On 03/12/2024 19:28, Ed Cryer wrote:

Therefore, I can do a full system restore from the latest image without
any loss or corruption.

IT'S ALL VERY WELL BUT DOES THE SYSTEM STILL BOOT-UP AFTER YOU HAVE
RESTORED FROM THE BACKUPS? MANY TIMES PEOPLE REPORT THAT THEIR SYSTEM
CAN'T BOOT-UP FROM IMAGES AND SO THEY RESORT TO COMPLETE INSTALLATION OF
OS AND ALL APPLICATIONS THAT THEY ARE USING.

THEIR PERSONAL DATA IS GONE FOREVER BECAUSE THEY RELIED ON THEIR BACK-UP SCHEDULE THAT THEY HAD DEVISED 40 YEARS AGO!! THEY FORGOT THE BASIC HEX ROUTINE OF TESTING THE BACK-UP RESTORATION.


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On Tue, 12/3/2024 2:28 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:

Ed Cryer wrote:

I produced an image of my C disk today, and got an initial message that I've not seen before; a warning that parts of the operating system wouldn't be saved.
How long has this been going on?

Ed

The C drive has 3 partitions
PQSERVICE
SYSTEM RESERVED
Win-10

All previous Macrium images contain all three. The latest contains only two, the SYSTEM RESERVED (100MB) isn't saved.
That partition contains boot information in files dated on the day the OS was first initialised; apart from, that is, an empty $RECYCLE.BIN and an empty System Volume Information folder.

Therefore, I can do a full system restore from the latest image without any loss or corruption.

The question remains; when did this change in Macrium Reflect come in? What caused it? Some change in my system or an update to the program? I suspect the latter, and wait for others to report the message appearing on their systems.

That pattern is a W10-over-W7 installation.

The PQSERVICE might be 15GB or so, and contain Windows 7 Factory.

I have a clean Win10 install on MSDOS partitioning, and it looks like this.
and I know that I can't quite reproduce your setup. Maybe my laptop
would come the closest, but I can't remember for sure whether that
was a Clean, or W10-over-W7 install.

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/HWqMPBxZ/W10-MSDOS-Partition-WAFFLES-Samsung-256.gif

OK, this one is a bit closer to a W10-over-W7 with MSDOS partitioning (LAPTOP). The System Reserved is on the right side of C: and the upgrade process
(of creating additional System Reserved and not cleaning up the decommissioned System Reserved), is not possible for the Windows Update logic to handle.
The System Reserved was made larger for the WinRE larger size issue.
Since there are only four primary partitions on MSDOS and (snicker) I used
them all up, Windows is prevented from making a mess.

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/FRnq01j6/LAPTOP-partition-table-MSDOS.gif

While that is closer to yours, it's not a perfect match by any stretch.
It's just in the same ballpark. I didn't take a PQEDIT32 picture,
as the boot flag will be where the "boot" label is recorded in the second picture.

*******

Any time a partition size is disturbed, you should make a new Backup settings file or edit the existing one. That's one of the problems of living in a dynamic environment, where you don't control everything. You have to notice when something is broken, then consider how many backup images
have been broken by the change (like in the middle of a Full+Incrementals set), then do
whatever is necessary to kick off a new set of backups, with
amended partition info. Whatever it happens to want.

Complete sets of old backups are not broken as such. If you had
to restore to a brand new hard drive, the thing would boot and so on.

And if you restore to a partition which is smaller, Macrium does not
mind, unless the total files won't fit in the partition :-) Macrium
support resize-on-restore, a handy feature.

Should you test the ability to boot a restoration ?

Yes.

And the "spare drive" you purchase for this test case,
of restoring to a new drive, that "spare drive" functions
as your "replacement drive" when the other one wears out.
It's not wasted money, the spare drive will come in handy
when the time comes. If you sell the computer, you can sell
the spare with it, at recovery cost price.

*******

If you still have a copy of "ImgToVHD.exe" that Macrium used to have,
that can convert a "small" MRIMG (a full backup) to a VHD file.
The VHD file can be mounted in Windows in Disk Management, and
then you can use ordinary tools for measuring the size of partitions
and so on. An MRIMG can also be mounted in Windows, for forensic
purposes, using the Macrium option to mount an image. There should
generally be ways of gaining forensic analysis capability, to
compare the older sets of backups, to any newer sets, if the need arises.

Paul

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On Wed, 12/4/2024 5:23 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:

Hi, Paul

I have the full solution now, and it's so simple that I feel almost ashamed of myself for not having solved it earlier without having to post here.
You've been a good friend over the years, so I'll state it baldly.
The GUI of Macrium Reflect didn't have the SYSTEM RESERVED partition ticked; and I didn't originally notice.
As to why it wasn't ticked, I can only speculate. My best guess is some slip of my hand.
Now that I've ticked it, the GUI always presents with it already ticked.

Ed

It is an interface that invites mischief :-)

And I'm pretty sure there are naughty things we
could do without too much trouble (while backing
you Veritas Dynamic Disks perhaps).

That's why the program has an option on the left
to "back up everything on the machine". That is
for the really lazy people.

"Image selected disks on the computer"

The ticky box on the left of each row in the
resulting dialog, allows relatively quickly
selecting everything. The dialog is also
clever enough to throw up a warning, when you
include the backup drive in the drives to be
backed up :-)

That can make an awfully big file though.

Paul

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Ed Cryer wrote on 12/4/24 3:23 AM:

Paul wrote:

On Tue, 12/3/2024 2:28 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:

Ed Cryer wrote:

I produced an image of my C disk today, and got an initial message
that I've not seen before; a warning that parts of the operating
system wouldn't be saved.
How long has this been going on?

Ed

The C drive has 3 partitions
PQSERVICE
SYSTEM RESERVED
Win-10

All previous Macrium images contain all three. The latest contains
only two, the SYSTEM RESERVED (100MB) isn't saved.
That partition contains boot information in files dated on the day the
OS was first initialised; apart from, that is, an empty $RECYCLE.BIN
and an empty System Volume Information folder.

Therefore, I can do a full system restore from the latest image
without any loss or corruption.

The question remains; when did this change in Macrium Reflect come in?
What caused it? Some change in my system or an update to the program?
I suspect the latter, and wait for others to report the message
appearing on their systems.

That pattern is a W10-over-W7 installation.

The PQSERVICE might be 15GB or so, and contain Windows 7 Factory.

I have a clean Win10 install on MSDOS partitioning, and it looks like
this.
and I know that I can't quite reproduce your setup. Maybe my laptop
would come the closest, but I can't remember for sure whether that
was a Clean, or W10-over-W7 install.

ÿÿÿ [Picture]


https://i.postimg.cc/HWqMPBxZ/W10-MSDOS-Partition-WAFFLES-Samsung-256.gif

OK, this one is a bit closer to a W10-over-W7 with MSDOS partitioning
(LAPTOP).
The System Reserved is on the right side of C: and the upgrade process
(of creating additional System Reserved and not cleaning up the
decommissioned
System Reserved), is not possible for the Windows Update logic to handle.
The System Reserved was made larger for the WinRE larger size issue.
Since there are only four primary partitions on MSDOS and (snicker) I used >> them all up, Windows is prevented from making a mess.

ÿÿÿ [Picture]

ÿÿÿ https://i.postimg.cc/FRnq01j6/LAPTOP-partition-table-MSDOS.gif

While that is closer to yours, it's not a perfect match by any stretch.
It's just in the same ballpark. I didn't take a PQEDIT32 picture,
as the boot flag will be where the "boot" label is recorded in the
second picture.

*******

Any time a partition size is disturbed, you should make a new Backup
settings
file or edit the existing one. That's one of the problems of living in a
dynamic environment, where you don't control everything. You have to
notice
when something is broken, then consider how many backup images
have been broken by the change (like in the middle of a
Full+Incrementals set), then do
whatever is necessary to kick off a new set of backups, with
amended partition info. Whatever it happens to want.

Complete sets of old backups are not broken as such. If you had
to restore to a brand new hard drive, the thing would boot and so on.

And if you restore to a partition which is smaller, Macrium does not
mind, unless the total files won't fit in the partition :-) Macrium
support resize-on-restore, a handy feature.

Should you test the ability to boot a restoration ?

Yes.

And the "spare drive" you purchase for this test case,
of restoring to a new drive, that "spare drive" functions
as your "replacement drive" when the other one wears out.
It's not wasted money, the spare drive will come in handy
when the time comes. If you sell the computer, you can sell
the spare with it, at recovery cost price.

*******

If you still have a copy of "ImgToVHD.exe" that Macrium used to have,
that can convert a "small" MRIMG (a full backup) to a VHD file.
The VHD file can be mounted in Windows in Disk Management, and
then you can use ordinary tools for measuring the size of partitions
and so on. An MRIMG can also be mounted in Windows, for forensic
purposes, using the Macrium option to mount an image. There should
generally be ways of gaining forensic analysis capability, to
compare the older sets of backups, to any newer sets, if the need arises.

ÿÿÿ Paul

Hi, Paul

I have the full solution now, and it's so simple that I feel almost
ashamed of myself for not having solved it earlier without having to post here.
You've been a good friend over the years, so I'll state it baldly.
The GUI of Macrium Reflect didn't have the SYSTEM RESERVED partition
ticked; and I didn't originally notice.
As to why it wasn't ticked, I can only speculate. My best guess is some
slip of my hand.
Now that I've ticked it, the GUI always presents with it already ticked.

Ed

The pre-selection of partitions in Macrium by default depends upon the
option chosen.
- image selected disks
- image the partitions required to backup and restore Windows

The template(xml) and/or the backup saved remembers what ever was accepted.

If one chooses to save the settings(as-designed or user modified) the
next use retains the choice.

i.e. wysiwyg is really wysiwypd - 'what you see is what you previously did'

--
....w¡ñ§±¤ñ

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On Wed, 12/4/2024 4:35 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:

It's no wonder that amidst all that mystery about our minds, people
run paranoid about the rise of AI and how its own future wellbeing will bring it into collision with organic minds; and then they'll try and wipe us out.
You might just as well tell us about how God wiped out this or that city, this or that world. Mysticism, speculation and fodder for cooks on
soapboxes at Hyde Park Corner.

Their current state is "the first transistor".

It's going to be a while, before they're a topic of discussion.

Like fusion, only fifty years to go.

I gave one a query, and like a computer program, it hung
in the I/O state and ignored the 15 second safety timer
and kept running. And from that, I learned exactly
what we have to fear.

If you ask it to write a computer program, it does do
that. It writes a computer program. But it is pretty difficult
to figure out exactly what environment it would run in. The AI
does not simulate execution, compile and link, debug,
it does none of those things currently.

And the AI does not have this in its vocabulary.

"I don't know"

Won't it have to emit that, at some point ? Maybe as a joke.
That would be a measure of its self-awareness.

It has the possibility of voluminous output. Bad images. Bad movies.
The advertisers love it. I like humans with six fingers to
display my wares, as an advertiser.

Paul

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