Can't do it using the MRv6 trial. Yeah, but once you purchase, then you can install the boot manager stuff. Even at it's prelease state this product so surpasses AX64 as to make comparison impossible. I would agree with Oliverjia's comment. I also think AX64 is doomed.
BTW the way someone asked about the impact of a longer chain. I just restore a 10 file chain, 128gb drive in 6 minutes.
Taotoo... Pete is describing the "workarounds" required to play with a v6 TRIAL... what you describe will be readily available in a LICENSED version. I s'pect the licensed version to pretty much act the same way an AXTM WARM restore functions... it will be very automatic but will require a reBOOT to do the deed. This function is not allowed in the TRIAL but is fully available in the licensed version.
Ah- for some reason I was thinking you had a v5 licence and that it would unlock the boot manager option. So we're all in the same boat afterall. Impressed by Macrium so far, but keep expecting to find a show-stopper - only because it's more imaging software than snapshot software and I'm trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.. AX64 still feels a bit quicker/lighter to me (for all its faults).
One of the things I've found helpful with v5 and AX64 is to have "point in time" snaps to go back to for when days/weeks/months later I discover something not working properly. To that end, and due to some degree of ignorance, with v5 and AX64 (which I abandoned the hourly option on) I've primarily always used Full Image as my option. And yes, that's getting sizable on my recovery image storage drive. With v5 or v6beta, what's the best way to have my snaps and eat it too? I want: A. Have unique point in time snapshots for when I do specific updates, make settings changes or add certain software; Haven't used incrementals for this since I think as they merge I might lose my unique moments in time. Correct? B. Have the speed and ease of "periodic" incrementals for normal day to day automatic backing up. Clear?
HI Chamlin With v6 you can have it merge or not your choice. One thing I want to test is setting aside the chain and then going back to it. But have to build up a chain first. I admit AX64 is tantalizing, but I can never fully trust it, and the company... well.... Macrium is 1st class and this product is already showing that.
Thanks, Pete. From what you can see in v6, can you have it set for incrementals which do merge, AND do one-off moment in time images which don't?
Probably. They have two ways of controlling the merge. One is number of days so that should help although eventually they would get merged. The other is by number of backups, so if you say 10, it will keep them until 10 and then start merging. One way that would work, is start a separate manual chain and do keepers there. Pete PS I suspect you can do almost anything you'd want, just we all are learning how this baby works. But so far I rate it as phenomenal. Pete
Sure Not sure about v5 but for v6... First a concept... when you make your first FULL manual image, you set up the specs for the image (compression, location, verify or not, scheduling <lots of other options you may not use>) and when you go to do it for the 1st time, Mv6 asks if you want to run the image AND do you want to save an XML directive (and where) file which contains all those particular image specifications. You say SURE and off you go with your first FULL image. It'll also ask you about scheduling... you just don't use any here. If you're saving those XML specs, I would redirect that function to the drive that's NOT being imaged... so you don't lose any during a restoration operation. I've created an XML folder in my image folder and that's where I save all those types of li'l directive files. Once you have that directive file reference (it's available in the Mv6 UI), you can now select it <right-click> and ask for any additional manual type of operation (DIFF, INC, whatever). Now think about that... "A" can be done using this feature... create your first FULL, then use this for your point in time needs... feel free to create new FULLs along the way with additional PIT needs. This is just like AX64 in MANUAL mode. "B" can be done using the same setup as above, only this time when you get to the scheduling part, you select FOREVER INCREMENTAL and tell it how many to keep. It can also use the same storage folder, as both of these initializations will use different image names and the associated incrementals are referenced to those names. Once this is set up, the incrementals start roilling and in the FOREVER INCREMENTAL mode, Mv6 will roll the whole mess forward based on how many incremenntals you wanna have at any given time (it has an option to roll the baseline forward along with those incrementals. This will completely do what you want, limit the storage in use (for the rolling incrementals) and allow you to take a manual whenever you need a point in time reference. Once the manual FULL has been taken (and its directive file saved), each additional PIT snapshot is done by simply entering the UI, selecting the "Backup Definition File" TAB, <right-click>ing on the MANUAL directive and selecting INCREMENTAL... off it goes taking your PIT snapshot. You'll need to get used to the initial setup to make sure Mv6 doesn't "trim" your manuals (it can do that if you wish to limit the number... it's done in the scheduling option while setting up the directive for the first time). You can give these directive files any name you want... one may be called "Manual," the other "Rolling Incrementals." As Pete has previously said... you can set up anything that you want, and most are set'n'forget.
Two things. First I timed an incremental after doing a PerfectDisk off line and onlne defrag. Normal incremental time has been averaging one minute. This one took a whopping 2:42. Secondly I've been thinking about what Chamlin asked. I may set up several folders. One for a job running hourly incrementals and keeping about 15 of them. Then one that is just a chain of incremental I want to save. Another for just end of day backups and keep 30 days. and finally one for a weekly chain to keep 30 weeks. Different def files and be setup so the whole thing runs automatically. Way to cool WHen the current chain for today finishes at 5:00, I am going to set it aside and restart a new one. That way tomorrow I can test jumping back and forth across chains.
Did restores back and forth across the defrag. No issues at all restore times were 8.04 going backward and 7.44 come back current. That's with 124Gb and a 15 increment chain
After Pete send me the reports, I set up a virtual machine and performed some tests with Macrium DRD. It is a sector based restore and works like this: - Macrium parses the file table from the image and compares it with the file table of the partition. During the restore seems to scan very quickly large blocks of sectors that seem not be modified and replaces the sectors occupied from files that are modified or different from those of the image (plus it seems to always replace the registry files) and at the end replaces the MFT files and the MFT mirror. The time to perform an RDR could take anywhere from 20-30 seconds (depending on the changes on the disk from the image) to a maximum (when all expected sectors resulted modified) of the time needed for a normal Macrium restoration plus some seconds (10-20). The data that gets written to the disk equals to the data of the modified sectors plus the data of the registry files plus the data of the mft and mft mirror. I also run a comparison with Image for Windows and its' "restore differences only" feature. (I was interesting on the mb that get written on the disk) I took an offline image of the partition 1 with Macrium and 1 with IFW. Then I deleted a file of 589mb and performed a restore with each program. Macrium restored the image by writing 756.9mb on the disk. IFW restored the image by writing only 13.4mb on the disk. edit1: the size of the mft files of the above partition was 11.5mb edit2: After the partition got "trimmed", IFW restored the image by writing 596.2mb. Panagiotis
Hi TheRollbackFrog and Pete sorry for the long,confusing and boring backstory,my OS is Windows 8.1 64 Bit,in my work Laptop,not VM,with Macrium V5 and v6,i was successful in creating Bootable media (USB Thumbdrive) and Recover,all worked fine,i was looking for a way of Boot without any external recovery media,and without the classic Boot entry to choose if i Boot Windows or Macrium Recovery,some kind of WinRE like i do with IFW (inside Windows),i know that if my SSD fails i have no choice but is working fine now,my plan was having Macium as second backup or even my primary,i hope that this time,i explain my problem better,and sorry for my English,thanks for your help!
This tells me that IFW restored structure only and no content... assuming (through whatever mechanism) that the original deleted content was still in place on the surface of the disk. I don't see how this is possible if you were doing the restoration to an SSD-based SYSTEM volume, which not only had all that content deleted from the volume's structure, but TRIMmed as well from the storage device (returned to all ZEROs or all ONEs accordingly).
Sounds like you are trying to recover your SYSTEM volume directly from the Macrium UI. I believe, have not tested, that if you do this out of either a LICENSED v5 or v6, Macrium will automatically set that BOOT up for you and BOOT into it, then doing the restore you directed while running under Windows. When finished, it should reBOOT and remove that automatic mechanism. Is this what you're trying to do?
Correct IFW achieves this by reading each sector, comparing it with the image and if it's different it gets replaced if not proceeds to the next and so on. Now I'm testing how much data will restore IFW if the file gets trimmed and I'll post back in a few minutes. Panagiotis
MR v6 sounds pretty complicated, certainly not for the market Isso was looking to appeal to,,,,the PC user who never backed up because backup software was too complex.
Thanks for your answer TheRollbackFrog! that is exactly what i am trying to do,are you sure that when the successfully restore is completed the boot entry is removed and after that i don't have the annoying boot option between Windows and Macrium?
Maybe, but that user in the market Isso was looking for would be more lost when Ax64 failed. Also any imaging program is a tough sell in that market. Most of those folks don't have a clue about backup
No, sorry, PCfan... I have never tested this, I assumed it would happen. I'll look into it with v5.3 but it seems from what Peter2150 said that this is not possible. I find that strange, but being a new Macrium user myself, it appears it is.
AX64 Build 528 works exactly this way but Macrium you have to install the boot manager and then works from the Gui. Pete
So, I'm guessing there's no timing advantage to doing this except it will be a bit slower due to the read followed by a write when the data is really gone rather than just a write to restore the data even if it's still on the surface. I guess over the very long run this would add a tiny bit of life to the SSD but really not enough to make much of a difference in their overall life. I hope it's just comparing the USED SECTOR differences... otherwise it could be quite slow. Although IFW is an excellent imaging tool, it's incremental capability had always been quite slow in the past... probably due to all this sector comparison.
