Solved Macrium Reflect Ends free version

Zardoc said:

I sure hope that Macrium doesn’t follow in the footsteps of Acronis with an annual membership. I have no objections of making a paid version from the free one but perpetual not annual.

Acronis can be used as a free version if you have a WD, Micron or Sabrent. It would be nice is Macrium gets the same deal going.
I appreciate both.

What I appreciate more about Macrium is the network and shutdown setting for backup. Acronis has it too but I never used it.

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Ugghh just tried free 5yr trial version of Acronis as I have WD nvme drives. Gave errors about drivers, and when I did a partition backup it completely ignores the MSR partition.

When selecting partitions to delete, the gui is awful.

It was slow as well.

5 4 3 2 1 - Macrium Reflect restore invoked.

Adios Acronis.

Zardoc said:

perpetual not annual

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No, not exactly perpetual when it comes to updates, but per version, although your license for that version is good forever. It includes all updates to the version that you bought. When that version no longer is supported you can still use that version. It just won't get updated. Typically if you buy a version of Reflect within (about) 3 months of the release of a new version, they will give you the new version without additional cost.

What is worse (in both) is you cannot do do a disk backup and just restore say 1 or two partitions.

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Are you sure ? I havent got time or space to test now, but unless my memory is failing aomei can do that.

SIW2 said:

Are you sure ? I havent got time or space to test now, but unless my memory is failing aomei can do that.

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Apart from Macrium Reflect, all the others do a disk backup or a partition backup and they are separate.

Relect does not differentiate - you just backup selected partitions, and restore selected (one, some or all) as you wish.

The others all have a similar weakness - you might backup 4 partitions in a partition backup but you can only restore one partition at a time.

The full disk backup backs up all partitions including any data partition. When you restore it restores all of them. This is a pain when you have data partitions as well. I like to backup data by different methods.

I have looked at many tools and none of them have the flexibility of Reflect. They are all designed to be user friendly for beginners and as a result they all have limitations.

Most ignore the MSR partition as well. Worse on a restore, some wipe it!

I accept MSR partition is rather pointless but it is part of the standard MS installation.

No backup tool should restore partitions wiping partitions, leaving partitions in a different order than on original.

All the other tools are basically ok if only the 4 standard partitions but they do not "properly" handle more than 4 partitions if you do not want to image backup all partitions.

On any tool, try backing up say 4 selected partitions but try and restore only 2 of them in one go.

The only tool that lets you do that is Macrium Reflect.

Reflect allows you to reorder partitions in one go by drag and drop. None of the others can (you have to restore one at a time).

The others are too inflexible.

See my post here for more details.

you cannot do do a disk backup and just restore say 1 or two partitions.

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I can.

I think that when we get to talk about something else than Macrium, well...

This is a 2017 version of Acronis. With most Acronis software, you can do pretty much anything as long as it's not server related.

I now use Macrium so I won't get into this discussion again. I was only saying that I hope that Macrium offers a purchasing option. Usually, a perpetual license means that you own that version It’s a one-time payment that comes with a warranty and service.

BTW, Acronis had the same offer when you bought a new version and you had bought last version up to 3 months before release, upgrade was also free.

But I really don't care what Acronis is doing now, and I don't see why we need to knock down the product. The subject is, will Macrium offer a paid version similar to it's free ? That's what I hope.

SIW2 said:

I can.

View attachment 57810

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Yeah but you can only restore one at a time.

What you cannot do is backup 4 out of 5 partitions (5th data partition being backed by a different method), and then restore all 4 (or 3 or 2) partitions in one go. This is ny usage need.

Believe me, the above is impossible!

cereberus said:

That is not the case. Most of the paid users here started with free version and realised how good it was and many bought it to support the company not just for extra features.

Many here have unashamedly recommended it to users not familiar with imaging to get them "in the loop".

However, I will struggle to recommend it to new persons as a paid version when I know there are free versions that would meet most users needs e.g. AOMEI, Easeus etc.

We do not yet know the primary reason for this but it will be about revenue of course.

Nobody can blame then for making a commercial decision if they think it is good for owners/shareholders - they are not a charity.

However, as I asked earlier, are they going to go one step further i.e. follow Acronis and move to annual lease?

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Who knows -- the market place is very different now to what it was a few years ago.

The only thing one can glean from Business statistics is that the sheer abundance of too many sources of supply e.g the zillions of "subscription live stream TV" just dilutes consumer choice and sites like TPB / rarbg / 1330x which were losing numbers in droves are getting a marked uptake in people accessing their platforms for "Alternative delivery" mechanisms.

Competition is fine -- but when it means people have to pay MORE for LESS -- then consumers react in their own way -- and forget all about legal issues like copyright etc.


Interesting piece in the "Tory Graph" -- The Daily Telegraph -- a UK national Newspaper totally supporting Brexit and the UK's governing "Tory Party" -- the Conservatives -- suggesting that the Premier League Football (Round ball where people kick the ball) could and should do its own streaming service which could be offered to consumers at around 10 GBP / 11 EUR / USD a month -- still rake in 2.9 BILLION in profits and clean out SKY / BT Sports who seem to be charging ever more outrageous prices . They would also end the rediculous geo-blocking system and offer ALL Premier League matches to view at viewers choice.

I'm probably one of the least likely people on the planet to support "The Daily Telegraph" or its Brexit principles but the argument with the Premier League made 100% sense to me !! so I do read all sorts of things even if I inherently disagree with their business models / philosophy.

That at a stroke would kill 99.99% of pirate IPTC services. IMHO that's the way to do it.

Getting rid of cheap / free software for nasty expensive subscription models has had its day. Good profits can be earned with sensible prices where customers aren't being gouged.

We all know what things are worth these days and most people take appropriate actions --- Why ANYBODY in the UK / USA / AUS etc puts up with things like Broadband and other services having in their contracts an annual increase of xxx% + CPI is just bonkers --no way on this (or any other planet) can these companies justify an increase of 17% or so in most cases --mid contract -- when the infrastructure / investment has already been done !!!

Gouge the customer will come back and haunt them -- meanwhile TPB etc who were destined for oblivion will just rejuvenate themselves with an expanding consumer base.

Cheers
jimbo

For R&D you need a steady source of income. I suspect Macrium may be moving in the direction of offering an optional cloud based storage for backup. This will require equipment and hours of development to initiate and maintain. Just because a product is free does not mean it is good. Macrium Reflect is good, in fact, very good. I have purchased the Workstation version (7&8) since I gave up on Acronis True Image with its continuous problem of unreliable restores over multiple versions. Unlike Macrium Reflect, Acronis could never fix boot records errors which is fundamental for image restoration.

jimbo45 said:

Interesting piece in the "Tory Graph" -- The Daily Telegraph -- a UK national Newspaper totally supporting Brexit and the UK's governing "Tory Party" -- the Conservatives -- suggesting that the Premier League Football (Round ball where people kick the ball) could and should do its own streaming service which could be offered to consumers at around 10 GBP / 11 EUR / USD a month -- still rake in 2.9 BILLION in profits and clean out SKY / BT Sports who seem to be charging ever more outrageous prices . They would also end the rediculous geo-blocking system and offer ALL Premier League matches to view at viewers choice.

I'm probably one of the least likely people on the planet to support "The Daily Telegraph" or its Brexit principles but the argument with the Premier League made 100% sense to me !! so I do read all sorts of things even if I inherently disagree with their business models / philosophy.

That at a stroke would kill 99.99% of pirate IPTC services. IMHO that's the way to do it.

Cheers
jimbo

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(Wildly OT, apols to OP)
Isn't that already partially there ... where some clubs have their own streaming services, like Arsenal/Chelsea/Liverpool/MU/etc TV ?

Hi,
Well I made a winpe flash media recently and it worked so only trick is don't update the app
You can still use the winpe recovery media to create or restore system images
Installing/ using the app only give a few more features but even an old reflect version can still mount a system image to copy files from if ever needed.

JerryF said:

For R&D you need a steady source of income. I suspect Macrium may be moving in the direction of offering an optional cloud based storage for backup. This will require equipment and hours of development to initiate and maintain. Just because a product is free does not mean it is good. Macrium Reflect is good, in fact, very good. I have purchased the Workstation version (7&8) since I gave up on Acronis True Image with its continuous problem of unreliable restores over multiple versions. Unlike Macrium Reflect, Acronis could never fix boot records errors which is fundamental for image restoration.

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Hi there

By concentrating on Enterprise / SME's businesses can easily afford to provide a consumer free version -- look at Red Hat (part of IBM) where you can get its incredibly decent Server system FREE -- although of course you don't get any help service - that's chargeable.

They also supply Fedora as open source which is usually "leading edge" stuff so has frequent updates -- so there's no reason to "pull" free versions -- especially as the product is mature at the consumer level and doesn't really need much in the way of development.

Subscription for Enterprise versions and Cloud versions is perfectly acceptable especially if a few GB of cloud storage is also thrown in.

In any case the stand alone version of Gparted (Free, and continues to be free) can copy / clone / resize partitions of almost any type (certainly those used by 99% of people on these Forums).

The Interface is almost identical to any of the commonly used windows partition managers so any Windows user could use it easily enough-- simply download the ISO and create a bootable usb image via Rufus or whatever.

You don't have differential / incremental backups or the ability to "mount and browse images" - but you can always copy a partition to another device and then use file explorer to browse / copy data etc.

As for fixing boot records (Windows). It can be done easily by using winpe or even any Windows install ISO.

Boot into command mode -- on Winpe that's direct, on a Windows install ISO choose repair system -> and in the next set of options choose command prompt.

Then assign a letter to the EFI boot partition say S, assume the ISO command prompt is d:\sources and your boot disk is W then simply type bcdboot w:\windows /s S: /f UEFI. This works whether real disks or .vhdx virtual disk files. If using vhdx virtual disk files then of course from the command prompt get these mounted and attached (diskpart, select vdisk file=xxxx, attach vdisk, list vol. select vol xxx, assign letter=yyy).

Job done -- in Windows - no need for Macrium fix boot (although Macrium does work). So I'm saying you can still achieve the same thing without paying for software if free stuff fulfills your needs.

I suspect though for the vast majority simple backup and restore is all that's required -- Gparted can do that if you don't want to pay for backup software at the EOL of Macrium 8.

Gparted link :



Cheers
jimbo

I doubt many people will be disposed to boot up a linux distro to manually perform some kind of clone. Something that runs on a schedule from within windows is more likely to their taste.

You have some very odd ideas, Jimbo.

SIW2 said:

I doubt many people will be disposed to boot up a linux distro to manually perform some kind of clone. Something that runs on a schedule from within windows is more likely to their taste.

You have some very odd ideas, Jimbo.

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Yep - in fact there is a little known windows command line tool for cloning a drive (more like an image backup and restore actually) called FFU. There is a tenforums tutorial by @Kari how to do it.

This feature is actually quite fast. I could see it being used by IT departments but like you say, most domestic users just want a point and click gui.

cereberus said:

What is worse (in both) is you cannot do do a disk backup and just restore say 1 or two partitions.

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I have used Macrium to restore just one partition from a system image. I have also used a system image to move the image to a larger drive while increasing the C: partition size. It's been awhile but so I don't know exactly how. I do rember that it was done with drag and drop.

Winuser said:

I have used Macrium to restore just one partition from a system image. I have also used a system image to move the image to a larger drive while increasing the C: partition size. It's been awhile but so I don't know exactly how. I do rember that it was done with drag and drop.

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You can do that on the Macrium bootable Rescue media.
You have the options to restore and image, restore a disk, or as you mentioned, drag and drop only certain partitions of an image.

The drag and drop method isn't very... clear, and I have contacted the Macrium folks about it.
It seems to be a low priority for them.
Once IN the Rescue media... the Source and the Destination GUI is confusing.
The Source and Destination appear to be the same drive.


For example. This is a screenshot from the bootable Rescue media...




The large RED box at the top "indicates" that you can checkmark certain partitions and drag and drop them to the destination.
However, the BLUE boxes, "seem" to indicate that the source and destination are the same 500GB SSD (in this case).
They aren't really...
The source (in this case) is an image stored on a partition on a very large hard drive, and the destination is in fact a partition on a 500GB SSD.

Aside from these oddities... the checkmark certain partitions and drag and drop "does" work. In this screenshot the source is actually a "system" partition, and not a "disk" partition... but you get the idea I'm sure.

The top shows the partitions IN the backup image, and the bottom shows the partitions on the destination disk.

IF the image was an entire disk image... the top would show all the partitions on the disk that was imaged.
If say, I just wanted to restore just the... D:\ partition, I could UNcheck all other partitions in the top image, and then "drag" just the D:\ partition to the bottom image, and "drop" it over the existing D:\ partition... then click NEXT.

As I mentioned above... this page in the restore operation of the bootable Rescue media, is not very clear... but it does work.

@Ghot, When I'm not so busy, I'm going to try it on my laptop. I know I've done it before. It's just that it was years ago.

Winuser said:

@Ghot, When I'm not so busy, I'm going to try it on my laptop. I know I've done it before. It's just that it was years ago.

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It works. When I first got Macrium, I put it through it's basic paces.
Add to that boo-boos I made with my disks... it got a good workout.

I'm one of those people, that when I get something new... I try to find out how to use it, AND all the wrong ways to use it.
Like using a crescent wrench as a hammer w/o damaging the crescent wrench... or similar.


Here's an example...

And with Igor's help... here's the result...






Oh no! Run Igor, run...

Many of us are here on the forum because we are computer hobbyist and routinely upgrade our computers. When we do, can the Macrium Reflect licence be transferred to a new computer while removing the license from the old one?

Hollywood said:

Many of us are here on the forum because we are computer hobbyist and routinely upgrade our computers. When we do, can the Macrium Reflect licence be transferred to a new computer while removing the license from the old one?

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From Macrium:
1. If you permanently replace your Computer you may load Macrium Reflect® and your
license key onto your new Computer provided you have removed Macrium Reflect®
from your old Computer. Once you have done so, you can use Macrium Reflect® on
your new Computer as normal and restore existing Images to it. However, you must
not restore Images back to your old Computer.

2. If your Computer develops a hardware fault which makes it inoperable you may load
Macrium Reflect® and your purchased license key onto a substitute Computer on a
temporary basis whilst the fault is being repaired. You may then use Macrium
Reflect® on that substitute Computer as normal and restore existing Images to it.
Once the hardware fault has been repaired, you can re-load Macrium Reflect® and your
purchased license key back onto your repaired Computer (if required), and must
promptly delete it from your substitute Computer.