Solved Other than Macrium, what is your recommendation for a backup/clone software for PC

therealsimpsons · Jul 25, 2024

I purchased Macrium when it was free, and then I was forced to buy it when the discontinued the free version. Now they want an annual subscription, that is a huge increase in price over the original cost. I'm done. Looking for a replacement recommendation. Thank you.

Edit, didn't purchase the free addition, downloaded it..

snerd · Jul 25, 2024

therealsimpsons said:
I purchased Macrium when it was free, and then I was forced to buy it when the discontinued the free version……..

I don’t understand. You bought it when it was free?

Badger · Jul 25, 2024

Hasleo Backup Suite (and it's free)!

XxXxX · Jul 25, 2024

therealsimpsons said:
I purchased Macrium when it was free, and then I was forced to buy it when the discontinued the free version. Now they want an annual subscription, that is a huge increase in price over the original cost. I'm done. Looking for a replacement recommendation. Thank you.

you can still get the free version of Macruim Reflect from Major Geeks.

Download Macrium Reflect FREE Edition 8.0.7783 - MajorGeeks

With Macrium Reflect Free Edition you'll be able to easily make an accurate and reliable image of your HDD or individual partitions. Using this image you can restore the entire disk, partition or...

www.majorgeeks.com

hope this is of help, best of luck. Steve ..

Marcus Vinicus · Jul 25, 2024

Hi @therealsimpsons and welcome to Elevenforum

There are already numerous threads at Elevenforum about backup software and which one is 'best'. In particular this one which has a poll and much discussion which may be useful.

Poll on Backup software

A poll to see which imaging programs people use. You can select up to three options (eg some people use more than one program or use a regular imaging program plus a cloud based one).

www.elevenforum.com

Bree · Jul 25, 2024

therealsimpsons said:
I purchased Macrium when it was free, and then I was forced to buy it when the discontinued the free version. Now they want an annual subscription, that is a huge increase in price over the original cost. I'm done. Looking for a replacement recommendation. Thank you.

Edit, didn't purchase the free addition, downloaded it..

Welcome to Eleven Forum.

Just because Reflect Free has reached end of development and support doesn't mean that it will stop working. You have a perpetual licence and can continue using it for as long as it still works. The only thing that could stop it working would be a significant change in Windows, but that's unlikely any time soon. I know from personal testing that it will still work in the forthcoming Windows 11 version 24H2 (come to that, so does Reflect Free v7).

Although Macrium are pushing their subscription model, they currently still offer a one-time purchase option. If you have bought a v8 license then that too is perpetual, and entitles you to updates for v8, which will continue to be supported until one year after the next version of Reflect is released. After that it should continue to work until if/when a major change in Windows breaks it.

But if you really want a free alternative, then the Hasleo Backup Suite seems to be the one many members on this site would recommend.

Preliminary Test of Hasleo Backup V4.

Hasleo Backup V4 has now been issued. https://www.elevenforum.com/t/which-free-windows-backup-programs-do-we-recommend-for-2024.18496/page-2#post-372723 I have been testing the Beta version, and it was a bit buggy but the release versions seems to be very sound. So I installed it and created...

www.elevenforum.com

therealsimpsons · Jul 25, 2024

You have a perpetual licence and can continue using it for as long as it still works.

I don't think I do. They have sent me several messages that the annual prescription payment is due in August.

Bree · Jul 25, 2024

therealsimpsons said:
You have a perpetual licence and can continue using it for as long as it still works.

I don't think I do. They have sent me several messages that the annual prescription payment is due in August.

I did say "If you have bought a v8 license", sounds like you took the cheaper subscription option rather than a one-time purchase. If you don't renew then your Reflect will fall back to a 'Restore Only' version.

You could go back to using Reflect Free, it can read and restore any image made by your current version. Reflect Free v8.0 is still available to download direct from Macrium if you know where to look.

Hint: look at the bottom of post #1 here:

Latest Macrium Reflect 8 updates

Latest Update(s) v8.1.8853 - 13th April 2026 This update contains no new fixes. Release notes: Macrium Reflect Patch Details v8.1.8631 - 7th August 2025 Release notes: Macrium Reflect Patch Details Reflect v8 reached the end of Extended Support on 8th October 2025. No further updates...

www.elevenforum.com

therealsimpsons · Jul 25, 2024

Bree said:
I did say "If you have bought a v8 license", sounds like you took the cheaper subscription option rather than a one-time purchase. If you don't renew then your Reflect will fall back to a 'Restore Only' version.

You could go back to using Reflect Free, it can read and restore any image made by your current version. Reflect Free v8.0 is still available to download direct from Macrium if you know where to look.

Hint: look at the bottom of post #1 here:

Latest Macrium Reflect 8 updates

Latest Update(s) v8.1.8853 - 13th April 2026 This update contains no new fixes. Release notes: Macrium Reflect Patch Details v8.1.8631 - 7th August 2025 Release notes: Macrium Reflect Patch Details Reflect v8 reached the end of Extended Support on 8th October 2025. No further updates...

www.elevenforum.com

therealsimpsons · Jul 25, 2024

Your comment in this thread is the first time I have ever heard of a one-time purchase. It certainly was not offered to me when I received notice that the free edition would no longer be supported, and that I had to purchase a subscription. If there was any mention of one-time purchase, I would have jumped all over it.

Bree · Jul 25, 2024

therealsimpsons said:
Your comment in this thread is the first time I have ever heard of a one-time purchase. It certainly was not offered to me when I received notice that the free edition would no longer be supported, and that I had to purchase a subscription. If there was any mention of one-time purchase, I would have jumped all over it.

The one-time purchase was once the only option. As I said, Macrium are pushing their new subscription model hard. But both options are still available.

https://www.macrium.com/products/home#buy-reflect-home

The next version of Reflect (v10) is currently in Beta testing. Whether on release that will also be available as a one-time purchase remains to be seen. I bought v7, and on release of v8 was offered a 50% discount on upgrading to v8. Whether that will hold true for v10 also remains to be seen.

The subscription model does at least include the upgrade to the next version at no extra cost.

antspants · Jul 25, 2024

Hasleo.

bikemanAMD · Aug 3, 2024

Trying out Acronis, but maybe i should've kept using Macrium Reflect 8 Home Edition after all, and once the new version launched then decided what i wanted to do lol, i guess i'll keep Acronis for now, continue to work with support to try to fix the current errors, then decide once error fixed & support case closed if i wanna stick with it or not

Steve C · Aug 4, 2024

therealsimpsons said:
I purchased Macrium when it was free, and then I was forced to buy it when the discontinued the free version. Now they want an annual subscription, that is a huge increase in price over the original cost. I'm done. Looking for a replacement recommendation. Thank you.

Edit, didn't purchase the free addition, downloaded it..

You can buy Reflect outright without a subscription which is only for technical support most people don't need.

Steve C · Aug 4, 2024

therealsimpsons said:
You have a perpetual licence and can continue using it for as long as it still works.

I don't think I do. They have sent me several messages that the annual prescription payment is due in August.

It seems you bought the wrong version then.

Steve C · Aug 4, 2024

bikemanI7 said:
Trying out Acronis, but maybe i should've kept using Macrium Reflect 8 Home Edition after all, and once the new version launched then decided what i wanted to do lol, i guess i'll keep Acronis for now, continue to work with support to try to fix the current errors, then decide once error fixed & support case closed if i wanna stick with it or not

I tried Acronis software a while ago and found it poorly engineered since was very difficult to uninstall all traces of it and their support was poor.

jimbo45 · Aug 4, 2024

Hi folks

All Free software here:

Stand alone bootable version (GUI) of Gparted -- great for cloning or install on any Linux distro rsync (usually included by default) and its GUI Grsync which is pretty good for data backup.

In command line the DD command is pretty good too.

I don't need any paid software for data backup / disk imaging or cloning.

To transfer data to cloud or other remote servers the Free filezilla program (works on Windows too) is pretty good -- uses the sftp:// protocol so decently secure as well.

These days Windows users shouldn't be scared of Linux for dping one or 2 basic tasks -- these days there's loads of "Live distros" which just boot with GUI's even more Windows like than Windows itself so most people would have no trouble using things like a partition manager, the DD command, Grsync etc.

Save yourself a load of dosh -- some Windows software for these functions is either already Paid or even worse subscription software. Even more annoying are the nags to "Go Pro" i.e PAY and if you don't the actual features you want are not in the "free" version.

Some Windows software doesn't even do what it says on the tin -- for example Hasleo says it can restore a current Windows2GO system back to an internal HDD -- (in the paid version) -- this is really fiddly and I|'ve never got it to work -- but all you actually have to do is simply "DD" the Windows2Go system back to your HDD having first made a simple Registry key change.

Simply change the marked key to '0' before cloning back to internal disk.

And to copy a running OS to a Windows2Go disk simply DD the disk to the external device and then boot a Windows install disk into command mode ("repair system") and then re-install the boot loader on to the efi partition (bcdboot.exe)

Cheers
jimbo

Jabiru · Aug 4, 2024

If you're lucky enough to have a (fairly new) Western Digital disk on your system you could use the free provided Acronis True Image software. It's a follow-on of the WD Backup utility which I always found somewhat problematic. The new version seems to work pretty well and provides options for generation of both file/folder backups and the ability to image a drive and "Clone" a drive (not sure what the difference is). you can find it at

Install and Uninstall Acronis True Image for Western Digital on Windows

Find detailed answers to your support questions for your Western Digital, SanDisk, WD_BLACK, or WD storage product.

support-en.wd.com

. It will only work if it detects a Western Digital drive attached to your system. That includes external USB drives. The website states it's a 5 year license, but I've used it longer than that. Be aware Acronis tends to sprinkle software (drivers etc.) kind of all over the place, so removing it can be somewhat complicated. It also tends to want to load elements at windows startup which is not necessary (I guess it makes for a faster startup). Acronis has been around for a long time and works.

timbobit · Aug 4, 2024

PARAGON Hard Disk Manager
there are free and paid versions

hdmi · Aug 4, 2024

bikemanI7 said:
Trying out Acronis, but maybe i should've kept using Macrium Reflect 8 Home Edition after all, and once the new version launched then decided what i wanted to do lol, i guess i'll keep Acronis for now, continue to work with support to try to fix the current errors, then decide once error fixed & support case closed if i wanna stick with it or not

I once tried Macrium Reflect Free, but found that it has close to zero engineering. To make a backup of your Windows system partition so as to avoid having to do a clean install of Windows which causes all your apps, settings, etc. to be lost e.g. if the internal SSD breaks so it needs to be replaced or if the partition gets so badly corrupted that every attempt to fix it (like doing a repair install of Windows with an in-place upgrade or etc.) doesn't help, Macrium Reflect Free doesn't really add anything useful when compared to merely running the DISM command.

To avoid any and all problems with Acronis, I use only a WinPE-based bootable media of True Image 2021. It's easy to build with the Custom WinPE-based Media Builder community tool. Once built, I simply copied it onto my USB flash drive that I had previously already formatted with Ventoy. After I tested that the bootable media works, I uninstalled True Image from Windows by using the uninstall feature, and I also verified that none of the services from True Image still remained on Windows. They were all gone permanently, and so there no longer was any negative impact on the system performance nor any other type of problems. This was on a very old Intel Core i5-2320 machine w/ 8GB RAM and a 2TB Seagate 3.5″ HDD @ 7200rpm. If you don't believe, you could always decide to back up your Windows system partition with DISM before choosing to install Acronis. It's not exactly rocket science IMO........

To copy files/folders, imaging software is not necessary, and should actually even be avoided IMO because, for that, FastCopy is your friend.

Solved Other than Macrium, what is your recommendation for a backup/clone software for PC

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