Macrium Reflect Problem

[OneWorld]

I have been using Macrium Reflect for some years now, no problem. I am currently on the new Macrium Reflect7

But is refusing to make an image now. I get the message 'File system bitmap fragmented - Error Code = 8. Please run Windows defrag utility'

This is an established error and Macrium doesn't seem to have a fix.

The disk itself is an SSD, there is the main volume c:drive and 2 recovery partitions of about 500MB (on the same physical drive)

I have trawled the web and it says the problem can be caused by a corrupted file system bitmap and to shrink the volume and then resize it again and that puts things right - it didn't

I have defragged the whole disk as I cannot find a way to defrag the recovery volumes, Macrium help says defrag the volumes but doesn't say how.

On WIndows (10) Disk Management (opened as Administrator) it says right click on the volume and shrink and resize, I right click on it and the only option is a help link which says right-click shrink - so a circular option

I did manage to shrink/resize using 3rd party software. But the problem remains

Is it possible to delete the recovery volumes and yet still boot and use the PC normally?

I would go ahead with this but would want to either clone or image the drive before I do, but I can't, each clone/image attempt fails. I have tried other cloning/imaging software which also fails

I am a devotee of the imaging routine and cannot imagine computing life without it.

I am on image number 8, I could try and recover image number 7, (which has about 95% of the application and data image 8 has, so I am fine with that) but I would have to sacrifice image 8 as I don't have a spare HDD/SSD to recover the image to

I have run chkdsk c: and it says "The volume bitmap is incorrect"

The Microsoft site has this...."n rare circumstances, the NTFS Metafiles $MFT or $BITMAP may become corrupted and result in lost disk space. You can identify and fix this issue by running the chkdsk /f command against the volume. Toward the end of chkdsk, you receive the following message if you must adjust the $BITMAP:Correcting errors in the master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute. CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap. Windows has made corrections to the file system."

I ran chkdsk /f and the problem remains

[merlyn]

This could be a job for Linux. There's a command line utility dd which may stand for disk dump or data dump that can clone disks. You would need another drive the same size or bigger than the drive you want to clone, then boot from a USB stick but don't mount the drives then clone the disk.

On WIndows (10) Disk Management (opened as Administrator) it says right click on the volume and shrink and resize, I right click on it and the only option is a help link which says right-click shrink - so a circular option

Are you trying to shrink the disk that you're using? i.e. did you boot from the disk that you're trying to shrink? That seems bonkers to me, but Windows may do things differently.

[OneWorld]

This could be a job for Linux. There's a command line utility dd which may stand for disk dump or data dump that can clone disks. You would need another drive the same size or bigger than the drive you want to clone, then boot from a USB stick but don't mount the drives then clone the disk.

On WIndows (10) Disk Management (opened as Administrator) it says right click on the volume and shrink and resize, I right click on it and the only option is a help link which says right-click shrink - so a circular option

Are you trying to shrink the disk that you're using? i.e. did you boot from the disk that you're trying to shrink? That seems bonkers to me, but Windows may do things differently.

Thanks, I’ll give that a try, but it seems from what I’ve read, it could come down to a re-install. It is as much a curiosity issue, how did the MFT (master file table) get corrupted in the first place. But I do have a penultimate image which has 95%+ of the apps and data I need so I could recover that image