Macrium Reflect Features

@prius04, Macrium does not have its own snapshot service, it just uses VSS.

 

@ TheMozart
Just an observation I made looking at the website of BitsDuJour for those that may be ready to go for the paid version, nothing wrong with wanting to save a few bucks on a paid version.
If the free version works for you great, I've had the pro version for some time now and never regretted the purchase, for some of the reasons pointed out by prius04, mainly differentials/incrementals + boot menu recovery.
Macrium has never let me down, always a successful restore.

 

I didn't realise the paid version had password protection, encryption. So then yeah, if someone wants that, then go for the paid version.

But what exactly is boot menu recovery and how does that work?

 

How exactly does quick incrementals work and how effective and reliable is it?

And doesn't it have to search your entire hard drive and then compare it with last image and then backup only changes? Doesn't that take a long time for that process alone to do?

 

So Volume Shadow Copy, VSC, is the same as VSS?

And should Volume Shadow Copy be set to MANUAL or AUTOMATIC to work properly with Macrium?

 

My mistake. I vaguely recall that pssnap.sys was their own (and only) snapshot driver at one point but that's clearly changed in the interim.

 

So Macrium doesn't use the W7 VSS?

 

@TheMozart, no. Take a look at this Macrium KB article:

http://kb.macrium.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50010.aspx

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

Detailed here.....
http://www.macrium.com/webhelp/Windows_Boot_Menu.asp

 

What do you mean no? Because according to that link, it says, "Macrium Reflect uses a Microsoft service called Volume Shadow copy Service to enable disk images to be created and files to be backed up when in use. "

 

Well I was able to create a bootmenu option in the free version, thanks to EasyBCD 2.1.2 and the instructions by KOR

 

You are right in... Win XP.

V.5 installs in Win XP:
- a driver: pssnap.sys (Paramount Software Snapshot Filter)
V.5 installs in Win 7:
- a driver: psmounter.sys (Macrium Reflect Image Explorer Service)

 

When I first started using MF, the "Analyzing" phase was lightning fast. But now I notice it is very slow, around 3 minutes just to "Analyze" the drive before the backing up starts.

Anyone know why? And is there a way to speed that first phase process up?

 

Well the incrementals are very reliable and they only take about 2-3 minutes on my computer, for comparison, the full back up takes about 16-18 minutes on the same partition.

 

They might have had their own VSS provider, but nowadays they just use the Microsoft one. VSS is an excellent snapshot service and it is free, so third party utilities do not really need their own snapshot service anymore.

 

My response was admittedly not at all clear. I read your question as somewhat of a solicitation of a positive response (i.e., it was correct that Macrium didn't use VSS, which of course is not accurate and hence the "no").

 

So macrium uses VSS, but if it's not available or if its broken, then Macrium uses what exactly?

And is using VSS better than using Macriums own?

 

But it says using pssnap.sys instead. So will there be any problem if I still go ahead and create a hot image?

 

No problem.

Maybe you can check Services to see if they are like:
- VSS (Volume Shadow Copy)=Manual
- ReflectService.exe (Macrium Reflect Image Mounting Service)=Automatic

 

No more confusion. Found the answer :

and further

source: http://support.macrium.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=398

 

According to Event viewer and my logs in W7, when VSS (Volume Shadow Copy)=Manual, then it gives VSS (Volume Shadow Copy) errors!

But when I switched VSS (Volume Shadow Copy)=Automatic, then the W7 logs show no errors for VSS (Volume Shadow Copy).

 

The above is very true and it was verified to me in personal support email by Nick. One can compare the COLD imaging done at the same time HOT imaging done and the file size will be higher in COLD imaging. I brought this to Nick's attention and he verified that the COLD imaging includes the "Restore Points" and for this reason it is bigger in size.

I guess the COLD imaging as default uses Macrium proprietary pssnap.sys and the HOT imaging as default uses Microsoft proprietary vss.sys.

Best regards,

KOR!

 

Yes they are always like that. I have even set VSS to automatic. I have read so many people getting their errors solved by setting VSS to automatic including TheMozart here in this forum that it makes me kind of sad and disappointed because error still persist and no volume shadow copies.

Oh well at least I got my pssnap.sys from macrium. And as I'm using XP it's no big deal.

One thing though. Nick from Macrium Forum, the guy I quoted above in my earlier post had said that pssnap could be used no prob except for microsoft exchange and sql server .

And there is an app in 'Add/Remove' list which says Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition.

So I'm a tiny bot of hesitant in going forward with the pssnap idea.

What do you think?

 

Good for you. Setting VSS to Automatic in XP did not work for me.