Macrium Reflect

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by Stigg, Nov 23, 2013.

  1. HAN

    HAN Registered Member

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    Thanks for the replies! I'll be buying a copy soon and start experimenting...
     
  2. ratchet

    ratchet Registered Member

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    Since I updated to v567 my two (to two diff drives) morning scheduled incrementals keep prompting me to make a new boot CD. Do I have to do that? Thank you!
     
  3. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    Ratchet, the new WinPE contains a "fixed" bug in the RDR that you should update to in your WInPE.
     
  4. ratchet

    ratchet Registered Member

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    Thank you, Frog!
     
  5. jwcca

    jwcca Registered Member

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    I think that it's always a good idea to update the Recovery media with every Reflect update. It doesn't take much time, especially if you write to USB sticks or use the boot recovery option.
     
  6. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    I had just assumed the boot recovery option would be updated when the program itself was updated. Thanks for the tip I had MR do the BRO update (and it indicated that that is what it was doing).

    Much appreciated.
     
  7. Alexhousek

    Alexhousek Registered Member

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    Quick question since I've always just used a DVD for my recovery media--If I use the boot recovery option, how do I update that if there is an update to WinPE?
     
  8. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    You just need to redo the steps involved in the creation of the boot media.
     
  9. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    The answer is quite simple. As per policy I do not allow unnecessary services from running on my system, it is nothing personal against Macrium. Also, it is only an Image mounting service and since I seldom mount images, there is no need to have it set to automatically start with windows. I have had it at manual for the last 4-5 years without problems and whenever I had needed to mount an image, the service automatically starts at that time.

    But with this v6, setting this to manual prevents missed scheduled tasks from automatically starting at next system boot. This might be by design or might be a bug in version 6, as I found a post from Nick of Macrium, dated 2009, mentioning that the service is supposed to help with scheduling, but putting it in manual never had any issues for me before. It just started with v6.
     
  10. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Well my advice stands, leave the service alone. If you policy is to stop it, then I don't have a clue. Sorry can't help you
     
  11. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    Thats OK. I just wanted to confirm whether I was the only one experiencing the issue or not, this is why I asked.
     
  12. jwcca

    jwcca Registered Member

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    Alex, you do want to continue doing the Rebuild step and also create your dvds (or USB sticks), don't depend on just the boot time because it can't help if you lose your system drive and have to BMR.
    J
     
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2015
  13. Alexhousek

    Alexhousek Registered Member

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    Thank you. That is very helpful to know.
     
  14. pandlouk

    pandlouk Registered Member

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    Hi Raza,
    can you post a screenshot of the scheduled task (from the windows scheduler interface) and some log of the missing tasks?

    Panagiotis
     
  15. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    Hello Panagiotis,

    I had installed v6 on trial on Saturday morning, tested it extensively, but then restored my system back to v5 on Sunday night, so unfortunately I do not have any logs available.

    Just to clarify, the scheduled tasks were not missing, they were listed as enabled both in the windows scheduler as well as Macrium's own scheduled task list. They just did not start at the scheduled time because the ReflectService was set to manual and I had rebooted the system since then, so the service never started. As soon as I set the Reflectservice to start as automatic and rebooted my system to check the effect, the missed scheduled task started and completed fine.

    Now in v5 I have ReflectService set to start manual, so it never starts or is never running on my system, but still all scheduled tasks start at their appropriate time. Therefore, I believe in v6 they either changed something to make it necessary for this service to be running for the scheduled tasks to start or it is a bug. I am leaning more towards a bug because I quoted a post from Macrium support dated 2009, which states that ReflectService is used for mounting images and to help in task scheduling, but since having it set to manual never interfered in the regular operation of Macrium before so it may be a bug in v6. Or it may be by design, I do not know.
     
  16. PCFAN2014

    PCFAN2014 Registered Member

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    Great news from Macrium Reflect Team!

    No resting on our laurels at Macrium Software!
    by MICHELLE PARKES on 20/04/2015 · LEAVE A COMMENT
    Not content with releasing our brand new v6 of Macrium Reflect, we’re only going and enhancing it some more! We are excited to announce viBoot which will be coming soon to Macrium Reflect and will allow instant virtualization of any Windows OS from a Macrium Reflect disk image.

    viBoot enables Hyper-V Virtual Machines to be created instantly from any Macrium Reflect disk image. No down time, no lengthy virtual disk conversion or restore, just instant access to a running Windows OS that was previously running on any physical hardware.

    So what can you hope to see in viBoot?

    • Supports legacy MBR and UEFI booting systems with drives up to 64TB in size.
    • Automatic injection of critical mass storage controller drivers and Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) settings using Macrium ReDeploy. No configuration required, it just happens!
    • No lengthy conversion process to create a Virtual Disk file. viBoot enables Hyper-V Virtual Machines to boot instantly into existing Macrium Reflect .mrimg image files by creating a virtual SCSI disk on the Hyper-V host.
    • Persistence beyond the life of the VM. Automatically create Incremental, Differential or Full images of changes made in the Virtual Machine environment and restore these changes back to the physical machine.
    By utilising viBoot you can ensure zero downtime for critical PCs and Servers and take the stress out of replacing or upgrading system hardware. Use viBoot to create a copy of your live environment to test new software before installing it on your production machines. You could even use viBoot as a performance test platform as part of your Physical to Virtual (P2V) rollout strategy. You can change VM RAM and CPU settings for the exact same Windows OS environments as your physical PCs.

    We are currently testing viBoot with our customers before a general rollout, if you’re interested in being part of the testing team, give us a shout support@macrium.com
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 22, 2015
  17. Hadron

    Hadron Registered Member

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    Will viBoot be a free addition for Reflect 6 users?
     
  18. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

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    Sounds great, looking forward to it.
     
  19. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    I wanna test this baby for sure. Signed up
     
  20. pandlouk

    pandlouk Registered Member

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    Either a bug or that service is related with the retention rules of v6 and needs to run before the schedule starts. But even in the second case it task should run after a while.

    Panagiotis
     
  21. Stode

    Stode Registered Member

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    i love this software, 2nd to none.
    even the free edition is an jewelry in your "collection",
    beats the commercial acronis seven fold.
    enough said.
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2015
  22. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    I will run some more tests this weekend with Macrium v6. The retention rules are actually taken care of by the software itself. When Reflect.exe is started by the scheduler, the first thing it does is, it parses the backup definition file and runs any retention rules if they are configured. The ReflectService.exe is only there to help mounting of image files as separate drives on the system. In Macrium v5, if ReflectService.exe is disabled, you can not mount images. However, the actual software still runs fine and its functionality is not affected in any way.
     
  23. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    Yea Raza, that is true, but v6 isn't v5, and they have changed it. I wouldn't expect support to help you much if you disable services.
     
  24. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    When v6 was released, this capability was listed as one of the features and was supposed to be included in Macrium v6.1. So, it will be free for Macrium v6 owners. Macrium website is currently down so look at this March 10, 2015 archived page under Virtual Image Boot.
     
  25. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    Yes, this is why I am not talking with Macrium support. I just want to know what purpose this ReflectService is for. Isn't this why were are here at Wilders forum, to discuss various features of the software among ourselves. They have changed something in this service between v5 and v6 and I just want to know what changes they have made.

    Edit: One of the reasons I chose Macrium 4 years ago was that it did not have any services or processes running in the background. They have changed that in v6, and it is important.
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2015
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