Macrium Reflect 8 Update Discussion

cereberus · 16 Feb 2021

Stigg said:

It is super reliable. Overall, v6 has been the most consistently reliable version that I have ever used.
I've been using Reflect for a very long time.

The point is that it is reliable for your particular needs and your hardware.

I have a number of V7 licences which work fine for me, but I want to move to zv8 for my main device as it has new features which are of use to me. I will continue to use V7 on other devices.

pietcorus2 · 16 Feb 2021

Will keep using my "golden" 7 resque-media , maybe later switch to 8 , after a few 8-versions later ............

FroggyTheGremli · 16 Feb 2021

Greetings all, new user here AND an official member of the Macrium REFLECT Beta Test group (not an employee). It appears that thanks to @John-Boy (based on above posts), a test installer has made it into the wild... this is not a good thing for many reasons. Wild testing produces nothing of value for the DEV team at this stage since there's no official feedback mechanism available to general users concerning the Beta. The initial Public Beta (which we are in currently) was offered privately to both IT-based folks and some very knowledgeable general users (specific users with special interests in certain features of the application). So far this has produced extremely useful feedback to Macrium's developers. It will continue in this manner for the foreseeable future.

The current Beta release is full of unnecessary logging features to assist the developers, and as such will affect the performance of the product. It also contains known bugs moving forward and has additional features to be Beta tested with future Beta releases. I would advise not using the Beta (or sharing such) at this point in its development... due to the nature of the known bugs, performance issues and future testing requirements. To have something this deprecated in its performance and reliability running around in the wild is definitely a bad thing during this stage of testing, especially for the "un-ofishul" users of the product.

The testing is moving along very nicely at this point... hopefully really positive results by the end of the calendar quarter.

kado897 · 16 Feb 2021

FroggyTheGremli said:

Greetings all, new user here AND an official member of the Macrium REFLECT Beta Test group (not an employee). It appears that thanks to @John-Boy (based on above posts), a test installer has made it into the wild... this is not a good thing for many reasons. Wild testing produces nothing of value for the DEV team at this stage since there's no official feedback mechanism available to general users concerning the Beta. The initial Public Beta (which we are in currently) was offered privately to both IT-based folks and some very knowledgeable general users (specific users with special interests in certain features of the application). So far this has produced extremely useful feedback to Macrium's developers. It will continue in this manner for the foreseeable future.

The current Beta release is full of unnecessary logging features to assist the developers, and as such will affect the performance of the product. It also contains known bugs moving forward and has additional features to be Beta tested with future Beta releases. I would advise not using the Beta (or sharing such) as this point in its development... due to the nature of the known bugs, performance issues and future testing requirements. To have something this deprecated in its performance and reliability running around in the wild is definitely a bad thing during this stage of testing, especially for the "un-ofishul" users of the product.

The testing is moving along very nicely at this point... hopefully really positive results by the end of the calendar quarter.

Thanks for the update. Your point is noted.

Bree · 16 Feb 2021

FroggyTheGremli said:

Greetings all, new user here AND an official member of the Macrium REFLECT Beta Test group (not an employee). It appears that thanks to @John-Boy (based on above posts), a test installer has made it into the wild... this is not a good thing for many reasons...

Thank you for your input. Yes, your points are well made.

I'm sure you can appreciate that those of us not invited onto the Beta Test program would grab any chance to see what's in store for v8 once released. For my part I've only installed it in one VM. I was keen to see how the UI had been improved, and how feasible it would be to be to keep some of my machines on their registered v7 Home, while migrating a few of the others (initially one that's using Free) to v8 on release. Thereafter the question would be whether all my v7 licences would need to be upgraded to v8 simultaneously, or would it be feasible to do it gradually.

Having satisfied myself that a gradual migration to v8 would be possible, I'll happily remove it from my VM and wait patiently for the official release.

pietcorus2 · 16 Feb 2021

" after a few 8-versions later ............

"....................

FroggyTheGremli · 23 Feb 2021

A quick update on REFLECT v8... initial release was at Build #5521 and current release (yesterday) was at Build #5658. Lots of issues discovered and fixed (nothing major, I believe). Since it's quieting down significantly within the Beta test group, for this phase anyway, it looks like things are pretty solid right now. Personally I'm testing the new USB imaging capability at the moment (something I've always wanted in this product) so that I may manage the myriad of UFDs I have. I'll keep you posted.

All seems to be going very well right now...

kado897 · 23 Feb 2021

FroggyTheGremli said:

A quick update on REFLECT v8... initial release was at Build #5521 and current release (yesterday) was at Build #5658. Lots of issues discovered and fixed (nothing major, I believe). Since it's quieting down significantly within the Beta test group, for this phase anyway, it looks like things are pretty solid right now. Personally I'm testing the new USB imaging capability at the moment (something I've always wanted in this product) so that I may manage the myriad of UFDs I have. I'll keep you posted.

All seems to be going very well right now...

Thanks for the update Froggie.

f14tomcat · 23 Feb 2021

FroggyTheGremli said:

A quick update on REFLECT v8... initial release was at Build #5521 and current release (yesterday) was at Build #5658. Lots of issues discovered and fixed (nothing major, I believe). Since it's quieting down significantly within the Beta test group, for this phase anyway, it looks like things are pretty solid right now. Personally I'm testing the new USB imaging capability at the moment (something I've always wanted in this product) so that I may manage the myriad of UFDs I have. I'll keep you posted.

All seems to be going very well right now...

Thanks for the update from someone "down in the trenches".

Much appreciated.

How does the Dark Theme look? I have eye issues and am very much looking forward to it. Already bought a 4-pack of V7 to use instead of upgrading existing v7s.

Bree · 23 Feb 2021

f14tomcat said:

How does the Dark Theme look? I have eye issues and am very much looking forward to it.....

Personally I prefer light themes, but there are plenty of screenshots publicly available in the Knowledgebase. Looks good, if that's your thing.

Dark Theme - Knowledgebase 8.0 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase

I believe that the v8 Beta recovery media doesn't have a dark theme. @FroggyTheGremli may be able to confirm if this is the case, and if that's intended to change for the release.