Solved MR Home Free Edition?

Winuser · Oct 8, 2022

Ghot said:
I assume you're being facetious.
It just took you three lines of text to explain how simple it was.

It takes longer to write the step-by-step how-to then to actually download Macrium. A step-by-step how-to for Major Geeks would probably be even longer.

Winuser · Oct 8, 2022

Ghot said:
The need for Image Guardian will sell the product for them.

Ghot · Oct 8, 2022

I just wrote a nice long and pleasant PM to Nick at Macrium.
Explaining my theory about acquiring Macrium Reflect.

After, the folks at Macrium figure that out, then it will be time to work on the program interface.
It too, is overly complex. All the options are still necessary, but they don't need to be on the "front" of the GUI.

The best backup software ever made... GUI wise, was Norton Ghost 2003.
It just doesn't get any better. The average user didn't need to deal with all the Advanced options.

That's what Macrium needs... a "basic interface".
Sure, I can figure out their current interface, but I've been using backup software for 20 years.
They need an interface that a 1st time user can understand in one look.

Alexey2912 · Oct 8, 2022

cereberus said:
You downloaded the wrong file, but the warning is misleading.

After 30 days, it reverts to the free version if you choose not to buy a licence.

So you do not have to do anything - you could have a bit of fun experimenting with the advanced features like incrementals.
One thing that is less well known, if you create a backup with the paid version, you can still restore it with free version.

So if you created a backup with incrementals (not an option in free version), you can still restore the backups with incrementals, but will no longer be able to create them if you revert to free version.

You can also revert to free version manually by unregistering the trial licence and entering the free licence key (below). The actual versions of free and paid are identical - the only difference is the licence key which give access to paid features if you buy a licence. Free key is

Code:

75-M8U7-9FZT-54H1-6UNP-TCGP-8P82MBH

You do not have to uninstall and reinstall.

Incidentally, you did not have to register email - just click on continue after you have selected free version and it downloads free version anyway.

@cereberus , do I need to recreate full backups that I have (not incremental) and Recuse media with the Free Home or Free would not only create but its Recue media help restore?

Thanks.

Ghot · Oct 8, 2022

Alexey2912 said:
@cereberus , do I need to recreate full backups that I have (not incremental) and Recuse media with the Free Home or Free would not only create but its Recue media help restore?

Thanks.

To be on the safe side... recreate the Rescue media "with" the program you are currently using.

Then test it to make sure you can boot from it, and that you can access your backups, with it.

Alexey2912 · Oct 8, 2022

Ghot said:
To be on the safe side... recreate the Rescue media "with" the program you are currently using.

@Ghot , thanks for the expert reply. Just the rescue media.....correct? I made 2 in the USB drives (just in case). Will they work on the full images created?

Ghot · Oct 8, 2022

Alexey2912 said:
@Ghot , thanks for the expert reply. Just the rescue media.....correct? I made 2 in the USB drives (just in case). Will they work on the full images created?

That's why you'll want to test to see if you can access those already created backups.

Me... I'm paranoid. I would make a fresh backup also. I mean you want the new Macrium install backed up as well, so you won't have to do that again.

Any time you make changes to your Windows install, that you don't want to have to do again... make a fresh backup.
For a small change like a new Macrium install... maybe just a differential backup (if you can do that on the free version).

Quick sloppy definition of a differential backup: It adds just the recent changes to your full backup.
But I don't use differential backups, so someone who does, probably has a better definition.

Alexey2912 · Oct 8, 2022

Ghot said:
That's why you'll want to test to see if you can access those already created backups.

Just access, not restoring, correct?

Thanks.

Ghot · Oct 8, 2022

Alexey2912 said:
Just access, not restoring, correct?

Thanks.

I would think, that if you can access, then you can restore.

Personally... I would just make a fresh backup... then I wouldn't have to worry about things.
When you need to restore from a backup... it has to work... the 1st time.

This is why I keep the amount of data on my Windows drive... below 40 GB.
Fast backups and restores.

For example... I install all my games on a storage drive, instead of on the Windows drive.
I can also run those games from either Win 10 or Win 11.

This is everything I have installed on my Windows drive (W10 or W11)

glasskuter · Oct 8, 2022

Ghot said:
The need for Image Guardian will sell the product for them.

It's interesting how differently we all look at things. Y'all know how much I love Macrium and I religiously use the work station edition. Image guardian is the only thing I didn't like about it so I disabled it's service. It drove me nuts when it prevented me from deleting my own old backups. (Yeah, I know I'm too much of a control freak.)
It's the rapid delta restore that is a seller for me.

Alexey2912 · Oct 8, 2022

Ghot said:
I would think, that if you can access, then you can restore.

Personally... I would just make a fresh backup... then I wouldn't have to worry about things.
When you need to restore from a backup... it has to work... the 1st time.

This is why I keep the amount of data on my Windows drive... below 40 GB.
Fast backups and restores.

For example... I install all my games on a storage drive, instead of on the Windows drive.

View attachment 41768

Thanks.

I can recreate the present full backup (without One Drive) with the new Reflect, but not the 1st one with it, correct?

Ghot · Oct 8, 2022

glasskuter said:
It's interesting how differently we all look at things. Y'all know how much I love Macrium and I religiously use the work station edition. Image guardian is the only thing I didn't like about it so I disabled it's service. It drove me nuts when it prevented me from deleting my own old backups. (Yeah, I know I'm too much of a control freak.)
It's the rapid delta restore that is a seller for me.

You CAN delete your own backups.
When you try to, a box will popup in lower right corner of desktop.
Just temporarily, disable Image Guardian, do your deletes, then re-enable it.

You should definitely run Image Guardian on the paid version.
You wouldn't want ransomware to lock up the drive(s) you keep your backups on.

Ghot · Oct 8, 2022

Alexey2912 said:
Thanks.

I can recreate the present full backup (without One Drive) with the new Reflect, but not the 1st one with it, correct?

You're starting to lose me here.
Just make a new full backup, at this time... then you can delete the other backups.
Save all the backups you make from now on, ofc. Or, at least a lot of the newer ones.

I usually save about 2 months worth. That gives me the ability to "go back" up to two months.
If I need to fix something older than that... I just do an In-Place upgrade.

One thing you can always do on W10 or W11.... is re-install Windows apps if you want to.
You have to work at it to keep them from re-installing themselves... when you're not looking.

cereberus · Oct 8, 2022

glasskuter said:
It's interesting how differently we all look at things. Y'all know how much I love Macrium and I religiously use the work station edition. Image guardian is the only thing I didn't like about it so I disabled it's service. It drove me nuts when it prevented me from deleting my own old backups. (Yeah, I know I'm too much of a control freak.)
It's the rapid delta restore that is a seller for me.

I only know of one lesser known tool (Casper) that has equivalent of RDR. Like you, this is the greatest feature for me.

Interestingly, since I put an nvme in on host drive, and I try to keep my main OS drive to around 40 GB, a full backup takes less than 3 minutes, and although incremental backups are much smaller, by the time Reflect has worked out all the changes, it usually takes about 2 mins or so to do an incremental. I only save around 30 seconds or so.

So nowadays, I tend to only do incrementals when I am messing with registry stuff where I might make several incrementals in quick succession, or installing an app to test it. Most of these incrementals are temporary, and once things are satisfactory, I do a full backup anyway, and delete the incrementals.

Equally, restores are much faster with an nvme but RDR still makes a significant difference when the amount that changed is small.

I'm rather with you about MIG. I accept it is an improved security against hackers but I copy my backups periodically to an offline drive anyway, so I pragmatically accept the risk of not using MIG as it is harder to manage the backups otherwise e.g. copy, delete, move etc.

Ghot · Oct 8, 2022

I have a similar arrangement, except they are all internal drives...
I keep only the most recent backups on my Image Guardian drive...

I use Karen's Replicator to keep Disk 1 and 2 identical, except for the two backup partitions.
If I need to surf somewhere less than safe, I can just unhook the Disk 2 drive (that has all my backups).
I guess you could call Disk 1, my "working drive".
I very rarely even access Disk 2. Karen's takes care of that (except for the backup partitions).

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