My first question is about Macrium Reflect the FREE version, which gets no support.
I just purchased a new laptop and the first thing I did was install Macrium Reflect Free and made an image
(and a Win PE3.1 rescue disc) I wanted to do this before adding other stuff to the new laptop.
The C drive 'properties' on the laptop says it was 26.68 GB.
After I made an image to an external USB 3.0 drive, the properties on the image says 8.0 GB.
The image passed verification.
Does that "shrinkage" of 26 down to 8 sound right?

Second question: my desktop PC has Windows Home 32 bit. The laptop, a Dell, has Windows Home 64 bit.
Need I expect any trouble after copying files and maybe some programs to the laptop from the desktop PC?

Any other tips will be appreciated.

While some, actually many, programs will work if just copied from the Program files folder on one machine to another it is not a good practice. Any programs you want on the new laptop should actually be installed so that all the proper registry entries and program associations are completed.

I am not familiar with Macrium Reflect Free but did a little searching... This software will in fact compress a system image saving space. I may be off base and totally wrong but I'd worry a bit about a compressed image. My concern is that when you compress you MAY also increase the odds of failure. Like I said I may be totally wrong as to this concern. I WILL say that the thing looks interesting and I will be taking a closer look.

As to your system partition showing 26.68gig in use and the image being only 8gig I would suspect that you are using the high compression mode. Looking at a few compression questions on their forums it seems that high compression SHOULD be OK but unless external drive space is low it is better to use medium or less compression. BTW, this software does in fact have support though not directly from the company. There is a support forum at
http://support.macrium.com/
where you can ask questions regardless of which version you may have.

I know that the above does not totally answer your question as to the size difference between what your system drive and the image shows but it is not a question that can be answered yes or no. What OS is on the new laptop? I would suspect Windows 8 but there are still a lot of systems being sold with Windows 7. Sigh, how much compression can be done? Both Win 7&8 put the entire OS on a 2.5-3.0gig DVD. The initial install with nothing else will be 7-8gig if I remember right. That shows that there is a considerable compression done on the install files. So, is your difference in size between the system partition and the image feasible? Yes it is but I have no way to vouch for this softwares compression and success rate due to the fact that I have never used it.

This is NOT a recommendation, just something to think about and what I would actually do. I would use the image backup system included in Windows 7&8 to do a total image. Then I would use Macrium Reflect to do an image. I would then do a restore with Macrium Reflect to see how it went having the Windows image backup to fall back to. Is there a risk in this? Of course there is but the risk is much less of an impact than if you totally set up the system and Macrium Reflect fails when needed. I would NEVER rely on backup software that I had not tested.

Others may have different ways to approach this, I'm just giving the best response I know to do.

_________________

Jay says, "There is a support forum at http://support.macrium.com/ where you can ask questions regardless of which version you may have."

FYI: to ask questions there you have to show you have the 'paid' version of Macrium Reflect by registering with your license number.
I do have the paid version on my desktop computer. In any case...
Both Mac Refl, paid or free, offer 3 levels of compression....High, Medium or None. Mine is set a Medium so I should be OK.

Please look at my Second question: my desktop PC has Windows Home 32 bit. The laptop, a Dell, has Windows Home 64 bit.
Need I expect any trouble after copying files and maybe some programs to the laptop from the desktop PC?

Hi Smitty

Copying data would be okay, but programs.... I wouldn't do it. In some cases you might even need to get new installers.

On the compression, I'd use their default compression. I can't speak to Macrium Reflect, but I use the standard compression, with ShadowProtect, and have literally done over a 1000 images and restores using it. Never had any problem.

Pete

Pete says: "Copying data would be okay, but programs.... I wouldn't do it. In some cases you might even need to get new installers.

On the compression, I'd use their default compression. I can't speak to Macrium Reflect, but I use the standard compression, with ShadowProtect, and have literally done over a 1000 images and restores using it. Never had any problem."


I've been using Macrium Reflect Pro (paid) for about 3 years. Their default compression for free and paid is Medium. I've re-imaged many times because I either had to or I wanted to. It never failed me.
My intentions (which are not written in stone) with this new laptop is to have a portable (expensive) picture album (1000's of pics). I didn't see any portable DVD players that appealed to me. Besides, I like expensive toys.
I will be installing the Open Source thingy so I can handle Word docs. And Paint.net, my favorite photo editor. And go online for keeping Windows 7 patched. Other than that, this laptop should be a pretty bare bone computer and not used much.

Thanks guys...........

Sorry, I didn't try to register on their forums so did not know that a license number was needed. Since you DO have a paid version I still don't see an issue.

I think that myself and Pete have answered the question on copying program files from one system to another... not a good thing to do, do actual installs. One thing to note is that your 32bit installers should work just fine on your 64bit laptop. Another note would be the fact that with most paid for software the license is for one machine. In such cases it would be illegal to have the software installed on both machines at the same time. This would not be the case with freeware software such as Paint.net.

_________________

"Another note would be the fact that with most paid for software the license is for one machine. In such cases it would be illegal to have the software installed on both machines at the same time."

...and I respect that. That is why I installed the free version of Macrium Reflect on the laptop.

Thanks, too, for answering the 32/64 bit question.