If Macrium Reflect X is too expensive, what will you switch to?

ian50 said:

When booted from a USB as an independent winPE programme, Macrium 8.1 (paid) has two features I find invaluable. Neither Hasleo nor Aomei have these, at least as yet. (I cannot speak for Macrium 10, but these features are also present in Macrium 7, paid).

1) a menu item to repair C:\ boot problems in a recovered image. It works within 20 seconds and has helped me several times, or more.

2) a menu item for deploying an image for recovery on different hardware to that on which the image was initially done. While this is not necessarily universally reliable, it has worked perfectly for me a number of times.

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Still works in the old Free v8 version of Macrium. Also the stand alone version has a WinPE / WinRE command facility. To re-create the boot loader simply boot the stand alone recovery, enter diskpart, assign the efi partition to say "S", and if the Windows partition is on say drive W then exit diskpart and simply type cd w:\windows\system32, w:, bcdboot w:/windows /s:S /f UEFI and re-boot.

You can also restore images to unlike hardware -- windows is quite sophisticated in finding and updating drivers -- save any special ones though on an accessible file too. I've used this method for copying VM's to REAL hardware -- although in a lot of cases you'll need to (re-)activate Windows again.

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Still works in the old Free v8 version of Macrium. Also the stand alone version has a WinPE / WinRE command facility. To re-create the boot loader simply boot the stand alone recovery, enter diskpart, assign the efi partition to say "S", and if the Windows partition is on say drive W then exit diskpart and simply type cd w:\windows\system32, w:, bcdboot w:/windows /s:S /f UEFI and re-boot.

You can also restore images to unlike hardware -- windows is quite sophisticated in finding and updating drivers -- save any special ones though on an accessible file too. I've used this method for copying VM's to REAL hardware -- although in a lot of cases you'll need to (re-)activate Windows again.

Cheers
jimbo

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Agreed. Macrium V8 paid or free. In my case still using Macrium Reflect V8 (free for personal use only). Just cloned yet another Windows 11 install from one PCs 2TB SATA to a 1TB SATA for a different PC. The only minor hitch was to temporarily disable the security features in Windows 11, and all went perfectly smooth and works great in new PC. After the cloning, change & update the new PC Windows 11 with the new install key and activate. Voila.

ian50 said:

1) a menu item to repair C:\ boot problems in a recovered image. It works within 20 seconds and has helped me several times, or more.

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IMO features like this should be banned, as they only prevent people from improving their google skills. lmao

ian50 said:

2) a menu item for deploying an image for recovery on different hardware to that on which the image was initially done. While this is not necessarily universally reliable, it has worked perfectly for me a number of times.

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IIRC, Acronis Universal Restore has been around since before I joined SevenForums.. now more than 15 years ago.

ian50 said:

Macrium 8.1 (paid) has ... features I find invaluable ... a menu item for deploying an image for recovery on different hardware...

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SIW2 said:

Hasleo has restore to different hardware which they call universal restore....

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hdmi said:

IIRC, Acronis Universal Restore has been around since before I joined SevenForums....

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Although I have paid for my Macrium, this is a feature I've never found any need for.

I have lost count of the number of times I've moved an OS from one system to another, and every time Windows itself has sorted out the new drivers required at the first boot after the move. Even Windows 7 would do this. In most cases suitable drivers are already included in Windows. I have just one laptop where it has to use the MS Basic Display Adapter initially, but as soon as it gets on-line Windows Update downloads and installs a correct one.

Perhaps my most extreme example is my System One below, where Windows 10 was successfully migrated from Legacy bios Intel base hardware to uefi AMD hardware, all without the aid of Macrium's Re-Deploy.

As far as I know, Paragon were the first to introduce it. Can be pointed at an os and is not just available as part of a restore process. The first version I had from paragon could adjust windows 2000 and xp as well as vista and win7. That was 2009 I think and I believe they had earlier versions

Bree said:

, this is a feature I've never found any need for.

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Same here.

Bree said:

I have lost count of the number of times I've moved an OS from one system to another,

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I never felt the need to move an OS from one system to another. Also, the last time when I did a clean install of Windows was to replace Windows Vista Home Basic with Windows 7 x64 Ultimate (in 2009, on my first laptop). Since then I have bought one netbook that came with Windows 7 Starter, one laptop that came with Windows 8 Home (very soon after Windows 8 officially came out, and that later automatically upgraded itself to Windows 8.1 through Windows Update), one laptop that came with Windows 8.1 Home (and that I had already retired by the time Windows 10 began to look like, on my dad's desktop PC anyway, it had finally matured enough that I no longer felt the need to steer clear from Windows 10), two laptops that came with Windows 10 Home (one of which is System Two in my specs, and that, very soon after Windows 11 officially came out, I upgraded to Windows 11 by using the Installation Assistant from Microsoft), and one laptop that came with Windows 11 Home (System One in my specs). System One and Two are the only ones that I haven't decommissioned yet. I mean, why should I spend time moving my Windows around messing with the furniture when I can just buy a new Home with new Windows and new furniture? lol

@hdmi TL;DR

kelper said:

@hdmi TL;DR

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hdmi said:

why should I spend time moving my Windows around messing with the furniture when I can just buy a new Home with new Windows and new furniture? lol

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That depends how attached you are to the old furniture, how difficult it would be to replace like with like, or if it's equivalent is even available now.

Or in software terms, how many days work it would be to reinstall, re-register and reconfigure everything, that's assuming you can still get the installers. My System One has at least two things that cannot be reinstalled, hence the preference for a migration rather than a clean install.

Bree said:

That depends how attached you are to the old furniture, how difficult it would be to replace like with like, or if it's equivalent is even available now.

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Of course. I used to cherish a lot of my old hardware and feel nostalgic about it quite often, bringing back fond memories sometimes to the point of being in shambles. But for the most part I managed to finally get over it, gradually, as I grew older. I am still selectively oldschool. But the algorithm that controls the selectiveness part has been semi-continuously evolving. Never let a good midlife crisis go to waste.

Bree said:

Or in software terms, how many days work it would be to reinstall, re-register and reconfigure everything, that's assuming you can still get the installers. My System One has at least two things that cannot be reinstalled, hence the preference for a migration rather than a clean install.

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I don't use any software that cannot be easily reinstalled. Some of the stuff I use is portable (e.g., Firefox Portable) so it doesn't need to be installed anyway in the first place. Even if it isn't portable, it still usually doesn't take that long for me to replicate it, though. The most time consuming are things that require a multitude of additional steps to set up and configure. Even so, I am able to remember quite a lot of these steps flawlessly, as a lot of them are pretty much self-explanatory, if not completely trivial to me. But where necessary I take notes, make screenshots, write my own scripts/programs to automate certain UI actions, and also try to look for the type of settings and configurations that can simply be copied/exported as files or be identified with relative ease within the Windows registry. (Sysinternals Process Monitor often helps to figure out what setting gets stored where.)

Plenty of good reasons for copying an OS to a newer / different machine, especially if you've installed a load of software plus their updates, keys, license stuff etc. Usually the only extra thing that needs doing is to update / install any special drivers on the new computer and maybe (re-)activate Windows.

Another one is to clone a VM to a real machine to avoid re-installing a load of software again etc after testing that the new OS works on a VM.

Cheers
jimbo

hdmi said:

"MEDIA=youtube]4r7wHMg5Yjg[/MEDIA"

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Thanks, that is fascinating. I asked ChatGPT if they really do eat venemous snakes and she replied.

"Yes, honey badgers do eat venomous snakes. They are known for their remarkable toughness and ability to withstand venom that would typically be lethal to other animals. Honey badgers are opportunistic carnivores and will eat a variety of prey, including highly venomous snakes like cobras.

If bitten by a venomous snake, a honey badger might show signs of being affected temporarily, such as becoming lethargic or unconscious. However, they often recover and continue eating the snake. This resilience is due to their partial immunity to certain snake venoms, though the exact mechanisms of this immunity are not fully understood."

antspants said:

I’m not a fan of complex, ol’ mate. I just want it to do one job, simply backup & restore an image.

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Until you find you need it to do more than the basic backup/restore.