Macrium Reflect

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

  1. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2011
    Posts:
    4,945
    Location:
    The Pond - USA
    You need to read your System's manual. Some <F-key> during BOOTing will lead you to a menu which will allow for out-of-box re-creation. Be aware... you usually lose EVERYTHING when this operation is done... that's why it's called out-of-box.
    It's nothing more than a DATA disk to use (and backup) as you wish.
    The ESP partition is most important for GPT BOOT disks. It contains all the partition information that used to be located in the Master BOOT Record for MBR-based disks. "2 (None)" is not important... it's part of a mandatory MicroSloth GPT partition template. "5 Image (None)" is the DELL out-of-box partition reference used to recreate your System if necessary.
    Every GPT formatted disk contains an EFI partition... the one on the BOOT disk is just as important as the one on the DATA disk. If and when you decide to start "imaging" your DATA disk, you will need this partition as well. If you decide eventually to just do File'n'Folder backups on that disk, the EFI partiton on that disk is not as important.
     
  2. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2011
    Posts:
    4,945
    Location:
    The Pond - USA
    It's really not just a pay grade issue... it became a whole new world when first, 2tB+ disks were introduced (GPT formatting requirement to use them due to MBR partition size limitations) followed closely by UEFI-GPT (rather than Legacy-MBR) BOOTing and MicroSloth demanding a certain BOOTing partition template be used when creating UEFI BOOTable System disks with Windows. That template is not even followed by many OEM System manufacturers which makes things even more confusing.

    Get what you can at the pay grade you're at... the rest is a crapshoot at this point.
     
  3. bjm_

    bjm_ Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 22, 2009
    Posts:
    4,453
    Location:
    .
    @TheRollbackFrog
    Thanks!
    I haven't played on a new machine for awhile (read long time)... so, I'm like a kid.... and Yes, I need to read (not just open) the manual.
    I created recovery drive.
    I was thinking of trying to create a system image via Backup and Restore (Windows 7) on D.
    I hear ya'.
    Thanks again
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2019
  4. Roberteyewhy

    Roberteyewhy Registered Member

    Joined:
    Mar 4, 2007
    Posts:
    610
    Location:
    US
    Been using MR for years, but just use a DVD to backup/restore OS. Just clean installed 1903 and cannot make a backup (Error 9). I presume it's because of the partition 1903 creates when clean installing, thus the error. Installed latest free version 7.2.4228. How do I make a rescue media using a Flash drive (1 gb) so I can do this out of Windows like before 1903? When I tried it said something like I must use Diskpart.

    Made an image within Windows, but I do not trust.

    Novice on MR so please explain in elementary language or step by step.

    Thanks,
    Robert
     
  5. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

    Joined:
    Sep 20, 2003
    Posts:
    20,590
    Hi Easter

    Here is a screenie of my def file for my main backup. Let me know if you have any quesstions about what it is doing.

    MR.jpg

    Pete
     
  6. SanyaIV

    SanyaIV Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 17, 2013
    Posts:
    278
    Anyone know where I can get the latest Macrium Reflect 6 download? Can't find it on their site.
     
  7. stapp

    stapp Global Moderator

    Joined:
    Jan 12, 2006
    Posts:
    23,936
    Location:
    UK
  8. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2007
    Posts:
    11,126
    Location:
    U.S.A. (South)
    I have (2)-After RETAIN 4 full images-What does linked differentials/incrementals will also be deleted mean?
    And Purge will be run after the image-I take that to mean that once a full is made then it will auto-pilot or purge the incrementals/differentials that also make up and included to the last most recent full.

    Thanks

    MR6.jpg
     
  9. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

    Joined:
    Sep 20, 2003
    Posts:
    20,590
    What the delete link images means is that any incremental or differential that was created from the full being deleted will also be deleted. The purge after means it runs the image first and then cleans up.

    The beauty here is at the end of the day I can run the def file later on create an incremental, and it just becomes part of the chain. works like a champ

    Pete
     
  10. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2007
    Posts:
    11,126
    Location:
    U.S.A. (South)
    Sounds ideal Pete. Thanks for the explanation on that.

    Looks to be just what the user needs to fully automate the scheduling of those and MR runs the work under the hood unaccompanied after it's set up to preference. Ultimate convenience!
     
  11. aldist

    aldist Registered Member

    Joined:
    Nov 8, 2017
    Posts:
    1,103
    Location:
    Lunar module
    This is a downloader, and only the last MR v7 will still be downloaded. Real direct links for last v6 Home are:
    x32 http://updates.macrium.com/Reflect/v6/getmsi.asp?edition=0&type=0&arch=0&redirect=Y
    x64 http://updates.macrium.com/Reflect/v6/getmsi.asp?edition=0&type=0&arch=1&redirect=Y
     
  12. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 3, 2018
    Posts:
    913
    Location:
    US
    Fyi, "Disk 2" is a bit ambiguous when you post screenshots of both Reflect and Windows Disk Management, because Reflect's numbering starts at 1, whereas Windows starts at 0, so for a given disk, Reflect's disk number will always be 1 greater than Windows. (The disks are always enumerated in the same sequence.)

    Anyhow, if you only care about performing backups that will allow you to restore Windows and restore data onto your C drive, then you only need to back up all partitions on the disk that shows as Disk 2 in Reflect. And don't forget to consider what you'd need in order to RESTORE that backup to a potentially unbootable system if ever necessary. For that, you need to create Rescue Media onto a flash drive or CD/DVD, then test boot it on your system and make sure that the Reflect Rescue environment can see both your external drive where your backups are, and your internal disk that you would want to restore back onto. That also tests whether you know how to have your system boot from another device, which a surprising number of users only seem to realize they don't know how to do when they actually need to do it.

    All that said, are you sure you don't want to back up that other 1TB disk as well, i.e. the one that shows as Disk 1 in Reflect? You don't plan to have any data on there that you care about? You can choose EITHER to create a single Reflect job that backs up both of those disks, or create separate jobs for each source disk. There are pros and cons to each approach.
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2019
  13. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 3, 2018
    Posts:
    913
    Location:
    US
    Windows DOES need those other 3 partitions, and if you don't include them in your backups, then if you ever had to restore onto an empty hard drive or your system became unbootable due to a problem with those other partitions, your Reflect backups would not be able to give you a bootable system again, at least not without some additional effort like manually creating those 3 partitions before the restore and then running some Command Prompt commands after the restore. Those other partitions are quite small, so there is no good reason not to include them in your backups. Having to restore your entire system would already be an aggravating situation. There's no point making it even more aggravating by having an incomplete backup that will require several additional steps to give you a usable system again, just to reduce your backup size by a negligible amount.

    Note that Reflect has an option in the Backup Tasks column in the upper-left corner of the interface that says, "Create an image of the partitions required to back up and restore Windows". That is the option to help people who "got no clue". The partitions that are pre-selected in the wizard that appears after clicking that button are the ones you want to back up at a minimum. You can of course add to that selection, but you should never remove any from that selection if you're trying to create backups that can restore a bootable system. And as general advice, if you don't know what a partition does, I would suggest that when you're dealing with system image backups, you should exclude only the things you're certain you don't need. For things you don't understand, play it safe and include them, because it might turn out you need them after all.
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2019
  14. bjm_

    bjm_ Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 22, 2009
    Posts:
    4,453
    Location:
    .
    Aha! "Reflect's disk number will always be 1 greater than Windows.
    Yes, I need to think in terms of Disk # in Reflect. Thanks
    Yes, all Disk 2 in Reflect partitions, at this time.
    Yes, I've created n' tested Rescue Media flash drive n' DVD. Yes, I learned new machine needs F12 vs. F9.
    Thanks
    I'm not using 1TB - Disk 1 in Reflect, at this time. Okay, I'll need to consider single job or separate jobs. I'm still finding my way around new machine.
    Thanks again
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2019
  15. Freki123

    Freki123 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2015
    Posts:
    336
    @jphughan Thanks for the detailed explanation. Sorry my wording was not good chosen.
    What I meant with: "If windows really needs the 3 other small partitions I got no clue and don't care" was >> That since they are so small I just back them up anyway since I don't care about a few hundred mb more or less.
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2019
  16. guest

    guest Guest

    Macrium Reflect v7.2.4325 Released (June 10, 2019)
    Download
    Changelog
    What's New v7.2.4325 - 10th June 2019
    • Macrium Technicians License
      We've improved the Technicians license product by adding the option to create a Technicians ISO image file and optical media. This offers the full functionality of the Technicians USB stick but also allows you to use it with Hyper-V VMs by attaching the ISO file to a DVD virtual device.
    • Clone and Restore Confirmation
      We've added an additional confirmation check box when overwriting a Clone or Restore target disk. This offers Reflect users unfamiliar with the result of a Restore/Clone operation the opportunity to confirm or deny the overwrite operation.
    • ReDeploy
      When attempting to ReDeploy Windows 7 using PE/RE 10 or Windows 10 using PE/RE 3.1 we now prevent IDE/ACHI services and drivers from being copied from the rescue media. This has caused un-bootable systems for some customers previously.
    • Rescue media USB drivers
      Some customers have reported non-functioning USB devices which was corrected by updating the USB drivers in PE. Rescue media creation will now copy any USB OEM drivers from the host OS even if 'compatible' support is detected in the PE/RE base OS.
    • Changed Block Tracker
      • The CBT tracking file format has been optimized and improved for efficiency and robustness. This will require a reboot after installing and the first Incremental after reboot may take longer than normal.
      • CBT and Reflect now ignore the PortableBaseLayer virtual disk used by the Sandbox feature in Windows 10 build 1903.
    • Uninstall tidy up
      Unused .msi files in folder c:\windows\installer are now removed when uninstalling Macrium Reflect.
    Bug Fixes
    • Image mounting
      In rare cases images could refuse to mount if insufficient access privileges were assigned to the 'C:\Windows\Temp' folder. This has been resolved.
    • Incorrect information in the Disk Details UI
      Directly after starting Reflect, incorrect information was shown in the 'Details' section of the Tasks list in the backup tab. This has been resolved.
    • Rescue Media Builder
      • After uninstalling Reflect, the windows module 'Wimmount.sys' could be incorrectly registered leaving other applications unable to mount VHD files. This has been resolved
      • Windows RE could fail to build on Server 2016. This has been resolved
    • BitLocker
      BitLocker 'live' restores may have reverted to BitLocker 'removal' restores after the last update. This has been resolved. If this issue affects you then please re-create your rescue media after updating.
    • Changed Block Tracker
      CBT could be disabled for a volume after a reboot forced by running 'chkdsk /f'. This has been resolved.
     
  17. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 3, 2018
    Posts:
    913
    Location:
    US
    This may have been added to the changelog later, but as of this writing, there’s another item not included in the spoiler block above:
    • File and Folder Search
      We've added path matching to the search criteria when searching File And Folder backups in the restore tab. Previously this was restricted to file names only.
     
  18. treehouse786

    treehouse786 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 6, 2010
    Posts:
    1,411
    Location:
    Lancashire
    trialling

    no way to exclude folder from disk backups?
     
  19. aldist

    aldist Registered Member

    Joined:
    Nov 8, 2017
    Posts:
    1,103
    Location:
    Lunar module
  20. treehouse786

    treehouse786 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 6, 2010
    Posts:
    1,411
    Location:
    Lancashire
  21. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 3, 2018
    Posts:
    913
    Location:
    US
    I’ve never really understood why people want this. Excluding folders from your partition/disk image backups doesn’t preserve them during a restore, so if you ever have to restore one of your backups for a fairly mundane reason, such as to undo an application update, then the excluded content will get deleted from the restore target even if it still existed at the time of the operation. There’s also an argument that a partition/disk image isn’t really an “image” if it’s incomplete. Why not just put content you don’t want in your images on a separate partition? That way you can still capture complete images at least at a partition level, and you’d be able to restore your backups without losing the excluded content that might still have existed there prior to the restore. If you don’t already put your data on a separate partition from your OS, that’s a good practice as well because it allows you to restore or wipe your OS without also rolling back your own data.
     
  22. treehouse786

    treehouse786 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 6, 2010
    Posts:
    1,411
    Location:
    Lancashire
    so your saying there is an argument to be made that macrium in 'image' mode is not actually an 'image' seeing as it automatically removes files without the option to disable the behaviour (pagefile/hiber file)?

    because i never want to to restore the files i want to exclude so that's one reason why (browser history, cache's, cookies, temp files etc). i've never really understood why people assume they can imagine every single detail and variable in the scenario's that other people have.

    also, macrium is the first backup program i have used that does not give this option via inbuilt features so i cant be being that controversial
     
  23. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 3, 2018
    Posts:
    913
    Location:
    US
    Where did you see me assume that? Saying I’ve never understood something doesn’t mean I assume that there isn’t a valid reason. It just means I haven’t encountered one or thought of one myself. If you want to share a use case in the interest of education, then wonderful. If not, then that’s fine too, but there’s no need for attitude. If Reflect doesn’t suit your needs, then fine. Fortunately there are other options. Best of luck finding one that works for you.
     
  24. treehouse786

    treehouse786 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 6, 2010
    Posts:
    1,411
    Location:
    Lancashire
    when you said "I’ve never really understood why people want this".

    i asked if it was possible, a solution or confirmation like the other member provided was appreciated. i saw no value in you questioning a need for the option just because you could not think of one.

    if i have misconstrued your post and if you were actually meaning to be helpful then i apologise for coming across rude. i was happy with my current backup solution but thought i would try out macrium due to it being a clear favourite on this forum
     
  25. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 3, 2018
    Posts:
    913
    Location:
    US
    My original post was a general comment about my personally not having seen or thought of a scenario where that solution was the ideal approach. I thought it might lead to discussion around use cases that hadn’t occurred to me. I also wanted to call out the risk I mentioned with respect to restores, because I’ve seen people who wanted to exclude certain files/folders from image backups simply because they’re large, but not necessarily “expendable”, and in those cases the exclusion strategy may lead to a nasty surprise for those users whenever they restore such a backup. I did not intend to imply that it wasn’t possible to have a reasonable use case for this strategy or that anyone anyone who wanted that feature was “doing it wrong”.

    In any case, if that feature is a requirement for you and you (understandably) don’t like the idea of editing the registry or the note on the Macrium KB article that it isn’t 100% reliable, then unfortunately Reflect isn’t for you — which is a shame because I consistently see comments from users who have come from other popular solutions like EaseUS and Acronis and find Reflect much easier to use, more reliable, faster (especially Rapid Delta Restore), etc. You might want to look at Image for Windows. I’ve never used it myself and don’t even know if it supports this feature, and I’ve heard that it can be a bit complicated, but it does seem to have a solid fan base and is apparently quite powerful and flexible if you put in the time to learn it.
     
    Last edited: Jun 11, 2019
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.