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Question

Macrium Reflect Imaging Take Longer if Resizing Partition?

Aug 11, 2014 4:24AM PDT

I recently tested imaging of my Windows 7 system using three different utilities. Times were recorded and are shown below. If anyone has resized a partition during imaging while using Macrium, did it take longer than the normal operation? Is there anything that can be done to shorten the time?

The compressed image files were typically 45-50 GB. Windows 7 used about 70 GB on a 1 TB disk with single partition plus the small boot partition. Imaging was done by booting and running the associated recovery CD. Verification was not enabled.

Create and Store Image on External USB 3.0 Disk

Acronis - 9 minutes
Macrium - 14 minutes
Windows 7 - 12 minutes

Restore Image to 1 TB Disk

Acronis - 9 minutes
Macrium - 25 minutes
Macrium - 52 minutes (resize 1 TB to 500 GB)
Windows 7 - 29 minutes

Discussion is locked

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Answer
I doubt partition size would change things.
Aug 11, 2014 4:43AM PDT

It's the amount of USED disk space that usually makes the difference, not partition size. Obviously the Windows 7 backup program is the worst which coincides with my experience. A lot of folks like Acronis, but I had some very bad experiences with it, so I keep away from it. Norton Ghost used to be the best, but good old Symantec has dropped support for it, so I'm using the FREE program Easeus Todo Backup Free. It works extremely well for me and is totally free for home use.

Good luck.

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Answer
Re: resizing
Aug 11, 2014 5:04AM PDT

Apparently, resizing the partition takes time. That makes sense if something in the first part (like some table) becomes smaller. Did you already measure the time a partition program (like GPARTED or Partition Magic or any other partition editor) needs to shrink a partition from 1 GB to 500 MB and to enlarge it again?

Kees

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Macrium Imaging
Aug 11, 2014 5:46AM PDT

Thanks wpgwpg and Kees for the help. I have not tried shrinking the partition with other tools.

The 52 minutes versus 25 minutes just doesn't make a lot of sense. In looking at a map of the Windows 7 disk with the Auslogics defragmenter program, just about all files are compacted at the start of the disk. A few system files are out in the middle but below the half way point. Those files are System Restore Points which disappear in the restored image. I think imaging programs in general may not image certain system files some of which are regenerated during boot.

When I resized the disk I chose a boundary so that the disk image would not even need to change. Perhaps their algorithm is not quite smart enough to recognize that case.

I'll also take a look at Easeus Todo Backup Free.