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Macrium: testing a restore
In the recent thread 'Macrium scheduling'
VanguardLH wrote: Terry Pinnell wrote: If I change my simple 'weekly Fulls' to a G-F-S method, your configuration details will prove very helpful. Especially as you have actually *restored* on several occasions, which I hope I can continue to avoid! But if you never restore, you don't know if the backup chain is okay. ==================== I take Vanguard's point but I'm not brave enough to delete my OS as an experiment! I have plenty of disk capacity, either on my internal 4 TB D or one of my external USB drives. So as a second-best experiment is it possible to restore my OS disk (C) C: image (135 GB) to a folder say D:\Macrium-Restored? D is my 4 TB internal HD. Obviously the all important bootability test would be lost, but it would give me some confidence in the procedure and avoid my first restore experience occurring under stressed conditions. Or, as I'm beginning to believe, would that end up with my D drive ending up with only a copy of C? As D contains about 3 TB of data (1 TB free), that would not be a happy result! If so, as none of my external USB drives are partitioned, I suppose I would have to do a lot of copying and reorganising beforehand to free up the smallest, and then restore to that? Terry, East Grinstead, UK |
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Macrium: testing a restore
Terry Pinnell wrote:
In the recent thread 'Macrium scheduling' VanguardLH wrote: Terry Pinnell wrote: If I change my simple 'weekly Fulls' to a G-F-S method, your configuration details will prove very helpful. Especially as you have actually *restored* on several occasions, which I hope I can continue to avoid! But if you never restore, you don't know if the backup chain is okay. ==================== I take Vanguard's point but I'm not brave enough to delete my OS as an experiment! I have plenty of disk capacity, either on my internal 4 TB D or one of my external USB drives. So as a second-best experiment is it possible to restore my OS disk (C) C: image (135 GB) to a folder say D:\Macrium-Restored? D is my 4 TB internal HD. Obviously the all important bootability test would be lost, but it would give me some confidence in the procedure and avoid my first restore experience occurring under stressed conditions. Or, as I'm beginning to believe, would that end up with my D drive ending up with only a copy of C? As D contains about 3 TB of data (1 TB free), that would not be a happy result! If so, as none of my external USB drives are partitioned, I suppose I would have to do a lot of copying and reorganising beforehand to free up the smallest, and then restore to that? Terry, East Grinstead, UK This is beginning to sound like a bar bet. Hold my beer! ******* Prepare a VirtualBox VM. The VM is to be booted from the Macrium Reflect rescue CD. In the VM, you set up a Guest drive, consisting of a dynamically expanding .vhd file. A VHD can handle up to 2.2TB in terms of drive size. (The VHD was limited in VPC2007 to 137GB, but the format actually supports 2.2TB. The newer .vhdx supports 2.2TB.) Now, while the Macrium CD is booted as the Guest OS in the virtual machine, you use Windows file sharing, to reach out into the Host space and access the .mrimg. Do a restore, and restore onto the "virtual" drive which is the Guest OS drive. Since the Guest Drive contents is held inside a single VHD file, it can't stomp on your D: drive or erase stuff in the Host space. We're using a virtual machine setup, for its "isolation" capabilities. And this will be an excellent chance to learn about VirtualBox at the same time :-) www.virtualbox.org # Main install https://download.virtualbox.org/virt...133895-Win.exe # Extension pack for USB passthru (you won't need that today, but download a # matching version for the main install, for later). When the main file is installed, # as long as the file extensions were mapped during the install, VirtualBox will # intercept the double-click on the extpack and ask if you want to install it. https://download.virtualbox.org/virt...4.vbox-extpack # There is a user manual, with VBoxManage commands and so on. There is # also a manual inside the installer file, but this file is available # right away. https://download.virtualbox.org/virt...UserManual.pdf # So what you're doing is: virtual optical drive = set to Macrium Reflect physical disc, or to the ISO file virtual hard drive = a ~135GB VHD file stored on your D: or so. Make it dynamic type, set size to 300GB (it's never going to be 300GB in size, so in a sense the setting doesn't matter). It will be small, like 1MB when it starts out, and it will grow during the restore, until it hits ~135GB. networking = bridged adapter, pick your physical NIC as the device to use file sharing = use Windows file sharing from *inside* the VM, to access the MRIMG file coming from your external USB drive. This means setting up sharing of the external drive, using Properties. Most people would use their spare scratch drive, for a Macrium restore, but as a bar bet, you can restore while inside a VirtualBox VM and see that it worked. And without unduly disturbing anything else in the Host space. It'll just take some space on your D drive. There is an option to delete the VM when you're finished, and a tick box there to delete associated files, and that will delete the VHD on the D: drive too if you want. When VirtualBox is shut down, you can access the contents of the VHD file, using 7ZIP. Right-click the VHD file and open with 7ZIP, and you can drill down into the partitions and so on, of the VHD container. VHD files can also be mounted natively in Windows 10. Then, you can enjoy a drive called T: for temp, that consists of the C: that you just restored. See all the entertainment possibilities here? Now, my beer is almost finished. Have fun, Paul |
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Macrium: testing a restore
Terry Pinnell wrote:
VanguardLH wrote: Terry Pinnell wrote: If I change my simple 'weekly Fulls' to a G-F-S method, your configuration details will prove very helpful. Especially as you have actually *restored* on several occasions, which I hope I can continue to avoid! But if you never restore, you don't know if the backup chain is okay. I take Vanguard's point but I'm not brave enough to delete my OS as an experiment! Test it when doing a new installation. Using a backup program without knowing whether it works is a waste of time. Counting on it is foolish if you do not know whether it works. You need to know whether it works, because if it doesn't, you should be using a different backup program. Your expressed fear suggests you should know whether it works. It's up to you. Just don't say we didn't tell you so. I never mess with anything fancy. I just click on the "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows". Doing that before testing is a good idea. "Better to test when you are ready then to wait until you really need it." That's an ancient saying. As a techie... I have had no problem with Macrium Reflect. It handles everything better than anything else I have used. It even handles the Windows boot file problem with little trouble. |
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Macrium: testing a restore
Terry Pinnell wrote:
VanguardLH wrote: But if you never restore, you don't know if the backup chain is okay. I take Vanguard's point but I'm not brave enough to delete my OS as an experiment! 1. Make a backup. 2. Put a cheap spare drive in place of your main drive. 3. Test the restore. Otherwise it's not that important to you!!! |
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Macrium: testing a restore
And BTW. Why are you reposting threads???
-- Terry Pinnell me somewhere.invalid wrote: Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!aioe.org!peer01.am4!peer.am4.highwin ds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!fx36.am4.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Terry Pinnell me somewhere.invalid Newsgroups: alt.comp.os.windows-10 Subject: Macrium: testing a restore Message-ID: u45rte1drrfa4rj007u2n4ghe044d1b975 4ax.com X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 4.2/32.1118 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 30 X-Complaints-To: abuse easynews.com Organization: Forte - www.forteinc.com X-Complaints-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly. Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2019 21:17:31 +0000 X-Received-Bytes: 2006 X-Received-Body-CRC: 572141502 Xref: reader01.eternal-september.org alt.comp.os.windows-10:108020 In the recent thread 'Macrium scheduling' VanguardLH V nguard.LH wrote: Terry Pinnell me somewhere.invalid wrote: If I change my simple 'weekly Fulls' to a G-F-S method, your configuration details will prove very helpful. Especially as you have actually *restored* on several occasions, which I hope I can continue to avoid! But if you never restore, you don't know if the backup chain is okay. ==================== I take Vanguard's point but I'm not brave enough to delete my OS as an experiment! I have plenty of disk capacity, either on my internal 4 TB D or one of my external USB drives. So as a second-best experiment is it possible to restore my OS disk (C) C: image (135 GB) to a folder say D:\Macrium-Restored? D is my 4 TB internal HD. Obviously the all important bootability test would be lost, but it would give me some confidence in the procedure and avoid my first restore experience occurring under stressed conditions. Or, as I'm beginning to believe, would that end up with my D drive ending up with only a copy of C? As D contains about 3 TB of data (1 TB free), that would not be a happy result! If so, as none of my external USB drives are partitioned, I suppose I would have to do a lot of copying and reorganising beforehand to free up the smallest, and then restore to that? Terry, East Grinstead, UK |
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Macrium: testing a restore
Paul wrote:
Terry Pinnell wrote: In the recent thread 'Macrium scheduling' VanguardLH wrote: Terry Pinnell wrote: If I change my simple 'weekly Fulls' to a G-F-S method, your configuration details will prove very helpful. Especially as you have actually *restored* on several occasions, which I hope I can continue to avoid! But if you never restore, you don't know if the backup chain is okay. ==================== I take Vanguard's point but I'm not brave enough to delete my OS as an experiment! I have plenty of disk capacity, either on my internal 4 TB D or one of my external USB drives. So as a second-best experiment is it possible to restore my OS disk (C) C: image (135 GB) to a folder say D:\Macrium-Restored? D is my 4 TB internal HD. Obviously the all important bootability test would be lost, but it would give me some confidence in the procedure and avoid my first restore experience occurring under stressed conditions. Or, as I'm beginning to believe, would that end up with my D drive ending up with only a copy of C? As D contains about 3 TB of data (1 TB free), that would not be a happy result! If so, as none of my external USB drives are partitioned, I suppose I would have to do a lot of copying and reorganising beforehand to free up the smallest, and then restore to that? Terry, East Grinstead, UK This is beginning to sound like a bar bet. Hold my beer! ******* Prepare a VirtualBox VM. Thanks, but I don't know how to accomplish that first step. And don't have the time or desire to add it to my current learning list. Glancing briefly at the rest, if it's really that complicated to test an image example at no risk then I'll pass! Terry, East Grinstead, UK |
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Macrium: testing a restore
Terry Pinnell wrote:
Paul wrote: Terry Pinnell wrote: In the recent thread 'Macrium scheduling' VanguardLH wrote: Terry Pinnell wrote: If I change my simple 'weekly Fulls' to a G-F-S method, your configuration details will prove very helpful. Especially as you have actually *restored* on several occasions, which I hope I can continue to avoid! But if you never restore, you don't know if the backup chain is okay. ==================== I take Vanguard's point but I'm not brave enough to delete my OS as an experiment! I have plenty of disk capacity, either on my internal 4 TB D or one of my external USB drives. So as a second-best experiment is it possible to restore my OS disk (C) C: image (135 GB) to a folder say D:\Macrium-Restored? D is my 4 TB internal HD. Obviously the all important bootability test would be lost, but it would give me some confidence in the procedure and avoid my first restore experience occurring under stressed conditions. Or, as I'm beginning to believe, would that end up with my D drive ending up with only a copy of C? As D contains about 3 TB of data (1 TB free), that would not be a happy result! If so, as none of my external USB drives are partitioned, I suppose I would have to do a lot of copying and reorganising beforehand to free up the smallest, and then restore to that? Terry, East Grinstead, UK This is beginning to sound like a bar bet. Hold my beer! ******* Prepare a VirtualBox VM. Thanks, but I don't know how to accomplish that first step. And don't have the time or desire to add it to my current learning list. Glancing briefly at the rest, if it's really that complicated to test an image example at no risk then I'll pass! Terry, East Grinstead, UK Always buy and keep a spare drive, for all occasions. This will allow you to do restores and verify functionality. If you have a storage device which has a meltdown and you need a place to put files quickly, your spare drive is ready for the task. I keep a USB enclosure PCB here and cabling, so I can add a SATA drive to the machine without shutting off the target computer. The kit uses an external power brick, and then I can add storage to a situation where something is melting down. (In some cases, you don't want to be shutting down the hardware, because you might never get it to run again. That's why the ability to add storage "hot", is important.) ******* Doing it from a VM is for fun, to show there is an insulated way to do the testing, without anyone getting hurt. For example, if the VM won't boot after a Macrium restore, your main OS is unaffected and you can do all the normal things you do with the Host OS. The VM environment is like a "sand box". Just today, I swapped two Linux OSes between virtual drives, without using a third disk, and it was all done in VirtualBox, and no hard drive was used at all. (This was a bar bet, so I "had" to do it...) It's great to be able to do experiments, with absolutely no side effects! And that was done with Macrium, and its ability to handle EXT4 partitions. A backup in the VM environment in that case, took only 50 seconds (which isn't really all that fast). If you want to "play with a virtual OS without getting hands dirty", there are VMs here for download. https://developer.microsoft.com/en-u...dge/tools/vms/ IE11 on Win7 (x86) \___ They used to have WinXP MSEdge on Win10 (x64) Stable 1809 / but that one is gone now Platform = virtualbox Download ZIP https://az792536.vo.msecnd.net/vms/V...VirtualBox.zip 5,276,795,471 bytes With the basic VirtualBox downloaded EXE installer used to do the install, you unpack that ZIP and a .ova file is inside. Double-clicking the OVA should cause it to be unpacked and installed in VirtualBox (some decompression is involved so the step takes time). While the initial settings are not ideal, you can look at the machine settings and see what a machine setup looks like. The virtual machine should at least run and give you a demo. Highlight the virtual machine in the machine listing, then click Start. When you're done with the machine, you can highlight it again and select "delete" and select "all files" and the junk used for the experiment will be deleted. You'll still have the OVA file and can reuse it at any time. The VM is an unlicensed machine, and behaves the way an OS running on the "grace period" would run. If you use a Win10 VM from that web page, you would expect the "Personalize" items to not work, just like happens in a real unlicensed Win10 install. There isn't a strong reason to be using those VMs, except if you say, wanted to demo to another person, how to use VirtualBox or some other hosting software. Paul |
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Macrium: testing a restore
Paul wrote:
Terry Pinnell wrote: Paul wrote: Terry Pinnell wrote: In the recent thread 'Macrium scheduling' VanguardLH wrote: Terry Pinnell wrote: If I change my simple 'weekly Fulls' to a G-F-S method, your configuration details will prove very helpful. Especially as you have actually *restored* on several occasions, which I hope I can continue to avoid! But if you never restore, you don't know if the backup chain is okay. ==================== I take Vanguard's point but I'm not brave enough to delete my OS as an experiment! I have plenty of disk capacity, either on my internal 4 TB D or one of my external USB drives. So as a second-best experiment is it possible to restore my OS disk (C) C: image (135 GB) to a folder say D:\Macrium-Restored? D is my 4 TB internal HD. Obviously the all important bootability test would be lost, but it would give me some confidence in the procedure and avoid my first restore experience occurring under stressed conditions. Or, as I'm beginning to believe, would that end up with my D drive ending up with only a copy of C? As D contains about 3 TB of data (1 TB free), that would not be a happy result! If so, as none of my external USB drives are partitioned, I suppose I would have to do a lot of copying and reorganising beforehand to free up the smallest, and then restore to that? Terry, East Grinstead, UK This is beginning to sound like a bar bet. Hold my beer! ******* Prepare a VirtualBox VM. Thanks, but I don't know how to accomplish that first step. And don't have the time or desire to add it to my current learning list. Glancing briefly at the rest, if it's really that complicated to test an image example at no risk then I'll pass! Terry, East Grinstead, UK Always buy and keep a spare drive, for all occasions. This will allow you to do restores and verify functionality. If you have a storage device which has a meltdown and you need a place to put files quickly, your spare drive is ready for the task. I keep a USB enclosure PCB here and cabling, so I can add a SATA drive to the machine without shutting off the target computer. The kit uses an external power brick, and then I can add storage to a situation where something is melting down. (In some cases, you don't want to be shutting down the hardware, because you might never get it to run again. That's why the ability to add storage "hot", is important.) ******* Doing it from a VM is for fun, to show there is an insulated way to do the testing, without anyone getting hurt. For example, if the VM won't boot after a Macrium restore, your main OS is unaffected and you can do all the normal things you do with the Host OS. The VM environment is like a "sand box". Just today, I swapped two Linux OSes between virtual drives, without using a third disk, and it was all done in VirtualBox, and no hard drive was used at all. (This was a bar bet, so I "had" to do it...) It's great to be able to do experiments, with absolutely no side effects! And that was done with Macrium, and its ability to handle EXT4 partitions. A backup in the VM environment in that case, took only 50 seconds (which isn't really all that fast). If you want to "play with a virtual OS without getting hands dirty", there are VMs here for download. https://developer.microsoft.com/en-u...dge/tools/vms/ IE11 on Win7 (x86) \___ They used to have WinXP MSEdge on Win10 (x64) Stable 1809 / but that one is gone now Platform = virtualbox Download ZIP https://az792536.vo.msecnd.net/vms/V...VirtualBox.zip 5,276,795,471 bytes With the basic VirtualBox downloaded EXE installer used to do the install, you unpack that ZIP and a .ova file is inside. Double-clicking the OVA should cause it to be unpacked and installed in VirtualBox (some decompression is involved so the step takes time). While the initial settings are not ideal, you can look at the machine settings and see what a machine setup looks like. The virtual machine should at least run and give you a demo. Highlight the virtual machine in the machine listing, then click Start. When you're done with the machine, you can highlight it again and select "delete" and select "all files" and the junk used for the experiment will be deleted. You'll still have the OVA file and can reuse it at any time. The VM is an unlicensed machine, and behaves the way an OS running on the "grace period" would run. If you use a Win10 VM from that web page, you would expect the "Personalize" items to not work, just like happens in a real unlicensed Win10 install. There isn't a strong reason to be using those VMs, except if you say, wanted to demo to another person, how to use VirtualBox or some other hosting software. Paul Your recommendation of a dedicated drive appeals. So I'll probably re-organise my external USB drives, effectively emptying one to use as a test target for my first full restore. (The best candidate would be my 1 TB I: drive, currently mainly used to hold the images!) As a first step just now I opened FE at 'This PC' level and noticed an unexpected entry 'Macrium Reflect Image'. I assume this arose from my tentatively trying the first steps of the restore process recently. I browsed the last full image I'd made and satisfied myself that all the contents of C: appeared to be present and that I could copy (recover) individual files and folders. Is this 'M:' one of these 'virtual' drives? What storage is actually being used for it? Would M get deleted if I 'explore' another image? Terry, East Grinstead, UK |
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Macrium: testing a restore
Terry Pinnell wrote:
Your recommendation of a dedicated drive appeals. So I'll probably re-organise my external USB drives, effectively emptying one to use as a test target for my first full restore. (The best candidate would be my 1 TB I: drive, currently mainly used to hold the images!) As a first step just now I opened FE at 'This PC' level and noticed an unexpected entry 'Macrium Reflect Image'. I assume this arose from my tentatively trying the first steps of the restore process recently. I browsed the last full image I'd made and satisfied myself that all the contents of C: appeared to be present and that I could copy (recover) individual files and folders. Is this 'M:' one of these 'virtual' drives? What storage is actually being used for it? Would M get deleted if I 'explore' another image? Terry, East Grinstead, UK You can mount multiple .mrimg files. From a single .mrimg, there could be multiple partitions (each with a tick box) that get mounted. I don't see the text string "Macrium Reflect Image", but there is a distinctive icon for a mounted image. The mounted image icon is different than the regular partition icon in File Explorer. The image "M:" is created by reading the contents of the .mrimg file used to mount it. So the storage for it is the .mrimg. If you were to delete the .mrimg, then M: would have no information source. And while M: can have the ability to be written, the mounter is supposed to throw away that information when the partition is dismounted. This implies an overlay file system, or the usage of "undo disks". Exactly where the storage for that is, I haven't seen it. Maybe it's in %TEMP%, but I didn't check. I don't generally try to modify volumes like M: , as that would be "bad computer hygiene". Paul |
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Macrium: testing a restore
Paul wrote:
Terry Pinnell wrote: Your recommendation of a dedicated drive appeals. So I'll probably re-organise my external USB drives, effectively emptying one to use as a test target for my first full restore. (The best candidate would be my 1 TB I: drive, currently mainly used to hold the images!) As a first step just now I opened FE at 'This PC' level and noticed an unexpected entry 'Macrium Reflect Image'. I assume this arose from my tentatively trying the first steps of the restore process recently. I browsed the last full image I'd made and satisfied myself that all the contents of C: appeared to be present and that I could copy (recover) individual files and folders. Is this 'M:' one of these 'virtual' drives? What storage is actually being used for it? Would M get deleted if I 'explore' another image? Terry, East Grinstead, UK You can mount multiple .mrimg files. From a single .mrimg, there could be multiple partitions (each with a tick box) that get mounted. I don't see the text string "Macrium Reflect Image", but there is a distinctive icon for a mounted image. The mounted image icon is different than the regular partition icon in File Explorer. The image "M:" is created by reading the contents of the .mrimg file used to mount it. So the storage for it is the .mrimg. If you were to delete the .mrimg, then M: would have no information source. And while M: can have the ability to be written, the mounter is supposed to throw away that information when the partition is dismounted. This implies an overlay file system, or the usage of "undo disks". Exactly where the storage for that is, I haven't seen it. Maybe it's in %TEMP%, but I didn't check. I don't generally try to modify volumes like M: , as that would be "bad computer hygiene". Paul Thanks Paul, all understood. I've now unmounted it by using the FE r-click context menu. I made a screenshot for my last post but forgot to post it. Academic now, but here it is: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4bka9svjgi...2019.jpg?raw=1 (You'll see an almost identical screenshot in a fresh post shortly on a different topic.) Terry, East Grinstead, UK |
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Macrium: testing a restore
"Paul" wrote in message
... snip Always buy and keep a spare drive, for all occasions. This will allow you to do restores and verify functionality. If you have a storage device which has a meltdown and you need a place to put files quickly, your spare drive is ready for the task. I keep a USB enclosure PCB here and cabling, so I can add a SATA drive to the machine without shutting off the target computer. The kit uses an external power brick, and then I can add storage to a situation where something is melting down. (In some cases, you don't want to be shutting down the hardware, because you might never get it to run again. That's why the ability to add storage "hot", is important.) I use a Startech satdock25u. Powered by a 'Y' lead from two USB ports so no external power supply required. Quick & easy with no external casing & hot swappable if required. - https://www.startech.com/HDD/Docking...HDD~SATDOCK25U -- Regards wasbit |
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Macrium: testing a restore
"wasbit" wrote:
"Paul" wrote in message ... snip Always buy and keep a spare drive, for all occasions. This will allow you to do restores and verify functionality. If you have a storage device which has a meltdown and you need a place to put files quickly, your spare drive is ready for the task. I keep a USB enclosure PCB here and cabling, so I can add a SATA drive to the machine without shutting off the target computer. The kit uses an external power brick, and then I can add storage to a situation where something is melting down. (In some cases, you don't want to be shutting down the hardware, because you might never get it to run again. That's why the ability to add storage "hot", is important.) I use a Startech satdock25u. Powered by a 'Y' lead from two USB ports so no external power supply required. Quick & easy with no external casing & hot swappable if required. - https://www.startech.com/HDD/Docking...HDD~SATDOCK25U Thanks. Was it just speed that prompted the SATA choice rather than USB drives like my five? Terry, East Grinstead, UK |
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Macrium: testing a restore
"Terry Pinnell" wrote in message
... "wasbit" wrote: "Paul" wrote in message ... snip Always buy and keep a spare drive, for all occasions. This will allow you to do restores and verify functionality. If you have a storage device which has a meltdown and you need a place to put files quickly, your spare drive is ready for the task. I keep a USB enclosure PCB here and cabling, so I can add a SATA drive to the machine without shutting off the target computer. The kit uses an external power brick, and then I can add storage to a situation where something is melting down. (In some cases, you don't want to be shutting down the hardware, because you might never get it to run again. That's why the ability to add storage "hot", is important.) I use a Startech satdock25u. Powered by a 'Y' lead from two USB ports so no external power supply required. Quick & easy with no external casing & hot swappable if required. - https://www.startech.com/HDD/Docking...HDD~SATDOCK25U Thanks. Was it just speed that prompted the SATA choice rather than USB drives like my five? Not sure what you mean by speed. I should say my choice was governed by the number of 2.5" hard drives that I had acquired, although I do have a Sharkoon dock for 3.5" drives but that requires an external power supply. If you have had a look at the link you will see that you slide in a drive & plug in the USB cable. No external case to open or loose the screws, no proprietary software to hassle you, just plug in & go. When finished either eject the drive or leave connected as additional storage. -- Regards wasbit |
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Macrium: testing a restore
"wasbit" wrote:
"Terry Pinnell" wrote in message .. . "wasbit" wrote: "Paul" wrote in message ... snip Always buy and keep a spare drive, for all occasions. This will allow you to do restores and verify functionality. If you have a storage device which has a meltdown and you need a place to put files quickly, your spare drive is ready for the task. I keep a USB enclosure PCB here and cabling, so I can add a SATA drive to the machine without shutting off the target computer. The kit uses an external power brick, and then I can add storage to a situation where something is melting down. (In some cases, you don't want to be shutting down the hardware, because you might never get it to run again. That's why the ability to add storage "hot", is important.) I use a Startech satdock25u. Powered by a 'Y' lead from two USB ports so no external power supply required. Quick & easy with no external casing & hot swappable if required. - https://www.startech.com/HDD/Docking...HDD~SATDOCK25U Thanks. Was it just speed that prompted the SATA choice rather than USB drives like my five? Not sure what you mean by speed. I should say my choice was governed by the number of 2.5" hard drives that I had acquired, although I do have a Sharkoon dock for 3.5" drives but that requires an external power supply. If you have had a look at the link you will see that you slide in a drive & plug in the USB cable. No external case to open or loose the screws, no proprietary software to hassle you, just plug in & go. When finished either eject the drive or leave connected as additional storage. Thanks, understood. (I thought perhaps you wanted the greater speed of SATA.) |
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Macrium: testing a restore
On Mon, 02 Dec 2019 08:26:23 +0000, Terry Pinnell
wrote: "wasbit" wrote: "Terry Pinnell" wrote in message . .. "wasbit" wrote: "Paul" wrote in message ... snip Always buy and keep a spare drive, for all occasions. This will allow you to do restores and verify functionality. If you have a storage device which has a meltdown and you need a place to put files quickly, your spare drive is ready for the task. I keep a USB enclosure PCB here and cabling, so I can add a SATA drive to the machine without shutting off the target computer. The kit uses an external power brick, and then I can add storage to a situation where something is melting down. (In some cases, you don't want to be shutting down the hardware, because you might never get it to run again. That's why the ability to add storage "hot", is important.) I use a Startech satdock25u. Powered by a 'Y' lead from two USB ports so no external power supply required. Quick & easy with no external casing & hot swappable if required. - https://www.startech.com/HDD/Docking...HDD~SATDOCK25U Thanks. Was it just speed that prompted the SATA choice rather than USB drives like my five? Not sure what you mean by speed. I should say my choice was governed by the number of 2.5" hard drives that I had acquired, although I do have a Sharkoon dock for 3.5" drives but that requires an external power supply. If you have had a look at the link you will see that you slide in a drive & plug in the USB cable. No external case to open or loose the screws, no proprietary software to hassle you, just plug in & go. When finished either eject the drive or leave connected as additional storage. Thanks, understood. (I thought perhaps you wanted the greater speed of SATA.) I have a hard drive dock that can use either 2.5" or 3.5" SATA and another adapter that can use SATA and IDE both sizes. My Intel Xserve can use any mix of SATA and SAS. |
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