Why should I choose Macrium Reflect?


My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Education
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Alienware m18 R1
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX
    Motherboard
    Alienware
    Memory
    Kingston FURY Impact 64 GB 5200 MHz DDR5 RAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce RTX 4090 16 GB GDDR6
    Sound Card
    Realtek Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    18" QHD+ (2560 x 1600) 165Hz, 3ms 300-Nit Screen + LG 32GQ850-B 32" UltraGear QHD 240hz Monitor
    Screen Resolution
    WQHD (3440 x 1440)
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 990 PRO 2TB + 4TB SSDs
    PSU
    330W AC Power Adapter
    Cooling
    Noctua NT-H2 + Fujipoly Extreme Thermal Pads
    Keyboard
    Alienware CherryMX mechanical keyboard (Laptop) + AW510K Mechanical Gaming Keyboard (external)
    Mouse
    Alienware Tri-Mode Wireless Gaming Mouse AW720M
    Internet Speed
    1 GBPS Down / 350 MBPS Up
    Browser
    Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    Avast Antivirus
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Education
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 15 9500
    CPU
    Intel i7-10875H
    Memory
    Kingston FURY Impact 64 GB 3200 MHz DDR4 RAM
    Graphics card(s)
    nVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q w/ 4 GB GDDR6
    Sound Card
    Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6 UHD+ Touch, InfinityEdge, 500-nits, Anti-Reflecitve
    Screen Resolution
    3840 x 2400
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 990 PRO 2TB + 4TB SSDs
    PSU
    Dell 130W Laptop Charger USB C Type C AC Adapter
    Cooling
    Noctua NT-H2 Thermal Paste on CPU + GPU
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Anywhere 3
    Internet Speed
    1 GBPS Down / 350 MBPS Up
    Browser
    Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    Avast Free Antivirus
Same answer as with any commodity - whether food, cars, computer software or even educational establishments.

1) Decide what you want to do / Task / project in hand.

2) Decide on what's available to fit those needs best -- all sorts of considerations here -- availability, cost. is the item fit for purpose, if not of marketable quality refunds / customer service available etc etc.

3) Then buy / install

Too many govt depts etc get a budget first - then say we have to spend this - then say can we make any projects fit into this piece of software etc etc -- totally the wrong way round which is why I think it's almost a world wide phenomenon that Govt projects invariably overrun, aren't decently fit for purpose and are hideously expensive. Examples are US Military with the 100 USD basic toilet seats, or Britan's spiralling out of control Health service. However Politics enters Govt decisions rather than economic sense or value for money even if the thing eventually works - which as an individual you can avoid when making decisions for your own computer.

Rather like the Russian criminal Court system which works in this order even if they have a Jury so don't please ever be forced to appear in one !!!

1) Decide the Verdict (always do that BEFORE anything else - even before deciding on what to charge the "Victim" with)
2) Decide the punishment (again do that even before the "alleged offence" is bought before the court
3) Now decide the Offence the accused needs to face - with enough bribed "witnesses"
4) sweep the Victim off to jail etc - Case open and shut. !!! Issue to press "Justice has been magnificently and correctly served".

Cheers
jimbo
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows XP,7,10,11 Linux Arch Linux
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    2 X Intel i7
I'm new at this aspect. Would it be possible to share what steps you take to create a system image and ISO and how you restore from them?
Here it is:

 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy dv7
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 3630QM
    Motherboard
    HP
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD Graphics 4000 & Nvidia GeForce GT 635M
    Sound Card
    IDT High Definition
    Screen Resolution
    1080p
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Crucial MX500 on bay 1.
    1 TB Seagate HDD on bay 2.
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4800MQ CPU @ 2.70GHz
    Motherboard
    Product : 190A Version : KBC Version 94.56
    Memory
    16 GB Total: Manufacturer : Samsung MemoryType : DDR3 FormFactor : SODIMM Capacity : 8GB Speed : 1600
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA Quadro K3100M; Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600
    Sound Card
    IDT High Definition Audio CODEC; PNP Device ID HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_111D&DEV_76E0
    Hard Drives
    Model Hitachi HTS727575A9E364
    Antivirus
    Microsoft Defender
    Other Info
    Mobile Workstation
Hello community!

As an average (or above average) user myself, I have some experience in installing/ restoring Windows, doing a backup, etc. People have a natural preference for GUI over command line. But there are many who prefer built-in utilities to 3rd party solutions for multiple reasons:

1. Built-in utilities are good enough.
2. 3rd party solutions can be a privacy risk.
3. 3rd party solutions can be a security risk.
4. 3rd party solutions can be a resource hog.

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

I have hardly used this program, but I do have some initial impressions:

1. I don't like the fact that they don't give you the link to download the actual program. They only give you an installer link, which then downloads the program for you. This itself raises a few questions on privacy.

2. The program size is very big compared to competition.

3. The program runs a mandatory background service.

4. The program punches a hole for an incoming connection in Windows Firewall, without your knowledge.

The above reasons are good enough for me to look at it skeptically.

Since I haven't used this program much, I would like to hear specific benefits of this program over others. If you love this program, please list the exact things you use it for, and why this is the best among competition.

Here, I'll post why I don't really need Macrium Reflect for doing my system backups:

I prefer to have my system images as an ISO for the following reasons:

1. Just two commands (in Windows Terminal/ Command Prompt/ PowerShell/ Deployment Tools from Windows ADK ) are required. It is extremely easy to copy and paste those commands. The 1st command generates the image.wim file and the 2nd command creates an ISO using the same file. You need to have files from an installation disk for the 2nd command though, and that is just about 700 MB in size.

2. It can be installed in a Virtual Machine (VM).

3. It can be installed in an external disk
(only Sysprep Generalized images will be bootable though on other computers).

4. I can extract the install.wim file from the ISO and use DISM to install/ restore the image on my system. No 3rd party utilities required. And no need to nuke the whole disk which happens if one were to use 3rd party utilties like Rufus or WinToUSB.

The built-in Windows System Image utility is good for the most part, but comes with limitations:

1. It can only be restored if partitions on your disk have not changed since the image was taken. If you force a restore, you will lose your existing partitions and the data in them.
2. It can only be used on the source machine that was imaged.

The default Recovery Disk created using built-in utilities is good enough to get your system up and running if you have an image backup like the one described above. If you have a working Recovery partition, then the Recovery Disk isn't even required.

Since I haven't used the program extensively, I may be missing something. I am interested in the following:

1. What are your reasons to choose Macrium Reflect despite the above?
2. What can Macrium Reflect do that built-in utilities can't?
3. Why do you think Macrium Reflect is the best among competition?

Thanks.
Im pretty much the same as you. However heres what happened to me and the reason why I DO NOT..lol use Macrium. I have a brand new PC build with middle of the road CPU and GPU etc, using mostly AMD parts. Well. I have three 2TB internal drives. My main C:/ drive is an SSD as is one of the other two. The third one is a HDD an older one. the SSDs are brand new. So. I used to backup to an external drive for obvious reasons of what if my whole PC takes a rubbish then im out of luck. Well Im not into business stuff my backups are simply for personal use. So what happened to me is I used Macrium right. Installed it and used the WinPE backup solution. I had 5 days worth of full backups on a 256GB external drive. Well my PC took a dump one day. I restarted and made it to the recovery window of Macrium. I tried to do a recovery install however the external drive was NOT detected. So lucky im just a home based chump so none of my stuff really mattered. Well what I did have was lost. So after that I now skip the external drive and use one of the internal 2TB SSDs as my backup drive which has only my backups on and nothing else. I had a oopsie after using EaseUs Todo and whalla, it can use an internal drive to recover from and it did so perfectly. Now again this is why I do not use Macrium. Could it be my specific hardware/drives brand or stats on why that happened? IDK. But if I was a business I definitely would have lost alot of important stuff. So Im just sharing my experience here. Not dissing anyone here etc. Personal opinions and choice. But at least my story may help some people in making a choice.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro Version 22H2(OS Build 22621.963)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    AMD
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8 Core
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro WiFi
    Memory
    32 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    PCI Express 3.0 x16: PowerColor RX Vega 56 Red Dragon
    Sound Card
    Realtek ALC1220 and AMD Greenland - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 - 27 inch Westinghouse
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    2 SSD - 2 TB each
    1 HDD - 2 TB
    Keyboard
    logitech
    Mouse
    logitech
    Internet Speed
    1 GB
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge
    Antivirus
    Avast Premium
Im pretty much the same as you. However heres what happened to me and the reason why I DO NOT..lol use Macrium. I have a brand new PC build with middle of the road CPU and GPU etc, using mostly AMD parts. Well. I have three 2TB internal drives. My main C:/ drive is an SSD as is one of the other two. The third one is a HDD an older one. the SSDs are brand new. So. I used to backup to an external drive for obvious reasons of what if my whole PC takes a rubbish then im out of luck. Well Im not into business stuff my backups are simply for personal use. So what happened to me is I used Macrium right. Installed it and used the WinPE backup solution. I had 5 days worth of full backups on a 256GB external drive. Well my PC took a dump one day. I restarted and made it to the recovery window of Macrium. I tried to do a recovery install however the external drive was NOT detected. So lucky im just a home based chump so none of my stuff really mattered. Well what I did have was lost. So after that I now skip the external drive and use one of the internal 2TB SSDs as my backup drive which has only my backups on and nothing else. I had a oopsie after using EaseUs Todo and whalla, it can use an internal drive to recover from and it did so perfectly. Now again this is why I do not use Macrium. Could it be my specific hardware/drives brand or stats on why that happened? IDK. But if I was a business I definitely would have lost alot of important stuff. So Im just sharing my experience here. Not dissing anyone here etc. Personal opinions and choice. But at least my story may help some people in making a choice.
Well the first thing you should do is boot from the rescue drive and check all source and target drives are visible in winpe.

If not, it is almost certainly that a driver is missing. Other tools can have same issue - it just depends on hardware/software combinations.

The most important trick is to export all drivers so you can manually add them if needed.

Also, if you had used the new winre method of creating a backup drive, it is much better at picking up the required drivers for a device.
 
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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro + others in VHDs
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Vivobook 14
    CPU
    I7
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    N/A
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Optane NVME SSD, 1 TB NVME SSD
    PSU
    Yep, got one
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wired
    Internet Speed
    72 Mb/s :-(
    Browser
    Edge mostly
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0
I had to use the Win PE version in Macrium. The RE did not work right.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Home
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom built
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
    Motherboard
    MSI B550-A Pro
    Memory
    16 GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200
    Graphics Card(s)
    PowerColor Red Devil Radeon RX 6600XT with 8GB GDDR6
    Sound Card
    Realtek integrated
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer Nitro 24" RG241Y 144hz refresh rate
    Screen Resolution
    1920 X 1080
    Hard Drives
    Western Digital Black SN770 1 TB NVMe SSD
    Samsung 860 QVO 1 TB SATA SSD
    Seagate Barracuda 1 TB HDD
    PSU
    LEPA B650 650 watt
    Case
    Enermax Coenus
    Cooling
    Cooler Master Hyper T4 air
    Keyboard
    CM Storm Devastator
    Mouse
    E-Blue Cobra Jr.
    Internet Speed
    100mbs
    Browser
    Microsoft Edge Chromium
    Antivirus
    Microsoft Defender
    Other Info
    Optical Drives: LG DVD-RW and Pioneer BluRay/ DVD burner
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Home
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Asus ROG Zephyrus G14
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS
    Motherboard
    Asus board (GA402RK)
    Memory
    16 GB Samsung DDR5-4800
    Graphics card(s)
    Integrated Radeon 680M and discrete Radeon RX 6800S with 8GB GDDR6
    Sound Card
    Integrated Realtek with Dolby Atmos
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    Laptop screen 14" WQXGA, IPS, 120hz refresh rate
    Screen Resolution
    2560 X 1600
    Hard Drives
    1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD (WD Black SN850)
    PSU
    Battery power and Asus power brick/adapter. Also has USB-C charging
    Case
    Laptop
    Cooling
    Laptop fans in vapor chamber
    Mouse
    Touchpad and Omoton bluetooth mouse
    Keyboard
    Built in RGB backlit
    Internet Speed
    100mbps
    Browser
    Edge Chromium
    Antivirus
    Microsoft Defender

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro + others in VHDs
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Vivobook 14
    CPU
    I7
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    N/A
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Optane NVME SSD, 1 TB NVME SSD
    PSU
    Yep, got one
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wired
    Internet Speed
    72 Mb/s :-(
    Browser
    Edge mostly
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0
I typically backup onto my External (In Enclosure) Seagate 8TB hard drive, then once that is finished for all the drives--First of the Month Full Image of All drives, Game SSD and 4TB Incremental weekly after First Full Image is done, and seems to be working well for most part

Boot drive especially M.2 Nvme 500GB
Game SSD 1TB SSD
and 4TB storage drive (usually backed up seperately onto another external and stored off site at relatives place---Once a month is imaged though onto the 8TB as well along with the other drives to make sure everything stays backed up

So far my plan has worked pretty well, thankfully haven't had to restore anything in an emergency, perhaps sometime should delete a folder one of the drives after an image is done, and do the restore perhaps to make sure its working properly, normally guess don't have the time to really take the time to do that, but starting to think maybe should

Laptop Gaming PC
Both Drives backed up to the Seagate 8TB as Windows on 128GB M.2, and Alot of Programs/storage files on 1TB Mechanical Hard drive, typically thats backed up every week most of the time, unless i forget a week, but i try not to

Thought about trying another backup program, but already paid for Macrium Reflect Home so think will stick to it, don't mind doing stuff manually to get backup going, and such, added that to my weekly maintenance tasks on the system
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel I7 10700
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte B460M_DS3H Rev 1.0
    Memory
    32GB DDR4 2666mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA Geforce 1660 Super
    Sound Card
    Onboard Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Asus VG245H
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    M.2 Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB Boot
    Samsung 860 Evo 1TB-Game SSD
    Western Digital Black 4TB Storage Drive

    External
    Western Digital Elements 500GB
    Western Digital My Passport 2TB
    Toshiba 2TB in External Enclosure
    Seagate 8TB in External Enclosure
    Western Digital My Book 8TB (Primary Backup drive)
    PSU
    EVGA G3 650 Watt
    Case
    Thermaltake V200 TG RGB
    Cooling
    Arctic Freezer 7X, 3 Front Intake Fans, 1 120 Exhaust in rear of case
    Keyboard
    Logitech G513
    Mouse
    Logitech G502 X
    Internet Speed
    Gigabit 1000Mb/20 Upload
    Browser
    MS Edge Chromium
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender, Malwarebytes Free
    Other Info
    UEFI, Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, Macrium 8 Home Edition

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