Is Macrium Reflect still the best backup software, hands down?

syga said:

Just found out the digital license actually is tied to the version. Found this on the Microsoft website:

If you’re signed in using the correct Microsoft account, here are some additional reasons why you can’t reactivate Windows:

• The edition of Windows on your device doesn’t match the edition of Windows you linked to your digital license.

Do not confuse 'Version' with 'Edition'. The MS site is talking about matching the Edition to your digital licence - the Edition means: Home, Pro, Home Single language, Home N, Pro N, etc.

The Version is a completely different thing, any edition could be version 1507, 1511, 1607, 1703, 1709 or 1803.

The digital licence is actually tied to the Edition. It won't activate your restored windows if it is the wrong Edition, but it should not matter which Version you restore,

Bree said:

Do not confuse 'Version' with 'Edition'. The MS site is talking about matching the Edition to your digital licence - the Edition means: Home, Pro, Home Single language, Home N, Pro N, etc.

The Version is a completely different thing, any edition could be version 1507, 1511, 1607, 1703, 1709 or 1803.

The digital licence won't activate your restored windows if it is the wrong Edition, but it should not matter which Version you restore,

Absolutely 100%

When I upgraded from Free to the paid Home version and I had to restore a image back when I was using the Free version all I did was uninstall the Free version and installed the paid Home version with my license and had no issues with activation.

cytherian said:

Thanks for all the advice... sorry to see the thread got hijacked by some clowns, but at least the main purpose was achieved. I installed Macrium Reflect on her computer and set it up to do incremental backups. She's by no means a power user and she's really just concerned with backing up her media files, contacts, and shortcuts. So, the increments should be quite small.

This may be covered somewhere already, but when Macrium makes a backup, does it naturally exclude temp files and cache or do you have to be explicit about the exclusion?

If you make an image, nothing is excluded. The image is an exact replica of the drive (or partition) you are backing up and you cannot select which files to backup. This is done when you do a File backup.
File Backup is not possible with the Free version.
If you have the Home (or any paid version) of Macrium Reflect, then you have the ability to do a File Backup and include (or exclude) anything you want.

SIW2 said:

That is not the case. Most imaging programs automatically exclude certain things. Very few allow you to define your own exclusions.

DiskGenius, O&O DiskImage and Paragon have that feature. I would suggest getting the O&O Diskimage 11 Pro , because they are giving it away at the moment. It is useful to have in your toolbox as bootable media, as it has features not often found elsewhere. Even if you don't use it as your regular imaging program - it might come in handy at some point.

He's talking about Macrium Reflect! Not how imaging works in general.

cytherian said:

I installed Macrium Reflect on her computer and set it up to do incremental backups. She's by no means a power user and she's really just concerned with backing up her media files, contacts, and shortcuts. So, the increments should be quite small.

This may be covered somewhere already, but when Macrium makes a backup, does it naturally exclude temp files and cache or do you have to be explicit about the exclusion?

For those of you who have indicated Macrium is your preference, I have Macrium Reflect Home Edition 6.3 Pro installed. Should I upgrade to Version 7, are there enough improvements to justify the cost of the upgrade?