Macrium Reflect

Correct me if I am wrong but I think it was Pandlouk that was asking for this report, not Froggie.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/macrium-reflect.356309/page-32#post-2456442

 

Taotoo, I've looked everywhere for #1 to be suppressed and haven't found anything... BUT, their HELP file is yet to be available on line for v6... maybe it'll show up in there. Any of the forum members here and also on Macrium, we would appreciate it if you would mention this requirement for us over there.

Will be testing restores through 24-hourly incrementals in the morning... will let you know.

 

Thanks - much appreciated!

 

Probably not

I had to set up a separate INCREMENTAL for each hour I wanted a snapshot on... but you only have to do it once. If you set them up under the FOREVER INCREMENTAL template, and limit their number, the system will automatically take them and when the limit is reached it will start merging the BASELINE forward, always keeping the same amount of snapshots. I haven't tested all the other templates yet ('cause we don't have any documentation) but will do so as time goes on.

 

Did some pre-testing on a non-SYSTEM 20gB volume. Created a BASELINE followed by 12-incrementals. Each incremental had a volume change of about 1gB. Alternated between deleting 1gB and adding a new 1gb for those 12-incrementals. Only HDDs were involved. After the baseline and 12-incrementals, I fired up RDR. The test moved between the baseline and the 12th incremental. This required the system to get some data from each of the incrementals during the restoration process as each incremental had different data in it.

The first restoration (from system state #12 to the baseline <state #1>) went a bit slowly, I know not why... but it was about 3-min., about 1/2 of the time it took to take the baseline which was 6.5-min. Then when I went from State #12 to State #1 it was also a bit slow at about 2.5-min.

Each ping-pong restoration after that took 1m 15s going from State #1 to State #12 and 1m going from State #12 to State #1. This, of course, was a HOT Delta Restore using the LIVE Windows system. I have no idea why the first ping-pong restoration was slower than the following ones... but there was a sizable difference.

Edit: Windows file caching may have affected these times.

Tomorrow I'll use the same tests using a WARM (PE-based) Delta Restore and pass on some numbers.

 

Build # 6.0.461 released:

http://updates.macrium.com/reflect/v6/v6.0.461/details6.0.461.htm

 

Interesting, thanks for sharing. Am trying some tests now myself.

The option for disabling the pop-up looks like it might be:

Other Tasks (menu) > Edit Defaults > Advanced (tab) > Advanced Backup Options > Display backup notification delay for...

 

Hi TheRolbackFrog,Brian K,and all the great members of Wilders! i am a long time tester of AX64 v1x the great Isso send me a test serial,i miss that generous and great guy! TheRolbackFrog maybe you remember me asking for help with Rollback RX v9.1 and Image For Windows,its been a long time since i ask for help here,but i read you guys,everyday! well for anyone reading this,you guess is right! i need some help again! my primary and only Backup software that i use in my laptop,is Image For Windows v2.92 i try almost anything in Macrium Reflect 5 and now in 6 but i cant do this: Creating a TeraByte Recovery Environment, WinRE Boot Disc, or UFD Containing Image for Windows (TBWinRE) http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/howto/tbwinre_tutorial.htm my real hassle is select at boot if launch Windows or Macrium PE,sorry but never like me EASY BCD kind of stuff,i hope someone kindly enough can help me,especially the Pro guys,thank you all in advance for your great help!

 

PCFan, Pete is right... we need some specifics. What OS version are you working with? It also sounds like you've had no success at all with any kind of BOOTable environment when using IFW. Tell us about the media creations and the failures. Is the problem that you've been able to create the external RECOVERY MEDIAs but that your system won't load them, or has the creation of the actual media (CD/DVD, UFD) failed for some reason?

Let's carry this conversation on in the proper IFW forum, not here in the Macrium forum... please repost your above inquiry HERE.

 

Morning all! Just finished some very unSCIENTIFIC testing of the v6 Rapid Data Restore function while doing what I call WARM restores (done under a WinPE instead of the LIVE Windows system). I would like to preface this l'il report with some facts...

1. Restores were done from a 7200rpm (32mB cache) HDD to a SSD.
2. The basic image being managed has a used sector value of 38.3gB
3. The image being manipulated has its BASELINE plus 13 additional INCREMENTALs, taken at an automatic hourly rate using v6's scheduler.
4. The system was not very busy during the test time, with compressed INCREMENTALs running between 120mB and 3.2gB over that 13-hour period.

The simple test did nothing but ping-pong back and forth 4-times from the BASELINE to the 13th incremental. If you think about it, when moving from INC#13 to the BASELINE, the only file that's really needed during the restore is the BASELINE... that's where all the differences lie when the target is the BASELINE. But, when moving from the BASELINE to INC#13, the DELTA RESTORE function needs to make a pass through all 13 INCREMENTALs to obtain the necessary changes.

Give the above facts, these were my results...

1. INC#13 > BASELINE: Change discovery time = 47s, Restoration = 56s
2. BASELINE > INC#13: Change discovery time = 45s, Restoration = 1m 18s
3. INC#13 > BASELINE: Change discovery time = 43s, Restoration = 31s
4. BASELINE > INC#13: Change discovery time = 42s, Restoration =54s

PP (Ping-pong) #3 & #4 were faster than PP #1 & 2... as I mentioned in a previous message, this may have been due to Windows file caching, although I have no idea whether WinPE also uses a significant caching function like LIVE Windows does. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can chime in here.

My impression: Macrium v6 is VERY QUICK at both taking image incrementals and restoring them... quick enough to be seriously considered as a system snapshotting tool for those that need such a function (I do). Its RAPID DATA RESTORE function is new and provides this additional speed functionality. Its new scheduling capablity is very useful, although a bit clumsy for those who wish to actually snapshot this system at intervals of less than 1-day... but, with perseverance, it can be done, and once done, it's set and forget. The standard offered scheduling templates can be very useful for those who just need good system backup functionality... again, most of them are set and forget. It's not clear how some of them work yet (i.e., starting new baselines... when?), but when final documentation is available, that should all get cleared up.

Overall this appears to be somewhat of a game changer in the system imaging arena. It's not even released yet, apparently had no BETA test program (at least out here in userland) and appears to work VERY WELL in its infancy. Of course I would expect this from a company with the reputation of Macrium... their previous product has a reputation for extraordinary reliability.

Onward and upward with some additional tresting...

 

Sounds like AX64 TM is doomed.

 

Taotoo... great find, works perfectly! Thanks!!

 

This is due to the way Mv6 does its FILE CHANGE discovery. It uses nothing but the current file structure information on disk and the last saved file structure information... anything that happens in between those snapshots... it doesn't have to care about.

 

Thank you for posting your results - I've been testing with a very similar set up, and have been experiencing similar restore times. I'm going to have it keep taking hourly incrementals for a few days (it defaults to keeping 30 of them before merging the baseline I think), and throw in the odd restore to see how it goes. Hopefully it will stay nice and quick. Now I want to figure out how to stop it waking up from sleep each time an incremental is scheduled...

 

To quote my own post:

In case it's of interest to anybody, the fix is:

1. Go to Windows Task Scheduler
2. Edit the Macrium scheduled task
3. Select 'Run only when user is logged on' (have to select this otherwise you cannot close the dialog box)
4. Switch to 'Conditions' tab and deselect 'Wake the computer to run this task'
5. Repeat x23 if necessary!

edit: while in Task Scheduler it seems you can schedule a single task to repeat multiple times per day (minimum 5 minute intervals). The Macrium interface then reflects the updated task:

http://i.pictr.com/1gv992k2rh.jpg

 

v6 DATA COMPRESSION observation: I've noticed almost NO DIFFERENCE (time of imaging operation or size of compressed image) between using the MEDIUM (Default) and the HIGH compression settings when imaging my 38.3gB SYSTEM volume.

 

Since the trial version doesn't allow the boot menu recovery environment to be installed, I have a question for anybody with a Macrium license:

Is it possible to initiate a restore of the system disk from within Windows so that the computer reboots itself from the recovery environment and completes the restore without further interaction necessary?

 

Thanks Pete - that's not as bad as it might be - obviously a bit more work than AX64 hot/warm restore though.

Do you not use the option to install the recovery environment on your C drive?