Macrium Reflect

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

  1. Osaban

    Osaban Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2005
    Posts:
    5,614
    Location:
    Milan and Seoul
    I couldn't agree more, a real jewel...
     
  2. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2011
    Posts:
    611
    Location:
    Canada
    It always has been powerful, accurate and efficient in my experience also. I must admit, however, that my faith has been shaken just a little by some recent (i.e., post-v7) incidents. There appears to have been some rather serious misunderstanding of the Windows Task Scheduler v2.0 API on the part of at least one of their developers and I've seen some potentially critical sloppiness in some recent patch releases. They don't seem to be dealing as well as they used to with user inputs either, unless they come from certain apparently "special status" commentators.

    Nothing fatal in any of that, but not encouraging signs either IMO. I may be wrong and I certainly wish them and my fellow users well, but I think I detect some "Microsoftish" arrogance or other outside paid consultancy "ethics" creeping into Macrium's corporate future. Perhaps an inevitable consequence of growth and success.
     
    Last edited: Jun 22, 2017
  3. normanbg

    normanbg Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 22, 2013
    Posts:
    122
    Location:
    Israel
    Does anyone know how to modify the boot menu screen (time and text) in Macrium Reflect paid version 7 under Windows 7 X64?

    Norman
     
  4. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2011
    Posts:
    611
    Location:
    Canada
    If you are referring to the boot menu entries in the Windows 7 boot configuration data (BCD) store, the timeout and default can be changed using msconfig. Other changes can be made using bcdedit.exe or a visual BCD editor.
     
  5. ArchiveX

    ArchiveX Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 7, 2014
    Posts:
    1,501
    Location:
    .
    Control Panel >System >System protection >click on "Advanced" tab.
    On the bottom, go to "Startup and Recovery" and click on the "Settings..." button.
    On the System Startup, you can modify Time (given in seconds). 1.png
     
  6. layman

    layman Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 20, 2006
    Posts:
    292
    Did you verify the images after they were originally created? If you can't "see" the image files from Macrium, can you see them from a file manager? If Macrium doesn't see them, it may be that the files are corrupt, which could happen if the USB drive was removed before its buffers had been flushed. If you actually have Reflect installed and can see the files from a file manager, right click an image and select "Explore image". If the image is corrupt you should get an error message.
     
  7. normanbg

    normanbg Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 22, 2013
    Posts:
    122
    Location:
    Israel
    I used to change bcdedit.exe via its command-line options under XP but Visual BCD Editor is so much more convenient. Thank you.

    Norman
     
  8. normanbg

    normanbg Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 22, 2013
    Posts:
    122
    Location:
    Israel
    How nice to know. Thank you.

    Norman
     
  9. oliverjia

    oliverjia Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 21, 2005
    Posts:
    1,926
    Well said. That's what I have been saying all the time also. When a company grows larger, its product inevitably will degrade over time. Why? Because all the core tech people will have less and less say while the stupid MBA CXOs and marketing people "want" certain things that are almost always stupid and destructive in nature. The recent launch of Macrium v7 is a very good example. The degradation of Acronis TI is another good example. Smaller companies such as Terabyte and Drive Snapshot have been consistently good because its tech people have the biggest freedom to code their product, and these tech people know what they are doing, unlike these MBA morons.

    As a user, the most stupid thing is to be a fanboy. When a product is good, you use it. When it's gone bad, you ditch it and move on to the next rising star. It's that simple.
     
  10. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2011
    Posts:
    611
    Location:
    Canada
    I concur, although it's beginning to look as if the company founder and CEO may soon allow nothing but fanboyism and a lot of obfuscation in their own forums. It's quite obvious (to me anyhow) that he's getting extremely "touchy" about any question of possible imperfections. Even their recent release notes remind one of certain trends elsewhere with their increasing vagueness about "Various bug fixes and changes to improve Macrium Reflect."

    Bugs?! What bugs? Surely Reflect has no bugs! -- It certainly does, but none critical and most (with the possible exception of some scheduled task misses) have erred on the side of safety so far, thank goodness.

    As for v7's troubled introduction, I tried it briefly and reverted to v6 while they iron out the "latest and greatest" wrinkles. I see nothing at all in v7 to warrant any great rush to "upgrade". But, then again, I have to admit that running multiple incrementals during the same Windows session has never been a major part of my backup strategy.
     
    Last edited: Jun 22, 2017
  11. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2007
    Posts:
    11,126
    Location:
    U.S.A. (South)
    Very well said.

    From the simplest of users to the top of the echelon it's so simple to see the differences and discover when a program has taken a downturn and the reasons why generally surface as well.

    Drive Snapshot is been the crown jewel of imagers on this end since Windows 98 and stunningly for me anyway has batted .1000. I seriously cannot recall one single failure and that is saying a lot when you're dealing with one lonely image that might be the sole make or break for you.

    That being said v.6 Macrium is done all I needed it to be also but DS is the meat and potatoes if anything ever goes wrong with M6.
     
  12. Fly

    Fly Registered Member

    Joined:
    Nov 1, 2007
    Posts:
    2,201
    @layman,

    I never verified the images. There are lots of them, possibly I moved some from the old external harddrive.

    I am not quite sure what you mean by 'file manager'. When I connect the external harddrive to the computer, both Windows 7 and Macrium Reflect (version 5) can see the images.
    But the Linux rescue CD/DVD only sees files/directories ...

    The rescue DVD for version 6 does work.
     
  13. silver0066

    silver0066 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2004
    Posts:
    994
    I have 4 v7 Workstation Licenses. I am still using v6. I bought these 4 upgrades when they were on sale when they were released. I would like to add one more. I have not been able to see if I can get a discount on their site. I sent them an email requesting info, but no reply.

    Does anyone know how I might accomplish this?
     
  14. wiwul

    wiwul Registered Member

    Joined:
    Aug 9, 2008
    Posts:
    138
    As for myself, I using the full Windows disk (C-drive) image feature only. I don't use their backup features. For that purpose I use a different tool that is backing up all the single files to an external drive 1-to1, whereas Reflect backs up everything into 1 backup-file.
    Upgrading does not make sense: nothing to gain in this scenario.

    =
     
  15. ArchiveX

    ArchiveX Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 7, 2014
    Posts:
    1,501
    Location:
    .
    You are very welcome! :thumb:
     
  16. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2011
    Posts:
    611
    Location:
    Canada
    The only scenario in which v7's Changed Block Tracker (CBT) makes any contribution at all is one where a user runs the same differential or incremental backup task definition twice or more times during the same Windows session. All CBT data is completely reset and rebuilt for each Windows restart -- more precisely, each time drive partitions are mounted.

    Apart from that, it's just a device class filter service and its kernel mode (start=0x00000000) MRCBT.SYS driver added into your Windows system by the backup software and serving no useful purpose at all. In fairness, its resource utilisation is minimal and generally harmless so long as nothing goes wrong with that registry inclusion and its driver support. On the other hand, if something does go wrong with a kernel mode driver, it can render your system completely unbootable even in safe mode. And that's not just theoretical. It actually happened to several users when v7 was introduced. Risky for little or no benefit so far as I'm concerned. Even if you disable it using MrCbtTools.exe, it gets reinstalled and reactivated by v7 update releases BTW.
     
    Last edited: Jun 24, 2017
  17. Arvy

    Arvy Registered Member

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2011
    Posts:
    611
    Location:
    Canada
    You're welcome. That's just one of several available BCD editors BTW. Didn't mean to "push" it in particular. EasyBCD is another that seems popular.
     
  18. paulderdash

    paulderdash Registered Member

    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2013
    Posts:
    4,639
    Location:
    Under a bushel ...
    I toyed with upgrading to v7, even if there was no real benefit to me, as I generally like to be on the latest version of any soft, and support development.

    But I have decided to stay on v6 for as long as possible now, based on input above from @TheRollbackFrog and @Arvy, both of whom are very active on the MR Forum.

    I hope @Arvy's concerns (#4977) don't indicate a permanent trend, as I regard MR as the most reliable tool in my defence against malware.
     
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2017
  19. Hadron

    Hadron Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 1, 2014
    Posts:
    2,137
    I actually received a free upgrade to v7, but downgraded to v6. I didn't like certain things about it.
    And it messed with my serial, so now I have to use the v7 serial to upgrade v6. :isay:

    I think v7 was more about making money than actually offering any real benefits.
     
  20. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2007
    Posts:
    11,126
    Location:
    U.S.A. (South)
    Same here and in all honesty if it's not broken it needs no fix. I am sticking with v6 simply because it is been performing every bit as expected and on one occasion came through by even corrected an error I made by accident once.

    Nothing against progress but it's the same old story for me and i'm sticking to it. Newer doesn't always equate to being better. Seen this time and time again where a new version doesn't carry over the same as a current stable one which is worked just fine without fail.
     
  21. Hadron

    Hadron Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 1, 2014
    Posts:
    2,137
    Really? Good for you. ;)
     
  22. wiwul

    wiwul Registered Member

    Joined:
    Aug 9, 2008
    Posts:
    138
    Yes, I read about that Arvy. Thanks for pointing out.
    Actually, when it comes to -just- creating full images, I believe there is hardly any improvement to be gained over their current v6.x version.
    The free version would be okay then.
    Note that Acronis has no separate 'free version' (with limited features, but only imaging)
    i.e. when it comes to full imaging and full imaging only, the free Macrium version is the way to go. :)
    =
     
  23. Robin A.

    Robin A. Registered Member

    Joined:
    Feb 25, 2006
    Posts:
    2,557
    Not necessarily, it depends on the hardware. Macrium can be very slow to create full images. In my case, Terabyte programs are 3-4 times faster.
     
  24. Cruise

    Cruise Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 10, 2010
    Posts:
    1,236
    Location:
    USA
    I don't know about 3-4 times faster, but I would agree that there are faster imaging products than MR for full backups - e.g., from Acronis and Terabyte.
     
  25. oliverjia

    oliverjia Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jul 21, 2005
    Posts:
    1,926
    Add Drive Snapshot and even the free Clonezilla to the list. The compression engine for MR to create/restore full disk image is highly inefficient. They never think about improving it in years, and I don't think they'll care at all in the future. Both Terabyte and Drive Snapshot improved their compression efficiency significantly by utilizing full CPU cores and optimizing algorithm in the past couple of years, but not MR.

    Acronis has been very fast creating/restore full disk images, probably the fastest among all disk imagers.
     
  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.