Macrium Reflect Features

I am looking into the possibility of purchasing Macrium Reflect v5. I'd probably go with the Pro version for the added support for GPT, Dynamic Disks and ReDeploy. I have tried to search the Macrium forums as well as their KBs and have spent too many hours searching Google. I found their web page "manual," but it is far from acceptable with regard to specifics. They do not allow those who have not purchased their products to post in their forums. If anyone has any links that might help me out I'd appreciate those as well.

Does anyone know for sure what file systems Macrium Reflect (v5) supports? I assume they support most if not all Windows file systems, and I found a post that seemed to indicate they support ext3 without resizing and ext4 without extents support. I did read an employee post that they are looking into extents support in ext4, but didn't read that they have any plans for resizing support in any of the ext file systems. But beyond that I don't know.

I've posted elsewhere in Wilders what I am looking for as far as a backup scheme. I read apost on the Macrium forums from an employee which indicates they don't have a feature to schedule image backups. But that doesn't make sense because I saw many other posts which seemed to indicate they do. Specifially, I want to be able to schedule a backup set with a full image on, say, Jan 1. I then want to create weekly increments off that full image once per week. On Feb 1 I want the schedule to automatically create a second full image, followed by weekly incrementals based on that full image. Then same thing on Mar 1, but after the Mar full image is created AND VERIFIED I'd like Macrium Reflect to automatically delete the entire Jan chain. Does that make sense?

So, my related question is whether or not Macrium Reflect allows you to verify images and incrementals automatcially after they are created with a schedule as described above.

I'm sorry, perhaps I'm just tired and simply can't find the answers I'm looking for even though they're out there. But I finally decided to give up and just ask for help. I'm already a bit turned off by Macrium for not having a full and complete manual available. But if it'll do what I want, keep me from going back to Norton and get me out of this mess known as Acronis I really don't want to pass it by. I was hoping Paragon would be the answer to my imaging problems but alas, it is not.

I hope peeps don't mind if I post additional questions in this thread as they come to me, if needed. I know I have a few other questions I can't think of at the moment. And I realize Macrium has a free trial version - that will be my next step as soon as I can figure out answers to some basic questions.

 

I do not have time currently to answer your questions in detail, but wanted to post this link below. This link is the manual of Macrium Reflect.

http://www.macrium.com/help/v5/Reflect_v5.htm

 

It does what you want with backups and you can schedule your back ups and it will automatically verify if you select the option. There is a place for a description if you want. You can keep up to two full backups ( image & incrementals). If you schedule it to delete a image it will clean off the incremental backups to for that image. It also has a boot option I couldn't do without, I can't remember the last time I burned a recovery cd. I use it everyday even to uninstall software. You can also mount a image if you need just one file. It is idiot proof I have proven it. I have never needed any type of support and rarely visit their site. If I remember right the trial only creates full images and the restore option on boot isn't available. But both work perfectly for me on the full version. As you can tell I can't say enough good about it. I don't trust anything else.

 

Thanks to you both. Would either of you mind asking in their forums what file systems their software supports? (See my original post for my ramblings on this matter.) I can't find an answer to this question via Google searches, via searching their forums, their kb or their (alleged hehe) manual.

@Raza0007
That is the manual I referred to in my original post and, sadly, it seems to be severely lacking. I think it'd be much nicer if they would take the time to write a full manual. I know Shadowprotect also only has an online manual, which isn't my favorite medium, but at least theirs seems to cover their software in a lot more detail.

 

Macrium can backup/restore ext3 and ext4 based partitions, as long as you do it from within windows or winpe. It does not install on Linux.

Yes that makes perfect sense and yes you can do that with macrium. I think the post you quoted from the Macrium employee must be referring to the fact that Macrium used the windows built-in scheduling function and does not have its own scheduler built in.

Yes, you can automatically verify images. I do not usually use it but there is an option of doing it after every backup.

You are right Macrium is not that great in that dept. Info is hard to come by but I am sure if you send them an email with your questions and tell them that you are thinking to purchase macrium, they will answer your questions to your satisfaction.

 

About the file systems, I do not know why they removed this info from the v5 features list, but it was there in v4 features list. See this snapshot of their website dated march 2010.

 

Smartypants! Finding an old web site...

So, unless they added additional fs support in 5 it appears they'll do ext2, ext3 (without extents per a post from them this year, boo - but said they're looking into it), NTFS, and FAT16/32. Doesn't quite cover as much as Acronis True Image does (though I could find nothing about extents specifically for Acronis True Image), but it's more than Norton and unlike both (at least through Norton 14) I'm slowing coming to the impression that Reflect actually works. That's a nice feature...

K, as suggested I'll put together a short list of questions and send it to their sales dept and see what happens. From your help, though, it appears Macrium just might make it to the top of my list. I may have to wait until they offer extents support in the ext3 file system though. My Linux box is formatted ext3 with extents enabled. (Haven't tried imaging that drive with ATIH - been lazy, just been assuming it'd work.)

I do understand Reflect will image most any file system in raw mode, but that's not what I'm looking for.

Many thanks! I'll keep watching this thread in case anyone thinks of something to add.

 

@Gorkster,

I just wanted to mention that Macrium will only install on a windows computer, it will not work on Linux. It will backup the ext2 filesystem as long as it is done from within windows.

Also, in my experience the best way to learn or understand a software is to trial it extensively before buying.

 

Thanks for clarifying - I have a hdd port on top of my Win7-64 PC. I like to be able to slap the hard drive from my Linux box into that port and use it to image the hard drive. (I do that with my laptops as well, and with others' hard drives if I'm doing computer work for them.)

As far as using the trial version extensively, that's normally my next phase of testing after finding answers to a few questions that might be difficult to figure out during testing the trial version, such as file system support for instance. If I can find answers to the do or die features, the "trial testing" phase goes much more smoothly and is accomplished more quickly. And, seeing as the trial testing takes a long time, finding out software isn't compatible for me up front saves a lot of heartache. Normally simply reading the (usually 200-300 pg) manual answers these questions, but with Macrium Reflect that's not an option. (I can easily read manuals during down time at work.)

Thank you for your continued assistance.

 

I sent an email to Macrium in order to find out what file systems are supported outside of a sector by sector copy. It took a few emails back and forth before I felt comfortable they understood my question and I understood their answer, but they seemed very patient. This answered my questions regarding file systems:

Just wanted to post the results since this information is a tad bit difficult to come by. I wished they supported Apple's filesystem (HFS, right?) but not a huge deal to me.

 

I started using Macrium Free and I really like it

I love when you restore the images are nicely displayed, with date etc. Very helpful and nice.

I haven't done a restore yet, so that will be the test if it fails or succeeds.

 

Does the free version provide for a bootable CD?

 

Yes it does. Linux boot CD. But you can also create a Windows driver based boot CD or USB stick, and it does everything for you that a noob like me could even do it

It downloads WAIK for you and everything, which is needed to create a Windows driver based boot CD or boot USB stick.

I was impressed with the new version, a lot better than the one I have tried in the past that gave me problems.

HOWEVER, I am yet to do a RESTORE and that will be the ultimate test. And I am waiting for KOR to get online to tell me how to add Macrium to boot menu.

 

Thanks for the info.

I have Rollback Rx v9.1. Do you use Macrium with Rollback rx?

 

Agreed, so I did a couple of restores and it works fine

One thing did concern me though, W7 has a SYSTEM partition that Macrium wanted to restore as drive J: for some reason. So I proceeded with concern, but it seems to have worked. Not sure why it says it's part of J: when it's actually the SYSTEM partition. Anyone know?

And the other restore I did, Macrium wanted to restore the SYSTEM partition as drive K:. But that was after I had my USB drive plugged in.

Anyone shed some light on this for me please?

Why doesn't Macrium just install SYSTEM partition as SYSTEM, like my Paragon Compact Edition used to do?

 

Why not just use Macrium to take snapshots and use Macrium to rollback? It only takes me 8 minutes to create a snapshot and 8 minutes to restore the snapshot using Macrium.

And it's not like you need to restore a snapshot every single day.

 

The problem lies with the BIOS and WINPE and not Macrium.

BTW, do you have the 100-200MB "System Reserved Partition"?

Best regards,

KOR!

 

You have to use some kind of imaging program with Rollback Rx. The reason being that Rollback Rx only protects the working hard disk. In case of hard disk failure or some other eventuality, you have to have an image to restore it from.

If your hard disk fails Rollback Rx is of no use!

Best regards,

KOR!

 

I have Drive Cloner Rx but I am having some issues that support is working on so I was considering Macrium Free as it seems to do all I need.

Are there complete instructions somewhere on how to build Win boot cd for Macrium?

 

Here you go:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=324917

Completely read both pages 1 and 2.

Best regards,

KOR!

 

Yes, it shows as "SYSTEM" and is around 100-200MB.

Don't all W7 have that SYSTEM partition?

 

It's so easy that a noob as myself was able to do it

Macrium was very impressive actually, it does everything for you.

I am so glad I began using Macrium, due to KOR's comments, I decided to start using it.

And you can easily create a bootable USB stick also. Or add it to bootmenu.

 

Must have missed that the first time through. Got it now - thanks

 

Will this also work on Win xp sp3?