Solved Macrium Reflect Ends free version

Not a trial but free version here. I just installed it on friends computer.

currently there's a 20% discount.

20% Off Macrium Reflect
Happy Holidays!
...Offer ends 3rd January 2023.

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Hi,
Sad but one only needs the bootable winpe flash media to create and restore system images
I've found just a single winpe will work on all my systems although I create one for every machine just to have one.

If you want additional features incremental/... backup well that was paid for version anyway.

A Guy said:

Well, the rescue disc should continue to work regardless I'd think?

A Guy

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That's all I've used for years lol

Is there a solid alternative to Macrium that includes the bootable rescue media capability? I know there are other backup alternatives...but now sure what features they have.

@mccnavy

I would think that the current free version will continue to work with Windows 11 (and probably even with Windows 12) even though it will not longer be updated. If not, as was mentioned the boot media will. A lot of people do their images from the boot media anyway rather than making live backup images. Once support ends, all one should have to do is go into Macrium and stop updates.

I owe Macrium a lot. At one time, recently, they had said they realized not everyone can afford to pay for an imaging service then the reversal took place as they were apparently influenced by the competition. I hold no hard feelings against Macrium and on the contrary, I thank them for all the years I had free use which saved me from disaster.

Maranna said:

I hold no hard feelings against Macrium and on the contrary, I thank them for all the years I had free use which saved me from disaster.

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Your Reflect Free will continue to get security updates until until 1st January 2024 and is highly likely to continue working long after that. It has just had an upgrade to v8.0.7279, putting Free on a separate upgrade path from Home which will get upgraded to v8.1 at its next upgrade patch.

Maranna said:

I owe Macrium a lot....

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So do I. I used Free for several years before purchasing a v7 licence 4-pack in a Black Friday sale, and later upgraded that to v8 with their upgrade discount.

But I have more machines than licences so still rely on Free for the rest.

Bree said:

Your Reflect Free will continue to get security updates until until 1st January 2024 and is highly likely to continue working long after that. It has just had an upgrade to v8.0.7279, putting Free on a separate upgrade path from Home which will get upgraded to v8.1 at its next upgrade patch.


So do I. I used Free for several years before purchasing a v7 licence 4-pack in a Black Friday sale, and later upgraded that to v8 with their upgrade discount.

But I have more machines than licences so still rely on Free for the rest.

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I had a single V7 licence that I upgraded so I could get V8 immediately, rather than waiting until November.

I had previously bought the 4 v7 @ 50% on Black Friday, and waited to next Black Friday and got 4 V8 @ 50%.

This way I kept the 4 v7 licences as well for same priced as trading them in.

I will do same for V9 assuming the same BF deal.

I put the v7 licences on siblings pcs (which I am main admin).

I also had a single V7 licence that I upgraded so I could get V8 immediately, rather than waiting until November.

I am looking forward to 8.1 - only problem is backup may be so fast now, I will not have time to make a cup of Rosie Lee LOL.

I managed to get hold of the installer for 8.1 (thanks to a regular here - I would not presume to pass on link without his permission (or even say who), but I installed it without CBT (I never use that) on my i7 laptop and my normal 3 minute backup (main drive 45GB nvme to secondary internal nvm) took 2 minutes i.e. 50% faster.

I also tested on my D drive (53 GB) which is a partition on same primary drive as OS to secondary drive and it took 1 min 15 seconds instead of 2 mins 35 seconds i.e. twice as fast.

My pc had no boot issues either.

I have reverted to V8.0 until it is fixed officially but listen carefully Reflect Team:-

We want 8.1!
When do we want it?
We want it now!

It is so fast now doing a full backup, that it is barely worth doing differentials or incrementals!

For any Reflect Free Users who have questioned moving to paid version - this is a strong differentiator.

edit: I imaged drive 0 using FFU (had to delete Dcdrive but it is backed up).

It took 1 min 15 seconds - same as new version of Reflect. I have never found any tool to be faster than FFU, so I guess making Reflect faster still is pretty unlikely.

I was trying different imaging programs and wondered if I should use EaseUs to image my system. That's all I use it for with no schedule.
There are so few free imaging programs left I had to wonder if I was safe or when the other shoe will fall here too + cost.
How many would utilize this program for all variables?

Maranna said:

I was trying different imaging programs and wondered if I should use EaseUs to image my system. That's all I use it for with no schedule.
There are so few free imaging programs left I had to wonder if I was safe or when the other shoe will fall here too + cost.
How many would utilize this program for all variables?

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Aomei Backupper is the second most popular backup program after Macrium Reflect. And there's a free version. You might try that one.

I will give it a try and thank you for the recommendation.

I do not understand post #63. Could someone please explain it. I boot off the rescue media and tap F8 till Macrium appears then wok in the Macrium environment. Are you saying something different?

Aomei is faulty or I am.
I don't know if you have a virtual machine or if you have a spare hard drive to experiment with but I did try Aomei two different times and unless I'm challenged there is something wrong with that program. It seems like either there's a language problem like recover is mistaken for back up or something but it is really messed up.
I wish someone could you give it a try and let me know if it's easy to use or if it is as vague as I found it to be.
The backup was easy, It's the restore that got screwy. My goal was to image my system and recover it with the rescue media. Even that asked me to install ADK which I never encountered.

Maranna said:

Aomei is faulty or I am.
I don't know if you have a virtual machine or if you have a spare hard drive to experiment with but I did try Aomei two different times and unless I'm challenged there is something wrong with that program. It seems like either there's a language problem like recover is mistaken for back up or something but it is really messed up.
I wish someone could you give it a try and let me know if it's easy to use or if it is as vague as I found it to be.
The backup was easy, It's the restore that got screwy. My goal was to image my system and recover it with the rescue media. Even that asked me to install ADK which I never encountered.

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Aomei works here except for the annoying hdpi problem when booting from the rescue media on hdpi aware monitors. This causes its screen size to be smaller then it should be, but other than that it restores the image(s) fine here.

Thanks for letting me know it's me. It seems straight forward too.
Would you recommended or use this as your program?

Maranna said:

Thanks for letting me know it's me. It seems straight forward too.
Would you recommended or use this as your program?

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Yes, and it also just happens to be the 2nd most popular backup program used by this community.

Thank you for letting me know. I just had some success with Paragon but it was tough for me.