Windows 10 Re-Imaging Issue >> How to Install Driver?

[jmbtexas4]

Hi,

Windows is having trouble finding the image on my Western Digital My Passport Ultra external hard drive. It asks me to install a driver for it.

Should the driver already be on my computer, or do I need to download one from WD web site to get this to work?

I can see the external drive in file explorer during regular operation, the image is correctly named "WindowsImageBackup", and it is in the root.

Thanks!

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi again Texas,
Thanks for your prompt response! Both Mike and holdum are right on the money. Mike & I did extensive testing on Macrium & EASEUS.
And yes, ABSOLUTELY it will wipe out everything on your hard drive that was there before! It does a complete format and erase including the Recovery & Diagnostic partitions as well. I disagree with holdup about skipping the last step and cancelling the Actual Resore from your backup file, however. This is not an acceptable option in IT or any business situation eve home office. If you're too afraid to do it, I suggest you purchase a separate new hard drive from eBay or Amazon or newegg, swap out your primary drive you have from that computer and replace it with the new drive. Hook up your external drive or login to your Cloud account and download the backup image file to your external drive and use the Boot Disc or Resce Media disc as Macrium calls theirs, and RESTORE your Image file. Once done, disconnect your external sub drive, and reboot that computer. It should boot right to Windows, login of you have a password or Microsoft account and all your programs and data should be exactly like one the original drive you backed up from![emoji1]

Once you run this test, you now know it will work! If you like swap your drives back out to your original and be back to where you were at before you ran the Restore test.
Stick that new drive in a drawer, and if your original drive ever craps out on you, you can throw the drawer drive back into the computer, run your Image Restore and be back up and running in an hour or two!! [emoji1]

BBJ

Sent from my VS986 using Windows Forums mobile app

 

[holdum333]

Hi If you don't want to have to look for your boot DVD and don't mind a few extra seconds on boot time, you can set your PC to boot directly into Macrium What do you think about this @BIGBEARJEDI
Don't worry about only it works on registered users. I have programed it on several seniors PC that have the free version! Works like a charm!
Once again nice reply my friend BBJ!
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[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi If you don't want to have to look for your boot DVD and don't mind a few extra seconds on boot time, you can set your PC to boot directly into Macrium What do you think about this @BIGBEARJEDI
Don't worry about only it works on registered users. I have programed it on several seniors PC that have the free version! Works like a charm!
Once again nice reply my friend BBJ!
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////\\\\\Holdem. Sorry about calling you holdup! Darn autocorrect on my phone. Yes, I agree I just tried it out and on a couple of computers this weekend and it works great! Good suggestion. Yes, Teamwork is the Best. In Management as in life. There I go again, waxing philosophical. Hehe. BBJ.

 

[holdum333]

Call me any thing, but late for supper my friend!!

 

[RichM]

Interesting BBJ, I never use the verify either on Macrium or Acronis but my reason is I never had Macrium fail to restore an image file so I figured why waste the extra time it takes. That said I seriously doubt verify contributes to failure if that is what you are intimating, but maybe I misunderstood? I did have an Acronis image fail to restore. The restore actually said it worked but before the incident was over the hard drive was hidden and that is the last time I used Acronis as well.

 

[holdum333]

To me time is not a factor. You create the image. For me that's a average of 15-20 minutes. You then verify the image why you're making a cup of coffee with the KEURIG. The verify takes about the same amount of time, so I wasted 20 more minutes out of my life.
Big deal. What else was I going to do. Walk the dog? You could do that while waiting for Macrium to verify the image.
ho-hum. I have never had the verify fail or damage a image. I have never had Macrium fail to restore my OS perfectly!
I always have at least 8 images on a external. One image fails, i simply grab another. ho-hum!

 

[jmbtexas4]

If I do test, is the idea to test only once the first time to make sure it works? Once for each computer?

Also, I plan to only do Full images and not worry about incremental. I like the idea of keeping several images for each product handy if the latest one has an issue.

 

[holdum333]

Hi friend! If you get as far as this Zip shows IMHO, You're good to go! I do not like incremental images either. I always do the full image! I know BBJ is going to disagree with me about this, but that's OK We like to say here on the forum "It's OK to agree to disagree"
https://windowsforum.com/attachments/maqcrium-zip.32374/

 

[holdum333]

Good night Texas!

 

[jmbtexas4]

Good night guys! I can sleep better knowing my future images should work much better than Microsoft.

 

[RichM]

The reason I like incrementals, and you do realize they restore with the full one behind them, is that way I can do an image file weekly and keep up with changed file and data from week to week. Then monthly I make a new one deleting all the incrementals from the last month which then takes up less space but gives me almost instant recovery of everything if I need it. I do also run a file and data backup daily as well using Argentum Backup but I run businesses from my pcs so I believe that is necessary.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Hi friend! If you get as far as this Zip shows IMHO, You're good to go! I do not like incremental images either. I always do the full image! I know BBJ is going to disagree with me about this, but that's OK We like to say here on the forum "It's OK to agree to disagree"
https://windowsforum.com/attachments/maqcrium-zip.32374/

>>>Hi Gary! Actually, No, I don't disagree. For the average Home User such as Texas there, I believe it's too confusing to try and reconstruct a data image or interally rebuild a bad image or folder structure from Differential backups. In the Corporate business world we do use those, and they are necessary because of very large data sets and the additional search time it takes looking for 1 file through pedabytes of data on hundreds or even thousands of differential backups. I've had to do this as I managed Data Center backups for many companies as both Network Manager and IT Manager. I personally was incorporating the Differential option in Macrium until I saw your Step-by-Step, and have since discontinued using it. And, I see you are using MY LINE now--good for you!<<<>>><<<BBJ>>>

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

If I do test, is the idea to test only once the first time to make sure it works? Once for each computer?
>>>
>>>Hi again Texas: I believe that is sufficient for your type of usage. In my Post #32 I mention that in the Corporate world we often test everything twice, especially in what we call "Mission Critical" applications such as Military, Aerospace, or Healthcare industries. That's because if you make a mistake there and crash a computer, server, or network, it can cost people their lives. So, we can't take any chances there. Your approach is perfectly adequate for most Home Users unless they happened to be retirees from the IT community or something like lots of us.<<<>>>
Cheers! <<<BBJ>>>


Also, I plan to only do Full images and not worry about incremental. I like the idea of keeping several images for each product handy if the latest one has an issue.

>>>
>>>I address this very question in my Post #32 for you. I actually do agree with holdum on this item!.<<<

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

The reason I like incrementals, and you do realize they restore with the full one behind them, is that way I can do an image file weekly and keep up with changed file and data from week to week. Then monthly I make a new one deleting all the incrementals from the last month which then takes up less space but gives me almost instant recovery of everything if I need it. I do also run a file and data backup daily as well using Argentum Backup but I run businesses from my pcs so I believe that is necessary.

>>>
>>>Rich: Good information, there. And I address my reasons for not recommending the use of incremental backups in my POST #32.<<<
>>>Cheers!<<< <<<BBJ>>>

 

[jmbtexas4]

Hi

I'm always pushing EaseUS TODO Backup, as everyone here knows, but it is the easiest backup software to use that I've ever found. It only takes a couple of clicks to back up your C:\ drive with a System Image.

It's never failed me, (not something I can say of some pay software that I've used in the past) and I've use it a lot while beta testing various versions of Windows, and it's free.

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It will create it's own recovery boot disk, in either Linux or Windows PE format.
And it will check it's backup when done if desired looking for any errors.

I update it regularly but always keep the last one I've used.

Mike

Hi Mike,

On TODO, what's the difference between Disk/Partition Backup and System Backup options?

Which one do I want to use to make an image?

Thanks!

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

Use System Backup, just select it tell it where you want to save it and click Proceed.

To be clear, a system backup is to backup your C:\ drive and your Windows install, it is best if you don't have a lot of other stuff on your C:\ drive.

If you do have a lot of data on your C:\ drive it will get backed up too, but it makes the process a lot slower then just having to restore Windows and a few basic applications.

If you only have one drive it can be partitioned into two or more partitions with only 120 gigabytes used for the C:\ Windows partition.

The safest way to back up data, like images, documents, music, etc, is to just copy it to a backup drive without using any backup software.

No compressed files or everything mashed into one big file, means it can't all get corrupted in one go.

I have two external drives and anything that is really important I copy to at least one of them, as well as a second internal drive.

That way anything I need to use can just be copied back to the main hard drive no matter what I'm opening it with.

So I don't use the Disk or Partition options.

Mike

 

[jmbtexas4]

Ok, great stuff! Thanks for the advice!

 

[RichM]

I use a program so I know it will get done daily. Mike is right the easiest way is copy and paste to another hard drive but if you own a business like I do then I have to be certain I have at least daily file and data backups and I do not trust that I will remember to do that regularly.

 

[jmbtexas4]

Hi Guys,

What are the implications of not having an Emergency Disc/Rescue Media for Macrium and ToDo?

One of my laptops doesn't have a cd drive, and when I try to put the Emergency Disc/Rescue Media on the external drive, I am told it can't do that because there is no partition.

As long as I have the image, I can re-image the drive even I have to do a factory install first, right?

Thanks!

 

[RichM]

You might as well not bother without the rescue disk as you would have no way to recover. You can buy a portable cd-dvd drive for about $15 that plugs into a usb port or use a Usb flash drive as a rescue disk also.