Macrium Reflect

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

  1. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    I can understand why you might want it for Windows 7 which doesn't have its own "built-in" capability for mounting ISO images, but why would any such third-party add-on be wanted for any more recent Windows version? It's certainly not needed for any Macrium Reflect operation. It can mount its own backup image files and can even boot them with viBoot.
     
  2. Robin A.

    Robin A. Registered Member

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    The Windows 10 ISO mount function depends on the .iso extension being associated with Windows Explorer. If for any reason that association is broken, it doesn´t work. But my point was that the ability to easily mount iso files is previous to Windows 10 and has existed for a long time.
     
  3. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    Actually, Win10 can still mount .iso files even if its Explorer is not associated as the default for that filename extension. In my own case, for example, Nero Burning ROM is the default for both .iso and .img files. But never mind. This is taking us a long way away from the Macrium Reflect topic.
     
  4. WinterKnight

    WinterKnight Registered Member

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    Can I backup two different PCs to the same external hard drive if I use a separate directory for each one? I have a portable 2TB hard drive that I would like to move between computers and wanted to be sure there would be no issues with Macrium backups.

    Edit: This is not a network drive. I will be physically moving the drive between PCs and connecting it via USB 3.0.
     
  5. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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    I don't see how there could be any problems as long as you keep backups in separate folders.
     
  6. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    Yes, definitely you can do that. In fact, it's not absolutely necessary to use two separate directories on the external backup destination drive provided that the each of the two backup image files is named differently. However, two separate directories with meaningful names for each of the source PCs will make it easier to distinguish between the backup images when it comes time to restore them. Reflect's own naming assignments for its backup image file sets provide few clues about their sources unless you examine the file properties details.

    Be sure that you have created WinPE rescue media that will boot both PC's with access to the USB3-connected external drive. Depending on which PE base version you use, that may require the inclusion of additional driver files.
     
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2017
  7. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    As @Minimalist has stated, this is not an issue. The only thing that may happen is that when you plug that drive into a System, Windows may assign a different drive letter than was previously used depending on what's going on with the System.

    If this is a possibility with your System, you should use a special option located in...

    "Other tasks/Edit defaults/Advanced/Destination Drive Discovery/Use the unique Volume Identifier to locate the backup drive"

    This will always use the proper drive regardless of what drive letter your System assigns to it. What you need to know is, once the option is set, it will only apply to NEW BACKUP DEFINITIONS when they are created, not existing ones. If you want it to apply to existing DEFs, you need to make a simple EDIT to those DEFs and re-save them (example: change the "Purge the oldest backup set<s> if less than" value, save it, then change it back). These newly saved DEFs will now have the option selected above applied.
     
  8. beethoven

    beethoven Registered Member

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    Arvy, can you please elaborate how you would look up more info via properties? I do keep my images in separate folders and usually try to add a comment but it would be good to know any other way to check apart from mounting of course.
     
  9. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    Separate destination folders (or sub-folders) with meaningful names for each backup set is definitely the better and more convenient way to go. No quesion about that.

    Although Reflect can handle multiple backup sets in a single folder without any problem, they're certainly not easy for the user to distinguish from one another. The automatically assigned backup "Image ID" file names as such are certainly no help unless you keep some kind of external record. Reflect's Explorer shell integration does allow you to add the Backup Method and the Backup Comment to the displayed file properties columns, but that's the limit of details available outside of Reflect's own user interface.

    Even within Reflect's UI, the information under the Restore tab isn't much more helpful in the absence of comments having been provided by the user when the backup images were created. Information under the Log tab provides more details about the drives and partitions (volume labels, assigned "drive letters", sizes, etc.) that were included in each backup. However, short of actually mounting the image, about the only other way to get details about the included drives (disk IDs, etc) is to click the Restore Image option.

    imageinfo.png

    __
    P.S.: If a single backup image includes more than one physical drive, Reflect will do its best to match each of them to the correct restore destination, but I certainly wouldn't rely on that as any kind of absolute guarantee. Both user-provided backup comments and user-assigned volume labels (as opposed to OS-assigned "drive letters") are absolute musts for any backup and recovery strategy worth the name ... and maintaining a record of current disk IDs isn't a bad idea either.
     
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2017
  10. beethoven

    beethoven Registered Member

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    thanks Arvy for clarifying this
     
  11. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    On the machine I had trouble with the other day I have now installed MR but either in the recovery environment or within Windows I cannot select my local SSD as the target. It looks like something has screwed my local drive (after trying Linux Mint). I wonder if I buy a new SSD the same size whether I could restore to that?

    The machine currently has a fresh install of Win10 1709 but I just do not feel like installing all of my programs again while my machines suffer from Start menu issues.

    I have reset the UEFI BIOS back to factory default but I wonder, could Linux have made a change to that which might cause this problem?
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2017
  12. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    Having reviewed your posts in the other thread about start menu issues, the one "clue" that jumps out at me is your mention of a message about Windows trying to install a Plug and Play driver. We had more or less agreed in our earlier discussion here as well that a bad or missing driver might be involved in Reflect's inability to access the SSD in the WinPE rescue environment. If I understand correctly, you're now experiencing the same problem in the regular Windows working environment with a fresh W10.1709 installation.

    All of that leads me to a strong suspicion that your machine may use a hardware configuration requiring a special OEM driver to handle its SSD setup. We'd need more hardware details about that (mSATA perhaps or something like the Surface Pro setup?) and about whether you're sure that all required OEM drivers were made available to the Windows installation process. If a situation of that kind prevails, merely swapping the SSD itself wouldn't resolve the issue. It might even be a dangerous step without full knowledge about exactly what's involved.
     
  13. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    I have previously restored this particular machine several times in the past with no problems. The problem with MR has only started since I installed Linux, so must be related.

    And for the record, although the machine in question suffered more than my others with the Start menu bug, since the clean install it has not happened once, so I doubt very much that is an any way related here.
     
  14. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    Oh, okay. That's different from what I understood when you said above:
    I thought that meant that you were still seeing start menu issues after the fresh W10 installation. If not, does that also mean that you are no longer seeing any message about Windows trying to install a Plug and Play driver? Also, could you post a Windows Disk Management screenshot and/or a screenshot showing Reflect's initial UI screen.
     
  15. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    I've seen the Start menu bug on all three machines but so far not on this machine since the latest clean install.
    Correct.
    Sure.
     

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  16. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    Well, that all looks very normal to me. Reflect is definitely seeing the drive and has selected it fully (all of its partitions) for backup as it should. So there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the drive itself, nor with its ability to boot the system properly, nor with Reflect's initial access to it and its entire layout geometry. Nevertheless, if I understand you correctly, you say that that drive is not available as a target for restoring a Reflect backup image.

    I'm afraid that I can't even offer a guess about a possible cause for that situation. I've never seen it myself and yours is the first and only case of that kind that I've ever encountered anywhere with one single exception where a user was attempting to restore a backup to the same target location as where the selected image itself was located. Otherwise, Reflect should just tell you that you need to boot to the WinPE rescue environment to restore your OS drive.

    __
    P.S.: And if you have enabled Reflect's "Add boot menu option" feature, it should also then boot to that and run the restore operation automatically, or else you'll need to use your rescue media. See this "One Click Restore" KB article for details.
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2017
  17. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Arvy,

    In the Macrium screenshot the Recovery partition is selected and "Details" shows the Free Space in front of the partition instead of the partition. My "Details" shows the partition. I don't know what this means but it is strange.
     
  18. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    Yes, thanks. I completely missed that discrepancy between the selected Recovery partition and the displayed details. I don't know exactly what it may mean either, if anything significant, but I agree that it is strange and it does raise the question of whether the fresh Win10 installation was allowed to format the drive for itself.
     
  19. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    Are all of you using the FREE version as the OP is?
     
  20. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    No, I was using a trial Workstation.

    Edit... I just tried Free 7.1.2722. Same result as Workstation.
     
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2017
  21. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    I'm on Reflect v7.1.2722 Server edition. But fire away if you have even a wild guess to offer. Other than the installation formatting question (doubtful as causative) I'm stumped.
     
  22. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    Free version here.

    Here is what the image I'm trying to restore looks like.

    I'm guessing the grey 503 MB partition is left after the 1709 upgrade?
     

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  23. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

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    Are you able to verify that backup image successfully? Can you mount and explore its OS ("C:") partition okay?
     
  24. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    The 503 MB area is Unallocated Free Space. Unallocated means it isn't allocated to a partition. Strange that it should be there after a standard Win10 install.

    I have 174.19 GB of Unallocated Free Space (following the Win10 partition) on my test SSD but that is deliberate.
     
  25. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Arvy,

    Krusty has internet issues at present but he said to mention...

    "I have verified the backup after it ran and once since while trying to restore."

    He told me he restored last night's image without problems but three older images wouldn't restore.
     
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