Need to find a decent backup, restore and cloning software

File backup is not the same as an image.

A link has been provided to a version that does mount images.

I am, of course, aware of that. That's why I made the comment. Thank you.

@SIW2 Sorry to disagree with you. The only method I tried was the VM method and indeed it does work..I had an old Windows 7 VM created with VMWare Workstation but it doesn't matter what app you use to create the VM. I installed Macrium 8 in the VM.
My windows 10 VM has Memory Integrity / vulnerable driver blocklist disabled so that's why mounting a Macrium image worked but what do I care that it's disabled, it's a VM.. The Windows 7 VM works because the host driver blocklist does not come into play in VMs.

If you have time for a little reading:
To prove I am not nuts I asked co-piot this question:
Since windows 11 vulnerable driver blocklist prevents macrium 8 from mounting an image in windows 11, can I use vmware workstation in windows 11 to create a windows 7 virtual machine to mount a macrium image?

This is the answer I got.

Yes — using VMware Workstation on Windows 11 to run a Windows 7 virtual machine will let you mount Macrium Reflect 8 images, because the vulnerable‑driver blocklist that breaks psmounterex only applies to the host OS, not the guest OS.
Mounting Macrium images inside a Windows 7 VM works because Windows 7 does not enforce the Windows 11 Code Integrity / vulnerable driver blocklist that prevents Macrium’s older driver from loading.

Inside VMware Workstation:

• The guest OS (Windows 7 ) loads Macrium’s psmounterex.sys normally.
• Windows 11’s blocklist does not apply to drivers inside the VM.
• Macrium Reflect 8 Free can mount .mrimg images exactly as it used to.
• You can browse the mounted image and copy files out to shared folders or external drives.

This is the cleanest workaround that avoids registry hacks or disabling Memory Integrity.

How the workflow would look​

1. Install VMware Workstation on Windows 11.
2. Create a Windows 7 virtual machine.
3. Install Macrium Reflect 8 inside the Windows 7 VM.
4. Share the Macrium image (.mrimg) with the VM using:
   • VMware shared folders,
   • a virtual disk,
   • or simply mapping a network share.
5. Mount the image inside the VM — the Macrium driver loads normally.
6. Browse, extract files, or run restore operations inside the VM.

Co-pilot went on to say:
The Windows 11 vulnerable driver blocklist applies only to the host OS, not to any guest OS running inside a VM. Virtual machines run their own independent kernel and driver stack.

• A Windows 7 guest loads psmounterex.sys (Macrium’s older mounting driver) without restriction.
• The Windows 11 host’s Memory Integrity / HVCI blocklist does not propagate into the VM.
• The VM behaves like a separate physical machine from the perspective of drivers.

This is true regardless of what one uses to create the VM, even Hyper V. However, co-pilot went on to say:

Hyper‑V: the one partial exception​

Hyper‑V does work, but with two important differences:

1. Hyper‑V uses synthetic drivers, not VMware/VirtualBox emulated hardware.​

This doesn’t block Macrium, but it means:

• You must install Hyper‑V Integration Services (Windows 7 requires manual installation).
• Shared folders are not native; you’ll use SMB shares instead.
• You must install Hyper‑V Integration Services (Windows 7 requires manual installation).
• Shared folders are not native; you’ll use SMB shares instead.

2. Hyper‑V is a Type‑1 hypervisor​

This doesn’t affect Macrium mounting, but it does mean:

• The VM runs closer to the hardware
• Some older OSes (like Windows 7) need legacy settings enabled (e.g., legacy network adapter)

But once Windows 7 is running inside Hyper‑V, Macrium Reflect 8 mounts images normally.

Fine we believe you. Who is going to bother setting up a vm just to do that

glasskuter said:

Wrong. There's a number of ways to extract files from an image using Macrium 8 while running Windows 11.

Click to expand...

SIW2 said:

That is true, unless you still have older boot media lying around.

Click to expand...

The vulnerable driver block list is baked into Windows, and that includes into the Winre.wim that Reflect uses to build the rescue USB. If you have an older boot USB you can boot from it and explore a mounted image.


Overwhelmed - Macrium Reflect - post #98

If you don't have an old USB you can make one. You just need to find a copy of Winre.wim from before psmounterex.sys was blocked, either from an old image or use 7-Zip file manager to extract it from the install.esd (or install.wim) on older install media. Put this in a folder somewhere and set the Reflect Media Builder to use this as a 'custom WIM'.


Overwhelmed - Macrium Reflect - post #100

dalchina said:

Happening to have a copy of the free version, I tried a quick file backup of a small folder to an external USB disk.
I can confirm that I can easily access that and see the files in the backup with the free version.

Click to expand...

Is that on a W11 machine or one of your W10 ones? The vulnerable driver blocklist was only updated for W11 machines.
Free or paid for makes no difference, all Reflect v8 version suffer from this - even Reflect LTSC 2024, as it is based on v8.