Question about Macrium Reflect

trashbag · 15 Oct 2018

Better late than never, but I've finally started using backup/cloning software, namely Macrium Reflect considering all the praise it gets.

But I need to ask, is downloading the PE files used for creating a restore USB necessary if I'm just going to be cloning my drive?

From what I understand, the restore USB is for situations where the system cannot boot whatsoever, so the rescue USB is used to put me at a point where I can restore from an image. But the image can still be used to restore as long as I can boot my computer normally to the point that I can run the Macrium software. And a clone is simply a perfect clone on another drive.

If whatever disaster occurs and I can't boot on my usual drive, I could just replace the problematic drive with the cloned drive and everything would be the exact same as when I created the clone, right?

dalchina · 15 Oct 2018

Looking at this from a different angle:

By only cloning (and having one a copy at one point in time, you are missing out on
a. the ability to go back to different points in time (e.g. base + any differential image)
b. the reduced time to create a differential (or incremental or delta - paid) image

Why is (a) of interest? You may discover a problem, and not know when it originated. With multiple time points for potential restoration you have more chances.

Of course, there is always the risk that the origin of any problem predates your earliest image. It's then a question of probability.

trashbag · 15 Oct 2018

I'm most likely going to do a clean reinstall anyways to stamp out any potential issues that probably don't even exist in my current installation anyways (I haven't encountered any issues, and I'm honestly pretty hypochondriac about this sorta stuff. I typically only install all the programs I use right after I reinstall; I don't install new programs or change system settings often whatsoever. So I'm planning on finishing the setup stuff, and then cloning that drive.

I keep personal files on another drive that I'm not going to clone anyways since I keep backups of the stuff on there elsewhere so I don't need to worry about that.

Could you confirm that an image can still be used as long as the computer can boot to the point of being able to run the Macrium program?

dalchina · 15 Oct 2018

Restoring a system image - KnowledgeBase - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase

- shows the sequence when the disk is in use. So yes.

Macrium usefully has extensive documentation accessible online and via the program.

In this case I used Google:
"macrium restoring an image"

The boot disk has some other uses, including a very useful Fixboot utility.
MR is also available on Kyhi's boot disk, if you have that (top of the Software and Apps section)