Macrium Reflect 8.1

[Scott]

I have the free version of Macrium Reflect 8.0. I tried to upgrade to
8.1.7336 but they want me to enter into a 30 day trial. I usually
don't mind paying for software but I want to move away from Macrium.
Meantime, is there an option to use the latest version free?

What would people recommend anyway? I am looking for local storage on
an external drive for home use. All the usual suspects seem far too
complicated.

[alan_m]

Did you get the following message when staring up the software?
I suspec that the upgrade only adds to the features that are disabled in
the free version anyway.

[quote]
Macrium Reflect Free - Service Announcement

This is to notify that Macrium Reflect Free Edition is being retired.
Security patches will be provided until 1st January 2024, but there are
no planned feature changes or non security related updates following
this update.

Note: This notice only applies to Macrium Reflect Free.
[/quote]


Avoid Acronis. There seems to be a lot of recommendations for this
backup software on the web and at one time I found it to be good. Then
they issued an update which started including things like background
virus/ransomware checking etc. I then started getting massive slowdowns
on my Win10 machine which all disappeared when I managed to get fully
rid of Acronis on my machine. Check Google for many others reporting
similar problems when Acronis morphed from a more simple backup to a
pretend all singing, all dancing facility on your computer.




--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

[Scott]

On Thu, 2 Feb 2023 10:22:19 +0000, alan_m <ju...@admac.myzen.co.uk>
wrote:

>On 02/02/2023 09:46, Scott wrote:
>> I have the free version of Macrium Reflect 8.0. I tried to upgrade to
>> 8.1.7336 but they want me to enter into a 30 day trial. I usually
>> don't mind paying for software but I want to move away from Macrium.
>> Meantime, is there an option to use the latest version free?
>>
>> What would people recommend anyway? I am looking for local storage on
>> an external drive for home use. All the usual suspects seem far too
>> complicated.
>
>Did you get the following message when staring up the software?
>I suspec that the upgrade only adds to the features that are disabled in
>the free version anyway.

I have not seen this message.

>
>[quote]
>Macrium Reflect Free - Service Announcement
>
>This is to notify that Macrium Reflect Free Edition is being retired.
>Security patches will be provided until 1st January 2024, but there are
>no planned feature changes or non security related updates following
>this update.
>
>Note: This notice only applies to Macrium Reflect Free.
>[/quote]
>

Thanks - this effectivly gives me the rest of the year for market
research.

>
>Avoid Acronis. There seems to be a lot of recommendations for this
>backup software on the web and at one time I found it to be good. Then
>they issued an update which started including things like background
>virus/ransomware checking etc. I then started getting massive slowdowns
>on my Win10 machine which all disappeared when I managed to get fully
>rid of Acronis on my machine. Check Google for many others reporting
>similar problems when Acronis morphed from a more simple backup to a
>pretend all singing, all dancing facility on your computer.

Thanks. I used to use True Image, which I liked. Then they changed
it to Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office (though they seem still to be
using the name 'True Image' on their website), which made is IMO
hugely bloated and complex.

Before that I used Norton Ghost, which I believe was discontinued.

There must be a market for a basic, standalone backup program for
those who only need a recovery plan if the hard drive / SSD fails.

[mechanic]

On Thu, 02 Feb 2023 10:35:41 +0000, Scott wrote:

> There must be a market for a basic, standalone backup program for
> those who only need a recovery plan if the hard drive / SSD fails.

There are free options for partition/system level backups, I use
AOMEI backupper. No market for free things, markets imply costs and
prices.

[Scott]

On Thu, 2 Feb 2023 11:14:58 +0000, mechanic <mech...@example.net>
wrote:

I don't mind paying. I just want something that is easy to use and
focuses on the task instead of providing features I have already or do
not want.

[Mark]

Scott wrote:

> I have the free version of Macrium Reflect 8.0. I tried to upgrade to
> 8.1.7336

Why upgrade? Im still using 7xx without a problem
and it still works ok


--

[Paul]

Will it allow you to keep using 8.0 ?

If so, just use it.

Anything past Macrium 6.3.1865 or so, will back up W10/W11 NTFS.
You could use a 7.x release or an 8.0.

The free version does full backups.

if you want Incremental, I think that is still a paid feature.

On Acronis, the best version was several releases ago.
It's gone bloatware since.

*******

If you need a list of programs, this gives you some idea
what products are available. Raymond Chen does not do these reviews,
the person who writes this particular article, updates it after
a number of years. It's in need of an update right now.

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/10-commercial-disk-imaging-software-features-and-backuprestore-speed-comparison/

Not all the offerings in that list are "full-on commercial".
DriveImage XML used to be the "Baseline", as if your backup
program is slower than that, you should "get out of the business" :-)

One reason there are "free full-backup programs" is because
the Windows 7 Backup offered in the Windows Control Panels
also offers full-backup (but not incremental). The freebie
programs then, are not "giving anything away" if all they
do is full-backup. Because the Microsoft built-in can do that.

To restore the Microsoft built-in image, you use the installer
DVD for Windows, which has a restore item in the Troubleshooting
section. The Microsoft backup program, stores partitions
in either .vhd or .vhdx format.

Windows 7 Has Windows 7 backup (Control Panels)
Windows 10 Has Windows 7 backup (Control Panels) .vhdx (>2.2TB size)
Windows 11 Has Windows 7 backup (Control Panels) .vhdx (>2.2TB size)

Use Start : Run : control to cause the Control Panels to appear.

If you absolutely ran out of any other option, only then
would I use the Microsoft one. Using folders to store backups
as a bunch of loose files, is so 1990's .

Paul

[Scott]

On Thu, 2 Feb 2023 11:45:01 -0500, Paul <nos...@needed.invalid> wrote:

>On 2/2/2023 6:55 AM, Scott wrote:
>> On Thu, 2 Feb 2023 11:14:58 +0000, mechanic <mech...@example.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, 02 Feb 2023 10:35:41 +0000, Scott wrote:
>>>
>>>> There must be a market for a basic, standalone backup program for
>>>> those who only need a recovery plan if the hard drive / SSD fails.
>>>
>>> There are free options for partition/system level backups, I use
>>> AOMEI backupper. No market for free things, markets imply costs and
>>> prices.
>>
>> I don't mind paying. I just want something that is easy to use and
>> focuses on the task instead of providing features I have already or do
>> not want.
>
>Will it allow you to keep using 8.0 ?
>

I have not seen the service announcement but alan_posted this:

This is to notify that Macrium Reflect Free Edition is being retired.
Security patches will be provided until 1st January 2024, but there
are no planned feature changes or non security related updates
following this update.

It looks to me that continuing to use it would not be a great idea.

[Scott]

I am nervous about using out of date software for what is my disaster
plan.

[Andy Burns]

Scott wrote:

> There must be a market for a basic, standalone backup program for
> those who only need a recovery plan if the hard drive / SSD fails.

Have used this on several servers, until the organization went into full
"Microsoft, Microsoft. Rah, rah, rah!" mode and switched to DPM.

<http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/intro.htm>

[Scott]

On Fri, 3 Feb 2023 12:52:18 +0000, Andy Burns <use...@andyburns.uk>
wrote:

Thanks. It's not clear whether it works with Windows 10. Is it
mainly for servers though?

[noth...@aolbin.com]

That looks very interesting, and EUR39 is not a bad price for a
workstation licence if it's simple, reliable and does what it's supposed
to do. A quick Google revealed a bit of discussion, but no consistent
raving about how wonderful it is compared to the competition - and it's
been around for a long time in various guises. Have you had to restore
anything from its backup?

[Andy Burns]

Scott wrote:

> Andy Burns wrote:
>
>> <http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/intro.htm>
>
> Thanks. It's not clear whether it works with Windows 10. Is it
> mainly for servers though?

Not specifically for servers.

It says "Windows 2000/XP/Vista/2003/7/2008/2008
R2/8/8.1/10/11/2012/2012R2/2016/2019/2022/PE/x64" think we started with
NT4.0 looks like that's no longer supported ...

[Andy Burns]

noth...@aolbin.com wrote:

> Andy Burns wrote:
>
>> <http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/intro.htm>
>
> That looks very interesting, and EUR39 is not a bad price for a
> workstation licence if it's simple, reliable and does what it's supposed
> to do. A quick Google revealed a bit of discussion, but no consistent
> raving about how wonderful it is compared to the competition - and it's
> been around for a long time in various guises. Have you had to restore
> anything from its backup?

Yes, used it to restore and for cloning machines, it is straightforard,
no bells & whistles which I'd say is good for backup software, there's
an eval version ...