Acronis True Image vs Macrium Reflect

Clintlgm · 24 Jan 2020

michaelinfla said:

I was a dedicated Acronis user for more than ten versions thru many more years... It saved me hundreds of hours of restoration efforts when something in my Windows system acted up.
I built an over-kill backup system around Acronis - Backups on the computer, on removable drives, in the safe and in the bank; dozens of them. I tested them and I felt rock-solid ! Then, after many similar restores, a couple of years ago i needed to restore my Windows system and Acronis would not accept ANY of the backups for restore; something to do with changes to the disk layout. So i added disk images to my backups - Disappointed but I continued with Acronis. Last month i decided to us Windows EFS encryption on my documents folder. I tested backup and restore may times without issue - I felt rock solid ! Wrong - While restoring my Windows system using the obscure Acronis boot disk interface I overlaid my Documents. I was not concerned; I had dozens of tested backups. I was able to restore the Documents folder easily - BUT only to discover that every file was blank!!! Unbelievable - Fortunately I had only started using EFS a month ago and so lost only a month of data. But I rarely restore documents, if I had not made the early mistake of overlaying the Documents it could have been years - I would have lost EVERYTHING !!!
That was the last straw- Tested backups failing me when needed... I have switched to Marcium Reflect 7 Home and have been testing it extensively for the past week - The user interface took some getting used to and now I am very happy with it!
So I say Adios Acronis :)
PS-
I have switched from EFS encryption to BitLocker; BitLocker is a far better/simpler solution for most...

However I found out the error of my ways with Acronis with my first UEFI in 2012 and still kept Acronis on my MBR computers until 2015 when I moved everything to UEFI at that time Acronis still had not solved the issue of restoring a UEFI GPT disk image and have it boot up. I found Macrium I believe it was Ver 5 back then it worked first time and every time since having restored many many disk Images and Partition images I have use MR to move data from a old hard drive to new and rescued individual files from Data back up. I also use it for my local back up strategy again without a single failure in the last 8 years using Ver 5, 6, and 7, Participating in several Forums from what I see all other Image Back up software programs, have issues for some people. While MR has a few times over the years had some issues. The difference is when they do, they get on immediately and if my memory serves me well its never taken them more than 24 hours to have them issues solved. Compare that record with Acronis!!! I always recommend Macrium Reflect every chance I get.

michaelinfla · 21 Apr 2021

Replying a little late-
I encrypt using bitlocker so that should my computer be stolen, the SSD cannot be reinstalled in a thief's computer and read.
I keep my 200gb of files on my desktop for convenience and speed; which external drives cannot provide.

jimbo45 said:

Hi folks

Couple of points here

1) After installing ANY backup product surely the FIRST THING to do is test it -- If you are too scared to do it on a Real machine then try it on a VM -- Make the image, create the bootable restore media , re-format the system disk in the VM / create a new one, boot the recovery media and restore. If it works on a VM then try on the real machine --you need to test it sooner or later -- no good relying on this for weeks only to discover restores don't work. Doesn't matter what software you use --principle is the same. Then if you want check similar procedure to CLONE disks.

This testing should be repeated any time basic infrastructure of machine changed too including encryption methods -- if you are bonkers enough to use encryption then check restores work also after any updates

2) why on earth do people bother to encrypt their documents folders especially on HOME computers -- if it's that important store the wretched stuff off line on a USB thumb / external HDD/SSD --these days cheap storage is so available --if it's not on the net or online it can't be hacked. !!

Cheers
jimbo

Clintlgm · 21 Apr 2021

michaelinfla said:

Replying a little late-
I encrypt using bitlocker so that should my computer be stolen, the SSD cannot be reinstalled in a thief's computer and read.
I keep my 200gb of files on my desktop for convenience and speed; which external drives cannot provide.

Actually you can, A NVME SSD in a USB 3.0 Gen 2 external case or adapter is faster than any hard drive and nearly as fast as an interval SSD. 3 x faster than a internal SATA SSD

Hmm 200GB on your desktop? How much ram do you have? Surly you have all of it filled and the rest is being stored in Virtual Memory on your Main hard drive/SSD?

I don't encrypt, do to the hassles of any kind of failure. So not sure how Bit Locker works or if MR can Image and restore