Macrium Reflect only keeping one full image file

Using Macrium Reflect v 7 Free version which was just patched today. Windows10 1909 laptop. I have a definition file to image all of the partitions of a laptop drive to an external USB hard drive. The image is 302GB and the drive with one image saved to it has 628GB free. I have Macrium only do full images manually i.e. no schedule. I had the the job set to delete the oldest file when there was less than 300GB free on the destination USB drive.

Ever since Macrium was being used on this computer it has never had multiple full backups on the external drive. There has only been the last backup file in the USB drive. I have checked the log files and see no mention of Macrium purging files. It always reports that there is only 1 set found on the destination.

Anyone know if there is an issue of just doing Full Images of a drive without any differential backups and having multiple full backups?

I do full backups only. Manually only.

I have never used the "delete when free space is below whatever", so I can't comment on that.

Instead, I just tell Macrium to keep the most recent 2 images, without any reference to their size or how much space is available or left.

You might try something like that, assuming you have an idea of how many images you want to keep.

It sounds like you have a 1 TB backup drive with about 928 GB usable. If your image files are about 302 GB, the drive can't hold can't hold more than 3 and might soon only be able to hold 2.

Ya I have Macrium set to keep 2 Full backups. I wonder if its something to do with the delete if less than 300GB free setting. I am totally puzzled why I never see more than 1 full backup on the external hard drive.

Undo the "delete if less than 300 GB" setting.

Just go with the "keep 2 images" setting.

That's exactly what I do.

No issues at all.

I can only guess there is some sort of a conflict between those 2 settings somewhere inside Macrium's code. I've only used one of the two.

Come to think of it, here's my idea of why:

You have 2 images. You try to make a third, assuming 1 will be deleted first.

But the deletion only occurs AFTER the third image is completed. Macrium is complaining that it doesn't have room for 3 images--because you are severely crowding the 928 GB when you try to put three images of over 300 GB on the drive.

If your images were 250 GB, it might allow you to make the 3rd image because that wouldn't crowd 928. It would allow three 250s and then delete the oldest 250, leaving 500 free.

snowbound said:

I have Macrium only do full images manually i.e. no schedule. I had the the job set to delete the oldest file when there was less than 300GB free on the destination USB drive.

Anyone know if there is an issue of just doing Full Images of a drive without any differential backups and having multiple full backups?

No issue at all. One of my machines has more than half a dozen full images (it's a little netbook, so the images are small enough to keep many).

If you are only running the backup definition manually (as I do) then there is little point in ticking any of the boxes for retention rules. They are only of real benefit if you are automating the imaging with a schedule. You wouldn't want a scheduled image to fail for lack of space on the destination. If you're relying on scheduling you may not notice the drive is too full for quite some time.

For a manual backup with all purging turned off it is then up to you to make sure there's enough space before you start.