Macrium issues...

taid · 13 Nov 2023

I am trialling Macrium Reflect v8.0.7690 - again. I've tried Macrium before but never been really happy with it as I found the interface very confusing - too much information, too many options... Perhaps it's more suited to someone more knowledgeable than me...

Initially I'm cloning my laptop's internal M.2 drive to an extenal M.2 drive in an usb housing. The clone appears to complete as intended taking ~8 minutes. When I do a one-time-boot and run the laptop from the external M.2 drive the laptop boots up ok, taking slightly longer than from the internal drive as expected. However there's a problem.

Clicking on the Start icon bottom left of the screen has no effect so I have no access to any of the options that would normally be offered. I've uninstaled and reinstalled Macrium but that's made no difference.

Macrium copies the source disc's name so for example if the source disc is called 'System' then the clone will also carry the same name. If both discs are of the same size using File Explorer can be a bit confusing... I did notice someone bought this issue up in the Macrium forums some time ago but at the time there was no suggessted means of not changing the destination disk's name.

I have also had an issue where after cloning I have been unable to eject the external M.2, Windows reporting that the drive was in use by another programme. This has happened haphazardly however and I'm unable to duplicate the effect. I went for years just removing items from usb ports and 'never' following the suggested ejecting procedure without any problems but recently I've become quite compulsive about doing this correctly... Maybe I should just yank the drive out as before...!

dalchina · 13 Nov 2023

Hi, it could be helpful to understand why you're choosing to clone the drive.

E.g. Do you wish to replace/upgrade the drive in your PC? Put in in a different PC?

Disk imaging is a quite different procedure, as you may be aware.. meaning you can build up a set of image files of different dates on a single external disk, for example, and thus be able to restore the partitions imaged to one of several different dates.

8 minutes to clone seems short.. how much used space are you imaging?

Yes, MR's interface takes a little getting used to, most particularly when creating e.g. differential images.

I have also had an issue where after cloning I have been unable to eject the external M.2, Windows reporting that the drive was in use by another programme.

I presume you had shut Macrium down.. personally I use USB Safely Remove which lets me see what is using the disk and gives me options for terminating those processes.

Thanks.

taid · 13 Nov 2023

Dalchina, thanks for your input.

This laptop is really a plaything - it has nothing of great value installed - I use it to browse and listen to music on YouTube - and for trying out various software - including cloning software - and for trying to learn more about W10 !! I'm really trying to get to grips with Macrium and initially I see no real benefit in making a number of image files as with a clone I can swop drives in a minute or two if necessary... We've discussed clones/images and the merits of same on a few ocassions and I greatly repect your advice but for now I remain a cloner. But I may still change...Horses for courses.

The laptop's drive has ~ GBs so I assume ~8 minutes to clone is reasonable?

Thanks again.

- - - Updated - - -

>>> The laptop's drive has ~ GBs so I assume ~8 minutes to clone is reasonable? <<<

oops - that should have read:-

The laptop's drive has ~ 35GBs.................