The lack of updates for v.8 is kinda boring compared to when v.7 was released. It's almost like it works as expected and leaves me with nothing to talk about.
The updates came thick and fast just after it was released. I'm glad they have settled down. Try Drive Snapshot if you want lots of updates.
It has been updated already to version 8.0.6036. I suspect that while you can continue using v7, there will not be any more v7 builds.
officially... 1-yr. after the release of v8. But if Macrium comes across a bug that is generic and affects that version, they will update even after that 1-yr period (they did that with v6 as it related to W10)
I gave version 8 a test to see if it does finally create images of usb sticks etc (like the competition has been doing for many years), which it did image and restore the image of the test usb stick without an issue.......So that is a good sign. Does anyone else dislike the interface change? Version 7 looks so clean and professional. Version 8 looks bland like Macrium is trying to cater to less technical users with a watered down UI.
To each his own, I guess. I liked v7 quite a bit but also like v8 for its DARK THEME and log mgmt features. Imaging UFDs is a very nice addition as well as IntraDaily image scheduling (promised 2-weeks after introduction of v7 ). Overall, both UIs are more than adequate.
I'm not sure "watered down" would be my description , but even if true, if you found your product market to be lacking a certain type of user, wouldn't you try and attract that market in some way to bolster your user base? I'm sure changes in that direction would not "turn off" existing users to the point of giving up the product. They're here, primarily, due to the product's reliability and flexibility not it's UI... unless that UI becomes pure trash, which v8 is not, IMHO
I like the UI update but I use dark mode on the paid version. I assume the changes made were to make it easier to re-color for the themes. I am finding v8 to be a great improvement in every way compared to v7. Not that v7 was bad overall. I did have a couple of issues with it over the years but what product doesn't have issues in 5 years?
I've been using Drive Snapshot 1.44 (October 2016) and it is coming up to five years of use without a single issue (especially restoring).......That version is perfect. The most recent version 1.49 (August 2021) that I've been testing is actually giving me issues like "Windows didn't shut down correctly" 30 seconds countdown and it keeps running CHKDSK on C: after restoring the image to C:. Not to derail this thread any further. I'm glad Macrium allows imaging usb sticks, micro sd cards etc as some of us actually do that.
I want to swap ssd drives from a smaller drive to a bigger one (smaller one will thus be removed) but os is installed on the smaller one, can I do that with macrium reflect?
It should not be a problem when using the Recovery Media. Depending on the version you are using, you may resize the partitions of your image during the restoration process (ie, leave the smaller partitions alone and resize your OS partition (C) to use the additional space). Of course your image needs to be on another connectable disk during this process (not just another partition on the disk to be removed... unless that disk is connected in some other way during the new disk restoration).
Just to share my experience about any time I have replaced a drive it has been of a different size. I have even replaced a 1 TB spinner (had 200 GB or data) to a 500 GB SSD without any issues. There isn't much you can't do as long as the space used is smaller than the drive you are moving it to.
I was asking because that typically is a paid or premium feature in other vendors: aomei and the like I have dual boot setup, so I remove small disk with win 11 ( have an image ready) pick my win 11 boot (the one I need to swap) , it'll reload with bios screen, press for boot options select rescue disk or uefi rescue boot option, select the source and the destination (bigger ssd), it should theoretically work
but I am still wondering if the drive is not initialized (formatted and named), can you still swap ? or do you need to do initialization first. I think macrium can't do that, you have to go to cmd via some windows preinstalled iso at boot time or boot into another windows os and do the initialization process
You don’t have to initialize a disk before restoring to it with Reflect. There are some specialized cases where that might be desirable, such as restoring specific partitions originally from an MBR disk onto a new disk where you want to use GPT, or if you simply want to create some partitions upfront before restoring other partitions next to them. But for typical scenarios, you can restore an image directly onto a completely empty, uninitialized disk and it will go fine. There’s no point formatting though, since that lays down a file system, and Reflect will overwrite that existing file system if you restore into that formatted partition.
By all deadlines and traditions it should already be on the site. Now it is available for download through the direct links that were published in the thread, v8.0.6036 Free, the version number is the same as the paid versions. It works quickly and easily.
With V7, my recollection is that the Free version did not arrive until V7.1 launched. I haven’t seen any comments from Macrium about when V8 Free will be available.
Macrium free trial link Try the full for 30 days, then it turns to the free version. or go straight to the free: Macrium free link at Majorgeeks: https://m.majorgeeks.com/files/details/macrium_reflect_free_edition.html After 30 days a further 7-day extension is offered. On expiration of the trial, the functionality Macrium Reflect reverts to the Free Edition, and Premium features will no longer be available.
