Solved Macrium Reflect Free backups failing.

Since I got new build Windows 11 PC last year Macrium backup images have mostly been failing. Currently on 25H2 (OS Build 26200.7840).

It sticks at random percentage, when I cancel backup the buttons grey out and resuming backup popup appears but it's still stuck. Progress bars pulse but nothing happening. If I end task either the window remains greyed out or it closes, but if I try to restart PC it says backup in progress. Restarting anyway option leaves it stuck on restarting screen and I have to turn off with power button which I don't like doing.

Target drive is the Seagate in my specs, had no issues with it, CrystalDiskInfo reports good health. When the backup freezes the drive becomes inaccessible often with broken icon. If I try to open it explorer hangs or crashes. With both Macrium and explorer failing and PC unusable that's when I need to shut down. I'm using Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7783.0 from installer I got from these forums.

The thing is that previously if I uninstalled Macrium with Revo then reinstalled it worked. But today it's failed first time and then failed again after reinstall, both at 80%.

If the backups are failing I'm wondering if any future restore might also fail if required. Any pointers to what could be causing this would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jim.

Sorry, I cannot help you with current problem, I also use Macrium for backup, but in some different way. I run it from external USB flash drive with Windows PE, which I prepared using Macrium some time ago (also version 8.x). It is not installed on current Windows 11 25H2. For backups, I use external SSD connected to another USB port of my laptop. This works well until now, no any interruption or failed backups.

The disk is SMR = intrinsically bad for disk imaging. The "canonic" behaviour should be (intermittent) slowness, but this is like driving 1000 km in 1st gear at full throttle... I have seen other users with this problem.

According to some users the drive overheats. Some disks use a tech based on heat to increase the capacity.

If possible/feasible try the internal HDD as target. If you have several partitions in the source choose one with "little" data (my Win11 install has like 65 GB and Macrium compressed images are about 40 GB each, this depends on your needs and data organization).

I'd been using the Seagate for disk images for years with Windows 10, just since Windows 11 build with higher spec hardware it's been failing. Transfer rate is about 2 GB/s, wasn't monitoring drive temp. I was trying a backup to the internal HDD when your post appeared there, and it zipped through no problem, so yeah, process of elimination points to the Seagate external drive. I'll backup to internal storage HDD from now on, there's enough disk space. And now I know about SMR v CMR so thanks for the helpful and informative reply.

Interesting .......
I have been using Macrium since it started approx 2008 and have recently been backing up to a new fast external ssd drive with 1000 Mb p/sec

Eliminating background processes as much as possible and enabling cache performance on this drive .

I have today just processed combined backups of C & D drive with 300 GB used

With various software updates introduced , the backups speeds have become quite erratic , ranging from 150 mbps to 12 GBps in the course of the same backup !

No backup so far has not completed .

At its best the backup will process in 3 minutes but as today in 17 minutes on the same drive.

The background processes remain the same .

Have reported this at various times to Macrium Support and soon after updates received usually improve matters.

I just use a separate stand alone cloner for my M.2 drives, and my sata drives. It’s never failed me even once. Yes, cloning the M.2 can be a little challenging, but I run it from a PCIe card, makes it a lot easier to pull and clone. I stopped using software for backups, a couple years ago, got tired of having to many fail to recover.