Following is a simplified version of the Macrium Reflect backup image restore process, note this sort of software and process is for more advanced users, I have only shown the main steps. USE CAUTION that you don't restore an image over all your data this is an advanced procedure that ERASES the entire contents of your PC.

STEP ONE: Backup the entire PC if you are in any doubt that there may be files that you need to recover.

Boot from the Macrium recovery disk, normally this will require tapping DEL, F10, or F12 during the boot process depending on your PC. "press any key when prompted"

Allow the Macrium recovery environment to start

Click on the restore tab (1 below), then browse for an image file (2 below)

 Select your recovery image from its stored location, normally on another USB drive which you will find under "Devices with removable storage" (see 1 below), In this case its is on a second hard drive in the PC (see 2 below). Note that drive letters will probably be different than in Windows

Click on OK (see 3 below)

Once the backup is selected click restore image (see 1 below).

You may have to chose the drive to restore "to" (especially in the case of restoring to a different PC), make sure you chose the correct hard drive. Its useful to understand we are restoring the entire hard drive from with the backup image and restoring it over the entire main "boot" hard drive in the PC (for this simple application). Restoring only certain partitions is beyond the scope of this simple guide.

Ensure that the checkbox "copy selected partitions when I click next" is checked

Click next

The entire hard drive will be erased and the image will be restored.

When complete, remove all the USB drives and restart the PC, Windows should start and if this is a different PC it should locate the specific drivers for the new PC. The PC may restart several times during this process.

Tip:

Macrium doesn't always seam to auto scale all the partitions to fit on the drive in the instance that you get an error about not enough space before the actual restore starts you may uncheck certain partition iof not required, in the instance below I could uncheck the Last pation (see 1 below) as this is not required.

 This information has been provided for the benefit of digitalwelcomemat IT customers.
Treat this information as informative only and do not take actions or make decisions on the basis of the information contained here. All IT decisions and actions should be made after consultation with your chosen IT professional taking into account all the of the relevant factors.

[End]

Follow the steps below to create a "rule" in MS Outlook to auto-move an email to another folder when received. Note that this is a "server side rule" so it will run regardless if your Outlook is open or not, this means that when you are out and about and checking email on your phone you will still get the benefit of this functionality.

This is for the Microsoft outlook program/application using office 365 or exchange server as the back-end mail service.

To install office 365 follow the steps below. Note that if you have installed another version of office (such as the 64 but version) you will need to do that first.

To uninstall, go to the windows control panel (continued after image...)

Select MS office and click uninstall.(see image below) continued after image...

When finished RESTART YOUR PC before you go any further.

To install office 365:

Logon to the PC with an account that has administrative privileges, go to your office 365 portal (link as of April 2019 https://portal.office.com/account/#installs ) and select the 32bit (my recommendation) version of MS office. Regardless of what version of Windows (32 or 64 bit) the 32 bit version is will work and has been Microsofts recommendation forever (up until now, 2019). I suggest staying with the 32 bit version for compatibility.

[End]

This blog post has been provided for the benefit of digitalwelcomemat IT customers. Treat this information as informative only and do not take actions or make decisions on the basis of the information contained here. All IT decisions and actions should be made after consultation with your chosen IT professional taking into account all the of the relevant factors.

 Syncovery backup config guide for backup up Hyper-V VHD's

This post has been provided for the benefit of digitalwelcomemat IT customers.
Treat this information as informative only and do not take actions or make decisions on the basis of the information contained here. All IT decisions and actions should be made after consultation with your chosen IT professional taking into account all the of the relevant factors.

This example is for backup to a rotating USB HDD that is taken off site each evening. The VHD is encrypted for security in case the drive is lost or stolen. As a consequence of the encryption the backup software can't use delta/partial copy. In this instance a very limited number of versions are being kept.

In the screenshot below, 1. Backup ID included in job name so that email notifications will be correct. 2. only one back job required as no partial file update.

In the screenshot below: (1) Using exact mirror with delayed deletion (set in configure see 2.) 3. Scheduled to run nightly.

In the screenshot below: 1. Delay deletion by 14 day just in case something unexpected happens and a source VHD gets deleted

In the screenshot below: 1. Create VSS snap shot before copy, required if VM is running

In the screenshot below: 1. Under files only 1 file is copied at once

In the screenshot below: 3. on deletions tab move deletions to a specified folder

In the screenshot below: 1 Specify folder for deleted items

In the screenshot below: for VHD's that are being replicated you can exclude the *.hrl files

In the screenshot below: Unattended safety specify suitable settings

In the screenshot below: 1. Setup appropriate retention based on VHD size and available HDD space. 2. Set to move to a sub folder

In the screenshot below: Set to zip with no compression. This (hopefully reduces CPU resources?). Note that the only reason you are compressing is that its required by encryption.

Remember that part copy and encryption wont work together (even if the program allows you it set it up that way and doesn't warn you)

In the screenshot below: 1. Set to encrypt using a standard zip file. (Std zip means that it can be opened in WINRAR or 7-Zip). 2. Enter and RECORD the encryption password

Remember that part copy and encryption wont work together (even if the program allows you it set it up that way and doesn't warn you)

 [End]