Macrium Reflect 8 Update Discussion

cereberus said:

Just tested V8 on my new i7 laptop with 36 GB on main optane nvme SSD backing up to second nmve ssd at different compression levels.

None - 2.0 mins 36 GB
Medium - 2.5 mins 20 GB
High - 5.0 mins 19 GB

There is little time difference between None and Medium, and Medium uses a lot less space.

High is much slower, and does not save much.

So default medium is clearly best for me.

Of course, these figures will vary a lot depending on pc, type of drive, what is stored etc.

When I did these tests on an old laptop with a spinning HDD, the None actually took longer than medium due to slow writing.

I have tested several devices down the years, and I have always concluded Medium give best balance between speed and storage.

I did a similar test way back on V5 I think and came to the same conclusion. Good to know that it is still the same.

I set MR to make incremental backup every day at 9AM and Differential at 9:20AM. That works fine if PC is on and in W10 but if I miss having W10 on or PC is off then it waits until next day. Is there a way to set it up so it just do it when I'm logged in after that time ?

CountMike said:

I set MR to make incremental backup every day at 9AM and Differential at 9:20AM. That works fine if PC is on and in W10 but if I miss having W10 on or PC is off then it waits until next day. Is there a way to set it up so it just do it when I'm logged in after that time ?

Yes Mike. If you edit the schedule and press the conditions button there is a checkbox to run the task when you log back on.

kado897 said:

Yes Mike. If you edit the schedule and press the conditions button there is a checkbox to run the task when you log back on.

I believe this is the default setting and it works for me

Steve C said:

I believe this is the default setting and it works for me

It's so long ago that I set mine up and at a time when it used the windows Task Scheduler that I can't remember the default.

Thank you guys, for some reason it wasn't on by default and to be frank (not Frank ), I didn't even see those settings.

CountMike said:

Thank you guys, for some reason it wasn't on by default and to be frank (not Frank ), I didn't even see those settings.

kado897 said:

Yes Mike. If you edit the schedule and press the conditions button there is a checkbox to run the task when you log back on.

One criticism I have is the way incrementals and differentials are chained.

Try this, create a full, then an inc, then a diff, then a new inc

Logically 2nd inc should link to first inc, with diff being independent.


That is not how it works.

The second inc gets chained to the previous diff.


So doing an inc at 9.00 am and then a diff at 9.20 each day is a bit pointless

All you are doing is creating lots of single diff + single inc mini chains.

The inc at 9 am links to previous diff, and then you create new diff. The inc basically gets superseded by new diff.



To me a more logical is incs daily, diffs weekly, full monthly.

So if you cannot exactly remember how far to go back (say you think is over a week you need to go back), you can go back (say) two weeks with diff, then step forward daily till you get where you want.







See below.

cereberus said:

One criticism I have is the way incrementals and differentials are chained.

Try this, create a full, then an inc, then a diff, then a new inc

Logically 2nd inc should link to first inc, with diff being independent.


That is not how it works.

The second inc gets chained to the previous diff.


So doing an inc at 9.00 am and then a diff at 9.20 each day is a bit pointless

All you are doing is creating lots of single diff + single inc mini chains.

The inc at 9 am links to previous diff, and then you create new diff. The inc basically gets superseded by new diff.



To me a more logical is incs daily, diffs weekly, full monthly.

So if you cannot exactly remember how far to go back (say you think is over a week you need to go back), you can go back (say) two weeks with diff, then step forward daily till you get where you want.







See below.

I think it's done that way to keep the incremental chain as short as possible. I do a full each Saturday and differentials all other days. I only use incrementals for "out of band" backups such as after Windows Updates so my incremental chain is nearly always just the one.

cereberus said:

One criticism I have is the way incrementals and differentials are chained.

Try this, create a full, then an inc, then a diff, then a new inc

Logically 2nd inc should link to first inc, with diff being independent.


That is not how it works.

The second inc gets chained to the previous diff.


So doing an inc at 9.00 am and then a diff at 9.20 each day is a bit pointless

All you are doing is creating lots of single diff + single inc mini chains.

The inc at 9 am links to previous diff, and then you create new diff. The inc basically gets superseded by new diff.



To me a more logical is incs daily, diffs weekly, full monthly.

So if you cannot exactly remember how far to go back (say you think is over a week you need to go back), you can go back (say) two weeks with diff, then step forward daily till you get where you want.







See below.

I was trying to make it KISS but still redundant after which I copy incremental on one and differential to another external disk and each has one copy of full backup too.
That's because I'm not clear which kind of backup would be more beneficial and then use only that.
What do you guys do ?