Macrium Reflect Free version 6 is now available

[DavidE]

We are pleased to announce that Macrium Reflect v6 Free Edition is available now. We have updated the user interface and added these exciting new features.

New Features in v6 Free:

• Differential Images
  Differential Images for faster backups and reduced storage space.
• Auto verification
  Automatically verify images after creation to ensure integrity.
• Pre-defined backup plan templates
  Macrium Reflect backup templates allow for quick creation of scheduled backups.
• Windows PE rescue environment
  If additional drivers are required for disk or network access, they are now automatically identified and if possible copied from the host operating system. You can now add a boot menu so you can easily restore a system image without inserting rescue media.

Source: Macrium Reflect Free

 

[mjf]

It still uses the CNET download that many people are cautious about.
Maybe some discussion topics:
1) V5 is fine for me at the moment
2) V6 (free) appears to support differential images which I don't need at the moment
3) I have V5 images and I wonder about backward compatibility moving to V6.
4) The pe disk recovery capability may be better.

 

[Gary]

It still uses the CNET download that many people are cautious about.
Maybe some discussion topics:
1) V5 is fine for me at the moment
2) V6 (free) appears to support differential images which I don't need at the moment
3) I have V5 images and I wonder about backward compatibility moving to V6.
4) The pe disk recovery capability may be better.

The link I provided is the direct link to MR. It can be downloaded at MajorGeeks as well, Everything is better . See below for MG

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition 6.0.685

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

It still uses the CNET download that many people are cautious about.
Maybe some discussion topics:
1) V5 is fine for me at the moment
2) V6 (free) appears to support differential images which I don't need at the moment
3) I have V5 images and I wonder about backward compatibility moving to V6.
4) The pe disk recovery capability may be better.

The paid version of V6 has the ability to work with images made with V5; I see no reason to believe the free version of V6 would be any different.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Is it a certainty that a new recovery disk would have to be made?

Or an assumption?

Or a "why not, it can't hurt"?

I've never felt completely at ease about this and I don't recall seeing definitive info, even at the Macrium forums--which I don't read a lot.

 

[jadinolf]

The program says that no update is available.

I will wait until it tells me that it is.

 

[mjf]

If you are running v5 it is probably just saying no updates for v5 and I doubt you will get anymore. I'm still running v5 and it has done everything I want so why change? The Geek in me says go for it and the other person says don't bother.

 

[jadinolf]

Well, thank you. That's a good explanation

Being the daring kinda gay, I would like to take a look at the 6 FREE version.

Many thanks
.

 

[jadinolf]

Tried it and it's looking good.

Three more computers to go.

 

[DavidE]

Everything I've tried so far is working perfectly with free Version 6.
Version 6 can restore version 5 images.
The Boot Menu option works, it adds a Macrium Reflect System Recovery bootloader entry.

I haven't done anything with scheduled backups or templates.
I like to do manual full backups, when i want to.
I'll have to play with templates, that might be nice ...

I wondered if i wanted to update to v6 because v5 works so reliably for me.
The new auto-verify and boot menu features are great, well worth the v6 upgrade for me.

I created a new Rescue Disc and that works, can restore V5 or V6 images.
When I added the boot menu entry before creating a new Rescue Disc, it booted up with the old Macrium version 5 PE.
After creating the new Rescue Disc and "re-adding" the Boot Menu entry, it boots with new Macrium version 6 PE.
The Boot Menu entry runs really fast, and i don't have to look for a Recovery Disc/USB Stick.

I was curious about how/where this MR boot menu item is stored...
For anyone else interested, here is what I see with EasyBCD:

 

[derekimo]

Very interesting and tempting, did you end up creating a SR partition?

Yea, I want to play with the Boot Menu option.
I might create a System Reserved partition first, and move the boot code to there...
Right now the boot code is in the Win 8.1 partition, and W7-64 is the default OS.

Just curious, because I don't have one either.

 

[DavidE]

No, i didn't create a SR partition.
I decided to just try the boot menu feature with my PC "as-is" ...
I might still do that later, if/when i upgrade the w7-32 OS to Win-10 ...
I couldn't restore a Win 8.1 image unless i booted from Rescue Media (disc/usb).
This boot menu entry makes it much nicer for me to restore W8.1, the System/Active partition...
Here is my current Disk Management, when booted with Win 8.1.

 

[derekimo]

Good stuff David, Thanks! You pretty much have the boot files locked where you want them too with all those logical partitions.

 

[DavidE]

Yea, after reading all the advice from gregrocker i decided to only have 1 primary partition ...
I had no idea what adding this MR boot entry would do ...
So far it works well for me, think i'm more lucky than smart

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Just trying out free version 6 for the first time.

Most peculiar issue: Within the space of an hour, I made 3 images of my C drive (39.7 occupied) with it. The first image was 19.5 GB. That's fine. The next two were over 23 GB. Why larger? Expected behavior? I've never seen anything like this with version 5. I don't know that it's a problem, but it's unexplained.

An image made a week ago with version 5 was 18.5 GB. Very very few system changes since then.

Other things I noted:

Speed somewhat faster, but I think it varied with each attempt by a minute or more.

I didn't see a clearcut choice to say "I want full images, not incrementals or differentials".

Scheduling setup isn't quite self-explanatory. I did NOT want a schedule of any kind, but it seems I had to create one and then delete it?

I thought I set it up to keep no more than 2 images, but it's kept 3 so far. Maybe that choice is part of scheduling and so was deleted when I deleted the unwanted schedule?

I made a recovery CD and a recovery USB flash drive directly from the Macrium menus, using the default Win PE offered (3.1, their recommendation for Win 7). I expected both to boot me to an interface identical to what I see when booted into Macrium from C, just as happened with version 5. But they did not. Instead, I booted rather slowly into a different looking interface, but I was able to navigate and operate within it OK.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I still haven't decided if I want to upgrade my v5 Pro four license pack to v6 Pro four license pack yet. Part of it is wanting to wait to see if it works out ok for people and part of it is just being cheap since V5 is still working fine for me.

 

[DavidE]

Just trying out free version 6 for the first time.

Most peculiar issue: Within the space of an hour, I made 3 images of my C drive (39.7 occupied) with it. The first image was 19.5 GB. That's fine. The next two were over 23 GB. Why larger? Expected behavior? I've never seen anything like this with version 5. I don't know that it's a problem, but it's unexplained.

An image made a week ago with version 5 was 18.5 GB. Very very few system changes since then.

Other things I noted:

Speed somewhat faster, but I think it varied with each attempt by a minute or more.

I didn't see a clearcut choice to say "I want full images, not incrementals or differentials".

Scheduling setup isn't quite self-explanatory. I did NOT want a schedule of any kind, but it seems I had to create one and then delete it?

I thought I set it up to keep no more than 2 images, but it's kept 3 so far. Maybe that choice is part of scheduling and so was deleted when I deleted the unwanted schedule?

I made a recovery CD and a recovery USB flash drive directly from the Macrium menus, using the default Win PE offered (3.1, their recommendation for Win 7). I expected both to boot me to an interface identical to what I see when booted into Macrium from C, just as happened with version 5. But they did not. Instead, I booted rather slowly into a different looking interface, but I was able to navigate and operate within it OK.

I checked backup image sizes, and like you i see a difference i can't explain.
I see a difference of 2+ GB on a Win 8.1 BU created 2 days after my initial V6 BU.
I browsed both images, ran WizTree on each, and don't see much difference in what is included in each of these images.
It almost seems like compression worked differently, or something like that ???
In my case one may have been created while running Win 8.1, and the other one created while running Win 7, so that might make a difference ???

From what i see a new image will always be a Full Image (for a Manual "Image this disk").
To create a Differential:

• Click on the Restore Tab
• Select an Image to restore
• On the Image, click on Other Actions, and click Create Differential
• I just tested this and it created and verified a Differential in less than 1 minute

I didn't have to create a schedule, so i'm not sure why you had to.
I set Other Tasks/Edit Defaults/Backup/Retention Rules to never auto purge any backups.
Hopefully it will leave my previous images alone, and let me keep them as long as i want.
Did you set the Retention Rules in the Defaults ?

I don't use or want scheduled backups, i manually create backups when i want...

I created my Recovery disc, ISO's, and bootloader with Win PE 5.
They boot my PC and can restore, but i don't expect i'll use the recovery disc unless the SSD dies.

I attempted to create a new recovery ISO with the Win PE 3.1.
I selected PE 3, but it created the recovery iso with Win PE 5.
I don't know if that's a bug, or some quirk with my old triple boot test box.

I don't know if i've done well explaining this, let me know if you want me to post screen prints.

I'm very happy with the new auto-verify and boot-menu options, well worth the update for me.
Most importantly, backup and restore has worked reliably for me.

Also, i just ran Macrium V5 on a system, and got a popup that V6 is an available update.
I installed v6 over the top of v5 so far, haven't tried the in-program updater.

 

[jadinolf]

Installed version 6 FREE yesterday on all 4 of my computers. So far so good.

Have run 2 backups so far.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

David: see comments in bold.

I checked backup image sizes, and like you i see a difference i can't explain.
I see a difference of 2+ GB on a Win 8.1 BU created 2 days after my initial V6 BU.
I browsed both images, ran WizTree on each, and don't see much difference in what is included in each of these images.
It almost seems like compression worked differently, or something like that ???
In my case one may have been created while running Win 8.1, and the other one created while running Win 7, so that might make a difference ???



I completely uninstalled free 5 before installing free 6.

I did not browse the 3 images I created, but they were all created from Win 7 SP1 on the same machine, within an hour. I did not adjust compression levels, leaving it at default medium. I have no idea what's going on, but I suppose some compression glitch is a possibility.

This was not confidence-inspiring. I did not try to restore any image.

From what i see a new image will always be a Full Image (for a Manual "Image this disk").


I don't remember what choice I took at the beginning. Most likely, I highlighted the C drive (I have no System Reserved) and then simply poked "image this disk". That's my standard method in version 5 (rather than choosing "image all the partitions necessary to restore Windows" or whatever it is).

It may well be that what I did always leads to a full image, but within a screen or two I was faced with choices about differential and incremental, with no overt choice for "full". Likewise, I was faced with choices about scheduling when I had no interest in any schedule at all. Seems they could have opted for simple radio buttons to make those choices.

Did you set the Retention Rules in the Defaults ?

I set retention to 2 images just as a test. I then made 3 images over an hour. All 3 remained. I have no idea if that is normal, a glitch, or if my choice to retain 2 images was itself deleted when I attempted to delete my schedule.



I created my Recovery disc, ISO's, and bootloader with Win PE 5.

Did you use Win PE 5 on a Win 7 machine, against their suggestion to use Win PE 3?

Did your recovery media drop you into an interface IDENTICAL to what you see when opening Macrium from C? My recovery media made from Win PE 3 did not, which is clearly different from version 5 behavior.



I attempted to create a new recovery ISO with the Win PE 3.1. I selected PE 3, but it created the recovery iso with Win PE 5.

That would not give me confidence.


I'm very happy with the new auto-verify and boot-menu options, well worth the update for me.

I did not examine either of those features.

Most importantly, backup and restore has worked reliably for me.

Can I take that to mean that you in fact have used free version 6 to make and restore images made wtih free version 6? I made no restoration attempts.

Bottom line: I got rid of free 6 by doing a System Restore back to version 5.

The issues I saw were enough to put me off.

To accept 6 would have been to accept some uncertainty and confusion. In exchange for nothing whatsoever. No tangible improvements. For something as critical as system imaging, that's enough to say no.

I don't need the new features. Version 5 is working fine.

I tried version 6 only out of boredom and curiosity.

I will reexamine after I build a new PC late this year. Even then, I see no current reason to use version 6 unless version 5 is incompatible with Windows 10.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

V6 Free is starting to look attractive to replace my four license pack V5 Pro. Does anyone know what SSD Trim Support is?

Also, are the predefined templates the same as using XML files to make an image?