Solved Re-order drives/disks in MR main window?

I recently installed a new M.2 and moved my OS, programs, and local storage around, to get the OS and programs on the M.2. No problem. But now the MR (8 Home) main screen shows (with its own numbering, not the numbering in Disk Management, which is Disks 0, 1, and 2) numbered disks 1, 2, and 3 displayed from top to bottom, with the Disk 1 (which used to be where my OS and programs were, but is now empty) at the top, Disk 2 (now, as before, my local storage disk) in the middle, and Disk 3 (now my OS and programs) at the bottom.

I would like to re-order MR's arrangement so that MR's Disk 3 is at the top of the display and MR's Disk 1 is at the bottom. Anybody know a way to do that?

This is interesting but I think MR simply numbers the drives in the same order as the "System" The System just starts with 0 whereas MR starts with 1. But waiting to see if anyone has any ideas. Might be a question for Macrium.

Reflect always show drives offset by 1 i.e. starts counting at 1.

Re. drives being in different order, that has something to do with how windows manages m.2 drives.

I used to have an nvme optane drive as drive 0 and nvme data drive as drive 1.

I replaced OS optane drive with a non optane OS nvme drive. The data drive was then drive 0 and the non optane drive became drive 1!

I had to physically swap drive to get OS as drive 0 and data drive as drive 1.

Check your drive order in Disk Management. I bet Windows has renumbered them.

cereberus said:

Reflect always show drives offset by 1 i.e. starts counting at 1.

Re. drives being in different order, that has something to do with how windows manages m.2 drives.

I used to have an nvme optane drive as drive 0 and nvme data drive as drive 1.

I replaced OS optane drive with a non optane OS nvme drive. The data drive was then drive 0 and the non optane drive became drive 1!

I had to physically swap drive to get OS as drive 0 and data drive as drive 1.

Check your drive order in Disk Management. I bet Windows has renumbered them.

Click to expand...

To my knowledge SATA drives are numbered depending on which Sata port they are connected to. But I'm not sure if this numbering scheme is dependent on ports being utilized in order. In other words if you connect a drive to Sata port 0 it will show as 0 under Disk Management. However if you are only using ONE Sata drive and have it connected to port 4 it will likely show as 0. But if using 3 Sata drives connected via Port 0, Port 1 and Port 2 the drives will show they will show up in Disk Management as 0, 1, and 2. M.2 drives is where is gets muddled. This is apparently dependent on the motherboard Bios as to how there are seen/labeled. I have some systems where the M.2 drive may show as 0 and others where is after all the Sata drives connected to Sata ports.

@BamaInArk @cereberus

Thank you both for your points. If I could do a physical swap, I would, but M.2 and SATA are ofc not swappable.

The thing that's annoying is that the old 0 disk, which now contains absolutely nothing, is listed at the top, where it was before, but the new M.2, which now contains everything I want to make images of, now sits at the bottom of the screen.

I just thought somebody might know a hack that would make MR shuffle numbers without having to make Windows shuffle numbers (which is ofc possible with the two SATA SSDs, but not with the M.2 in the mix).

I'm going to add a second M.2 as soon as I get the adapter part from China, and then I'll decommission both SATA SSDs (or maybe not, depending on whether I can think of anything to do with them as internal disks). I have externals loaded with standard SSDs already, so maybe I'll just donate the superannuated SSDs to friends who will use them.

Or maybe I'll convert the decommissioned internal SSDs to externals and use them for backups, because, as @Ghot says, You can never have too much backup.

Wisewiz said:

@BamaInArk @cereberus

Thank you both for your points. If I could do a physical swap, I would, but M.2 and SATA are ofc not swappable.

The thing that's annoying is that the old 0 disk, which now contains absolutely nothing, is listed at the top, where it was before, but the new M.2, which now contains everything I want to make images of, now sits at the bottom of the screen.

I just thought somebody might know a hack that would make MR shuffle numbers without having to make Windows shuffle numbers (which is ofc possible with the two SATA SSDs, but not with the M.2 in the mix).

I'm going to add a second M.2 as soon as I get the adapter part from China, and then I'll decommission both SATA SSDs (or maybe not, depending on whether I can think of anything to do with them as internal disks). I have externals loaded with standard SSDs already, so maybe I'll just donate the superannuated SSDs to friends who will use them.

Click to expand...

What we always kind of assumed for Sata drives flies out of windows with m.2 drives. M.2 drives come via a different interface, and the drive assignments are dynamic now and do not seem to follow any obvious pattern.

I went to Macrium help forums and searched for "re-order disks to be imaged." Immediately got a great solution, though it isn't what I thought I wanted.

The startup (main) window showed Disks 1, 2, and 3. These were offered as sources for images. Disk 1 is empty currently, and thus not a possible source. Disk 2 is my local storage disk, and will never be a source; only a destination for images. Disk 3 contains Drives C and D, my OS and my set of programs, respectively. This is the disk I image when I do a full backup, and I sometimes do a separate image of just the D drive, when I've added or removed a program during the day. "Insurance." Thus, I do not need either Disk 1 or Disk 2 in the startup screen, as possible sources for imaging.

I have one-click shortcuts for "Image Disk 0" and "Image Drive D." They're pinned to Start, so when I want to make a new image, I click Start, and then the desired Image shortcut. The banner immediately pops up, says Backup begun, and names the shortcut in use (Disk 0 or Drive D). Done.

Solution:

I went to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Macrium\reflect\Disks, right-clicked Disks and chose New D-Word (32), and named that "0" (zero). Then I repeated the process, and named the new D-Word "1" (one).

Closed the registry, started Macrium 8 Home, and it loaded Disk 3 only. Disks 1 and 2 were not on the screen, just 3. Then, for Destination, it offered me the usual F:\MR Disk 0 Images. I didn't have to change my shortcuts at all.

If and when things change with the addition of my new M.2 to this machine, I'll edit the Disks key accordingly. No problem.