the current name here

so what we're going to do is we're going

to call it

desktop

and we're going to call it something

completely different

in roughly the same format so

like that

just make something up but obviously

make a note of it because you don't want

to

inadvertently create a name that's

already in use

i'm going to click on next and then it's

going to want to restart the pc more

than likely yeah there we go so we're

going to restart the pc again

and there we go that's us booted back up

into windows and we're going to log in

and there we are with our new uh

computer name

so if you found that video useful give

it a double thumbs up don't forget to

subscribe to the channel i just wanted

to point out that

if you are a commercial user you must

buy this software like we've done

if you are a home user it's

readily available to use

and

we've run through all of the options for

you there so

yeah just want to say thanks for

watching and we'll see you in the next

one