Windows-11 Complete System Backup and Restore not using Macrium Reflect

Hi,

I always made a Complete System-Image Backup and Restore using Macrium Reflect Free
A Complete System-Image in my case is a Complete Full SSD Backup to an external USB-Drive (Complete System en all Files and Data)

Because Macrium Reflect stopped with their Free Program I am looking for a good (Free) Alternative

I want to use it for 3 actions:

1. A Complete System-Image Backup (My complete SSD) to an external USB-Drive
2. Create a Windows-11 Recovery USB-Stick, in Case I want to Restore the earlier created System-image and Windows cannot be started from the Laptop

3. In Case I want to Restore the Created System-Image I can than choose between 2 methods:

1. If Windows is still working on my laptop, I can do a complete Restore from the External created USB-Drive
2. If Windows is not working on my Laptop, I can Start Windows from the Windows-Recovery-Stick and afterwards I can do the Restore from the earlier created External
USB-Drive

Has anyone ideas or suggestions how I can do this Backup and Restore with alternate free software besides Macrium Reflect?

Thanks

ariespaan said:

Hi,

Because Macrium Reflect stopped with their Free Program I am looking for a good (Free) Alternative

Click to expand...

You can use the Macrium software for ever. I think you just might not receive any future updates.
Others here use Aomei Backupper 6 Standard.
I am sure there will be more suggestions.

Macrium works very well
I am tasting EaseUS Todo Backup

Have you ever tried Acronis? it is TOP
or a very good solution for you would be
Reboot Restore Rx
If you don't like big programs
then go with DriveImage XML very very good Program and super Light

Acronis backup software is poorly engineered and supported and can be hard to remove

ariespaan said:

Hi,

I always made a Complete System-Image Backup and Restore using Macrium Reflect Free
A Complete System-Image in my case is a Complete Full SSD Backup to an external USB-Drive (Complete System en all Files and Data)

Because Macrium Reflect stopped with their Free Program I am looking for a good (Free) Alternative

I want to use it for 3 actions:

1. A Complete System-Image Backup (My complete SSD) to an external USB-Drive
2. Create a Windows-11 Recovery USB-Stick, in Case I want to Restore the earlier created System-image and Windows cannot be started from the Laptop

3. In Case I want to Restore the Created System-Image I can than choose between 2 methods:

1. If Windows is still working on my laptop, I can do a complete Restore from the External created USB-Drive
2. If Windows is not working on my Laptop, I can Start Windows from the Windows-Recovery-Stick and afterwards I can do the Restore from the earlier created External
USB-Drive

Has anyone ideas or suggestions how I can do this Backup and Restore with alternate free software besides Macrium Reflect?

Thanks

Click to expand...

There's quite a few ways - although a bit more work than the nice simple Macrium Free software.

Stand alone version of Gparted will copy an entire disk or partitions. It's free but it's based on Linux -- however after boot the interface is identical to many other Windows partition managers -- select partitions you want to copy and paste to external usb (note though it will show partitions and disks as /dev/sdxxx rather than "C,D," etc. Also to copy the whole disk in its entirety regardless of file systems start the terminal from with gparted with the command dd if=/dev/sdx of=/dev/sdy bs=1024M status=progress. This will copy the whole disk to the other disk ("clone") but there's no compression - it just physically copies the entire source disk to the target disk.

You can then restore as well by again by using gparted and copying the external drive partitions to the internal ones.

A windows method could be done if you can use physical vhdx files -- have your entire disk as a single vhdx file as it makes copying etc easier then you can simply save and restore the vhdx file.

there's a load of info on these forums on creating and using physical vhdx files.

Also keep a windows install usb stick so if you need to recover your system simply from the windows command line (repair system) copy the vhdx file back to your disk and re-install the bootloader via bcdboot.exe.

I wouldn't bother with Easus or acronis for this purpose. Using vhdx files or gparted IMO is free, not subject to whims of manufacturers wanting you to "go pro" --i.e pay and will be guaranteed to work with all new releases of Windows.

Cheers
jimbo

ariespaan said:

2. If Windows is not working on my Laptop, I can Start Windows from the Windows-Recovery-Stick

Click to expand...

This will not be possible. Either Windows can start or it cannot. You cannot run it from elsewhere.
If what you are thinking of is getting access to rescue your own files before restoring a system image then that can be done from, for example, a Macrium boot disk. It has its own explorer tool and a command prompt.
If what you are thinking of is doing Startup repairs then they can be done by the Macrium boot disk & by the Windows installation disk. Macrium users say their tool is better than the Windows one but there is never any guarantee that startup repairs will be successful whatever tool is used.

ariespaan said:

3. In Case I want to Restore the Created System-Image I can than choose between 2 methods:
1. If Windows is still working on my laptop, I can do a complete Restore from the External created USB-Drive
2. ... I can do the Restore from the earlier created External USB-Drive

Click to expand...

So it is just one method but that should not be a problem for you.


All the best,
Denis

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jimbo45 said:

there's a load of info on these forums on creating and using physical vhdx files.

Click to expand...

What do these physical VHDX files look like? How heavy would a 500GB one be?

kelper said:

What do these physical VHDX files look like? How heavy would a 500GB one be?

Click to expand...

Just a file with a .vhdx extension. A dynamic vhdx expands to the size of the used data it contains. You can mount a .vhdx as a virtual drive. Hyper-V uses .vhdx for its VM's disk. Disk 1 here is a 126GB .vhdx virtual drive, but it's not very full, its .vhdx occupies less than 17GB of actual disk space.

ariespaan said:

Because Macrium Reflect stopped with their Free Program I am looking for a good (Free) Alternative

I want to use it for 3 actions:

1. A Complete System-Image Backup (My complete SSD) to an external USB-Drive
2. Create a Windows-11 Recovery USB-Stick, in Case I want to Restore the earlier created System-image and Windows cannot be started from the Laptop

3. In Case I want to Restore the Created System-Image I can than choose between 2 methods:

1. If Windows is still working on my laptop, I can do a complete Restore from the External created USB-Drive
2. If Windows is not working on my Laptop, I can Start Windows from the Windows-Recovery-Stick and afterwards I can do the Restore from the earlier created External
USB-Drive

Has anyone ideas or suggestions how I can do this Backup and Restore with alternate free software besides Macrium Reflect?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Those requirements are handled very nicely by a FREE program under development called Hasleo Backup Suite, with a Public release at v3 and a just finished Beta (to be released) at v4. You may peruse its features HERE. The Beta is available from their Forums HERE.

I have been evaluating this effort since December 2022 and at the upcoming v4 release, other than image protection (MIG in Macrium REFLECT PAID), this application contains just about every feature of a Macrium REFLECT PAID license. It's definitely worth looking into.

ariespaan said:

Hi,

I always made a Complete System-Image Backup and Restore using Macrium Reflect Free
A Complete System-Image in my case is a Complete Full SSD Backup to an external USB-Drive (Complete System en all Files and Data)

Because Macrium Reflect stopped with their Free Program I am looking for a good (Free) Alternative

I want to use it for 3 actions:

1. A Complete System-Image Backup (My complete SSD) to an external USB-Drive
2. Create a Windows-11 Recovery USB-Stick, in Case I want to Restore the earlier created System-image and Windows cannot be started from the Laptop

3. In Case I want to Restore the Created System-Image I can than choose between 2 methods:

1. If Windows is still working on my laptop, I can do a complete Restore from the External created USB-Drive
2. If Windows is not working on my Laptop, I can Start Windows from the Windows-Recovery-Stick and afterwards I can do the Restore from the earlier created External
USB-Drive

Has anyone ideas or suggestions how I can do this Backup and Restore with alternate free software besides Macrium Reflect?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Just to add my 2 cents, hoping not to step on others toes . . .

1. A Complete System-Image Backup (My complete SSD) to an external USB-Drive
Halseo Backup has this function just like Macrium. I'd just replace your verbage external USB-Drive, with "Rescue USB" which you should have created after installing the program.

2. Create a Windows-11 Recovery USB-Stick, in Case I want to Restore the earlier created System-image and Windows cannot be started from the Laptop
Halseo Backup has this function just like Macrium.

3. In Case I want to Restore the Created System-Image I can than choose between 2 methods:
A. If Windows is still working on my laptop, I can do a complete Restore from the External created USB-Drive
I think you meant to write (and sorry if I'm wrong) "do a complete restore from within a working functional laptop" Both Macrium and Hasleo do this. While your Windows is working fine just start the backup program and start the restore When you begin a restore attempt, the program will want you to reboot Windows so that it can run its own Rescue environment as it cannot restore inside of Windows. You do not use a Restore Disk in this case.

B. If Windows is not working on my Laptop, I can Start Windows from the Windows-Recovery-Stick and afterwards I can do the Restore from the earlier created External USB-Drive
Both Macrium and Hasleo do this, as explained in Question # 2's answer above.

I'll add that Hasleo Backup, to me, is the back up program that seems to mimic the functionality of Macrium most closely, so I recommend that Free backup solution.
John

How to use the DISM command for this purpose:

It works, but the bootable Rescue Media ISO file of Acronis True Image 2021 (not to be confused with Acronis True Image 2021 itself...) copied onto a USB flash drive that has previously already been formatted with Ventoy also works great due to having several more useful (IMO and IME) features than even the paid version of Macrium Reflect has. As a matter of fact Macrium Reflect adds a huge ton of unnecessary bloat, and has proven to be significantly less reliable, when compared to the bootable Rescue Media ISO file of Acronis True Image 2021.

Here is a direct download link to the free (Linux-based) version of the bootable Rescue Media ISO file of Acronis True Image 2021,

Ventoy can be found here:
https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_start.html
https://www.ventoy.net/en/download.html

Drive Snapshot has been around for a long time and still works very well: Drive Snapshot - Disk Image Backup for Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/X64

hdmi said:

the bootable Rescue Media ISO file of Acronis True Image 2021

Click to expand...

I agree that Acronis True Image is good.

hdmi said:

USB flash drive that has previously already been formatted with Ventoy

Click to expand...

Ventoy is not obligatory. The drive can be Fat32 formatted by Windows.


All the best,
Denis

Try3 said:

I agree that Acronis True Image is good.

Click to expand...

Personally, I, do not agree that Acronis True Image is good. That in fact is why I recommend only the bootable Rescue Media ISO file of Acronis True Image.

Try3 said:

Ventoy is not obligatory. The drive can be Fat32 formatted by Windows.

Click to expand...

That's correct. Ventoy is entirely optional, just like Rufus. But Ventoy saves the effort of having to extract the contents of a bootable ISO file (or other type of bootable image file like, e.g., a WIM file e.g. WinRE.wim) to the root of your USB flash drive (or USB HDD/SSD) each time when you want to boot into a different bootable ISO (or other) file. This is because Ventoy lets you boot straight into almost any bootable image file you want. In addition, you can put multiple bootable image files on the same USB storage device, and also you can put other data on it like backups and/or whatever you want on it. You never need to format the USB storage device again. Whereas Rufus always formats the USB storage device before making it bootable so, as a result of this all data previously stored on it will be gone each time. Put simply, Ventoy compares to Rufus like a round wheel compares to a square-shaped wheel.

There is also Rescuezilla. Very easy to use. See here :