What to use instead of Macrium Reflect

I loved it but I'm twitching at the ongoing cost of leasing a minimum of 3 licenses (or do I need extra licenses for virtual machines)?

So what are the viable alternatives? I don't count Acronis Backup as viable as it is well expensive and never worked properly for me anyway, never mind the fact that it's awfully slow.

Thanks
David

All the alternatives have let me down. The trouble is you have to do a restore to prove the backup works. I tried this with EaseUs and it made my computer unbootable as it made each drive unreadable. Macrium seems to be the best and I am happy to pay, even though I don't need four licences.

Of course, I accept that this is only my opinion. Aomei has a good program and there are plenty of alternatives available, some paid and some free. I just trust Macrium. I used to use Acronis and it was superb, but it was getting pricy for my needs.

I'm in "wait and see" mode. I have an Adobe Photographer subscription and a Microsoft 365 subscription. If the value of the Macrium Reflect subscription is as good as these two, I'll be a subscriber.

perdrix said:

So what are the viable alternatives?

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This thread may be of interest....

perdrix said:

I loved it but I'm twitching at the ongoing cost of leasing a minimum of 3 licenses (or do I need extra licenses for virtual machines)?

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Yes, a vm would require a macrium license if you wanted to have Macrium running on it. For me, I would never burn a Macrium license on a VM. Instead, I would simply backup the virtual machines disk file from the host OS. This is what I always do when I test something. I shut down the VM, copy the .vhdx file to a backup folder, turn on the VM and run the test. If needed, I just shut off the VM, copy the file back, and I'm right back to where I was. Also, with most hypervisors, you can create a snapshot or checkpoint from that software and have the ability to back to a previous point.


I'm not yet looking for an alternative software solution. My licenses for Macrium 8 are still good and work for everything I have at present. I have no need to spend anything or make a change at this point.

Also to consider OO Disk Image.
Macrium now cost US$80 and OO Disk Image V17 cost US$50
Search for V. 17 giveaway

pparks1 said:

Yes, a vm would require a macrium license if you wanted to have Macrium running on it. For me, I would never burn a Macrium license on a VM. Instead, I would simply backup the virtual machines disk file from the host OS. This is what I always do when I test something. I shut down the VM, copy the .vhdx file to a backup folder, turn on the VM and run the test. If needed, I just shut off the VM, copy the file back, and I'm right back to where I was. Also, with most hypervisors, you can create a snapshot or checkpoint from that software and have the ability to back to a previous point.


I'm not yet looking for an alternative software solution. My licenses for Macrium 8 are still good and work for everything I have at present. I have no need to spend anything or make a change at this point.

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Yeah pointless backing up a vhdx file using a reflect installation licenced in Hyper-V.

You can just mount vhdx file on host and back it perfectly legally using Macrium Reflect on host.

kelper said:

All the alternatives have let me down. The trouble is you have to do a restore to prove the backup works. I tried this with EaseUs and it made my computer unbootable as it made each drive unreadable. Macrium seems to be the best and I am happy to pay, even though I don't need four licences.

Of course, I accept that this is only my opinion. Aomei has a good program and there are plenty of alternatives available, some paid and some free. I just trust Macrium. I used to use Acronis and it was superb, but it was getting pricy for my needs.

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If you have any WD drive, you can get 5 year subscription for Acronis for WD. Nor sure what is the real difference between thiss and regular Acronis

Hasleo worked for me, and its free.

perdrix said:

I loved it but I'm twitching at the ongoing cost of leasing a minimum of 3 licenses (or do I need extra licenses for virtual machines)?

So what are the viable alternatives? I don't count Acronis Backup as viable as it is well expensive and never worked properly for me anyway, never mind the fact that it's awfully slow.

Thanks
David

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Why decide now when we don't yet know the cost of upgrading to the next version of Reflect?

You can still buy a lifetime Macrium license...

Ghot said:

You can still buy a lifetime Macrium license...

Home Edition

The complete backup solution for personal use. Protect documents, data and operating systems using advanced disk imaging technology.

www.macrium.com

View attachment 66845

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There is also a substantial discount for upgrading plus frequent discounts sometime 50% off published on this forum

Steve C said:

There is also a substantial discount for upgrading plus frequent discounts sometime 50% off published on this forum

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I wonder if they're still gonna do those substantial discounts, now that they're pushing the subscription model.

Ghot said:

I wonder if they're still gonna do those substantial discounts, now that they're pushing the subscription model.

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Yeah - I suspect Black Friday discounts will not be as generous e.g. 25% instead of 50%. Time will tell.

50% at the moment (if you buy 4 licenses)
I downloaded the Macrium trial, I stopped the install process half way through. It felt like I was being treated as dishonest with all the processes involved in getting it. I could just tell that the relationship with myself and that company would never work, especially if there was an issue. I don't have a filter.

Hasleo is looking very positive. Backup was just as fast as the windows image backup (about 6-8min) I didn't try a restore, yet.

Ghot said:

I wonder if they're still gonna do those substantial discounts, now that they're pushing the subscription model.

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I asked Macrium and they said - A volume discount will be re-introduced for new and upgrade licenses very soon.

antspants said:

50% at the moment (if you buy 4 licenses)
I downloaded the Macrium trial, I stopped the install process half way through. It felt like I was being treated as dishonest with all the processes involved in getting it. I could just tell that the relationship with myself and that company would never work, especially if there was an issue. I don't have a filter.

Hasleo is looking very positive. Backup was just as fast as the windows image backup (about 6-8min) I didn't try a restore, yet.

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Hasleo is a Chinese firm. Bold decision I say if you choose to install it.

" Hasleo is a Chinese firm. Bold decision I say if you choose to install it. "..........indeed it is , not if you only use the bootmedia in Ventoy !

I was a Macrium Free user for a while...loved it. I didn't use it enough to warrant purchasing, or need additional features. Right now I'm trying MiniTool's free ShadowMaker and, while I've saved my current drive images, I haven't been bold enough to do a restore and make sure it functions. I did use MiniTool Partition Wizard to upgrade to a newer/larger SSD...but...even it wasn't perfect. Everything worked except the Recovery partition didn't show as a Recovery partition (even though the partition ID was correct). I ended up deleting it, managing partitions to account for all of the new space (i.e. extending the Windows partition while leaving OP space), and doing a Windows Repair by Re-install to restore the Recovery partition.

I have used EaseUS and Aomei products in the past...mainly their partition managers...and things got corrupted...I haven't tried them since.

Steve C said:

Hasleo is a Chinese firm. Bold decision I say if you choose to install it.

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lol what?