Macrium Reflect moving to lease model.

hdmi · Jul 3, 2023

badrobot said:
They are getting greedy. Might be time for us all to find and discuss a new cost efficient alternative.

For 50 Euros per year, I will be happy to discuss that old subject for ya one more time.

Fabler2 · Jul 3, 2023

There's Aomei that is having a 'flash sale'. BOGOF. Backupper Pro with Lifetime Upgrades to latest version.

AOMEI Flash Sale up to 60% OFF

AOMEI 24 hour flash sale allows you to get special offers to obtain professional solutions to back up data comprehensively, and manage disk and clouds effectively.

www.aomeitech.com

It also allows you to select one for half price

jimbo45 · Jul 3, 2023

@Fabler2

Just download a copy of GPARTED and burn the ISO to a USB stick. This is a bootable version :

COST --ZERO GPB 0.00. USD 0.00 EUR 0.00 AUSD 0.00 even Roubles 0.00.

It can backup / restore / recover data from all sorts of file systems including NTFS and has a command line too. The GUI looks almost identical to typical Windows partition managers too.

I can't really see ANY Windows user having difficulty in using it.

OK disadvantages -- no Windows "Winpe" type rescue command mode, or incremental / differential backups -- but for imaging, copying, re-sizing etc which that's all many do then it's perfectly OK.

download gparted iso from :

GParted -- A free application for graphically managing disk device partitions

gparted.org

Cheers
jimbo

Bree · Jul 3, 2023

cereberus said:
I am talking about when V9 comes out. V8 will no longer get updates.

Updates for V8 will continue for one year after V9 is released, but the point is still valid.

When Reflect 9 is released, Reflect 8 will enter extended support for one year. Reflect 8 will continue to receive critical bug fix releases....

Macrium Product Support Policy

Macrium is pleased to offer three stages of product support. Stage 1: Current Support Stage 2: Extended Support Stage 3: Self-Service Support

www.macrium.com

Josey Wales · Jul 3, 2023

cereberus said:
we are talking crossed wires. I am talking abourt when V9 comes out. V8 will no longer get updates.

At that point, even a minor update to windows can break V8. It has happened before but Reflect updates sorted things .

However once V9 cones out there is no backup support on v8.

Ok risk is low but not zero.

Yes I know & if they do not go with a subscription plan , I will update to v9.

pparks1 · Jul 3, 2023

BrianInEngland said:
I only have one PC and will happily pay a reasonable fee to use Macrium. Sadly many software vendors are now moving to a lease model.

i agree completely with you. I happen to be an office 365 user. That deal makes crazy sense to me. It's a 400+ version of Office, that I can run on ANY machine that I have. I have PC's and Mac's, so I have both copies of the software. It's available to 6 accounts, and i can share them with friends and family. And it's only $99 a year, or in my case $69 a year because I qualify for a discount through my employer. Oh yeah, it also comes with 1TB of OneDrive space for each of my 6 accounts. < That alone makes the $99 yearly fee for me an absolute no brainer. I cannot get that much cloud storage space for that price. On top of that, they also throw in Office Professional. Been a paying customer for over 6 years now.

Macrium's model makes no sense to me. I used to buy the perpetual licenses for $160 or so for a 4 pack (even when it wasn't on sale). It would be like Microsoft asking $499 a year for Office 365 with 1 copy. Yeah, no thanks.

hsehestedt · Jul 3, 2023

This is disappointing. I purchased 8 licenses (2 of the 4 packs) because the 4 packs were always such a great deal when they went on sale. Looks like I may need to start planning something different.

Winuser · Jul 3, 2023

jimbo45 said:
Just download a copy of GPARTED and burn the ISO to a USB stick

I went to the link and got totally lost. I've been working outside in the heat and my brain is on standby. I might check it out later. If it doesn't hurt my head trying to figure it out I might give it a try.

Winuser · Jul 3, 2023

hsehestedt said:
This is disappointing. I purchased 8 licenses (2 of the 4 packs) because the 4 packs were always such a great deal when they went on sale. Looks like I may need to start planning something different.

I did the same thing. I'm good to go with version 8. When version 9 comes out the only way I'll upgrade is if they offer a decent discount. For some reason I have a feeling that they are not bringing in the revenue they need and what they are doing is going to be the end to Macrium. Higher prices are not going to bring in new customers and at the same time it's going to chase away a lot of the customers they do have.

OldNavy · Jul 3, 2023

Whilst i am a satisfied Macrium user the massive price increase and possible lease concept will kill it for me.
I also use R-Drive Image daily, it's very solid and a no fuss option. It's probably not as fancy as Macrium but it will do as i search for a Macrium alternative when the time comes.

cereberus · Jul 3, 2023

pparks1 said:
i agree completely with you. I happen to be an office 365 user. That deal makes crazy sense to me. It's a 400+ version of Office, that I can run on ANY machine that I have. I have PC's and Mac's, so I have both copies of the software. It's available to 6 accounts, and i can share them with friends and family. And it's only $99 a year, or in my case $69 a year because I qualify for a discount through my employer. Oh yeah, it also comes with 1TB of OneDrive space for each of my 6 accounts. < That alone makes the $99 yearly fee for me an absolute no brainer. I cannot get that much cloud storage space for that price. On top of that, they also throw in Office Professional. Been a paying customer for over 6 years now.

Macrium's model makes no sense to me. I used to buy the perpetual licenses for $160 or so for a 4 pack (even when it wasn't on sale). It would be like Microsoft asking $499 a year for Office 365 with 1 copy. Yeah, no thanks.

Spot on.

James · Jul 3, 2023

In my opinion, I would rather pay; say £200 for a piece of software, even if it be fixed on the version at that time, and not have to pay £40 a month, just to get these updates.

In a way - if I see two products, the exact same, yet one is more expensive with free delivery, the other is cheaper with paid delivery and then turns out slightly cheaper than the free delivery option, I would go with the more expensive with free delivery. I suppose we can relate this back to subscriptions, as you are getting updates, it is just the burden of having another monthly payment

If you pay £200 one time for the software it is on a fixed version. Say every 2 years you then upgrade, over 10 years that is £1000.
Whereas if you then pay, maybe £50 a month for the product, over 10 years it would be £6000. So this is just a money making scam from these companies.

Cough cough, adobe.

Luckily I get adobe free with my organisation.

cereberus · Jul 3, 2023

James said:
In my opinion, I would rather pay; say £200 for a piece of software, even if it be fixed on the version at that time, and not have to pay £40 a month, just to get these updates.

In a way - if I see two products, the exact same, yet one is more expensive with free delivery, the other is cheaper with paid delivery and then turns out slightly cheaper than the free delivery option, I would go with the more expensive with free delivery. I suppose we can relate this back to subscriptions, as you are getting updates, it is just the burden of having another monthly payment

If you pay £200 one time for the software it is on a fixed version. Say every 2 years you then upgrade, over 10 years that is £1000.
Whereas if you then pay, maybe £50 a month for the product, over 10 years it would be £6000. So this is just a money making scam from these companies.

Cough cough, adobe.

Luckily I get adobe free with my organisation.

In UK, car companies flirted with lease deals for public a couple of decades back but in the end, people found it was too expensive on the long run, a key factor being cars becoming more reliable.

By leasing new cars and replacing every 3 years or so, the public sussed they were losing money as they took the financial hit in high lease costs which included a (hidden) element for depreciation.

A more interesting lease deal was TVs. When TVs first became common in late 60s/early 70s, nobody could afford to buy one and they were pretty unreliable, so people rented them instead. Over time, tvs got a lot cheaper and more reliable (particular once thermionic valves died out).

What was really interesting was the number of people (particularly pensioners) who resisted buying rather than leasing as they were used to getting a new set every few years as part of rental deal even though it was costing more over time.

Actually the mobile phone market where people get a mobile on a contact is just like the old car lease. People get sucked in to a lease deal as they could not afford to pay for e.g. a ridiculously expensive iphone as a one off cost. But over the length of the contract, they always end up paying more.

Unfortunately, premium software is all going that way as well. I can see the day coming when people manage to hack Macrium Reflect licencing (never say never).......

GCG1000 · Jul 3, 2023

Their new business model may

BrianInEngland said:
I only have one PC and will happily pay a reasonable fee to use Macrium. Sadly many software vendors are now moving to a lease model.

Well, I use AOMEI and Hasleo as my primary system backup apps. The nice thing is that AOMEI is reasonably priced and Hasleo is free. Both apps work well on my PC's, providing good backup and recovery capabilities. In the past, I used Macrium Reflect for many years. However, Macrium's pricing model, and subscription limitations, have made them less attractive for me. For example, I have a “lifetime” Reflect license, which does not let me move Reflect to a new PC from a previous system, and that's a crock. So, I now have Reflect 8.0(free) on my new PC, instead of my subscribed version. I am now using Aomei and Hasleo for my weekly backups, since I'm a basic Windows Home user. BTW, Aomei does a good job recovering my system when I do something stupid. (I haven't tried Hasleo recovery yet.) One last thought, Paramount's focus seems to be on their business users, NOT the home or SOHO market. That is a shame, for many of us.

cereberus · Jul 3, 2023

GCG1000 said:
Their new business model may

Well, I use AOMEI and Hasleo as my primary system backup apps. The nice thing is that AOMEI is reasonably priced and Hasleo is free. Both apps work well on my PC's, providing good backup and recovery capabilities. In the past, I used Macrium Reflect for many years. However, Macrium's pricing model, and subscription limitations, have made them less attractive for me. For example, I have a “lifetime” Reflect license, which does not let me move Reflect to a new PC from a previous system, and that's a crock. So, I now have Reflect 8.0(free) on my new PC, instead of my subscribed version. I am now using Aomei and Hasleo for my weekly backups, since I'm a basic Windows Home user. BTW, Aomei does a good job recovering my system when I do something stupid. (I haven't tried Hasleo recovery yet.) One last thought, Paramount's focus seems to be on their business users, NOT the home or SOHO market. That is a shame, for many of us.

You can definitely move a Reflect licence from old pc to new pc. You just uninstall licence on current pc and reinstall on new pc.

Porthos · Jul 3, 2023

GCG1000 said:
For example, I have a “lifetime” Reflect license, which does not let me move Reflect to a new PC from a previous system, and that's a crock.

To transfer a license from a PC that still works, launch Reflect and click Help > Remove License. Then use the license key you just freed up to install/activate Reflect on whatever PC you want to use that license with going forward. If the PC that had the license was completely dead, you would still be able to reuse your license key on some other PC, but you might hear from Macrium about duplicate activations of the same key, in which case you'd just need to reply asking them to invalidate the dead PC's activation.

Reflect licenses are not specific to a particular CPU architecture or Windows version, i.e. you can use a given license key with either a 32-bit or 64-bit Reflect installation.

GCG1000 · Jul 3, 2023

Porthos & cereberus, thank you for your responses. I'll give Reflect another shot, though I still their future “leasing-pricing" plans are too prohibitive, for the Home/SOHO user.

glasskuter · Jul 3, 2023

I believe 3 pages of responses here mostly agree Paramount is shooting themselves in the foot. Doing away with the free version, I can understand. I don't mind paying for a good piece of software if the price is reasonable. But they're going to regret going to strictly to a lease version at such a hefty cost. The economy worldwide ain't so hot right now. I also believe this and the Win10 sister forum has sent a lot of business Macrium's way and word tends to travel. Lord knows we've sung its praises enough. I'll use what I have as long as it will work. Then I'll begrudgingly seek an alternative. I don't think I'll be leaving alone. Just my opinion and I'm stickin' to it. I know Macrium won't ever know I'm gone but I'll miss them.

badrobot · Jul 3, 2023

Good luck to them.
"Great price, comes great loss."

OldMainframeGuy · Jul 3, 2023

I always wondered why Paramount offered such a full-featured version of Reflect for free. In retrospect, perhaps they should have lowered the price of their home product a bit to make it more attractive to those who would only run the free version. I used to run the free version and I liked it so much that I bought a license just to show my gratitude. With this new subscription model (I hate subscriptions) I'll probably look for another product when version 8 is no longer usable.

Macrium Reflect moving to lease model.

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