Macrium Reflect

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

  1. MPSAN

    MPSAN Registered Member

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    Well, I guess I will keep it CHECKED. It takes about an extra 10 minutes to do when I run a full image. Many years ago, and I am not sure it was Macrium, I did a backup and when I tried to restore it said it was a bad Image. I do not believe this was Reflect but since then I always have it checked!
     
  2. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    There are arguments both ways, but it's important to understand one thing that seems to surprise users. The verification operation, even the auto-verify option that runs immediately after a backup, does NOT recheck the data in the backup against the original source data. All it does is confirm that the backup is completely readable and that it has not been altered since its original creation. The latter is established by performing a new hash calculation of each data block in the backup and comparing it against the hash that was originally calculated and recorded in the backup when the backup was first created. Of course if this verification operation fails immediately after the backup was created, it is likely that it wasn't written properly in the first place as opposed to having been altered in the moment between the end of the backup and the verification check. And if your system has an issue such that the backup couldn't be written properly in the first place, then I would argue that you have much larger problems that will have impacts well beyond your Reflect backup files.

    I'll also add that in their own KB article on verification, Macrium estimates that fewer than 1 in 1000 systems will have an issue that causes a verification failure. And this verification option wasn't even added until Reflect V6, which I think says a lot about Macrium's opinion of its criticality or lack thereof. My own impression is that this capability was added purely to satisfy user requests and perceptions of Reflect being at a competitive disadvantage by not having that feature, not because Macrium thought it was actually important, and that Macrium added it simply because it was easier to give the people what they wanted than try to convince them that it wasn't important. After all, do you perform these types of integrity checks on all the OTHER types of files that you put onto the storage device you're using for Reflect backups?

    Still, it has been pointed out that verification can serve as sort of an "early warning" mechanism for some type of problem that may be introducing data corruption or read issues, such as a developing issue with the destination storage device, a faulty USB cable, or whatever. And if adding verification doesn't cause your overall backup jobs to run unacceptably long, then I suppose there's little downside to using it. Just understand what it does and does not do.

    Lastly, even if you encounter a verification failure, that does not always mean there is in fact a problem with the backup. On the Macrium forums there have been cases where a system throws verification failure problems and the underlying cause turns out to be a bad USB cable, bad memory module, or even a bad CPU. So if you encounter a verification failure, first try verifying another backup. If that one fails too, then try verifying those files from a completely separate PC, ideally using a separate USB cable if applicable.
     
  3. MPSAN

    MPSAN Registered Member

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    Yes I am aware of, and agree with, all that you have said. One other thing I did notice as this is my first backup since I updated to 7.3.5925. As such, I wanted to verify my new Rescue Media (a DVD) worked and it did. However, while I verified the Image I just created I noticed some old Images I did not need any more and it let me delete them. So, although everything worked, I wondered why, when using the Rescue DVD I created it did not ask for my password or anything else. It just let me delete any image I wanted to remove.
     
  4. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    What password are you referring to? If you encrypted your backups with a password, then Reflect will prompt you for that password to perform a verification. But you sound surprised that Reflect allowed you to delete backups in the Rescue Media environment. Choosing to encrypt your backups with a password does not prevent them from being deleted. Image Guardian running within full Windows is designed to prevent applications other than Reflect (and in some cases Robocopy, by default) from modifying or deleting Reflect backups, but it won't stop Reflect itself from doing so, and Image Guardian isn't available in Rescue anyway.
     
  5. MPSAN

    MPSAN Registered Member

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    OK...yes it does ask for my password in Windows. I guess I never noticed that it does not when booting with Rescue Media. I guess I should hide my DVD. :)
     
  6. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    I just booted into Rescue and tried to verify an encrypted backup, and I was prompted for a password just as happens with Reflect running in full Windows. Are you sure you're testing the same backup in both cases? Or are you maybe talking about BitLocker or something as opposed to Reflect's own encryption?
     
  7. aldist

    aldist Registered Member

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    Consolidation, creating a synthetic full image. A backup set is available:
    full
    inc1
    inc2
    inc3
    1\ To get a current synthetic full image, can I immediately consolidate full and inc3, and then remove inc1 and inc2?
    2\ Or should I sequentially consolidate full + inc1, then full + inc2, then full + inc3?
     
    Last edited: Jun 27, 2021
  8. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    if you're using the standalone consolidate tool, it will do as you ask and also the necessary deletions as well.
     
  9. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    You can do the former. Reflect will even do that automatically if ever needed, such as if you reduce your Incremental retention and therefore multiple Incrementals need to be purged.
     
  10. xxJackxx

    xxJackxx Registered Member

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    Assuming you are running Windows I also assume restoring it to a VM leaves it with an invalid activation? If that is the case I assume that fact that it boots is your check? I have always gone with the idea that restoring it to the machine it was backed up from is a bad test because if it fails there is no recovery. There are not enough hours in the day for me to test them all to a VM. But I must also assume this is 1 PC and not 20+? Just wondering how others handle this.
     
  11. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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    I never checked licence but I did so now. When restoring I usually have network disabled for that VM. So when I first checked for activation status there was no data (can't access servers error). After enabling network license was checked and status is now Activated with a digital license.
    I do restore test only once a month when I create full system image. I don't check weekly (differential) and daily (incremental) backups by restoring them. If some of they fail, I still have good backup which is not older than one month. Of course I do that on one system, IDK how I would manage 20 computers...
     
  12. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    Windows can remain usable even after falling out of activation, and somehow I’ve seen that viBooted VMs do at least initially show as activated, although I don’t use it enough to see how long that lasts, how consistent it is, etc. But if you just need to quickly check something or run an application in your VM to export data, it’s useful even if you have activation issues. And the other use case aimed at enterprises is keeping servers running even if the original hardware failed, or at least until you fix the hardware problem — and enterprises that use KMS or MAK licensing wouldn’t have to worry about activation issues as a result of a VM migration.
     
  13. Rico

    Rico Registered Member

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    Recently used Macrium rescue disk two machines, after using boot to win 10, both machines said, something went wrong with your pin. Redo pin. Tried making new Mac 8 rescue, again windows 'pin' was trashed
     
  14. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    Can you be more specific about what exactly you did with your Rescue Media? Did you actually restore an image backup or do something else? I’m not sure what you mean by “using boot to Win 10”. And for the PIN error, it would help to provide the exact error message you’re talking about and exactly when you encountered it. The more detail you can provide about exactly what you did and what you saw, the more likely others will be able to help.
     
  15. normanbg

    normanbg Registered Member

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    I have a problem, and I'm not sure this is the right place to turn to. I'm trying to do a Secure Erase on my system disk, which is an SSD. I thought of doing it by booting from my Macrium rescue disk and using utility software on an external USB device, but I keep getting the error message "The subsystem needed to support the image type is not present" regardless of the particular utility software I choose.

    The web says that such a message occurs when the operating system is 64-bit and the target program is 32-bit (or vice versa). I tried fiddling with my bios but to no avail. Is there any way to add 32-bit capability to my (boot.wim) rescue disk?

    Windows 7 SP1 64-bit, Macrium 7.2 Home, PEVersion 3.0
     
  16. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    No, you have to do another build and in the process select 32-bit architecture. WinPEs only come with one architecture... LIVE Windows comes with both.

    Use the "Advanced" button at the bottom of the builder once you've selected what you're going to build.

    ...and BTW, if you build a 32-bit Rescue Media, it works just fine on all modern processors since they support both architectures. The rescue process cares not what type of image you're dealing with. BUT, a 32-bit Rescue Media will not run "external" 64-bit programs.
     
  17. Rico

    Rico Registered Member

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    @jphughan - testing Mac rescue disk (usb) > reboot to win10 before entering win10 you must enter a 'pin'. That pin got messed up 3 times on two dif machines. 3 times had to, use windows pass & re-create Pin. One machine was a restore, the other was test of Mac8 rescue usb.

    Restored machine replaced hdd, Macrium image used to restore, included all partitions, which contained ssd. The ssd ran into problem, & was not working do to incompatible data (restored image contained or wrote to ssd, causing the problem. Clear 'metadata' from 'Intel Rapid Storage', that restored health to ssd.

    Both drives working well, my next move was to make a Macrium backup & new rescue usb. Opening screen now show 'partition' grey 12.1 mb, previously not present
    I replaced the hdd with same size & brand hdd 'Seagate 2tb.

    Also opening screen shows #5 or the ssd. Shouldn't show OS 3?

    I despite the look below, I was able to make a full backup & made the new rescue disk. I'm hesitant to test the rescue disk, as it messes up Windows 10 pin to log on
    upload_2021-6-28_13-34-18.png
     
  18. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    Ok, that helps. So the PIN you're talking about is the Windows Hello PIN. The Windows Hello PIN involves working with the system's TPM. If you're restoring a backup that was originally captured from that system, I'm not sure why that broke. I use a Windows Hello PIN myself and I'm pretty sure that I have successfully restored an image backup and was still able to use my PIN, but I'm not 100% sure about that since I haven't restored my system for a while. But if you ever make an image backup on one PC and then restore it to a different PC, or if you replaced the motherboard or cleared the TPM, then the Windows Hello PIN would definitely not work in that scenario. If none of that happened and your PIN didn't work, I'm not sure what to tell you since again that's not something I've specifically tested.

    The gray space is not a partition. It's just unallocated space. On a 2TB disk, 12.1 MB is only a 0.0006% difference in capacity. That difference could be something as small as slight changes in hardware revisions of that disk model or maybe one disk having slightly more usable sectors from the factory than another. If you use the "Resize partitions" option that is available when you click the Copy Partitions button in the Reflect clone/restore wizard, then the Windows partition would have been resized as needed in order to avoid ending up with unused space at the end of the disk. But I wouldn't run a new clone/restore just to reclaim 12 MB.

    I don't know what this means.

    That 13 GB Intel storage device appears to be an Intel Optane module. But if you can see it independently, then it might not be getting used to accelerate your 2TB disk's performance, which is what it is supposed to be doing. You might want to check the Intel Rapid Storage application to confirm. That "clear metadata" operation you performed might have caused that problem. Maybe your Rescue Media doesn't have the appropriate Intel Rapid Storage drivers to work with an Optane module.
     
    Last edited: Jun 28, 2021
  19. Rico

    Rico Registered Member

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    @jphughan "I don't know what this means." From the pic (see above post) from Macrium's opening screen it numbered OS as #3 & SSD as #5, Dell Support Mac labels #6

    12.1 mb agree not worth recovering, but was curious why appeared, & if it can be problematic

    Well I know the SSD is working as prior to clearing 'metadata' very slow once cleared fast like normal. I'm talking about this icon in system tray upload_2021-6-28_17-42-42.png . After restore to new hdd, check marks, not present & many errors in Intel rapid storage. Do to the restored image contained incompatible data, hence SSD not working, till clearing 'metadata' which resored the check mark to the tray, & immediately seeded up the machine.

    Now Macrium see's 'upon opening' drive 2, also Macrium labels this #5 of 6, (OS) labeled #3.

    As for windows 'PIN' destruction using Mac8 rescue. Many previous versions of Macrium did not destroy Windows 'pin' upon testing rescue disk. Now with Mac 8 rescue, trashed pin on working laptop (test rescue) & two more times, even with a newly made rescue disk.

    FYI - The machine is still in use, the only thing changed was hdd Seagate 2 tb fail, replaced (same box) with Seagate 2 tb drive. The image from failed drive used to restore to new hdd, this also included restore of #5 or SSD, which caused problems till clearing 'metadata' from Intel Rapid Storage.

    Sorry for the confusion, poor writing from this old man!
     
  20. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    The OS is labeled as partition #3 on your Seagate disk because it is the third partition on that disk, counting from left to right. The #5 in that screenshot is not your SSD. Yes, the size of that partition is similar to the capacity of your SSD, but that is just a coincidence. Partition #5 in your screenshot is another partition on your Seagate disk that was created by Dell and contains a factory image of your system if you ever want to use Dell's tools to restore your system to its factory state. And the Dell Support partition is Partition #6, also on that Seagate disk. Notice that all 6 partitions in that row are shown inside the "Disk 1" section of that Reflect view, which means all 6 partitions actually exist on your Seagate disk. I don't see a problem here. Make sure you are not confusing partition numbers with disk numbers.

    There's no problem having a small amount of unused space at the end of your disk. I can't be certain why it appeared, but I gave you some theories earlier.

    Ok, I haven't personally worked with Intel Optane storage before, so I can't really comment on this. If your system appears to be working fine, then great. But you might want to actually open the Rapid Storage application to confirm that Acceleration shows as enabled rather than just relying on that green check mark in your system tray icon.

    Reflect is seeing two disks, but partition #3 and partition #5 are both shown on Disk 1, which is your Seagate disk. Your SSD disk, which is Disk 2, is shown as completely unallocated space. Reflect's presentation is correct. Reflect is not labeling disk/drive 2 as #5. It is correctly showing that Disk 1, which is your Seagate disk, contains 6 partitions. That is not an error.

    I have not been able to reproduce that behavior using Reflect 8. I also have not seen it reported on the Macrium forums.
     
  21. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    @Rico I just tested this to make absolutely sure. On my laptop, I have a password, a Windows Hello PIN, and a Windows Hello fingerprint set up. I made a backup of all partitions on my internal SSD. I then booted my Rescue Media, which is using Reflect 8.0.5994. I restored all partitions on my SSD from that backup, and when I booted back into Windows, my password, PIN, and fingerprint all worked fine. So I'm not sure why your PIN broke after you restored your system, but Reflect V8 is working just fine for me. Did you maybe change any BIOS settings while restoring your backup? Have you tried performing another restore just to see if you can trigger this behavior again?
     
  22. Rico

    Rico Registered Member

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    Thank You!

    Relook Intel Rapid Storage, the check mark in tray only shows it healthy, I then [enabled] Optane memory. Reboot! All is well!

    Would windows event log show a relation btwn "pin" fail & 'rescue' disk?

    Using Mac8 backup, would that also include disk 2, in the image?

    Geez! Right in front of me, disk #1 shows 6partitions, with disk # 2 beneath. Reminds me of the dead song, 'you got two good eyes, but still can't see. Thanks for removing my blindfold
     
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2021
  23. Rico

    Rico Registered Member

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    upload_2021-6-29_7-33-2.png

    Help says 'click' performance:

    upload_2021-6-29_7-40-29.png

    Confused is 'windows write-cache buffer flushing' the same as 'link power management' ? I do not see windows write cache...
     
  24. jphughan

    jphughan Registered Member

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    You're very welcome. :)

    I don't think Event Viewer would have any helpful information after a restore. But again I'd be curious to see if you can reproduce that event again. Just try making a backup and immediately restoring it afterward.

    Disk 2 shows as completely unallocated space, so there would be nothing to back up. And since Optane is just a performance cache, there's no reason to back it up anyway. But in general, a disk image includes whatever disks and partitions you tell it to. If you only include one disk, then that is all Reflect will back up. It is possible to create a single image backup job that includes multiple disks, but again I don't think that's possible or necessary in this particular case.

    Write cache buffer flushing and link power management are not the same thing. The former allows you to choose between additional performance vs. additional reliability if your system suddenly powers off. Even with a UPS, you can have issues if you encounter a BSoD for example. And the latter option seems to simply save some power, with a possible impact on initial performance if the link has to be woken up again first. I haven't experimented with those settings though, so you might want to do some research on them.
     
  25. normanbg

    normanbg Registered Member

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    Good to hear from you again.

    I tried, added the missing drivers, but couldn't get Macrium to accept the change to 32-bit architecture; after 4 or 5 attempts (I ran out of buttons to press), I gave up. I guess I'm getting too old for that kind of thing. So I thought I'd look for an SSD tool that runs under 64-bits only, but couldn't find one.

    I can always beg, borrow or steal a new SSD, use Macrium to clone my current SSD onto it, Secure Delete the old SSD, clone back onto it, remove the new SSD, bring it home and repeat the process on my home machine, Secure Delete the new machine, then return it to its rightful owner.

    Edit: Even an old HDD would probably do the job (in place of 'the new SSD') as long as it was big enough.
     
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2021
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