I went to the Macrium website to download Macrium Reflect and found that there is a "trial" version and a "full" version. I've seen it posted on this forum that Macrium Reflect is free, but this doesn't seem to be accurate. Am I missing something?
Hi there
I notice a lot more sites are doing this these days --making the FREE versions harder to find. The worst offenders also remove USEFUL features from previously Free software and say you have to "Go Pro" -- i.e PAY for what was previously a free feature so watch links carefully !!!
For example the old Wondershare video converter could copy say from m2ts to mkv / mp4 in lossless conversion - the newer releases lossless conversion is a PAID FOR extra !!!!!!. Version 8.6.0 still has the feature but any later --it's PAY or find something else. !!!!
Cheers
jimbo
Actually, no.
In fact, the new free version (v6) of MR provides options that were only available in the Pro (i.e., paid) older versions. One example is the WinPE boot option, another is the ability to make WinPE boot media -- whereas the older versions only allowed you to make Linux boot media.
Hi there @Fred22
Free Macrium is definitely one of the Better versions of DECENT FREE software that doesn't keep pestering you to upgrade -- many people on this Forum use it regularly --including me.
I've tried various backup / recovery software in the past including ACRONIS which I gave up at about Acronis True Image 2012 or thereabouts due to incredible bloatware and horrendous activation issues.
I've found FREE MACRIUM entirely reliable and efficient too. -- Note though it's essentially a BACKUP solution so you can really only image or clone entire HDD's -you can mount the image too if you just want to extract a particular file etc.
For ARCHIVE (i.e DATA storage that doesn't change much such as say Music / local video) I have this on NAS servers which I backup regularly with a Linux program Backup Edge which archives regularly to 2 X 6 TB external drives housed in Hornetek enclosures - 2 X 2 3TB HD in each drive.
I'm using the newer faster version of this product with USB3 connection but the spec is similar to this one.
HornetTek X2-RAID Dual Bay 3.5-inch eSATA/USB 2.0 Enclosure
Depending on your needs mass storage is really cheap these days - you have to balance your view of the cost / plausibility of re-creating your data vs cost of storage. I always like to have 2 copies of backup in case of failure / loss / destruction etc etc.
Re-ripping over 4,000 CD's accumulated over the years plus other music would be HORRENDOUS vs cost of a bit of extra storage.
Cheers
jimbno
I want to download Macrium Reflect, but since I've never used disc imaging, I'm completely ignorant of the process. Once you download Macrium to your computer, where do you keep it? Obviously not on your computer. Can someone explain the process from downloading to creating a disc image. I'd really appreciate this information.
Hi, I don't think anyone's going to type all that out for you... but you can read all about it here:
Macrium Reflect Quick Start - KnowledgeBase - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase
A disk image is a file which is a compressed version of a disk or disks, partition or partitions.
It can be mounted and explored, files can be extracted.
And the disk image file can be expanded and written to a disk to create a copy of the original disk or disks, partition or partitions that were imaged.
Disk images can be kept up to date by having a sequence of images, starting with the first big base image, and smaller images representing the changes from the base image. (Differential - difference from the base image- and incremental - changes from the last incremental image). So you can restore images created at many different dates if you have 1 base image and many differential or incremental images.
Like any backup, the images are stored away from your PC.
There's the installed program and a boot disk.
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