Macrium Reflect

Thanks for your post Peter. It helps me feel more comfortable to continue using Version 6 at least for a while.

 

Reluctantly, yes, it all seems rather ominous to me too and has for a while now. Even now, I find it quite difficult to swallow some of the "official" reasons given for delays in fulfilling certain promises already made to various users while, at the same time, responding directly, officially and in a uniquely positive way to just one particular source of suggestions. Nick Sills' most recent answer to questions about the v7 free version which now attributes its delay to further v7.1 testing, for example, doesn't really add up, not to me at least. That was promised long before v7.1 was even thought about. I agree with Froggie. Some other influence has entered the overall Macrium management and development picture ... and it seems anything but benign from this user's perspective.

 

a message from macrium earlier today: no progress then. 'soon' remains undefined.

if it's minor, and fixed, why is it taking so long to approve the fix?

 

@kronckew -- Don't think we can fairly criticize v7.1 testing delays too much given the consequences of inadequate testing prior to the v7.0 release. What doesn't add up for me, however, is blaming that extra v7.1 testing for the delay in releasing their promised FREE edition for v 7.0. That almost sounds like paid users were made to be "guinea pigs" for the free release ... sorta like they were following a perverse version of some of Microsoft's "agile" W10 release branch patterns ...

 

I must say that I am getting rather concerned. I bought MR6 because of the glowing reports of users regarding the programs reliability and the company behind the program. Now there is complaint after complaint on this forum. So did I make a mistake getting into bed with MR or not. Seems like things have changed from A1 Company and program to crap on a stick.

 

If 6 is working fine why worry?

 

@bgoodman4 -- You're fine staying with MR6. It was and remains an excellent backup and recovery product. Apart from MR7's viBoot integration, it provides a "changed block tracker" (CBT) that improves performance if, and only if, your backup strategy involves running multiple incremental or differential backups during a single Windows session. The forthcoming MR7.1 release promises to add backup file security, but that remains to be seen and tested.

 

OK, thanks for the comments

 

My experience with v7 has been near stellar. Most of the problems exhibited themselves in the first several weeks and were addressed. I saw the issues folks were having and didn't upgrade for a few weeks, after several "fixit builds" were offered. Everything has been rock solid for me since upgrading to v7. Well, with one exception... I did have two backups run which were scheduled at the same time when only one should have run. I reported that and Macrium made a change they hoped would address the issue. Perhaps the fix was successful because I haven't seen the issue occur again.

Anyway, I guess my point is that in my experience even v7 has been just fine. I feel the company itself has taken an awkward turn, as @Arvy and others in this thread have indicated - but as far as Reflect v7 I feel it's very solid. In fact, I feel comfortable enough with it now I just had Mom purchase an upgrade from v6 to v7. I wanted to wait for her to upgrade until I felt v7's growing pains were ironed out. And I hope Macrium has learned from its botched release of v7 going forward. It's slow release of v7.1 seems to indicate that may be the case...

 

I've also had no problems with v.7. I installed it because I was eligible to free upgrade (I purchased v.5 to v.6 upgrade in November and got free v.7 included). Have I not purchase that upgrade, I would still be happy user of v.5.

 

Yes I understand, I had similar dilemma when upgrading from v.5 to v.6 (not much new features that would interest me). After finding out that I could later upgrade to v.7 and Black Friday deal, I decided to pay for upgrade.

 

I think the protection of the backup files from ransomware etc is a valuable addition. It always bothered me that I had a possibility of losing up to a weeks worth of work (I image with a 2nd drive weekly and keep it off-line the rest of the time). I will continue to do this because things like theft are always a possibility but knowing my backups are safe otherwise is a good feeling,,,,,,assuming it works as advertised. Has anyone done any testing of this feature?

 

The backup file protection (Macrium Image Guardian) is part of version 7.1, which hasn't been released yet AFAIK.

 

v7 seems as stable as v6 now. As you say v7 offers very little extra compared to v6. I can't use the vi-boot because Windows Home doesn't have Hyper-V, and I have CBT turned off because I only make 1 incremental image per windows session.

 

As an aside, and at the risk of running a bit off-topic, I just read that the next version of VMware Workstation will allow Hyper-V VMs to run within a Workstation VM. So for those of us who can't use vi-boot because you can't use both that and VMware Workstation without having to disable one or the other each time this may provide a viable option to utilize Macrium Reflect's vi-boot option. I normally only upgrade VMware Workstation every other year, but this is an addition that might require me to dump some money their way a year early.

 

Hello: first, I've never used Macrium before. Now then, I was advised to create backups and I understand the need for them. The problem is a ridiculously tiny C drive of only 117 gb, of which 32 gb is used, mostly for Windows. How much bulk does Macrium add initially and then thru periodic increments relative to what one has on disk already? I'm better off sticking to offline data storage and repair-installing Windows, or no? Is the free version reliable and adequate?

Thanks in advance, there is way too much info on this thread to sift thru for some very basic information.

 

plat1098,

Are you using 117 GB in the correct sense of the OS partition size? Or the incorrect sense of the HD size?

 

plat1098 - My suggestion would be to install Macrium Reflect on your C: drive; and buy a 500 GB or less hard drive and an external enclosure (for example, Plugable USB 3.0 Hard Drive Dock, amazon $ 22.95) for your images. Feasible, reasonably inexpensive, and optimally secure if you turn your enclosure off when you're not using it.

There is a free version (currently 6) of Macrium Reflect that is as reliable as the paid version (extremely reliable) but doesn't support incremental images, but does support differential images (will work fine for you). Version 7.1 is expected maybe within days or weeks.

(You state backups; you should be doing disk images to save everything on your disk rather than just your data.)

 

Thank you for the detailed reply, I was relieved to see your cost for the Pluggable USB versus what I saw on the website. Yes, if I'm trying Macrium, it'll be the free, at least to start. I have a Western Digital 1 tb hard drive which I removed and intend to use the empty slot for additional cable management. You think the HDD should be connected? Rather would be without it, haven't needed one in several years.

 

plat1098,

Thanks for the screenshots. You have a UEFI system with 4 partitions on your drive. The MSR partition doesn't show in Disk Management. I suggest you create Entire Drive images to a USB external HD or to your 1 TB HD mounted internally. If your OS drive fails then restoring an Entire Drive image to a new drive will have you up and running in a short time

 

plat1098,

Brian and I are saying the same thing, other than I prefer an external HD for your situation whereas Brian doesn't express a preference.

 

Alrightee, not even a beginner but it looks like one can create and maintain an image with Macrium, store offline and if SSD fails, the unused hard drive can be hooked up again to receive the stored image. Have the product key if needed. Hopefully, that's a valid plan.

@Brian K, @AlphaOne: many thanks.

 

Yup, that's correct (except no product key needed). You're welcome.