Solved Deleting a Macrium image in 8.1

Buddy · Jun 12, 2023

Apologies in advance for asking something that is probably obvious, but I'm not having much luck finding the answer in the Macrium User Guide. I have Image Guardian enabled and would prefer to leave it that way. When I tried to delete an image using File Explorer, IG blocked the deletion. I'm fine with that, but now I need to know how to delete it anyway. Google points me to stuff that seems to no longer exist in 8.1.

cereberus · Jun 12, 2023

Two ways:

1) delete it in Macrium Reflect by selecting existing backups tab, the right clicking on file you want to delete. Yiu can only delete one at a time this way.

2) Ensure Macrium Notifications are on, the when you get notification, click on settings in notification, then select to turn off image guardian and it gives option to temporarily turn it off. Then just delete file(s) in normal way with File Explorer.
You can delete multiple backups this way in one go.

DigitalGoat · Jun 12, 2023

I believe the method needed is to open Macrium, go to the existing backups tab and remove the image from there. You can also remove any then empty folders from Macriums list of backup locations as well. Or turn off image guardian, delete images, turn image guardian back on.

glasskuter · Jun 12, 2023

Under Other Tasks, I always temporarily turned off Image Guardian in order to delete an image. It's been a while since I worked with Guardian as I uninstalled it some time ago. If I remember correctly Guardian will turn itself back on automatically at reboot.

I work with a lot of images and found for me Image Guardian to be more trouble than it was worth. I alternate my images on 2 drives that are not connected to my computer until I have need to work with the images so I'm not too concerned with ransomware affecting both of them..

cereberus · Jun 12, 2023

DigitalGoat said:
I believe the method needed is to open Macrium, go to the existing backups tab and remove the image from there. You can also remove any then empty folders from Macriums list of backup locations as well. Or turn off image guardian, delete images, turn image guardian back on.

See my earlier post - beat you by 5 seconds lol.
You can temporarily turn off image guardian for as low as 1 minute from the Macrium notification (has to be enabled).

I find this very useful when deleting several in one go - within Reflect you can only delete one at a time, and it is a bit tedious confirming it, deleting it and closing the window.

Of course, deleting several in one go can be a bit dangerous if you brain is not in gear (nevere do it on a Monday morning lol).

cereberus · Jun 12, 2023

glasskuter said:
Under Other Tasks, you have to temporarily turn off Image Guardian in order to delete an image. It's been a while since I worked with Guardian as I uninstalled it some time ago. If I remember correctly Guardian will turn itself back on automatically at reboot.

I work with a lot of images and found for me Image Guardian to be more trouble than it was worth. I alternate my images on 2 drives that are not connected to my computer until I have need to work with the images so I'm not too concerned with ransomware affecting both of them..

Not quite true - see my earlier post.

glasskuter · Jun 12, 2023

cereberus said:
Not quite true

I corrected it to reflect what I did back in the day when Guardian drove me nuts.

Bree · Jun 12, 2023

DigitalGoat said:
I believe the method needed is to open Macrium, go to the existing backups tab and remove the image from there.

Yes, that works. Image Guardian allows Reflect to access the image files, but blocks anything else.

But I think @Buddy will find it more convenient to do as Cereberus says in method '2)' - click the Settings link at the bottom of the Image Guardian notification and turn it off temporarily. That's what I always do. A few minutes is usually all you'll need.

cereberus · Jun 12, 2023

glasskuter said:
I corrected it to reflect what I did back in the day when Guardian drove me nuts.

I used to feel same way but now with the ability to temporarily turn it off from notifications for a very short period was a really great improvement, and now I leave it on. The gain far exceeds the pain now.

I now have a more secure system with minimal hassle compared to a while back. You do not have to even remember to turn it back on after temporarily disabled.

Why not give it a whirl - you may be pleasantly surprised?

DigitalGoat · Jun 12, 2023

@cereberus lists the best methods for working with images.
I was working from memory (probably a bad idea at my age :)) since I stopped using all imaging, backup (except for manual backups of course, I'm not a monster) and compression methods a while ago.

Buddy · Jun 13, 2023

Thanks, all. @cereberus @DigitalGoat @Bree @glasskuter

I got the popup to go to MR settings when I tried to delete from File Explorer. I just didn't realize that selecting to turn off IG would go a level deeper and offer to turn it off for a brief period. That's handy.

Just now, I've had a look at how to delete under the Existing Backups tab. I learned something pretty neat there, that will save me having to delete one file at a time. If you select a full image which has subsequent incrementals attached to it, MR will let you delete all of them at once.

Either option looks workable to me, but I'm leaning toward doing it within MR, so it can keep whatever housekeeping it has properly in order.

Thanks again, all. I'm going to mark this one Solved.

Bree · Jun 13, 2023

Buddy said:
Just now, I've had a look at how to delete under the Existing Backups tab. I learned something pretty neat there, that will save me having to delete one file at a time. If you select a full image which has subsequent incrementals attached to it, MR will let you delete all of them at once.

Either option looks workable to me, but I'm leaning toward doing it within MR, so it can keep whatever housekeeping it has properly in order.

Glad you found a way that suits you. I'm mostly deleting a Full that doesn't have incrementals, so turning off from the IG notification suits me better.

Chrysalis · Jul 6, 2023

I am going to turn it back on, not sure why its off on my system it used to be on, but good to see they have temporarily disable feature on it now.

Solved Deleting a Macrium image in 8.1

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