Solved Making a Macrium Image while actively using applications on the same drive.


I found it to be quite interesting that I can make a full disk Macrium Image at the same time that I'm actively using my C: drive for other work. At completion I get a message that making the image was made successfully.

I'm using the Dell laptop you see in "My Computers" below which has only a single 1TB SSD. My current Windows 11 Pro build is 22621.819. I don't do Insider beta's and I don't use any of the popular software to make Windows 11 work or act like Windows 10.

What is your experience doing this? Is there ever a problem?
Hi there

I believe Macrium uses a "Locking mechanism" and VSS so you can still run applications while using macrium. I'm not sure though if you save any data to disk while making an image whether those changes are saved or not. My gut feel is that while backing up / copying systems or data it's better to not use anything thats likely to change the state of the machine.

Some databases like MySQL / Mariadb can be backed up while there's active queries taking place as any updates are done via "logging" or journalling -- some applications in commercial arenas e.g cloud computing have to run 24/7 and of course things like AZURE etc have to be backed up by the cloud providers.

Taking backups when you don't need to use the machine is IMO the best time to do it.

Cheers
jimbo
 

My Computer

System One

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    Windows XP,7,10,11 Linux Arch Linux
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    2 X Intel i7
check out this hidden gem called disk2vhd :) simplest way to do a VSS copy while still using your computer. free, faster, way less CPU intensive. When it's done, you can right click mount it or extract it's contents directly from the output file.

 
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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win11
check out this hidden gem called disk2vhd :) simplest way to do a VSS copy while still using your computer. free, faster, way less CPU intensive. When it's done, you can right click mount it or extract it's contents directly from the output file.

Messing around creating a vhd means extra ops etc -- incidentally if the computer is short of disk space as well then this isn't a good idea either as the vhd file will be almost as large as the data its being created from - in addition to the data needed for the original backup image from macrium or whatever. In any case a Macrium "bog standard" image can be mounted and data extracted from it via File explorer if required.

If you also need to create "Virtual Machines" from a physical one -- the disk2vhd method has about 4 zillion and one problems with it -- I used to use that years ago and it always fell foul of something or other -- there's a load of better ways to do it -- creating a Virtual Machine from a physical one (P2V conversion) is one of the easiest things you can do on almost any VM software.

Simply use the VM software wizard (most VM programs have a simple method to create a VM) to specify your disk size add whatever "virtual hardware" you need - the wizard can help there, and just restore your physical OS image into the VM.

The inital boot into the VM when creating it should be a stand alone bootable ISO image or USB device containing the stand alone recovery program and the image. Most VM's also can attach a Windows created partition which contains the OS image as a "physical file" so restoring is really "Seemples".

Cheers
jimbo
 
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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows XP,7,10,11 Linux Arch Linux
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    2 X Intel i7
Maybe it's my mainframe dinosaur background (typically backups are done when applications are quiet) but I schedule my Macrium backups to run overnight when the machine is idle and then shut the computer down. That way I know the exact status of everything when the backup was taken. Old dog versus new trick kind of thing. :-)

Rob
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Professional
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Digital Storm VELOX
    CPU
    Intel Core i9 11900K
    Motherboard
    ASUS PRIME Z590-P
    Memory
    64GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
    Sound Card
    Realtek onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer R221Q 21.5"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    2 x Samsung SSD 990 EVO Plus (1 TB)
    2 x Seagate ST4000NE001 (4 TB)
    PSU
    None
    Case
    VELOX
    Cooling
    Cooler Master
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Kensington trackball
    Browser
    Firefox, Chrome
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, Malwarebytes
it's a bit fiddly and requires Regedit

We have known about that for years, it is impractical.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Win7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    2x8gb 3200mhz
    Monitor(s) Displays
    benq gw2480
    PSU
    bequiet pure power 11 400CM
    Cooling
    cryorig m9i
  • Operating System
    win7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    pentium g5400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    1x8gb 2400
    PSU
    xfx pro 450
Hi there

I believe Macrium uses a "Locking mechanism" and VSS so you can still run applications while using macrium. I'm not sure though if you save any data to disk while making an image whether those changes are saved or not. My gut feel is that while backing up / copying systems or data it's better to not use anything thats likely to change the state of the machine.

Some databases like MySQL / Mariadb can be backed up while there's active queries taking place as any updates are done via "logging" or journalling -- some applications in commercial arenas e.g cloud computing have to run 24/7 and of course things like AZURE etc have to be backed up by the cloud providers.

Taking backups when you don't need to use the machine is IMO the best time to do it.

Cheers
jimbo
See my earlier post about this. You can make as many changes as you want while the backup takes place. Those changes will not be reflected in the backup that is currently in progress, but will be reflected in the active filesystem.

Example: My backup includes several large database files. I start a backup. While the backup is in progress, I make major changes to those database files. Result: NONE of the changes made will be reflected in the backup, but will be reflected in the active filesystem.

This all works with pointers. Once you understand the inner workings it's actually really simple.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Win11 Pro 23H2
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Home Built
    CPU
    Intel i7-11700K
    Motherboard
    ASUS Prime Z590-A
    Memory
    128GB Crucial Ballistix 3200MHz DRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    No GPU - CPU graphics only (for now)
    Sound Card
    Realtek (on motherboard)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP Envy 32
    Screen Resolution
    2560 x 1440
    Hard Drives
    1 x 1TB NVMe Gen 4 x 4 SSD
    1 x 2TB NVMe Gen 3 x 4 SSD
    2 x 512GB 2.5" SSDs
    2 x 8TB HD
    PSU
    Corsair HX850i
    Case
    Corsair iCue 5000X RGB
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black cooler + 10 case fans
    Keyboard
    CODE backlit mechanical keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1Gb Up / 1 Gb Down
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    Additional options installed:
    WiFi 6E PCIe adapter
    ASUS ThunderboltEX 4 PCIe adapter
  • Operating System
    Win11 Pro 23H2
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo ThinkBook 13x Gen 2
    CPU
    Intel i7-1255U
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Iris Xe Graphics
    Sound Card
    Realtek® ALC3306-CG codec
    Monitor(s) Displays
    13.3-inch IPS Display
    Screen Resolution
    WQXGA (2560 x 1600)
    Hard Drives
    2 TB 4 x 4 NVMe SSD
    PSU
    USB-C / Thunderbolt 4 Power / Charging
    Mouse
    Buttonless Glass Precision Touchpad
    Keyboard
    Backlit, spill resistant keyboard
    Internet Speed
    1Gb Up / 1Gb Down
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    WiFi 6e / Bluetooth 5.1 / Facial Recognition / Fingerprint Sensor / ToF (Time of Flight) Human Presence Sensor
We have known about that for years, it is impractical.
practical enough for my purposes, I have just the one file I need to exclude.
Not really practical for multiple files/folders though, there I'd agree.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Home
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 3 A315-23
    CPU
    AMD Athlon Silver 3050U
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon Graphics
    Monitor(s) Displays
    laptop screen
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768 native resolution, up to 2560x1440 with Radeon Virtual Super Resolution
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung EVO 870 SSD
    Internet Speed
    50 Mbps
    Browser
    Edge, Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    fully 'Windows 11 ready' laptop. Windows 10 C: partition migrated from my old unsupported 'main machine' then upgraded to 11. A test migration ran Insider builds for 2 months. When 11 was released on 5th October it was re-imaged back to 10 and was offered the upgrade in Windows Update on 20th October. Windows Update offered the 22H2 Feature Update on 20th September 2022. It got the 23H2 Feature Update on 4th November 2023 through Windows Update.

    My SYSTEM THREE is a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM, 512GB ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro (and all my Hyper-V VMs).

    My SYSTEM FOUR is a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e 20DA, Celeron N2930, 4GB RAM, 256GB ssd. Unsupported device: currently running Win10 Pro, plus Win11 Pro RTM and Insider Beta as native boot vhdx.

    My SYSTEM FIVE is a Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1, Pentium Silver N5030, 4GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro, plus the Insider Beta, Dev, and Canary builds as a native boot .vhdx.
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Lattitude E4310
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i5-520M
    Motherboard
    0T6M8G
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics card(s)
    (integrated graphics) Intel HD Graphics
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    500GB Crucial MX500 SSD
    Browser
    Firefox, Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    unsupported machine: Legacy bios, MBR, TPM 1.2, upgraded from W10 to W11 using W10/W11 hybrid install media workaround. In-place upgrade to 22H2 using ISO and a workaround. Feature Update to 23H2 by manually installing the Enablement Package.

    My SYSTEM THREE is a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM, 512GB ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro (and all my Hyper-V VMs).

    My SYSTEM FOUR is a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e 20DA, Celeron N2930, 4GB RAM, 256GB ssd. Unsupported device: currently running Win10 Pro, plus Win11 Pro RTM and Insider Beta as native boot vhdx.

    My SYSTEM FIVE is a Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1, Pentium Silver N5030, 4GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro, plus the Insider Beta, Dev, and Canary builds as a native boot .vhdx.
You also need to be a little bit careful with exclusion of folders / file via the registry. The initial timeout period within which the exclusions are applied is fairly brief. I cannot recall the timeout off the top of my head. Generally, it's only a problem if you try to exclude many thousands of folders or files, just be aware that there are practical limitations. I suspect that this is likely the reason that many image backup programs don't include in in their GUI.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Win11 Pro 23H2
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Home Built
    CPU
    Intel i7-11700K
    Motherboard
    ASUS Prime Z590-A
    Memory
    128GB Crucial Ballistix 3200MHz DRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    No GPU - CPU graphics only (for now)
    Sound Card
    Realtek (on motherboard)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP Envy 32
    Screen Resolution
    2560 x 1440
    Hard Drives
    1 x 1TB NVMe Gen 4 x 4 SSD
    1 x 2TB NVMe Gen 3 x 4 SSD
    2 x 512GB 2.5" SSDs
    2 x 8TB HD
    PSU
    Corsair HX850i
    Case
    Corsair iCue 5000X RGB
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black cooler + 10 case fans
    Keyboard
    CODE backlit mechanical keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1Gb Up / 1 Gb Down
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    Additional options installed:
    WiFi 6E PCIe adapter
    ASUS ThunderboltEX 4 PCIe adapter
  • Operating System
    Win11 Pro 23H2
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo ThinkBook 13x Gen 2
    CPU
    Intel i7-1255U
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Iris Xe Graphics
    Sound Card
    Realtek® ALC3306-CG codec
    Monitor(s) Displays
    13.3-inch IPS Display
    Screen Resolution
    WQXGA (2560 x 1600)
    Hard Drives
    2 TB 4 x 4 NVMe SSD
    PSU
    USB-C / Thunderbolt 4 Power / Charging
    Mouse
    Buttonless Glass Precision Touchpad
    Keyboard
    Backlit, spill resistant keyboard
    Internet Speed
    1Gb Up / 1Gb Down
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    WiFi 6e / Bluetooth 5.1 / Facial Recognition / Fingerprint Sensor / ToF (Time of Flight) Human Presence Sensor
works fine with wimlib. I use a lot of exclusions. In the example above, hundreds of thousands of files were excluded.

My normal wimscript.ini contains over 140 lines of unneeded detritus to exclude. In the example above I also excluded two entire operating systems which were on the source partition in addition to the os on the root, which is the only thing that was copied ( minus the detritus) .
 
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My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Win7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    2x8gb 3200mhz
    Monitor(s) Displays
    benq gw2480
    PSU
    bequiet pure power 11 400CM
    Cooling
    cryorig m9i
  • Operating System
    win7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    pentium g5400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    1x8gb 2400
    PSU
    xfx pro 450
works fine with wimlib. I use a lot of exclusions. In the example above, hundreds of thousands of files were excluded.

My normal wimscript.ini contains dozens of lines of unneeded detritus to exclude. In the example above I also excluded two entire operating systems which were on the source partition in addition to the os on the root, which is the only thing that was copied.
Yeah, it's not typically a problem unless you have a complex directory structure that is slow to traverse. I just thought it worth mentioning so that people can keep it in mind for troubleshooting purposes. It's also possible that Microsoft may have improved this with the past couple of years or so.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Win11 Pro 23H2
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Home Built
    CPU
    Intel i7-11700K
    Motherboard
    ASUS Prime Z590-A
    Memory
    128GB Crucial Ballistix 3200MHz DRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    No GPU - CPU graphics only (for now)
    Sound Card
    Realtek (on motherboard)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP Envy 32
    Screen Resolution
    2560 x 1440
    Hard Drives
    1 x 1TB NVMe Gen 4 x 4 SSD
    1 x 2TB NVMe Gen 3 x 4 SSD
    2 x 512GB 2.5" SSDs
    2 x 8TB HD
    PSU
    Corsair HX850i
    Case
    Corsair iCue 5000X RGB
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black cooler + 10 case fans
    Keyboard
    CODE backlit mechanical keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1Gb Up / 1 Gb Down
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    Additional options installed:
    WiFi 6E PCIe adapter
    ASUS ThunderboltEX 4 PCIe adapter
  • Operating System
    Win11 Pro 23H2
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo ThinkBook 13x Gen 2
    CPU
    Intel i7-1255U
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Iris Xe Graphics
    Sound Card
    Realtek® ALC3306-CG codec
    Monitor(s) Displays
    13.3-inch IPS Display
    Screen Resolution
    WQXGA (2560 x 1600)
    Hard Drives
    2 TB 4 x 4 NVMe SSD
    PSU
    USB-C / Thunderbolt 4 Power / Charging
    Mouse
    Buttonless Glass Precision Touchpad
    Keyboard
    Backlit, spill resistant keyboard
    Internet Speed
    1Gb Up / 1Gb Down
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    WiFi 6e / Bluetooth 5.1 / Facial Recognition / Fingerprint Sensor / ToF (Time of Flight) Human Presence Sensor
I think it depends how the program works. Using my usual 140 line exclusion list, Wimlib will scan for about a minute before starting to create the image

When I added the three extra folders, wimlib took much longer scanning. I didnt time it, but I would guess it was scanning for about 3-4 minutes.
I think it must be listing all the files inside the folders, which is a massive number because two of the extra folders contained operating systems.

From memory, Diskgenius doesn't seem to take as long if a folder with massive number of files is excluded, presumably operating in a different way.

But diskgenius will only do that when making a partition image.

Wimlib can do it either for a volume image or (by using JFX nice program) it can do the same for direct copy to another partition, which skips the intermediate step of making a wim file.
 
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My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Win7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    2x8gb 3200mhz
    Monitor(s) Displays
    benq gw2480
    PSU
    bequiet pure power 11 400CM
    Cooling
    cryorig m9i
  • Operating System
    win7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    pentium g5400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    1x8gb 2400
    PSU
    xfx pro 450
With Mariadb - if you restore a macrium backup you have to replay the logs between the macrium restore and the current time/date to get the latest state of the DB. It's usually better (where possible) to shut down the DB before taking your backups -- or to exclude the DB from the backup and backup the DB separately via its own standard backup and restore utilities such as DBDump etc.

Obviously things like Banks, airline sites, forex etc have to run 24/7 and have huge databases handling 1000's of queries a second or more - and it gets even more complex if installing new versions, or releases - as even if a roll back is needed - you can't "lose" transactions completed before the roll back.

I'd imagine for those hosting websites - they'd shut down their website while performing backups too.
For typical home computers and small websites taking a backup shouldn't take more than around 30 mins so it seems IMO sensible to do this with nothing else running even if in theory its not necessary.

Cheers
jimbo
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows XP,7,10,11 Linux Arch Linux
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    2 X Intel i7
Messing around creating a vhd means extra ops etc -- incidentally if the computer is short of disk space as well then this isn't a good idea either as the vhd file will be almost as large as the data its being created from - in addition to the data needed for the original backup image from macrium or whatever. In any case a Macrium "bog standard" image can be mounted and data extracted from it via File explorer if required.

If you also need to create "Virtual Machines" from a physical one -- the disk2vhd method has about 4 zillion and one problems with it -- I used to use that years ago and it always fell foul of something or other -- there's a load of better ways to do it -- creating a Virtual Machine from a physical one (P2V conversion) is one of the easiest things you can do on almost any VM software.

Simply use the VM software wizard (most VM programs have a simple method to create a VM) to specify your disk size add whatever "virtual hardware" you need - the wizard can help there, and just restore your physical OS image into the VM.

The inital boot into the VM when creating it should be a stand alone bootable ISO image or USB device containing the stand alone recovery program and the image. Most VM's also can attach a Windows created partition which contains the OS image as a "physical file" so restoring is really "Seemples".

Cheers
jimbo
Thanks for the info. Im still a bit confused on how's a macrium output different from vhd file functionaly? Last time I tried to install macrium I remember it introduced a whole ton of other stuff with it and there were a dozen options to configure weres disk2vhd is 3 buttons. Wouldn't the files be equally as large for a backup of the same size?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    win11

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