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Macrium Reflect Free - Need Help With Retention and Purge Settings
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
I downloaded Macrium Reflect Free to use for both Disc Cloning and Disc Image Backups.
I was hoping experienced users of Macrium Reflect could help me to better understand the Retention and Purge Settings so that Macrium doesn't automatically delete any of the MULTIPLE Full Backups I want to keep Permanently.
I bought a used Desktop HP system from an authorized refurbisher with Windows 7 Professional on it.
I used Windows 7's built-in Create A Disc Image software to make a complete hard drive Disc Image onto an external Seagate USB 2TB HDD (as well as a System Repair Disc on DVD) so I would have a backup exactly as the computer was shipped to me.
After I installed Macrium Reflect, I made a second complete hard drive Disc Image backup, again using Windows 7 built-in software........
..........I got my first bad surprise.......
Given I had never used Windows 7 Create A Disc Image before, I didn't realize that the Second Disc Image would replace (overwrite) my First Disc Image backup.
I thought all future Disc Images would simply be ADDITIONS (with a different creation date or similar) to any previously created ones. That way I would have the flexibility to restore the system to whichever previous Disc Image backup I wanted.
I NOW KNOW ........to make sure I give each Disc Image a Different File Name (I just add a dash and the Date after the Windows "default name" of WindowsImageBackup) to avoid doing that again
(In my defense, Windows does NOT make it clear that, by default, your previous Disc Image will be deleted unless you create a new name for the subsequent one)
Next...... I successfully Cloned (EDIT 8/5/2019 to mention the Clone was done with Macrium Reflect Free) my Original Western Digital HDD to a Samsung SSD 860 EVO (then unplugged the WD HDD from the SATA0 connection on the System Board and plugged the SSD into SAT0 to make it the Boot Drive. All worked fine.)
MACRIUM QUESTIONS:
Because of its reputation for reliable, error free back-ups and restores, I want to use Macrium Reflect Free going forward to create future Disc Image Backups, but I want to make sure my "settings" won't allow Macrium to automatically delete older Full Backups that I plan to keep permanently.(for example, Disc Images I saved at different install and system change "stages" relevant to me- just in case I want to go back to a specific "state" of backup for a given situation)
1. What settings should I use so that Macrium Reflect NEVER automatically deletes/purges ANY Previous Disc Image Backups so ALL Disc Image Backups are Retained?
2. Will this work?
Under Define Retention Rules
- Uncheck the box for Full
- Uncheck the box for Differential
- Uncheck the boxes for Incremental (grayed out and unavailable with Free version)
- Uncheck the box for Run the purge before backup
- Uncheck the box for Purge the oldest backup set(s) if less than
3.Will this work?
- (same as #2 above.....except)
- Under Define Retention Rules, set Full to the 999 (maximum)
(your backup HDD would very likely max out space well before 999)
Of course, at some point your external drive will run out of space.
4. Using #2 or #3 above, when your last backup attempt is larger than the remaining available hard drive space, will Macrium simply just give an error message that the backup failed (but still keep ALL previous backups)?
5. Under Destination
If you create a Different Folder Name for each and every backup, will that insure all previous Disc Images will be left alone and not deleted?
6. Clarify the difference between, under Define Retention Rules
- Apply retention rules to all backup sets in the target folder
- Apply retention rules to matching backup sets in the target folder
Macrium understandably puts priority on the latest (most current) Disc Image backups at the expense of oldest/older ones (by purging/deleting them)- which makes total sense for the typical user and most situations, but there are situations when older backups are highly valued.
Reading some of the Macrium forum questions, a lot of people are confused by all the settings and how they work and often are "surprised" (in a BAD way), of what Macrium deletes (based on both the users misunderstanding of what the settings do as well as Macriums "default": behavior).
In reality, there are not that many "stages" of install or system changes I would want to save Disc Image Backups of permanently (but some members here are pretty meticulous about have these distinct "stages" to go back too, especially the flexibility that offers when performing a complete clean install). I'm just trying to make sure any of those I want kept are never deleted automatically Macrium Reflect;
PS: I do have the PDF User Manual, but some things are not clear, at least to me.
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Last edited by GuitarRock; 05 Aug 2019 at 10:01.