Hi Guys Critical issue (for me anyway) just noticed in workstation V6 (trial but hope to be paid up later) but probably user error, I just want to understand what has gone wrong. I did a volume rebuild (chasing some raid 6 array performance issues) so had to restore our business files from a backup created minutes prior to the volume deletion and recreation. I have just noticed (a week on) that all of the empty subfolders within the folder structure we have are missing. This is a major issue as each client (we have thousands) has a specific folder structure, and generally there are at least 3 folders that are empty until the client has that kind of work carried out. Did I select an option either on back up or restore, that causes empty folders to be ignored? if so, what is the option.. ? I have managed to restore 99% of the folder structure from an older backup using beyond compare... but i'd rather not have to do that! Thanks Steve
Typically the free addition of Macrium does not include incremental or differential imaging/restoring. Since rapid delta restore/cloning is something similar, where you only restore the changes since your current state, so I am 100% sure that it will not be included in the free version of Macrium 6. Saying that it depends entirely on the management of Macrium what they wish to include in their free version. They may have to add some goodies to free edition of v6 to better compete with their competitors such as Paragon, because since last year Paragon Backup and Recovery 14 Free edition not only does Differential and Incremental images, it also allows you to backup system images to virtual VHD and VMDK containers, thus allowing the user to directly boot from the image instead of restoring it. It throws in a basic partition manager as well. It is also as reliable as Macrium. So right now if someone asks me for the best "free backup utility" I will find it difficult to recommend Macrium over Paragon BR 14 free. Macrium will have to add some goodies to the free edition of v6 to make it competitive in the market. This might be the reason they have not released it yet, as they may be contemplating adding some more features to it. Right now the only thing we have is the feature comparison table linked earlier and it shows that Macrium free v6 is exactly the same as Macrium free v5.
Hi Raza Sorry File and Folder backup... I have just ran a full backup again after restoring all removed folders and its only backing up folders with content.. I cannot see any option that would stop this.. Steve
^ For file and folder backups you have filter masks avaialbe that you can set to exclude certain files or folders. By default Macrium does not exclude any folders but it does exclude these *.temp; *.tmp; *.bak; *.~* files. Go to the Logs section in Macrium and check the details of the last file and folder backup, it will state there if a filter was in operation.
there are no filters in operation.. from the log. Folder: E:\Business\Fullworks FS\ Include File Filter: *.* Exclude File Filter: Include Sub Folders: Y Exclude Folder Filter: Exclude Hidden Files: N Exclude System Files: Y to exclude empty folders i would surely have to specify a filter for it? I can post the full log summary if you need.. Steve
From looking at what you have provided, I am not sure why Macrium did not backup empty folders. It should have done that. I did notice that you have system files excluded from the backup, was there a reason for this? I typically do not do a lot of file and folder backups, so I am going to test a backup of a folder with empty folders inside and see if my Macrium backs up empty folders or not.
OK, I just did a backup of a folder from partition and then restored that folder to another partition. The folder had regular subfolders and files inside, as well as empty subfolders. Macrium restored everything just as it was, all the empty subfolders included. During restore it did ask me if I wanted to restore everything back or partial files and folders, so check your restore logs as well to see if you restored everything.
I believe the system files excluded was by default - its just the file / folder backup for our business. so I dont want thumbs.db etc and any temp files left over.. I have recreated the empty folders.. and then did a full backup.. the backup only backed up folders with files.. not empty ones.. looking at the log.. my settings are as follows - can you see if they match yours? Backup Summary Backup Definition File: C:\Users\Steve\Documents\Reflect\FullworksFS - File Backup.xml Auto Verify: Y Compression: Medium Password: N NTFS Permissions: Y Folder Reparse Points: Follow user reparse points, do not follow system reparse points Backup set matching: Similar - Match on backups with at least one matching folder Power Saving: N Comment: Fullworks FS File backup 1 full on saturday 1am followed by 6 incrementals - Keep 5 full backup chains Retention Rules Rules will be applied to all matching backup sets in the destination folder Full: Retain 6 full backups Linked incremental and differential backups will also be deleted Backup Sets: 3 sets found Nothing to delete Destination: Backup Type: Full File Name: \\FREENAS\nas\Files Backup\Business\FullworksFS\CB58DC15189BBB09-00-00.mrbak Folder: E:\Business\Fullworks FS\ Include File Filter: *.* Exclude File Filter: Include Sub Folders: Y Exclude Folder Filter: Exclude Hidden Files: N Exclude System Files: Y Email On Success: Y Recipients: Email On Failure: Y Recipients:
The only difference in the backup logs between yours and mine is the system files. I have left it to their default value of "N". Other than that everything is identical. Can you please post your restore log as well. There are filters in the restore process too.
I can... but as i mentioned.. to eliminate the restore being the issue, i recreated all the empty subfolders, then forced a full backup. That backup only backed up folders containing files.. not empty ones. I have checked the backup file and mounted it.. and it only has the populated folders in. Below is the screen shot of the folder and the mounted backup image of the same 'backed up' folder (original is left - backed up is right) So something must be amiss.. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xs0NXxJWSqJGwCeKCOwxh11Y6G9S2h1o6DdC1FTu4foc=w1541-h679-no
Steve, Is your backup comprised of all empty folders and sub folders? If so then please have a look at this link from Macrium support from 2011. Is that what is happening with you?
Nope The 2 folders shown in the image have files in.. but the 3 that are missing are empty. The folder being backed up contains 5,500 folders and 21,750 files.. and only the empty folders are not being backed up. By the way... thanks for looking at this.. Edit:- Just looked at the mounted backup file and there are 3100 folders... showing just how many have been excluded.
I am not sure why Macrium is not backing your empty folders, because it is backing and restoring them for me. Are you using the latest version of Macrium? Perhaps a complete uninstall and a fresh reinstall is needed. You may have inadvertently changed some setting. I am sorry I can not help you further. As I mentioned before, I mostly do partition images and rarely use the file and folder backup function of Macrium. Perhaps someone else may have something to add.
Thanks Anyway Raza - I have emailed macrium today also, but as a trial user, I doubt they will help, and i'm unwilling to pay double the other solutions for a backup solution that doesnt fit my needs. Regarding the settings, I have really not dug much into them, as a business I need something that works, So it has been set up and left to run. At some point it was backing up but I cannot see what it is that has changed.. i'll keep looking and if someone has anything else to offer.. please shout up! Steve
Steve, I was glad to help. I also just mounted the last folder backup I made in January this year of "My Documents" folder and the back does contain empty folders created by "Nero Vision", so I am not sure why your empty folders are not being backed up. Mind you this last backup was created with v5 of Macrium. However, since I performed a test with v6 today, and it did backup all empty folders, so I am assuming that whatever is happening is something specific to your system. Hopefully you will get a positive response from Macrium support.
Hmm.. its happening right the way through all of the file and folder backups that I have. I thought it may have been because the business was a duplicate of an original backup definition.. but even new ones have been doing the same. I'll test out a fresh definition and see how that goes. Steve
OK.. just edited the definition file for the backup to exclude system files - N and the empty folders have backed up.. so either there is a bug there.. or something was corrupt and forcing a change and save on the definition has bought it back.. beyond compare show the folder and the image to be identical folder wise. Steve EDIT - If i Run an incremental using the same definition (but obviously incremental to the backup missing the folders - it doesn't add the folders that are missing..
Glad you got it figure out. I am surprised that checking or unchecking "system files" option has an impact on empty folders. Did you report it to Macrium. I am sure they will respond if you write "a possible bug" in the subject line. I will try to test it on my system and see if I get similar results. The increment backup is an increment to the previous image leading all the way to the full backup. If the previous image or the full backup image does not contain the empty folders, the increment to that will not contain them either.
Sorry Raza I wasnt notified of a reply.... Yeah I was surprised, however with testing it makes no difference, so there must have been some corruption or something triggered by duplicating the backup definition and then changes made.. I havent been able to reproduce it tho.. I did discuss it with macrium, but as i had already resolved it there wasnt much to investigate. Thank for the info on the incremental.. it makes sense kind of, but I would have assumed if the folders were missing, it would have added them.. it all ok now for the moment and i'm now a fully paid up macrium workstation user. Steve
Question for you guys: With Macrium Free - as it doesn't allow for incremental or differential backups, or even disk space management, what happens with scheduled backups? Does it overwrite the backup or does it create new ones each time? I have the paid version so I'm unable to play with this. Thanks!
New member, sorry if this is in wrong spot! I am considering Macrium Reflect. The free V5 would meet all my needs nicely, except for one thing: I am upgrading to a new 500GB Samsung 850 Pro SSD (my first SSD) and I am concerned about the chart that shows that Macrium's "SSD Trim support" is not included in the free V5. The Samsung SSD itself uses their form of Trim, of course, so what does Macrium's "SSD Trim support" add? Is this something I need to worry about in terms of keeping my shiny new SSD in top shape? I only plan to do full disk image's when major software changes are made. (This is just a home use setup. I keep daily copies of all my data files on at least three separate HDD's using FreeFileSync - plus a 1 TB HDD w/ last disk image AND data files updated every quarter kept in a safety deposit box.)
Macrium's TRIM support supplies nothing of great significance that can't be done via your Samsung tool or (for Win7) the SSDtool or (with Win8 ) standard Windows optimization of your SSD. Whenever I restore a Macrium image I run one of the above processes to get the SSD's internal Garbage Collection mechanism doing its thing... that's all you really need to do.
