Macrium Reflect 0, EaseUS backup 1.

Lamberto Vitali · Sep 20, 2023

A PC failed, wouldn't start. I cloned a similar machine to a brand new fresh SSD using Macrium Reflect, and - blue screen "unable to find winload.exe". I tried cloning again using EaseUS, and it worked!

Macrium Reflect is broken, very very broken, it can't perform a simple clone of a Windows 11 system disk.

Yes, Windows is stupidly not finding the boot details on the only disk on the system, but we all know Windows is stupid. But there's no excuse for Macrium doing it wrong when EaseUS does it right.

For anyone reading this, DO NOT USE MACRIUM REFLECT, it does not work. USE EASEUS.

Macrium has wasted hours and hours of my time.

kelper · Sep 20, 2023

A computer cannot be stupid. Nora can an OS. I have the opposite experience where EaseUs could not complete a restore due to a supposed write error. But MR has never failed.

pietcorus2 · Sep 20, 2023

Another reason for using more then one backupper ............if one failes , the other should work !

You used cloning , but did you try to use a complete backup also ............??

Ghot · Sep 20, 2023

Lamberto Vitali said:
A PC failed, wouldn't start. I cloned a similar machine to a brand new fresh SSD using Macrium Reflect, and - blue screen "unable to find winload.exe". I tried cloning again using EaseUS, and it worked!

Macrium Reflect is broken, very very broken, it can't perform a simple clone of a Windows 11 system disk.

Yes, Windows is stupidly not finding the boot details on the only disk on the system, but we all know Windows is stupid. But there's no excuse for Macrium doing it wrong when EaseUS does it right.

For anyone reading this, DO NOT USE MACRIUM REFLECT, it does not work. USE EASEUS.

Macrium has wasted hours and hours of my time.

Sometimes after a clone, you need to use Macrium's "Fix Boot Problems" tool.

Also... I never "clone" with Macrium. I always do "restores" from a backup. Even when replacing a drive.

pparks1 · Sep 20, 2023

yeah, i have also never used clone. I always take an image and restore with an image.

BrianInEngland · Sep 20, 2023

Macrium has never failed me once

Josey Wales · Sep 20, 2023

Macrium has never failed me.

Lamberto Vitali · Sep 20, 2023

kelper said:
A computer cannot be stupid. Nora can an OS. I have the opposite experience where EaseUs could not complete a restore due to a supposed write error. But MR has never failed.

Of course an OS can be stupid. If I have one drive connected to a computer, containing the OS, how can it possibly not know where to look, especially as it must have found it to be able to display the error!!

pietcorus2 said:
Another reason for using more then one backupper ............if one failes , the other should work !

You used cloning , but did you try to use a complete backup also ............??

No, I wanted to copy one machine to another. Clone seemed the sensible option.

Ghot said:
Sometimes after a clone, you need to use Macrium's "Fix Boot Problems" tool.

Seriously? You ask it to perform a job, then you have to get it to fix it?

Ghot said:
Also... I never "clone" with Macrium. I always do "restores" from a backup. Even when replacing a drive.

Sounds like more steps to me. EaseUS let me simply copy straight from a decent running computer (which I didn't even switch off) to a blank disk. Insert blank disk into other machine, it starts fine and is identical to the first. All I changed was the Windows network name.

Lamberto Vitali · Sep 20, 2023

EaseUS must operate in a completely different way, because it does fail (crash) if I ask it to clone a machine which is heavily writing to disk at the time. I mean continuous security camera writing sort of thing, it's fine playing games, writing emails, etc.

That's why I changed to Macrium, but I wish I hadn't.

pietcorus2 · Sep 20, 2023

" Macrium has never failed me. "..............yes, its the very best backupper I ever used !
I have no experience with cloning , but if I need it , will use a complete backup.............

pparks1 · Sep 20, 2023

Hey, if EaseUs works better for you, by all means go ahead and use it.

Many of us have been using Macrium for years without issue....therefore our experiences have led us to a different conclusion. No requirements here to use Macrium.

Lamberto Vitali · Sep 20, 2023

Very weird it works for some and not others. There must be some combination of hardware and software which confuses it.

I find it disconcerting the new drive gets called F:. I've been told this is nothing to do with it, but EaseUS uses B:, which is traditionally a bootable letter.

So has anyone had EaseUS fail to clone?

Lamberto Vitali · Sep 20, 2023

pietcorus2 said:
" Macrium has never failed me. "..............yes, its the very best backupper I ever used !
I have no experience with cloning , but if I need it , will use a complete backup.............

Cloning is better than a backup, since if your hard disk fails, you simply put the other disk into the machine and it's as though nothing happened. Backups are too complicated. For a complete disk failure, you either have to install an OS first, or use some tool on a USB stick which you hope will boot.

pparks1 · Sep 20, 2023

Lamberto Vitali said:
Cloning is better than a backup, since if your hard disk fails, you simply put the other disk into the machine and it's as though nothing happened. Backups are too complicated. For a complete disk failure, you either have to install an OS first, or use some tool on a USB stick which you hope will boot.

Well, there is cloning which I associate with having 2 drives connected simultaneously and having a process run that makes drive 1 identical to drive 2.

There is also imaging...which many synonymously consider a backup. If you take an image of the entire physical drive, you will get a complete snapshot of exactly what was there, so restoring this image is for all intents and purposes the same as a clone. The primary difference is that an image is usually created and written to a file that is restored from.

A true "backup" of files and folders does put you in a position where you don't lose data, but you don't have something that you can restore to a blank hard drive and be back up and running. And if you are going for a clean build, this might be exactly what you want. Also, can use the Image above, which can be mounted from within your backup tool of choice (if your tool includes this same functionality that Macrium has), and you can pull your data from that too.

Lamberto Vitali · Sep 20, 2023

There's no point in an image unless you want to store many of them on one disk, because it gives you the added hassle and problems with needing the backup software to restore it. I prefer to have the disk ready for immediate use, without the possibility of not being able to get a running OS and backup software ready. For added safety, I simply make a few clones on seperate disks and store them in different places.

snerd · Sep 20, 2023

Lamberto Vitali said:
Very weird it works for some and not others..........

Others? I see only you, and like everyone else who replied, I've used Macrium for years with nary an issue. It just works!

Lamberto Vitali · Sep 20, 2023

snerd said:
Others? I see only you, and like everyone else who replied, I've used Macrium for years with nary an issue. It just works!

If you look in my other thread you will see others, or perform a google search.

It's failed twice for me now, admittedly both on an R410/R510 Dell server. I suggest there's something about that MB it doesn't understand, yet EaseUS does. The fact remains EaseUS managed to do what Macrium failed at.

If it works on your computer that's fine, just make sure when you change computer you test it still works....

Ghot · Sep 20, 2023

Lamberto Vitali said:
because it gives you the added hassle and problems with needing the backup software to restore it

As mentioned above... use whatever software you want.
Most of us, however, do make the "bootable" Rescue Media (copy of the program), that comes with the backup software.

I wouldn't leave home without it.

Lamberto Vitali · Sep 20, 2023

Ghot said:
As mentioned above... use whatever software you want.
Most of us, however, do make the "bootable" Rescue Media (copy of the program), that comes with the backup software.

I wouldn't leave home without it.

And I don't have to. All I need is a hard disk, which goes straight into the affected PC as I'm removing the dud one.

pparks1 · Sep 20, 2023

Lamberto Vitali said:
There's no point in an image unless you want to store many of them on one disk, because it gives you the added hassle and problems with needing the backup software to restore it. I prefer to have the disk ready for immediate use, without the possibility of not being able to get a running OS and backup software ready. For added safety, I simply make a few clones on seperate disks and store them in different places.

You don't have to get a running OS up and going to restore an image. You boot from a recovery USB key with the software on it and you restore from that. Sure, you still need the software, but you need the software to perform the clone too.

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