Macrium Reflect

[patio]

The issue of not having proper backups comes up here more than we care to see.
A solid backup strategy would solve most people's woes and make things easier so you will often see me recommending my image program of choice Acronis True Image.
There are others such as Norton Ghost or Paragon but these are paid apps and some people are on a budget...

Along comes a FREE solution called Macrium Reflect

On first try it backed up a 150G partition about 1/3 full in approx. 6 minutes...this seemed too good to be true.
Stored the image on a secondary partition and wiped C:
Created a bootable CD using their tool and re-booted to the CD.
Reflect loaded asked which image file i wanted to restore and to where. I pointed it to the C: partition (Vista Ultimate X64) and let it do it's thing.
Less than 10 minutes later it says it's done.

I hesitated and then removed the boot CD and re-booted. BOOM ! Back into Vista with no glitches at all...programs , data, all intact and running perfectly.

Since i'm used to paying for a product to take care of this regular chore needless to say i was impressed !

However there are some features you won't be able to use in the FREE Edition...some of these may be important others not...

Windows Server 2003 compatibility    

File and Folder backup        

Differential disk images and backups        

Incremental disk images and backups        

VBScript Generator        

Email notifications        

Password Protection        

AES Encrypion        

Auto Verify Images        

Run programs before or after backup        

Shut down PC after backup        

Windows system event log support        

Windows PE 2.0 Rescue CD with RAID support        

Windows boot menu        

Technical support by email and forum access        

Commercial/Business use

A few other observations:
It wants to give it's own file name to each image created...make sure to create your own so they can be tracked; burned to CD/DVD etc.
It wants to save to the last folder/partition it used. Not such a big deal unless you move/swap drives and partitions around as much as i do...so pay attention to where the image is being saved to.
The info on using it a Bart's PE enviornment are OK but incomplete...however these can be found at the Bart's site anyways.

Overall Score : I'd have to give this one a 9 out of 10 as a FREE alternative to the paid apps out there. It's a solid performer without alot of bells and whistles...just what i look for in software.

Conclusion: Although for my needs the missing features are a drawback so it won't replace ATI for me but for ALL others out there that are stubborn or putting off backups you now have NO EXCUSE.
Get it now. No telling how long the FREE version will be around.

patio

02_19_09

Step by Step Guide

Reason for edit:  Tutorial added

Kudos to Broni.

[patio]

An added tip i neglected to mention...
Image files should always be verified by the app that created them before being relied upon as backups...most people skip this time consuming step.
Always store them on a partition/drive that does NOT get de-fragmented....this will ruin a good image file.

patio.

[patio]

See i told you people ignore backups....

[BC_Programmer]

remember when backing up that your reverse lights are on.

[patio]

Macrium Reflect suprisingly enough does this automatically...i had never seen those white lights on my hard drives prior to this...

[BC_Programmer]

I got hit by a trailer that was reversing. I didn't see any white lights, then it hit me, and I did.


In any case your quite right in declaring that people don't do backups. I myself am in the "too lazy" sub-group, despite losing copious amounts of work as a result of not having a backup.

However you have driven me to perform this "backup" thing people speak so highly of. I better not be all sticky afterwards. I hate when that happens.

[patio]

Trust me...you'll do fine.
No stickiness i promise.

[raffles]

thanx for the heads up, as I suspected vista falls short on backup. love this forum....

[BC_Programmer]

I would also like to post back... I was in fact not sticky afterwards. However I felt a certain emptiness... so I ate a sandwich.

[patio]

PBJ ? ?

With bananas ?

[BC_Programmer]

well, actually, yes, PBJ.

However this caused an interesting conundrum- I got jam on myself, and thus ended up sticky anyway.

[patio]

I KNEW it ! !