- Summary
Rescue Media
Macrium Reflect LTSC installed within Windows can be used to restore backups. However, some disasters prevent Windows from booting (e.g. boot errors, hardware failure), meaning that Macrium Reflect within Windows cannot be used to recover. As a result, there needs to be a way to access Macrium Reflect separate from the Windows operating system; this is where the rescue media is used.
The rescue media is a bootable recovery environment based on the Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) or Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) that contains a version of Macrium Reflect that can be used to recover if Macrium Reflect installed in Windows is not accessible.
To ensure that recovery in the event of a disaster is easy, it is recommended that creating rescue media is the first thing that is done once Macrium Reflect has been installed.
Rescue media can be created using the 'Rescue' button on the quick actions menu at the top of Macrium Reflect or by selecting the 'Create Rescue Media...' option in the 'Other Tasks' menu on the top bezel:
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Both of these options will open the 'Macrium Rescue Media Builder'.
For the majority of use cases, the default settings selected by the Macrium Rescue Media Builder will be the best choice for the system where Macrium Reflect LTSC is installed. The 'Select Device' section of the rescue media builder shows the devices that are available to be used as rescue media. Most of the time, this will likely be a USB drive or CD/DVD.
Once the rescue media has been created, we recommend using it to boot the system to ensure that it is working correctly.
For more information about creating the rescue media, see this article.
Disk Imaging
A disk image is a compressed file that contains a sector-level copy of whole disks and partitions. The disk image contains all of the information required to completely restore those selected disks and partitions. Additionally, a disk image of an operating system disk will include all of the information required to restore the operating system to an operational state, as opposed to a file-level backup which cannot be used to recover an operating system.
Deciding what to Image
A graphical view of the disks that are connected to the system where Reflect is installed, and the partitions on those disks, can be viewed on the 'Local Disks' tab nester under the 'Create Backups' tab. System partitions, partitions that contain operating system data and are required for the operating system to work correctly, are denoted by the Windows logo in the top-left of the partition.
First, it is important to decide what will be included in the disk image. You may decide to backup every disk connected to the system, only the operating system, or even a data partition that contains critical data.
The 'Disk Image' wizard can then be launched by selecting one of the following buttons:
| Button | Result |
| Image this disk... |
Selecting this option under a disk will open the disk image wizard and display only the relevant disk. Only the partitions that are selected in the 'Local Disks' tab, with the checkbox on each partition, will be preselected in the disk image wizard. |
| Image selected disks on this computer |
Selecting this option under the 'Create Backup Tasks' menu will open the disk image wizard and display every local disk. Only the disks and partitions that are selected in the 'Local Disks' tab, with the checkbox on each disk and partition, will be preselected in the disk image wizard. |
| Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows |
Selecting this option under the 'Create Backup Tasks' menu will open the disk image wizard and display every local disk that contains system partitions. All system partitions will be preselected in the disk image wizard. |
The Disk Image Wizard
The partitions that will be included in the disk image can be further edited on the first page of the image wizard. Any partition that has a check in the selected checkbox will be included in the disk image:
The destination for the image and a backup file name are specified at the bottom of this page. The destination can be a local drive or network share specified in UNC format (\\Server\Share).
Scheduling Disk Images
To ensure that changes to the system are also backed up, schedules can be configured to perform the same image again automatically. How often the image will be performed can depend on several factors including the amount of storage that is available and how much data can be lost in the event that system needs to be recovered (RPO).
To assist in creating a schedule, there are a set of "industry standard" schedules included with Reflect. These schedules can be selected and then edited to make them a better fit for the system that is being backed up using the 'Add Schedule', 'Edit Schedule', and 'Delete Schedule' options:
Alternatively, a schedule can be created from scratch, without a template being selected, usig the 'Add Schedule' button.
Backup Types
There are three different types of backups that can be specified when creating a schedule. The different type of backup defines what is backed up from the source disks and partitions.
Full - A full image file contains all of the data stored in the selected source partitions. These backup type has no dependencies and must always be created before subsequent differential and incremental backups can be performed. These are the largest type of backup since they contain all the data from the source partitions and will take the longest to create.
These backups have the advantage that they are fully independent, meaning they can be deleted and moved without affecting later backups.
Differential - A differential image file contains all the data that has changed from the source partitions since the full image was created. Initially, this will create a smaller file than a full backup and will also be faster to create. However, as more time elapses since the full backup was created, these will increase in size and the amount of time they take to create.
These have the advantage of only ever needing the differential backup file that will be restored and the full backup file, that is appended to, to be able to restore with intermediate files not being needed.
Incremental - An incremental image contains all the changes that have occurred to the source partition since the last backup of any type was created. These are the smallest sized backup file and fastest to create.
In order to restore an incremental backup, all previous backups in the set must be available. If 'Inc 3' in the example above is deleted, inc 4, 5, and 6 also would not be able to be restored.
Combinations of these backup types can be defined in the schedule to create more flexible backup schedules; this also enables the benefits of each backup type while minimizing the negatives. The example below shows a Grandfather, Father, Son schedule which makes use of full, differential, and incremental backups:
Retention Rules
Retention rules are then specified to automatically control how long, or how many, backups are retained. This ensures that there is always sufficient space for new backups to be created:
Retention rules can be specified for each backup type separately but it is important to note that when a backup file is deleted by retention rules, all appended backups will also be deleted. For example, if 'Full' retention rules are set to retain one full backup, when a second full backup is created the first full backup will be deleted, including any differential and incremental backups that are appended to it.
Summary
The final page of the disk image wizard contains a summary of the settings that were specified. The 'Advanced Options' button can be used to specify additional options for this backup, including email notifications, encryption and compression settings.
Click 'Finish' to complete the backup configuration.
Backup Save Options
In the window that opens, additional options will be displayed to 'Run this backup now' and 'Save as a Backup Definition File'.
If 'Run this backup now' is left uncheked, the backup will run at the next scheduled start time, if a schedule was specified, or can be launched manually on the 'Definition Files' tab:
'Save as a Backup Definition File' must be left checked if a schedule has been specified. This option can still be left checked if a schedule has not been specified to make manually running the same backup again in the future easier, as shown in the screenshot above.
File and Folder Backups
Disk images are a great general purpose choice and enable whole operating systems to be recovered. However, there are use cases where only select files and folders need to be backed up, in this use case the files and folders may sit on a larger volume that does not need to be backed up. File and folder backups are ideal for this use case.
File and folder backups should not be used to protect an operating system.
File and folder backups can be created using the 'Create a File and Folder backup' option in the 'Create Backup Tasks' menu:
After selecting 'Create a File and Folder backup', a window will be displayed that can be used to select the folders that will be included in the backup:
After selecting 'OK', the selected folders will be shown in the 'Backup Sources' section of the wizard:
'Add Source Folders' can be used to reopen the previous wizard window and add additional folders to the backup. 'Edit Source Folder Filters' is used to add include and exclude filters to further refine the files that are backed up from the specified folders:
'Remove Source Folders' can be used to remove the specified folders from the file and folder backup. Subsequent pages of the file and folder backup wizard are the same as the disk image wizard, as described here.
Recovering from Disasters
Once an image of the system has been created, there are several ways to recover in the event of a disaster. You can recover using the rescue media created by following the steps at the beginning of this article, start restores from within Windows, and even recover individual files and folders from a disk image.
These scenarios are not covered in-depth within this article, however, there is some information below about the different types of recoveries that can be performed and links to additional information:
Rescue Media Restore
The Macrium Reflect rescue media is a bootable environment that contains a version of Macrium Reflect. This is a flexible recovery solution that can be used when Windows isn't booting correctly, in the event of errant software installation, failed Windows updates, or even to recover to a bare metal machine in the event of hardware failure.
Read more about restoring with the rescue media here.
Restoring non-System Partitions within Windows
If the restore process does not require writing over existing system partitions, the restore can be entirely performed within Windows. These restores may include, restoring non-system partitions to their original location or restoring system partitions to a new destination.
Read more about this type of restore here.
Restoring System Partitions within Windows
If, however, the restore requires in-use system partitions to be restored over, for example, restoring a system image back to the same location it was created, the restore cannot take place within Windows. As a result, the restore can be initiated within Windows, Macrium Reflect will then automatically create the bootable rescue environment, automatically restart into the recovery environment, perform the restore, and then boot back into the restored Windows operating system.
This type of restore is ideal for when Windows is still bootable but may need resetting to an earlier point in time, e.g. a Windows update has caused application instability.
Read more about this type of restore here.
Recovering Individual Files and Folders
Macrium Reflect LTSC can also temporarily mount an image file as a virtual drive within Windows. This enables more granular file and folder recovery. This is ideal for situations where a limited number of important files and folders have become corrupted or been deleted. Browsing the image enables the files to be recovered, without impacting other data on the system.
Read more about image browsing here.