Macrium Reflect

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

  1. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    You should be able to update using the updater. Some people have had a issues with that here and there, but they seem to involve MIG and CBT, neither of which are available on the Free version. So I personally would just use the updater and then fall back to the uninstall/reinstall route if necessary. Good luck!
     
  2. paulderdash

    paulderdash Registered Member

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    But internal updater should at least still update Free to that latest v7.2.3825 ...
    The internal updater always works fine but not for this latest version v7.2.3825, for me at least (pop-up Launcher Error: 'Could not start the setup'). Let us know if it works for you?
    If I uninstall/reinstall will I lose my scheduled tasks?
     
  3. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    No. When you choose to uninstall Reflect, before anything else happens you see a checklist asking whether you want to delete certain things. All of those are unchecked by default.
     
  4. paulderdash

    paulderdash Registered Member

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    :thumb:
     
  5. AlphaOne

    AlphaOne Registered Member

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    An easy decision. I'll study the documentation (I used to be a developer) before taking up much of your time and energy; but is there anything I should know before I buy?

    Should I buy it from somewhere other than excubits.com? Should I wait for an imminent new release? Should I buy something else with it?

    My immediate use case is to limit access to two infrequently attached external hard drives to MR and FreeFileSync. I'm going to keep Bitdefender on my machines, for now at least.
     
  6. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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    With respect to the issue where MR 7.2 is built with PE 5 and is showing PE 4 in the rescue environment :
    See some of the previous posts:
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/macrium-reflect.356309/page-267#post-2790450
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/macrium-reflect.356309/page-268#post-2790549
    https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/macrium-reflect.356309/page-268#post-2790571

    I've tested it again on Win 7 Pro 64-bit upgrading from Home Edition 7.1.3196 to v7.2.3825.
    I see the same thing.
    The same thing in both the Rescue environment (boot menu) and in the CD/DVD Rescue environment.
    Here is a screenshot of the CD/DVD Rescue environment. (it may be too dark again; sorry!).

    Macrium_2018-11-04_03.png

    In normal mode in Windows in C:\boot\macrium with respect to WA I see only :
    folder C:\boot\macrium\WA5KFiles

    The command prompt in both the Rescue environment (boot menu) and in the CD/DVD Rescue environment is showing:
    Microsoft Windows [Version 6.3.9600]
     
    Last edited: Nov 4, 2018
  7. WinterKnight

    WinterKnight Registered Member

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    WinPE10 + Macrium Reflect 7.1 works well on my Windows 10 system. Is there any downside to sticking with PE10 in v7.2 instead of the recommended WinRE? I don’t want or need Wi-Fi access when doing a restore so I’m thinking PE10 may be the simpler solution.
     
  8. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    Other than WiFi, there are only two obvious benefits of WinRE that I can see:

    - You don’t have to download a large ADK from Microsoft in order to build Rescue Media. If you just updated to 7.2, you’ll be prompted to download WinPE 10 1709 since 7.1 used WinPE 10 1607.

    - WinPE 10 on Reflect 7.2 always uses WinPE 10 1709, whereas WinRE would use whatever exists on your system’s Recovery partition. So theoretically if there’s a bug that affects you in WinPE 10 1709 that got fixed later, or there's a new feature in a newer version that you want to use, then building with WinRE to use the newer version might be useful. However, the flip side is that new versions can bring new problems, at least until Reflect is updated to deal with them (assuming that's possible). For example, somebody found that when Reflect uses WinRE 10 1809, Intel WiFi drivers don’t load at startup even though they can be manually loaded after Reflect launches. WinRE 10 1803 doesn’t exhibit this behavior.
     
  9. WinterKnight

    WinterKnight Registered Member

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    Thanks jphughan. I updated to v7.2.3825 using the internal updater. No issues. I went with PE10 for both the boot menu and flash drive recovery media. Tested both. No issues. I did have one question. During the install there was an option to register and get a code. What’s the code for? As a reminder, I use the free version.
     
  10. guest

    guest Guest

    The license, then your registration name will appear at the next screen.
     
  11. jadinolf

    jadinolf Registered Member

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    No idea what the code is for but I have 5 computers and the code was the same for all of them.
     
  12. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    I haven’t used Reflect Free for a little while, and there was nothing about a code back then. I remember a policy change with V7 (or maybe V7.1?) whereby Free became specifically allowed to be used for commercial purposes when it wasn’t before, but registration was made mandatory for commercial users, whereas it’s optional for home users. There wasn’t any description anywhere in installer itself that explained what the code was for?
     
  13. stapp

    stapp Global Moderator

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  14. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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    I have just noticed that, after another person confirmed today the issue at the Macrium forum thread https://forum.macrium.com/Topic25915.aspx, there is now a reply from Nick there to that person:
    Good that we have now an official word about it ...
     
  15. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    ^ Saw that too. Good that it’s getting fixed, although that seems a mostly cosmetic issue unless I guess it causes some troubleshooting efforts to go down the wrong path. I’m now keeping my eye more on the just-reported issue that 7.2 Rescue Media failed trying to restore an image file that 7.1 Rescue restored just fine. No more info yet, and Macrium replied asking that person to submit a support ticket, but that seems like the first POTENTIALLY significant problem. Everything else has had a pretty easy workaround (uninstall and reinstall, manually loading a driver in Rescue) or has already been fixed (CBT long reboots). Macrium has had Rescue issues in the past, although they’ve also fixed them very quickly. Still, never a bad idea to hang onto one or two older Rescue Media ISOs just in case. Same goes for Reflect installers.
     
  16. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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    Hi jphughan,
    When you said "I’m now keeping my eye more on the just-reported issue that 7.2 Rescue Media failed trying to restore an image file that 7.1 Rescue restored just fine. No more info yet, and Macrium replied asking that person to submit a support ticket", (just for my understanding) were you talking about Macrium forum thread https://forum.macrium.com/Topic26150.aspx ?
     
  17. FanJ

    FanJ Updates Team

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    If that Macrium forum thread is the correct one involved (at the moment I don't know), then I cannot reproduce that error as mentioned in that thread:
    Of course I know systems and procedures and all of that may be different. And I don't know at which moment and where that poster got that error.

    What I did for a quick test:
    On Win 7 Pro 64-bit.
    I had a backup image from 3 Nov made with MR Home v7.1.3196 PE 5.
    I had a rescue media CD made with 7.2.3825 PE 5. Yes, the one where it shows incorrectly PE 4 in the title bar.
    I booted from that rescue media CD and let MR from there restore that backup image from 3 Nov made with MR Home v7.1.3196.
    I didn't get an error (but I don't know yet where that person saw it).

    As I said, systems, settings and all of that may be different.

    Anyhow, enough testing. I'm going to back again (but now with the rescue media CD built with v7.1.3196) to that backup image from 3 Nov made with MR Home v7.1.3196.
    Enough testing done now.
     
  18. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    ^ Yes, that’s the thread I was referring to. Sorry, should have linked it in the first place. Thanks for testing, and good to hear a success confirmation. I’ll just be keeping an eye on that thread in the hopes of learning underlying cause. It doesn’t sound like it would be user error, and the fact that the OP’s earlier Rescue Media immediately worked with the same image is a concrete test result. Bottom line is that even if that behavior is only triggered under narrow circumstances, it shouldn’t be happening at all.

    I suppose one possibility (other than a new bug in 7.2) is that the OP’s 7.2 Rescue Media is using a different version of WinPE that’s triggering this, but in that case Macrium will need to provide an update to avoid this. There’s already another thread reporting behavior that I’ve reproduced where Rescue Media running on WinRE 10 1809 breaks automatic WiFi driver loading at startup, even though manually loading that same driver works fine. WinRE 10 1803 doesn’t have this problem at all. Microsoft, the ever-moving target....
     
  19. Fly

    Fly Registered Member

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    @FanJ ,

    I noticed that the new version of Macrium free sends outbound calls for updates more frequently. More than once a day. I have set my Eset firewall to interactive, usually given permission for the outbound access. Bug ? It also looks different, I think. Window 7 pro 64 bit environment.

    It's a bit annoying.
     
  20. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    If you go to Edit Defaults > Update, you can disable the hourly background checks. Those are new for 7.2. However, if you disable that, Reflect will only check for updates the old-fashioned way, i.e. when you launch it interactively, NOT on a regular basis in the background or even when running scheduled backups in the background. If this is a system where you'd launch Reflect frequently on a somewhat regular basis or you keep yourself aware of updates through some other means (like this forum), then you can disable the hourly checks. But the frequent background checks and optional email notifications were added in the wake of the CBT image corruption issue because some customers had Reflect running on servers that don't even see frequent Windows logons, never mind interactive Reflect launches, and some of them updated to a problem build and then didn't learn there was a critical issue until much later.
     
  21. Fly

    Fly Registered Member

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    @FanJ , @jphughan ,

    It's not an improvement. I don't know if anyone from Macrium frequents this forum ? I'd rather not formally register.

    How many people are running Macrium free on servers, seriously ? I had no problem with the once a day check for updates. Perhaps make that an option as well ? In this situation, I decided to disable the setting. I'm not even sure if it would ask for that hourly. It seems it doesn't, possibly due to the security software. But it's way too often. Way to go ...

    No, I'm not used to frequent manual checks nor do I use the product regulary. For the time being this is my preferred setting. I don't like the concept of giving Macrium unlimited outbound access

    Normally I would only check this thread if I had a problem ...
     
  22. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    Nobody uses Reflect Free on servers because Free doesn't install on Windows Server -- but the update checks apply to all versions of Reflect, not just Free, so I don't understand what that has to do with anything. If you're fine with the old daily update routine, then that's already still there as an option; it never left. Just keep that enabled and disable the new hourly background checks as I said above -- problem solved. But to be clear, the old checks were not technically daily. They were "no more than once per day, but only when Reflect is launched interactively". So if you launched Reflect five times in a day, it would only check on the first launch. However, if you were running daily scheduled backups but went a long stretch without launching Reflect interactively because you never needed to check anything (maybe you're getting email notifications and everything looks good), then you would not be notified of available updates during that long stretch if you had the hourly background check disabled, because again the daily check only occurs when Reflect is launched interactively. And that was the risk profile exposed by the CBT image corruption bug. I saw one user on the Macrium forum report the worst case scenario: He updated to a build that had the CBT corruption issue and then didn't launch Reflect again interactively until a few weeks later. So he carried on making corrupt backups even after the update that fixed the issue arrived because he was never notified of an available update. This continued long enough that all of his intact backups got purged according to his retention policy -- and then he had a system failure that required him to restore something, which he now couldn't. If Reflect had been able to notify him that a critical update was available right when it was released, as it can now, he would have been able to make a good backup before the system failure. And again, the other new option for email notifications of updates is meant for server installations where even a system tray notification might not work well because people aren't usually logged into a server at all.

    I suppose you could say, "Well then make the daily checks occur in the background rather than only when Reflect launches," but then you'll run afoul of people who don't like background update checks at all. I personally was surprised that Macrium set the background checks to occur hourly rather than daily, but I don't see it as an issue. It's consumes a negligible amount of bandwidth, the updater is running anyway whether it's checking hourly or daily, and even among the minority of people running outbound firewalls, very few of them approve each individual occurrence of the same connection attempt. They normally just approve the application, or approve the application connecting to a particular destination/port. If you personally have chosen to approve (or be notified of) every single time an application tries to perform a recurring activity, then fair enough. In that case, I can see why the hourly check would be a bit much for you, but you are also an extreme edge case, so I can also see why Macrium wouldn't design their product with your use case in mind.
     
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2018
  23. Fly

    Fly Registered Member

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    @jphughan ,

    My mistake. I'm on Windows 7 64 bit pro. For a moment I was wondering if Macrium loads at boot. According to mscongfig it does even though I do not see it loading as a full program, so with the hourly checks disabled it still should if I'm not mistaken. Assuming there is a working internet connection (cable ISP) at the moment Macrium performs the check, which I guess is likely the case.
     
  24. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    MSConfig might be showing the "Macrium Service" service, which is set to Automatic startup by default. That existed even in 7.1 (not sure when it was first introduced), so it has some function other than background update checks. I'm not sure what exactly that function is, however, since I haven't asked Macrium about it and unfortunately the Description block of that service just says "Macrium Service".
     
  25. Marcelo

    Marcelo Registered Member

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    Just had a strange event on Image Guardian today. It blocked reflectbin.exe from modifying my backup file...

    Date: 09/11/2018 13:26:54
    Type: Warning
    Event: 320
    Source: MacriumImageGuardian

    Blocked unauthorised process (c:\program files\macrium\reflect\reflectbin.exe) accessing file (\Device\HarddiskVolume10\LG\12517F04EBC2B97F-00-00.mrimg)

    I still haven't checked if the entire backup set is corrupted after this.
     
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