Macrium Reflect - basic questions

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by Matt Cole, Sep 17, 2015.

  1. Matt Cole

    Matt Cole Registered Member

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    Hi

    First time here, and non-techy.

    I have Macrium Reflect version 5 (free version) and have not done very much with it so far except take an image of my PC disk and save it to my NAS drive. As it is free (and as I hope to keep it that way) I understand from Macrium that I can get no support from them, but they pointed me here....

    What I would like are some basic pointers, really. Mainly, what do I actually do with a macrium disk image file in the event of my actually needing one (drive crashing). What is the process for copying the file to the new disk so that I then have a nice new shiny disk with all data and applications as if nothing bad had ever happened? Do I need specialist software/ a particular process?

    Also I'd like ideally to keep a regularly updated copy of my drive in the cloud. At the moment the file is just short of 70GB. Carbonite seem to be a reputable online back up outfit that will handle unlimited data very securely and accessibly for not too many £££'s. Does anyone have any experience of them / other good ones to recommend /stay away from?

    All help much appreciated
     
  2. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    Hi Matt! The first recommendation I would make is to get your hands on Macrium Reflect v6 FREE (available now) and re-make your System image. It has a few additional capabilities than v5 FREE did, the main one being what's called DIFFERENTIAL images. These are "difference" images between your first FULL and the status of your system at the time of the DIFFERENTIAL... much smaller than a new FULL image.

    Those images you take with Reflect are basically useless to you until you create a Reflect Recovery Media... usually a UFD (USB Flash Disk), CD or DVD. This is created using the application itself and will be REQUIRED if you have to restore your saved image(s) to a new HDD. The Recovery Media is the vehicle used to restore that image to any disk large enough to hold it. The Recovery Media is selected at BOOT time using your System's boot MENU (F-<whatever> key during BOOT depending on your machine brand) and your system will BOOT directly into the Recovery Media, bypassing your resident disk-based system.

    The reason I feel Reflect v6 FREE is more useful is because you don't have to keep creating a new FULL image periodically... you can create the first FULL followed by periodic DIFFERENTIALs until the DIFFERENTIALs start getting a bit on the large size (they will grow over time). When they do, just create a new FULL and move on from there, deleting the old FULL and all its DIFFERENTIALs. The deletion of those files should be handled by the application itself as the app knows which DIFFs are related to whatever FULLs you might be deleting.

    Cloud storage is best handled by others in the Forum...
     
  3. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    ...and rather than creating "Macrium Reflect" Forum threads all over the place, I would recommend using the main already existing Macrium thread. That thread is followed closely by those on the Forum who are best able to help you.
     
  4. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    How long would it take to upload this file? Does it have to be done in a single session or can it be resumed if the computer is restarted?
     
  5. Palancar

    Palancar Registered Member

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    Welcome. You will love Macrium. If you are anything like me you will for sure sleep much better once you are certain that you can recover the full hard drive when disaster strikes (notice I said when and not IF). I would have zero hesitation recovering my full disk. Its a great feeling to have!!
     
  6. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    That was awfully nice of them! How about giving some of us here who help out their customers free Macrium Workstation licenses as a thank you? :)

    It will still be cheaper than paying the salary of a customer support rep.
     
  7. Matt Cole

    Matt Cole Registered Member

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    Hi Brian - that's a good question, and my guess is that it needs to be done all in one go as it is a single file with the image (suffix .mrimg), but I have to say I have no idea. I'm guessing from your question that it would make life easier if i was able to do it in sections?
     
  8. Matt Cole

    Matt Cole Registered Member

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    I will be sure to mention it to them next time I make contact!:)

    For my part, rather than offering payment to the good people who help me out for free I will undertake to try to keep my silly questions at least short and to the point.;)
     
  9. Matt Cole

    Matt Cole Registered Member

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    Many, many thanks for all this. Plenty for me to make a start on here. I will take your pointer and move any more Macrium questions over to the thread.
     
  10. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Matt,

    A 70 GB upload would take 8 days with my internet connection. I don't think it is a practical method for storing images of that size.
     
  11. Matt Cole

    Matt Cole Registered Member

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    Thanks Brian. Yes that is rather a long time isn't it...But if it was just a one-off, with subsequent uploads being incremental back up images (as the new version of Macrium seems to offer) it might still feasibly make sense....

    Is there any other app you know of that securely,affordably and flexibly backs up this amount data in the cloud...?
     
  12. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    I have almost nothing in the cloud. Maybe 1 GB and I rarely access it.
     
  13. Matt Cole

    Matt Cole Registered Member

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    OK, many thanks
     
  14. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    Matt, the new version of FREE Macrium only offers DIFFERENTIALs, not INCREMENTALs... there is a difference. INCs offer an efficient difference algorithm using previous INCs as their reference where DIFFs offer the same algorithm only in relation to the original FULL... it's not as efficient moving along the timeline and subsequent images get larger as time goes on. This is not necessarily true of INCs.

    Restoring with DIFFs only requires the time point DIFF you're headed to and the original FULL, where INC restoration requires all INCs taken from the FULL to the restoration time point in question.
     
  15. Matt Cole

    Matt Cole Registered Member

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    Thanks for the clarification, that does make sense to me.
     
  16. fpefpe

    fpefpe Registered Member

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    Hello --

    I would also note that when you create the recovery cd, make sure all the needed drive are included in the winPE env -- I had to recover a system and when I booted the cd, there was no network because the
    NIC driver was not included. In this case I had to copy the image from my NAS to a usb
    drive and restore from there

    I then rebuilt the recovery cd with the NIC driver and this time it connected to the network -- but I had to
    use the command window to map the NAS ( using net use and ip address ) to restore from the NAS directly

    fpefpe
     
  17. fpefpe

    fpefpe Registered Member

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    Hello

    I am not sure but where is the backup process/option I can specified that I want to
    do a DIFFERENTIAL backup? All I see on the screen is "clone/image" this disk

    Is it automatic if I point the backup target to the folder where the (last) full backup is saved?

    Thanks

    fpefpe
     
  18. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    Under the RESTIORE TAB, if you select your last FULL, under the "Other options" you should find the ability to take a DIFF.

    Disclaimer :eek: : I don't have the FREE version in the front of me but it shouldn't be too different than the PAID version... I hope :isay:

    If I blow this one, I'll shut up and get a FREE install in front of me somewhere...
     
  19. fpefpe

    fpefpe Registered Member

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    Thanks -

    very obscure location ... not very UI friendly
     
  20. timcan

    timcan Registered Member

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    2015-09-18_151139.png Hi, you can create a shortcut to your desktop if you've made a backup definition file. Right click the file then choose create shortcut. Hope this helps
     
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