Macrium Reflect

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

  1. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    @jima - I assume the increased BOOT up time you refer to is the time the BOOT menu is on the screen... this time is fully adjustable. I have mine set at appx. 2-sec which is not a burden but does allow me access to the menu, if needed. (BCDedit /timeout <# of sec> executed with COMMAND PROMPT running at ADMIN level)
     
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2020
  2. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    TIMEOUT is also available using the "Run" command window with the msconfig command under the BOOT TAB.
     
  3. jima

    jima Registered Member

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    good to know Froggie. I may look at that again some time.

    I guess the main thing is, I make regular images, but very seldom have to restore any of them.
     
  4. JasonUK

    JasonUK Registered Member

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    Looks like Macrium Reflect 8 is on its way as an ad on the Free version now offers '20% off & purchase includes Reflect v8'
     
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  6. Peter 123

    Peter 123 Registered Member

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    Please could someone give me an advice?

    I use Windows 10 Home 32-bit. Yesterday I installed on a trial basis the Windows 10 64-bit version (as inplace-upgrade). (It was a pain, but it worked.)

    For the time being I see no reason to stay on 64 bit. So I intend to return to 32 bit (by restoring an image, created with the 7.3.5365 version of the Macrium Home Edition, 32 bit). But before I do it I would like to create an image of the 64-bit version (which I have already configured to a certain degree so that I would like to keep my efforts for a future upgrade).

    1. With my 32-bit version of Macrium the creation of an image fails. I assume that for the image of a 64-bit OS you also need the 64-bit version of Macrium. Right?

    2. I assume the same applies to the rescue media: In order to restore the image of a 64-bit OS I need a rescue media with 64 bit too?

    3.1. If these assumptions are correct, what could be a possible solution? Does it make sense to create an image with the Free Edition 64-bit (v. 7.3.5365) which I see now when opening Macrium (plus creating a 64-bit rescue media)?

    3.2. But would would it be able to restore later on such an image on my computer with the 32-bit OS by using the 32-bit rescue media (as the 64-bit rescue media would not work, I assume)?

    Thank you.
     
  7. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    @Peter 123 I’m not sure what you mean that you performed an in-place upgrade. Microsoft does not allow performing in-place upgrades between different CPU architectures of Windows, and Windows Setup will not allow an in-place upgrade option in that situation, so I’m not sure exactly what you did. But whatever you did, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that you back up your existing environment, because you’ve already noticed that problem with Reflect, and whatever you did probably introduced several more like it.

    1. You’re correct that 32-bit Reflect does not work on 64-bit Windows. Somebody on the Macrium forums ended up in this predicament by installing 64-bit Windows and then using some application designed to migrate installed applications from one PC to another in order to restore their 32-bit Windows environment into their new 64-bit Windows environment. They ended up in a situation where they couldn’t use Reflect, couldn’t reinstall it, and couldn’t even uninstall it. They ended up having to manually remove Reflect from the Windows Installer database just to be able to reinstall it.

    2. You are NOT correct about Rescue Media. 32-bit Rescue Media can restore 64-bit OS installations and vice versa. That’s a very different situation because in that case Reflect isn’t running from the OS you’re trying to restore (or back up). It’s running in its own Windows PE/RE environment and just reading and writing disk images, so it doesn’t matter what’s in those disk images.

    3. In theory you could use your 32-bit Rescue Media to make a backup of your current 64-bit build, but again I really wouldn’t recommend doing that. It sounds like you did something that isn’t supported and that therefore isn’t going to work well going forward. If you want to go back to 32-bit, restore your image. If you want to move forward with 64-bit, perform a clean install as you’re supposed to.

    In terms of not seeing a reason to stick with 64-bit, do you really only have 4GB of RAM in this system? Even if you do, 64-bit allows more than 2GB to be allocated to a single process, which 32-bit doesn’t. And I’m pretty sure 64-bit has some security features that don’t exist in 32-bit, although it’s been a while since I’ve read up on the differences. But it’s only a matter of time before Microsoft drops 32-bit OS offerings anyway. They did it on the Windows Server line with Server 2008 R2 about a decade ago, and they already announced and then delayed plans to do it with Windows 10. So you’ll have to make this move at some point. If you’re currently on a on old, low-spec box that doesn’t have more than 4GB of RAM and figure that you might get a new system before Microsoft forces you to 64-bit, then fair enough, but if you do have more than 4GB of RAM, then I’d consider moving now — but that means doing it properly, as a clean install.
     
  8. Peter 123

    Peter 123 Registered Member

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    @jphughan Thank's a lot for your very informative response.

    Well, perhaps "in-place upgrade" was not a completely correct expression. (I remember that a few days ago in some forum there was a discussion if an "upgrade" from 32-bit to 64-bit is something possible or not.)

    It's an about 10 years old All-in-one computer which had Windows 7 preinstalled (32-bit of course). About a year ago I changed ("upgraded" or whatever) to Windows 10 (32-bit). But as I saw that this old machine has a x-64-based processor I thought to use this quality: So I downloaded with Microsoft's Media Creation Tool the installation file for the 64-bit build on a USB-stick and by booting the stick I installed this build on my computer. I followed the procedure as it is described on many websites (e.g. here: https://computergarage.org/upgrade-windows10-32bit-64bit-for-free.html ).

    My aim with creating an image of the 64-bit version as it is currently installed would simply be to have it ready especially for the situation you mention:

    I have only 4 GB RAM. And concerning a clean install: That would mean a tremendous amount of work I absolutely want to avoid. Even my "not so clean" install was a quite hard work although I had a relatively good help with the "PCmover" (version "Windows Upgrade Assistant") by Laplink (as discussed here: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/thr...pcmover-or-zinstall-or-something-else.435232/).

    But I would have nothing to lose with this procedure. In the worst case (that the creation or later the restore of the backup does not succeed or Windows 64-bit after restoring does not work as it should) I can still (I must) perform the clean install anyway.
     
    Last edited: Dec 21, 2020
  9. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    Ok, so you used the Media Creation Tool to boot Windows Setup and perform a clean install, then used PC Mover. Yep, I’m pretty sure that’s the exact same app that the person on the Macrium forums that I mentioned above used. If you don’t want to do a clean install and don’t have more than 4GB of RAM, then I would suggest just sticking with 32-bit Windows as long as you can stand using a PC that only has 4GB of RAM. And whenever you have to upgrade, I suppose it’s possible that PC Mover will be better set up to handle this migration, but the more likely possibility is that transplanting an app environment that you set up on 32-bit Windows into 64-bit Windows is just never going to go well. So one option would be to just take the hits inherent to your makeshift in-place upgrade and try to cobble together something that works. But I’d recommend instead just biting the bullet and starting from scratch, especially if you’re still carrying forward an environment that began as Windows 7. Some of the work you had to do after using PC Mover might actually have been if you had instead just started with a clean install and run the actual application installers to get your applications set up rather than trying to migrate applications that were installed somewhere else. Sometimes doing things the right way involves work, but putting in the work also often delivers a better outcome. I’ve done so many clean installs that I can now perform go from an empty hard drive to having my entire environment restored — without the use of any image restore or app/settings migration utilities — in about 3 hours. (Having a fast PC definitely helps there, as does having a list of items to back up before wiping your system and another list of things to do after a clean install that you can work through.)

    The reason I discouraged making a backup of your build is that if you already know it doesn’t work quite right AND you’re not sure you need 64-bit at all, then it doesn’t seem to be an environment worth preserving. If you go back to 32-bit because you’re happy there, then by the time you decide to revisit this, chances are your current 64-bit environment will be hugely outdated, in which case you probably wouldn’t want to restore it at that future time. And that’s entirely separate from the issue that your specific setup isn’t operating the way it should right now.
     
    Last edited: Dec 21, 2020
  10. Tinstaafl

    Tinstaafl Registered Member

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    I think that @jphughan answered your questions well. But just adding my 2 cents about migrating from 32-bit Windows.

    Like you, I only had 4GB RAM running on Win 7 Pro 32-bit, while realizing that I had 64-bit hardware. My initial upgrade to Win10 was in-place with the 32-bit version. Later on, I became concerned with certain developers ending development on the 32-bit platform, so I decided it was time to move on for that reason.

    So I backed up all of my stuff, clean installed the 64-bit version of Win 10 from the Media Creation Tool, and then re-installed everything else from scratch. So my PC was clean and stable from that point forward, with no weird problems or conflicts. It was a lot of effort to re-install everything, but the peace of mind knowing that you are starting with a clean slate can be worth it. And I have carefully protected that build with Macrium for over 4 years. No more clean installs for me, hopefully! :)
     
  11. Peter 123

    Peter 123 Registered Member

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    Well, in the meantime I did the following: I made a backup of my (trial) 64-bit build of Windows 10 with my 32-bit Rescue Media (many thanks for this explanation @jphughan, even if you do not regard it as a good solution) and then I restored a backup of my last 32-bit build. So for the time being I am back again at 32-bit and we will se what the future will bring concerning the transition to 64-bit. At least psychologically it is a good feeling to have a backup of my test installation so that the hard work of the last two days and (nights) is not completely gone. :)

    Yes, that's exactly my situation and my consideration.

    I can imagine.

    In my case I am sure that not even 3 days (plus nights) would be enough. ;)

    A simple (?) example (even if it is not restricted to the situation of a completely clean install): It took me hours of searching in the Internet and at least three or for installation attempts until I found out that it is possible (and how it is possible) to install the 64-buit build without creating a Microsoft account (something which I do not want to do, the more as they try to force the users and the more as it was only a test installation)! Finally the solution was quite simple (you have to go offline during the installation procedure as soon as the screen with the request to create the Microsoft account appears and then you have to go back to the previous screen - only now they allow you to create a local account without the necessity to send them personal data like e-mail or phone number and birth-date). But as mentioned before: It was a lot of work, troubles and annoyance until finally I had the solution.

    Therefore: The more I can use "out of the box" - just it was the time before - the better for me. That's why I appreciate possibilities working with the use of an image.

    Something might have been a misunderstanding caused by my postings:
    No, I would not say this. I was surprised that the 64-bit build looked and worked quite similar to the previous one and that I could continue to use some basic programs as I had done before. Of course in various details I was not satisfied (otherwise indeed I would have stayed with it immediately) but in general my impression was not so bad.

    It is more the second argument you mention:
    Yes, at least at the moment I see no substantial additional advantage for me of using 64-bit. So the test with it and the backup I created were more a sort of training and investment for probable future needs.
     
  12. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    I don't know where the best place to post this but here will do.

    I just bought a cheap wireless keyboard / mouse combo and as soon as I plugged the receiver in I got a BSOD. After the machine rebooted I tried to enter my Windows password but the keyboard was non-responsive, but then filled a heap of characters where I'd been trying to type. Needless to say the crappy combo was a bad buy. I'll be getting my money back tomorrow.

    This is where MR (free version) comes in.

    After shutting down the machine and unplugging the receiver for the keyboard / mouse combo, I replaced it with the mouse and keyboard I'd been using. I then booted to the MR recovery UFD. I chose the latest image from Sunday night my time and the restoration began, but then soon after I got an error from MR. I can't remember exactly what the error code was but it said a serious error had occurred. I think the error was #303 or similar.

    That baffled me but I shut the machine down again, booted back into the MR recover UFD. This time my backups from my external drive weren't populated, leaving me to manually search for my latest backup.

    First time I've had that* from MR.

    *First time I've had that with Windows.

    I'm back here after successfully restoring the backup. Any ideas as to A) why I got an error, and B) why when I tried again the backups weren't populated on the external hdd?
     
  13. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    Well, that particular "population" information in the Recovery Media normally comes from your LIVE disk installation on your OS partition. With all that was going on (and going bad) with your System, access to that info may have gone bad during the process. Manually "finding" and using that info for the recovery put all of "Humpty" back together again.
     
  14. Tinstaafl

    Tinstaafl Registered Member

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    This probably has nothing to do with the "cheap" wireless keyboard/mouse, but it is theoretically possible for a "Bad USB" attack. In that case, a USB chip (not just memory sticks) can have firmware installed that is undetectable by your antivirus.

    For that reason, I never install "cheap" USB products from no-name companies, and especially none that are used. So I limit my choices to mainstream device manufacturers, and only in factory sealed packaging.

    So for this and many, many other reasons I take a full Macrium image daily. You never know when you may need it! :)

    Glad to hear that you are back up and running! :thumb:
     
  15. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    Thanks guys.
    Come to think of it, HMP.A never 'alerted' me when I inserted the new receiver like it does whenever I've inserted different keyboards. Perhaps HMP.A was the reason for the BSOD? In any case, my machine is up and running again. I shall still take the new keyboard / mouse combo back and seek a refund shortly.
     
  16. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    Got my AU$19 back.
     
  17. Tinstaafl

    Tinstaafl Registered Member

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    :thumb:

    They may cost a bit more, but I have had very good luck with the logitech wireless mice and keyboards. The ones that come with the unifying receiver (2.4GHz, up to 10 meters) have a utility (Logitech Unifying Software) that lets you add and/or delete a logitech device, so it's a simple matter to re-configure your setup if you change mice, for example. I tend to wear out mice faster than keyboards, so it's painless (a couple of clicks) to swap in a replacement mouse using the same receiver and keyboard.

    Up to 6 keyboards and mice per receiver.

    https://www.logitech.com/en-us/combos
     
  18. XIII

    XIII Registered Member

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    Today Macrium Reflect failed while cloning a partition from an internal hard drive to an external hard drive (the drives were identical last week, as I perform this operation every week).

    It failed while reading from the source drive, but now the entire partition on the destination drive is wiped (instead of the single file/block/sector/... it was working on).

    Why does it work like that? (Happened for 2 partitions today)
     
  19. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    Because cloning is a block-level operation, not a file-level operation. That block-level operation includes cloning the file system itself, so if the clone fails in the middle of an operation, the file system won’t necessarily match the actual files on disk — or the file system itself might not be in a valid state. File-level operations like sync applications avoid this because they work through the source and destination file systems, but having to access the source file system for each source file and update the destination file system for each destination file means it would take much longer to copy a given amount of data, and the smaller the average file size, the greater the performance disadvantage compared to block-level copying because the overhead is per-file. If you’ve ever noticed that copying 1,000 files that are each 1MB takes a lot longer than copying a single file that’s 1000 MB, you’ve seen this. Per-file overhead can really add up. I experimented with a file server that had about 500K files and a relatively low average file size to see how a Reflect File & Folder backup of its entire Data partition would compare to an image backup of the same partition. The image backup ran 2.5x faster. And while I didn’t test this, I suspect a full partition restore would reveal a similarly large performance difference. Block-level operations don’t have that type of overhead.

    File-level operations also require that Reflect have native support for (and access to) the file systems involved. That would make it impossible to clone partitions that use unsupported file systems and also impossible to clone encrypted partitions while locked. But both of those things ARE possible with Reflect cloning.

    But this is the scenario that I use to explain why performing a periodic clone should NEVER be considered a “backup”. If you ever have a SOURCE disk failure in the middle of a clone, you’ll have no source disk AND no usable destination disk, even though the destination was usable before you started the clone. If you clone the same source disk to multiple destinations, then you’ve mitigated this, but image backups really are a better solution for backups because you can store multiple points in time on a single disk, and if an image backup fails, it doesn’t ruin the previous existing backups.

    Keep in mind that an image restore works the same way. If an image restore fails partway through, the partition that was being written at the time will be in an unusable state, even if it was usable before you began the restore. It’s the exact same concept.
     
    Last edited: Dec 23, 2020
  20. Peter 123

    Peter 123 Registered Member

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    Once more I learned a lot by reading a posting of @jphughan. :thumb: But something completely different now - it concerns the license.

    And I fear that I already know what would be the best for me to do :(:

    I switched on the same computer from Windows 10 32-bit to Windows-10 64-bit in form of an inplace-upgrade (or whatever the correct expression would be - anyway it's the procedure described above in my postings #8706 and #8708). What I saw was that afterwards my paid Home Edition of Macrium Reflect was reverted to the Free Edition!

    That was my first negative experience. But I expected that at least it would be sufficient to enter again my license key in order to get back the Home Edition. (I did not try it because I made only a short first test with Windows 64-bit having returned again to 32-bit.)

    In the meantime I studied a little bit the topics about installation in the Macrium Support Forum and I fear that (possibly) it would not be so relatively simple. For almost every situation of some sort of reinstalling/upgrading Windows on the same computer experienced users (like jphughan) recommend the previous removal of the license and the uninstalling of Macrium Reflect on the "old" system to avoid possible troubles. What a cumbersome procedure - whereas most of other software (including Windows itself) recognizes that the hardware is still the same and therefore does not annoy its users with such unnecessary inconveniences!

    And an additional problem is that the guys from Macrium obviously do not reply themselves in their own Forum in order to give clear answers to such questions. So all is left to other (experienced and helpful) users who of course usually cannot express more than assumptions (like "it seems", "is safer" etc.).

    All this can be found for example in the following topics:
    https://forum.macrium.com/32117/ReInstalling
    https://forum.macrium.com/32851/Windows-7-to-Windows-10-upgrade-Licensing-Question
    https://forum.macrium.com/30521/Updating-to-Windows-10
    https://forum.macrium.com/28421/Remove-License

    Sorry for all my complaints. I know that all this is not the fault of the friendly helpers here or directly in the Macrium Forum. ;)

    Anyway, the conclusion seems to be:
    It would be better in my case too to remove the license key and to uninstall Macrium Reflect before I change from Windows 32-bit to 64 bit or vice versa (the more as already after the first switch the program was reverted to the Free Edition). Correct?

    PS:
    - The Rescue Media will still be fully working as long as Macrium is uninstalled? (That's of importance because my next switch from Windows 32-bits to 64-bits will happen by restoring an image.)

    - (theoretical question) What happens in the case of a ReDeploy procedure (bare metal restore to dissimilar hardware)? (Something that requires the Home Edition.) On the old computer Macrium would not be installed any longer and on the new one of course still it would not be installed too. Could in that case ReDeploy be performed with the Rescue Media?
     
    Last edited: Dec 23, 2020
  21. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    Those spontaneous downgrades to Free have been reported a few times, often in connection with Windows 10 feature updates. So whatever triggers the downgrade in that scenario may have been triggered in your migration. As to removing the license, I suspect the reason Reflect operates differently is that Reflect deliberately remains activated even when the hardware CHANGES, specifically to facilitate scenarios where ReDeploy might be used. So if Macrium is deliberately NOT “keying” activation status based on hardware, that might require a more manual license removal process. But even if you don’t do that (such as in cases of sudden PC failure), Macrium Support can help out on their end. I learned this when I encountered this problem after reinstalling Reflect on the same hardware multiple times after multiple OS rebuilds, before I knew about the license removal capability.

    Rescue Media built by a paid version remains working forever unless it was built by a time-limited installation, like a trial or a subscription license such as the Technicians license. However, it is against Macrium’s license policy to use paid Rescue Media with a system that does not have a paid license associated with it, except when you are using it on a new system for the purpose of permanently migrating away from another system that has (or had) a paid license and that you will not be using after the migration. This is the typical ReDeploy scenario.
     
  22. Peter 123

    Peter 123 Registered Member

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    Many thanks for your explanations, jphughan. :thumb:
     
  23. jimminy

    jimminy Registered Member

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    I have encountered a very strange problem building rescue media using the windows PE 5.0 option. It's not a showstopper because I normally use the winPE 10 option, which works fine (as far as I can tell ...,haven't made a restore yet). BUT it sure has my curiosity peaked :)

    Here's what happens when I try win PE 5.0:
    Reflect seemingly makes the necessary downloads and builds and writes the rescue usb with no errors or indications of problems.
    However, when I boot from the USB flash drive, it hangs after displaying the windows flag (spinning dots). The only way I can recover is with a hard power down reset (holding power button down until machine shuts off).

    Moreover, I can no longer boot normally into windows ... It also hangs the _exact_ same way. The only way I can recover is to boot a windows recovery usb flash drive. It gives many options, but if I select "troubleshoot" then "fix startup problem" (or some such), It seems to scan the drives and make some sort of repairs, finally booting to windows. Then all is fine (whew!).

    My knowledge is very limited, but to me this indicates that the rescue flash drive has definitely borked something on the system's hard drives.

    I performed this experiment twice: Once using the normal way of letting reflect automatically download the needed winpe 5 data, and once using the reflect download manager to download the winpe zip file. Both failed in the exacty same way.

    In both cases, I disabled most windows security/antivirus options, having learned previously that even a winpe 10 download is now thwarted by later win 10 installations, just like infamous third party stuff.

    Again, folks, this isn't a critical problem for me, but I'm very curious.
     
  24. Peter 123

    Peter 123 Registered Member

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    New problems occurred and I would like to ask you (and others) about your opinion:

    A few minutes ago I restored an image of my Windows 10 64-build. Restoring worked without problems. So at the moment I am on Win 64-bit and Macrium Reflect is again downgraded to the Free Edition as described and discussed above. This was no surprise any longer (though still a nuisance).

    But the new problems are the following:

    1. Most important: I cannot longer browse the contents of my images! I can start the procedure, the window saying "Assigning [drive letter] H" appears, but afterwards all stops. The explorer with the contents of the chosen image does never open. This refers to different (also older images) I try to open/browse.

    2. I can find in Reflect almost no information about my last two images. The one is the image I created from my test installation of Win 64-bit a few days ago (lets' call it Image 64). The second one is the image I created a few hours ago from the 32-bit installation (so let's call it Image 32) before returning to the Win 64-bit installation (by restoring Image 64).

    Image 64 was of course created already with the Free Edition, Image 32 again with the Home Edition (which I had on my system after having returned to Win 32-bit).

    When I say I can find almost no information about these images in Reflect I mean: There are no log file informations about their creation. (What I can see, is the logfile about the successful restore of Image 64.) The xml-files (Backup Definition Files) are also missing for the last two images.

    The positive thing is: All existing images (including the two last ones) are on my external drive (though their icon has gone what it also part of the problem, I assume). And it seems that even the last one (Image 32) can be restored (as it opens for this procedure in Reflect).

    ------

    Sorry for this long report, but I thought it is better to describe the concrete issues. My question is:

    Do you think that these problems have some pure technical reason or are they connected with the fact that I was downgraded to the Free Edition?

    Normally I would say the second - but I am worried by the fact that image browsing does not work any longer (for none of my images) although it worked a few days ago under Win 64-bit and it should indeed be a feature that is available in the Free Edition too (according to the list here: https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree).

    Before the last 2-3 days I was completely satisfied with the working of Reflect (whereas its user interface I found always terrible), but now I start to be fed up with it. So many troubles in the crucial moment of changing from 32- to 64 bit! :mad: Usually I would look now for an alternative to the Macrium products, but as mentioned, it is not the appropriate moment to do so.

    Thanks to all the readers for their patience. (Perhaps my post is a warning for other users of Reflect in a similar situation.)

    PS: I am aware that it will be necessary to get in contact with the Macrium Support, especially concerning the reactivation of the Home Edition. But before doing this I will continue to configure my 64-bit version of Windows so that I can be sure that I will keep it: It makes no sense to start the discussion with the Macrium staff when I will stay on 32-bit anyway. ;)
     
    Last edited: Dec 24, 2020
  25. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    @Peter 123 Not sure what happened with being unable to browse images, but if you haven’t already, try just uninstalling and reinstalling Reflect. Browsing images relies on a driver, and I’ve seen a couple posts on the Macrium forums about this capability breaking.

    As for the missing logs, if you restored your system to a previous backup, then any backups made AFTER the backup you restored was originally created will not have logs in Reflect because you just restored your system to a state that predates the creation of those newer backups. Reflect stores its logs on the C partition, and currently this cannot be redirected — so if you roll back your C partition to 10 days ago, it won’t have a log entry for the backup you created 2 days ago.

    As for XML files, I’m not sure what you mean that those are missing for your last 2 images. Here again, if you created those XML files after the time of the backup you just restored, they won’t exist. But just so you’re aware, you do NOT need to create new definition files for each backup you run, in fact doing so would be a complete waste of time and undermine the entire purpose of definition files, which are designed to allow you to set the settings of a backup job once and then just call that file when you want to run subsequent iterations of that backup job.

    The fact that the backup themselves still exist would be expected, even if there’s no long a log of their creation or an XML file that was used to generate them.

    I’m not sure I’d describe Reflect’s interface as “terrible”. I have a whole thread suggesting some UI improvements that may or may not make their way into V8, but the consistent feedback I see on the Macrium forums from users who came from other products is that they find Reflect more intuitive. There are certainly those who get tripped up by some interface design decisions too, but on balance the average impression seems to be comfortably better than “terrible”.

    You might not have to contact Macrium Support to get your installation back to paid status. Have you tried just going to the Help menu to enter an activation key to see if that gets you back to Home?
     
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