Why should I choose Macrium Reflect?

TheMystic said:

OP was about backups, and Macrium was picked up because it is a favorite program for many. I posted my initial impressions and observations, but made it very clear that I have hardly used the program. Strange that people still construed it as a review.

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I did not see any fanboy posts, I saw people replying as to why they use the piece of software you decided to ask questions about. I am not justifying any sort of behaviour or responses, I particularly stated that personal attacks were unnecessary.
You admit to making generalised statements based on very little research and experience about an application that many people use daily and have done for many years, what did you expect? You would have gotten similar responses if you had used Acronis or any other popular data backup program.
The fact you don't see the OP as a review or an attack on a particular piece of software or the parent company does not stop it being perceived as such by other readers, as proven by some of the replies to this thread.
You asked for opinions, you got opinions. :)

DigitalGoat said:

, what did you expect? You would have gotten similar responses if you had used Acronis or

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I lol'd.

TheMystic said:

That is exactly the kind of behaviour that raises plenty of questions. A great software should first respect user settings and never override configurations set by the user. It is okay if the software refuses to work without necessary permissions and it is understandable. But to keep overriding user settings and making itself work is bad behaviour.

And the statement "All data we collect will be used strictly in accordance with our privacy policy" is effectively a useless statement as far as the user is concerned.

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While I agree that it isn't the most elegant behavior, I am still confident that it isn't an actual security hole or privacy concern, albeit it is the user's task to verify that it isn't. Read the legal agreement. With the vast majority of commercial software products the software company can not be held liable in any way, shape or form, so if your computer blows up, then basically, all that you can do is tweet about how intensely you enjoyed the fireworks. Or alternatively, the user can choose to look at what experienced IT professionals are doing, albeit the "experienced" part is going to be based on relativity. Most users neither are experienced nor are IT professionals, though, so there is an obvious discrepancy between what's popular or easy to use and what can be a tad trickier mainly as a result from it catering more toward the advanced minority.

I am a trained software developer with a formal degree in IT who has been programming computers in assembly language since 1984, when a single sided single density 3.5 inch 360K floppy disk drive weighed heavier than a 55 inch modern flatscreen TV. I solve IT problems for a living, I have to call myself a "consultant" IRL just because if I tell everyone what kind of software development I do, then my employer will assume that I am looking to find a better job. But you won't hear me say I have all the answers. What I do know is that Ventoy with the bootable ISO of Acronis True Image is both very fast and extremely reliable, and more so than anything related to Macrium Reflect.

I have to disable Secure Boot before I can boot into the bootable ISO with Ventoy, and I have to re-enable Secure Boot after my newly created image [of my system partition] has been written to disk and verfied. But once it's been verified, it is reliable for the fact that this verification works exactly the same as a restore except that, instead of performing an actual restore that writes the data retrieved from the image onto a destination target, the data retrieved from the image is compared to the data already present on the source, by using a bitwise comparison test. This kind of verification is foolproof, as the data already present on the source remains completely untouched at all times, from when Windows has been shut down, all until finally Windows starts again. (Windows starts again only after I have re-enabled Secure Boot, i.e., only after the image has already been verified successfully.)

So, Windows actively running on the Windows partition during creation of the image, that will include this Windows partition, has zero impact on the integrity of the image. That's because Windows remains shut down until this whole image creation task is finished. Windows writes data to the Windows partition when it is actively running on it. On the Macrium website there is an article that explains you shouldn't encounter any problems with that if you don't write too many files or write too much data to the partition during image creation. But experience has taught me that there can tend to be a bit of a difference between "shouldn't" and "won't". That in fact is part of the reason why I only use the bootable ISO. Now, of course Macrium has a bootable ISO too. Unfortunately however, that one can't do much more than an easy script that runs in WinRE and that uses DISM.

Macrium is a very good, well specified, popular program. I personally tried it twice and found the interface off putting (especially when something went wrong and there were lots of exclamation marks and red writing). So it's just personal for me - not keen on the interface. I use easeus now. Only need it for imaging, whereas most people use Macrium for a lot more than just imaging. I do actually still use the built in Windows 7 imaging sometimes as well - still works and it's simple.

DigitalGoat said:

You admit to making generalised statements based on very little research and experience about an application that many people use daily and have done for many years

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Which is what makes it easy to understand that it isn't a review.

That said, the 4 points made under my initial impressions are true and verifiable. There is nothing to dispute there. They are facts.

DigitalGoat said:

You asked for opinions, you got opinions. :)

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I only wish those opinions limited themselves to the OP, than the OPer. :)

pparks1 said:

I don't really benefit whatsoever from persuading you in any way to use Macrium. I use it because it works for me. You can use whatever you are comfortable with.

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pparks1 said:

But whether or not you take that time is honestly of no real consequence to me. And which software you decide to use doesn't need to satisfy me in any way...

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We all know that. You really don't have to write it down.

pparks1 said:

If this motivates just 1 person to check it out, who ultimately ends up backing up their data and it saves their bacon (even just 1 time), then it was worth my time to mention it.

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The reason any user makes a genuine recommendation is simply because of this. The reason we all are here: to help each other out without obligation or personal benefits.

pparks1 said:

I have nothing against any of your concerns. They just aren't that concerning to me.

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Sure. It is a decision you made for yourself. Likewise, I have my own requirements and some things that may be acceptable to you need not be acceptable to me. This should be perfectly fine. People should just accept that fact and not become judgmental.

TheMystic said:

We all know that. You really don't have to write it down.

The reason any user makes a genuine recommendation is simply because of this. The reason we all are here: to help each other out without obligation or personal benefits.

Sure. It is a decision you made for yourself. Likewise, I have my own requirements and some things that may be acceptable to you need not be acceptable to me. This should be perfectly fine. People should just accept that fact and not become judgmental.

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I'm confused. If you've already decided on backup software, why this thread.
If you haven't decided, know that most people on here and Ten Forums... use Macrium Reflect.

It's not rocket science.

hdmi said:

While I agree that it isn't the most elegant behavior, I am still confident that it isn't an actual security hole or privacy concern, albeit it is the user's task to verify that it isn't. Read the legal agreement. With the vast majority of commercial software products the software company can not be held liable in any way, shape or form, so if your computer blows up, then basically, all that you can do is tweet about how intensely you enjoyed the fireworks.

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That kind of behaviour is FAR from being elegant. Although on some occasions a security software may disable a required service (or a component of a program), the correct thing to do when that happens is to inform the user about it (when he wants to use the program) so that he can whitelist the program (or the service) in his security software and do whatever needs to be done in an informed manner.

If a user is manually disabling a service, or explicitly defining a rule under Firewall, a program that undoes that or overrides that is basically acting like malware. The user should be in charge of his system, not the program. And it is impractical to keep checking if the software has reversed any changes that the user has made.

As with Legal Agreements or Privacy Policies, everyone knows no one reads them or fully understand their implications. It is just a formality which is much less important than how the program functions.

Ghot said:

I'm confused. If you've already decided on backup software, why this thread.
If you haven't decided, know that most people on here and Ten Forums... use Macrium Reflect.

It's not rocket science. :)

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Decisions can change based on new information, and that is exactly what the post intended to find out. I wanted to understand if there are benefits compelling enough to make the switch. Just because a certain number of users are using it doesn't automatically mean it is the best option. As we have seen, a lot of users ignore (or are okay with) things that I specifically pay attention to when making my choice.

My two pennies worth,

1. What are your reasons to choose Macrium Reflect despite the above?

I trust the company and have been using the software for years

2. What can Macrium Reflect do that built-in utilities can't?

Makes life easier as I'm basically lazy and with a few clicks the job is done.

3. Why do you think Macrium Reflect is the best among competition?

Difficult one this one as it's been many years since I used an alternative backup program. All I can say is that because it works I have no need to try an alternative.

Fabler2 said:

My two pennies worth,

1. What are your reasons to choose Macrium Reflect despite the above?

I trust the company and have been using the software for years

2. What can Macrium Reflect do that built-in utilities can't?

Makes life easier as I'm basically lazy and with a few clicks the job is done.

3. Why do you think Macrium Reflect is the best among competition?

Difficult one this one as it's been many years since I used an alternative backup program. All I can say is that because it works I have no need to try an alternative.

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Thank you.

TheMystic said:

That kind of behaviour is FAR from being elegant. Although on some occasions a security software may disable a required service (or a component of a program), the correct thing to do when that happens is to inform the user about it (when he wants to use the program) so that he can whitelist the program (or the service) in his security software and do whatever needs to be done in an informed manner.

If a user is manually disabling a service, or explicitly defining a rule under Firewall, a program that undoes that or overrides that is basically acting like malware. The user should be in charge of his system, not the program. And it is impractical to keep checking if the software has reversed any changes that the user has made.

As with Legal Agreements or Privacy Policies, everyone knows no one reads them or fully understand their implications. It is just a formality which is much less important than how the program functions.

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Of course. But as you can see for yourself, practically nobody cares about that, and so your criticism, although it is nonetheless valid, it gets treated like a formality by most, and so the behavior of treating it like a formality is best described as popular behavior. The last time when I tried to warn you about popularity stuff, I woke up next and saw that half your thread had been deleted.

hdmi said:

Of course. But as you can see for yourself, practically nobody cares about that, and so your criticism, although it is nonetheless valid, it gets treated like a formality by most, and so the behavior of treating it like a formality is best described as popular behavior. The last time when I tried to warn you about popularity stuff, I woke up next and saw that half your thread had been deleted.

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What is the point in continuing this thread - OP obviously is not interested in whether he should use Reflect. All he is doing is replying with rhetoric about privacy and size of it.

Simple OP - don't use it - end of story.

PS I am going to put you on my ignore list.

In this context, let's look at the pros and cons of a very popular program - Macrium Reflect!

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That would indicate that it's a review. Listing both pro's and cons is reviewing a product.

I have it on one computer, I use AOMEI on all the others. Macrium works okay but when I create a rescue USB stick, it will only boot on non-UEFI machines. The device that has Macrium is UEFI and the stick will not boot. I have even tried using RUFUS to create it from an ISO and that doesn't work either. Maybe I need to try a different Windows PE environment. I have only tried the default one that it recommends.

Also, when I use the boot menu option to go into the Rescue environment, My keyboard and touchpad do not work but a plugged in mouse does. Macrium just doesn't seem to be compatible with that particular device. It's an RCA 2 in 1 tablet with a detachable keyboard.

UPDATE: I remade the rescue environment using the Windows 10 PE instead of the default RE and now everything works properly on the device. The USB stick does boot now.

TheMystic said:

We all know that. You really don't have to write it down.

The reason any user makes a genuine recommendation is simply because of this. The reason we all are here: to help each other out without obligation or personal benefits.

Sure. It is a decision you made for yourself. Likewise, I have my own requirements and some things that may be acceptable to you need not be acceptable to me. This should be perfectly fine. People should just accept that fact and not become judgmental.

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I just haven't seen any posts where anybody was being judgemental for the choices you have made for yourself. I certainly haven't.

I'm lost. What's this all about again?

hdmi said:

Of course. But as you can see for yourself, practically nobody cares about that, and so your criticism, although it is nonetheless valid, it gets treated like a formality by most, and so the behavior of treating it like a formality is best described as popular behavior.

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Haha. That was a good one.

hdmi said:

The last time when I tried to warn you about popularity stuff, I woke up next and saw that half your thread had been deleted.

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I didn't disagree with you then, and definitely not now.

Hazel123 said:

I'm lost. What's this all about again?

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It was supposed to be about the best options for backing up a personal system which sought to obtain a meaningful, neutral, objective evaluation of a program considered to be among the best. The comments turned out to be anything but that unfortunately.

TheMystic said:

It was supposed to be about the best options for backing up a personal system which sought to obtain a meaningful, neutral, objective evaluation of a program considered to be among the best. The comments turned out to be anything but that unfortunately.

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