Macrium Reflect and 1803 update...

Cr00zng · 09 May 2018

On my system, the Reflect's "Recovery Boot Menu Option" is enabled, via "Windows PE 10.0 menu (64 Bit). Doing so allows to boot directly from the system drive to Reflect recovery environment, instead of booting from a USB based recovery environment. Basically, it's a dual-boot option. Yes, I do have a USB stick for this purpose as well.

Windows update to 1803 is a major update, would the Reflect boot option interfere with the 1803 update? Just trying to minimize the possible "gotchas" prior to running the Windows update.

TIA...

EdTittel · 09 May 2018

It should have no impact on your upgrade installation. I've done the Feature Upgrade since 1511 or thereabouts on machines which have the Macrium Recovery partition present. Of the 8 machines I've upgraded to 1803 recently, 6 of them have the Macrium Recovery partition present.
HTH,
--Ed--

Cr00zng · 09 May 2018

Thanks Ed, I'll do the same then. The system is imaged on a daily basis, rolling back won't be much of an issues...

phrab · 09 May 2018

Cr00zng said:

On my system, the Reflect's "Recovery Boot Menu Option" is enabled, via "Windows PE 10.0 menu (64 Bit). Doing so allows to boot directly from the system drive to Reflect recovery environment, instead of booting from a USB based recovery environment. Basically, it's a dual-boot option. Yes, I do have a USB stick for this purpose as well.

Windows update to 1803 is a major update, would the Reflect boot option interfere with the 1803 update? Just trying to minimize the possible "gotchas" prior to running the Windows update.

TIA...

You didn't ask this, but be careful if you try to restore from Macrium Reflect. They corrected an error a few days ago & recent backups are OK. However, backups starting April 17 to their latest patch are corrupt. I restored on May 5th & couldn't boot up. When I found a backup that would restore, even though it was corrupt, I had numerous problems with Windows. I fortunately had a backup from Acronis True Image dated 4/12/18 & was able to restore.

telepro21 · 10 May 2018

Here is a link to the Macrium article on the error that was discovered and corrected:
Corrupt Incremental or Differential Image Files - KnowledgeBase v7 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase - KnowledgeBase v7 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase

cereberus · 10 May 2018

phrab said:

You didn't ask this, but be careful if you try to restore from Macrium Reflect. They corrected an error a few days ago & recent backups are OK. However, backups starting April 17 to their latest patch are corrupt. I restored on May 5th & couldn't boot up. When I found a backup that would restore, even though it was corrupt, I had numerous problems with Windows. I fortunately had a backup from Acronis True Image dated 4/12/18 & was able to restore.

That bug only affected Change Block Tracker which is not used in Free version. I do not even have it enabled in Home version.

It only affected incremental and differential backups, not the full backup.

AddRAM · 10 May 2018

I was using the latest version of Macrium ( I only do full backups ) and at the end at 99% done, it was taking an unusually long time to finish up and give me the successfully done window.

So I went back to version 6.3.1855 and it`s working perfectly. (On the Z170)

I will have to run version 7.1 on the X299 and see how it performs.

phrab · 10 May 2018

AddRAM said:

I will have to run version 7.1 on the X299 and see how it performs.

If you reinstall version 7, it will update to the latest patch. I haven't tried a restore, but they say they've fixed the problem.

AddRAM · 10 May 2018

Ya it just installed the Patch on the X299, so it`s now version 7.1.3196

It saved the image in 2 minutes, and seemed to work fine.

But, as stated, who knows if it`s ok until we go to use that backup.

Darn it, I ran the backup before I installed the new nVidia driver

But that`s ok, it`s not like I`ll run out of space :)

jimbo45 · 11 May 2018

Hi there

I never do incrementals / differentials with Macrium -- I simply image the OS regularly with the free version so the issue doesn't arise.

For data backup I simply share the windows data directories I want to backup with my NAS server and run GRSYNC (GUI version of the Linux rsync function) which does exactly what I want including scanning entire directories etc etc.

However this thread brings home an important point -- that backups should be checked regularly.

It's no point taking image backups daily if they don't restore properly when needed.

From time to time you should test the restore - better still try a "bare metal" recovery every so often.

If nervous about running on a "live" or your main machine try on a spare one if you have one -- don't worry about Windows activation as all you need to see if the OS will boot after restore -- even the hardware doesn't have to be identical. If this machine boots then your backup image is OK.

Cheers
jimbo