cloning or imaging which is best for restore in the even of hdd failure

[Samson]

Get the drive replaced or a refund under warranty, maybe print out the SeaTools log to support your case.

[jraju]

Hi, Samson,
i had fixed the error. It was a VSS error which i never heard of. I just went to the macrium help pages and found out a registry tweak. By creating a dword key in hkcu/software/macrium/reflect/vss with 0 value. This would enable the macrium use the vss of service of its own ,instead of VSS of windows services. Then there was no error in getting the c drive of my pc also.
This instruction should have been incorporated in main menu as the most probable cause of hanging while image creation is the VSS service. If the vss services of windows get corrupted, then it will hang in 4 percent for even an hour, without exiting the program.
                           Two questions :
                            If i take a back up of other drives, using macro reflect, the file size gets shrinked/ Is it correct? When i backup c: plus reserved partition, which is about 54 gb, the resultant image is only 17 gb.
                            How to know, that my vss service is working properly. I just copied the reg download to fix the vss problem. But how to know that it is working properly or having errors ? Will it affect system restore also? my vss writer thro cmd is microsoft

[Samson]

By default Macrium reflect uses medium compression, and intelligent sector copy. Meaning it ignores pagefile and hibernation file. The resultant image will be smaller as it is compressed.

You can check for VSS errors in the logs. see screenshot.

[jraju]

Hi, Thanks . Will try . Is there any thing to know, if my windows vss service is working properly?, is there any tool in shanes all in one repair program?
If i copy the other drives to ext.hdd, then would the hidden system files also will be copied? I am asking because,  it stops at system volume information folder , if i resort to robocopy with time stamps without exiting ,getting in to the loop, waiting for 30 seconds and then trying ..never ending
If i make my folder options , view menu  and check do not show hidden files, would that get copied to the ext. hdd.?

[Samson]

If you select ALL partitions on a HDD, then the image will include EVERYTHING, whether hidden or not.

If there are no errors shown in the backup log and the VSS log and the backup completes successfully, then it is pretty safe to assume that evrything is working fine.

[jraju]

Hi, Thanks. if suppose, i create a new folder and copy the other local drive contents, i find the folder in ext.hdd shown as hidden attribute folder. It does not show normally , and if you enable show hidden files and system files in folder options, you could view the folder and contents. Why this happens?

[Samson]

I don't know the answer to that J.

This thread is getting longer and longer, and veering off track. If you are now regularly making backups with Macrium Reflect, have created rescue media and are now happy, then perhaps it is time to close it?

Other questions may get more responses in a new thread? 

[jraju]

Hi, Thanks samson. Pl this thread can be closed. I have problem in copying to the new ext.hdd, which i will post as new thread