Solved Latest Macrium Reflect X updates

Bree · 2025-04-20T18:05:53-0400

Method said:
My 64 Gb OS drive is a 22.4Gb image which took 26 secs to make/copy. Thats pretty nice.

In-line with your findings?

Was that 64GB the size of your drive, or the size of the used data on it? Reflect only images the used data.

I had 345GB of data to image. Reflect X produced a smaller image file, 147.34 GB vs 162.91 GB with v8.1.

Method · 2025-04-20T18:08:34-0400

Bree said:
Was that 64GB the size of your drive, or the size of the used data on it? Reflect only images the used data.

I had 345GB of data to image. Reflect X produced a smaller image file, 147.34 GB vs 162.91 GB with v8.1.

No. the drive is a 2 Tb OS drive (I know, overkill - I am looking for other uses of it but its quick AF) and the data on that very young OS drive is 64.4Gb which X shrank to 24 ish Gb during its imaging process.

ian50 · 2025-04-20T20:43:32-0400

@Bree

I had 345GB of data to image. Reflect X produced a smaller image file, 147.34 GB vs 162.91 GB with v8.1

What compression parameter, please ?

I'm using version 8.1 with a data size for imaging of 330 Gb. On medium compression, that produces a backup image of 240 Gb. Although my data block size is quite close to yours, your 8.1 image is only about 68% of my image size.

Bree · 2025-04-20T21:04:56-0400

ian50 said:
@Bree

I had 345GB of data to image. Reflect X produced a smaller image file, 147.34 GB vs 162.91 GB with v8.1

What compression parameter, please ?

I'm using version 8.1 with a data size for imaging of 330 Gb. On medium compression, that produces a backup image of 240 Gb. Although my data block size is quite close to yours, your 8.1 image is only about 68% of my image size.

I have a lot of machines to back up, and a limited amount of external storage to keep them all on. I always use high compression.

The size of the image is very much dependent on the type of data and how compressible it is. As such, your compression and mine may vary.

ian50 · 2025-04-20T21:42:35-0400

Bree said:

I always use high compression.

Ok, thanks.

Choosing compression ratio is always a compromise between space and time (obvious, of course). Given that using version 8.1 you achieved a 30% less image size using high compression for the same size data block as mine, I'll probably spend some time to experiment.

And agreed that different data types have varying degrees of suitability to compression techniques, so experimenting may not produce a similar reduction in image size. I have a large number of dense vector based maps as against pixel based. This seems likely to be an influential factor. Ce'st la vie ...

CountMike · 2025-04-21T03:37:19-0400

Why not use Incremental backup, it's faster and much smaller .mrimg file ? This is from 1TB BOOT/system SSD at medium compression done every day. The 2nd file is incremental and barely changes size day to day, usually finishes in less than 3 minutes recording to a 2TB NVMe SSD.

Stigg · 2025-04-21T03:43:49-0400

I don't understand The Need For Speed.
It's not like you can't keep using your computer while you're backing up.

CountMike · 2025-04-21T03:46:26-0400

Stigg said:
I don't understand The Need For Speed.
It's not like you can't keep using your computer while you're backing up.

Depends on a computer, not everybody runs top of the line PC.

kelper · 2025-04-21T05:26:19-0400

Method said:
Cheers Bree. You are of course correct having now completed a few backups using X. Its basically identical (for that purpose.

What I was blown away by was its speed.

I created an image of my OS drive, which admittedly is quite young, but its got almost all of the programmes I would want to install on it. it took 26 seconds to build and copy to my D drive. Its a 65Gb OS at the moment.

That seems incredibly fast! Is your D: drive on the same disk as you OS? This is not the safest policy as something might affect both partitions. And should you get a virus, both partitions could be compromised.

I do backup from one partition to another but I also back up to an external SSD which does not stay connected.

ian50 · 2025-04-21T05:42:17-0400

Finally tested version 8.1 for a full imaging of a data block about 330 Gb using medium then high compression in turn.

Space saved is about 10% high compression from medium, but time taken is nearly doubled.

For my purposes, medium compression with full imaging after a batch of six (6) incrementals seems the optimum. Used this plan for quite some years now without fully testing compression modes till now. Luck, I guess, that an optimum plan was picked initially as a best guess. (Running a full image after six incrementals is just my innate feel for the odds of failure, nothing more measured than that).

Bree · 2025-04-21T08:36:39-0400

ian50 said:
....agreed that different data types have varying degrees of suitability to compression techniques, so experimenting may not produce a similar reduction in image size. I have a large number of dense vector based maps as against pixel based. This seems likely to be an influential factor. Ce'st la vie ...

My largest images are of my Hyper-V host machine. By far the majority of my data consists of the vhdx/avhdx files of the virtual drives for my VMs.

ian50 said:
Space saved is about 10% high compression from medium, but time taken is nearly doubled.

That 10% sounds about right, I prioritise size over speed for my imaging. Timing depends on a number of things, in particular CPU power and speed of the destination drive.

In addition, I set 'verify after imaging' for all my backups. That is heavily dependent on the speed of the drive holding the image as it has to read the whole of the image. Worst case (typically a USB HDD is perhaps the slowest) that can take nearly as long as the imaging.

Method · 2025-04-21T09:00:41-0400

kelper said:
That seems incredibly fast! Is your D: drive on the same disk as you OS? This is not the safest policy as something might affect both partitions. And should you get a virus, both partitions could be compromised.

I do backup from one partition to another but I also back up to an external SSD which does not stay connected.

Heya

No. But a recent change I made I think contributed to the speed. I have 2 x gen 4 Samsung Pro SSDs (1 x 2TB for OS and 1 x 4 Tb for data). This was a straight and simple image following the tutorial here of C: with an imaging & backup folder on D: as the target.

I think it went quick because I have a fast CPU and 2 very fast SSDs. And also because my OS is only 64Gb at the moment.

Method · 2025-04-21T09:02:40-0400

Bree said:
My largest images are of my Hyper-V host machine. By far the majority of my data consists of the vhdx/avhdx files of the virtual drives for my VMs.

That 10% sounds about right, I prioritise size over speed for my imaging. Timing depends on a number of things, in particular CPU power and speed of the destination drive.

In addition, I set 'verify after imaging' for all my backups. That is heavily dependent on the speed of the drive holding the image as it has to read the whole of the image. Worst case (typically a USB HDD is perhaps the slowest) that can take nearly as long as the imaging.

I didnt do this in my apparently quite quick backup. How do i get X to verify the image? Can this be done after the image has been made?

Bree · 2025-04-21T09:22:58-0400

Method said:
How do i get X to verify the image?

It's in the Advanced Options for your backup definition file. You can also set this in Reflect's Defaults for all future backups.

Method said:
Can this be done after the image has been made?

Yes. In Existing Backups select the one you want, then click the Verify icon. If the one you want to verify isn't there, then click 'Browse for an image file...' and find it.

gunrunnerjohn · 2025-04-21T10:58:42-0400

I do my data backups with differential backups, one full backup image, then 14 differential backups, and then another full backup image again. I happen to use Acronis TI, but the technique is the same. For the Windows partition, I only do full backups and keep five copies, one a week. All the data backups are run automatically to different physical drives on a daily schedule, I just get an email telling me if they completed successfully or there's a problem.

I also have two external 4TB SSD drives that get connected in an alternating fashion just for external backups, and there's also a NAS and a cloud account that gets backup copies automatically.

I really don't want to lose some of the stuff I've worked on for years.

There are only two kinds of computer users, those that have lost data and those that are going to.

TraderGary · 2025-04-21T11:40:28-0400

@Bree, have you ever had a Macrium image fail verification?

Bree · 2025-04-21T11:54:12-0400

TraderGary said:
@Bree, have you ever had a Macrium image fail verification?

Only once, but nothing to do with Reflect. The image was on an external USB HDD and the cable was faulty. After replacing the USB cable the image then verified correctly.

Caledon Ken · 2025-04-21T11:57:49-0400

Yes I've had it fail. I do lots and lots of backups, fulls, differentials and incrementals. I can only think of one failure so the odds say the backups will be good. Still they gave us the functionality for a reason and every backup I do or set up for a client I verify.

Method · 2025-04-21T13:14:30-0400

Bree said:
It's in the Advanced Options for your backup definition file. You can also set this in Reflect's Defaults for all future backups.

View attachment 131742

Yes. In Existing Backups select the one you want, then click the Verify icon. If the one you want to verify isn't there, then click 'Browse for an image file...' and find it.

View attachment 131748

Thanks Bree

Found the auto-verify option and just verified all of my existing backups (which were all where you said they would be).

Appreciate it

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