Replacement for Macrium Reflect Free

XiaoDeer · Feb 7, 2023

On another thread I leaned that Macrium Reflect Free will be going away at the end of the year. That's a real shame.

As one who takes his backups seriously, I need to start thinking about replacements. I understand that existing copies of the software may continue to function but there's a risk they won't and I don't want to discover that the hard way.

I use Macrium to image systems disks only. Mainly MS Windows but some of my machines have a bootable Linux drive too. I use other approaches for backing up my data drives.

Right now, one of the few products I have used and trust for making a disk image is CloneZilla. It's a solid piece of work and open source (which I consider a plus) but the user interface is profoundly fugly!

Any other/better suggestions for rock solid and free software that can make images of bootable drives?

Austinian · Feb 7, 2023

XiaoDeer said:
On another thread I leaned that Macrium Reflect Free will be going away at the end of the year. That's a real shame.

As one who takes his backups seriously, I need to start thinking about replacements. I understand that existing copies of the software may continue to function but there's a risk they won't and I don't want to discover that the hard way.

I use Macrium to image systems disks only. Mainly MS Windows but some of my machines have a bootable Linux drive too. I use other approaches for backing up my data drives.

Right now, one of the few products I have used and trust for making a disk image is CloneZilla. It's a solid piece of work and open source (which I consider a plus) but the user interface is profoundly fugly!

Any other/better suggestions for rock solid and free software that can make images of bootable drives?

Use your MRF install to create MRF USB rescue drives. Booting from those to do imaging won't go away even if the original MRF install fails.

I prefer to do backups on inactive drives anyway, so I routinely boot from those USB drives for all my imaging.

Sean Nelson · Feb 7, 2023

XiaoDeer said:
On another thread I leaned that Macrium Reflect Free will be going away at the end of the year. That's a real shame.

As one who takes his backups seriously, I need to start thinking about replacements. I understand that existing copies of the software may continue to function but there's a risk they won't and I don't want to discover that the hard way.

Why not spring for the paid version of Macrium reflect? It's a one-time cost and not expensive, particularly when you consider the money you've probably put into producing everything on the drive that you're backing up.

1DSmII · Feb 7, 2023

I've always used Seagate Diskwizard . If you have a Seagate drive in your system (or can add one - it does not even need to work, just be attached to the system) it'll do what you require.

It's actually the same software as Acronis True Image, which does not need a particular brand of drive to work. I just bought a Western Digital Blue SN570 1TB M.2-2280 SSD that comes bundled with True Image - perhaps worth checking for similar deals where you are (I'm UK).

--
Leo S.

jfriend00 · Feb 7, 2023

I would similarly suggest that your first option might be to just get the paid version of Macrium Reflect, particularly if you're a satisfied customer now, have a configuration that meets your needs and it works well.

If you do decide to look at other products, I started with the free version of EaseUS Todo Backup and then later upgraded to the paid version (to get access to some additional features I wanted). It's now my main backup tool. I use to be a Macrium Reflect user, but end up discontinuing its use (I honestly don't remember why).

For pure file copy backups, I use FreeFileSync. What I like about it for just plain file copies of my photo drive and catalog drive is that it just makes plain file copies to another drive. I can then access those file copies at anytime without having to restore from some proprietary backup format. But, for system drive backups and system clone backups, I use EaseUS Todo Backup since these are a much more complicated process than just copying files.

Eric Carlson · Feb 7, 2023

And there used to be a way to be able to run it even if there is no manufacturer specific drive in your system. It was a special way to start it, and it wasn't even hacky. I did it once years ago, so not sure if it still works in the latest versions.

SC489 · Feb 7, 2023

XiaoDeer said:
On another thread I leaned that Macrium Reflect Free will be going away at the end of the year. That's a real shame.

As one who takes his backups seriously, I need to start thinking about replacements. I understand that existing copies of the software may continue to function but there's a risk they won't and I don't want to discover that the hard way.

I use Macrium to image systems disks only. Mainly MS Windows but some of my machines have a bootable Linux drive too. I use other approaches for backing up my data drives.

Right now, one of the few products I have used and trust for making a disk image is CloneZilla. It's a solid piece of work and open source (which I consider a plus) but the user interface is profoundly fugly!

Any other/better suggestions for rock solid and free software that can make images of bootable drives?

You can still find the free version here which will be updated for a while longer https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/macrium_reflect_free_edition.html

I found Reflect so good I bought licences for it which are often available at times for a substantial discount.

SC489 · Feb 7, 2023

Austinian said:
XiaoDeer said:

On another thread I leaned that Macrium Reflect Free will be going away at the end of the year. That's a real shame.

As one who takes his backups seriously, I need to start thinking about replacements. I understand that existing copies of the software may continue to function but there's a risk they won't and I don't want to discover that the hard way.

I use Macrium to image systems disks only. Mainly MS Windows but some of my machines have a bootable Linux drive too. I use other approaches for backing up my data drives.

Right now, one of the few products I have used and trust for making a disk image is CloneZilla. It's a solid piece of work and open source (which I consider a plus) but the user interface is profoundly fugly!

Any other/better suggestions for rock solid and free software that can make images of bootable drives?

Click to expand...

Use your MRF install to create MRF USB rescue drives. Booting from those to do imaging won't go away even if the original MRF install fails.

I prefer to do backups on inactive drives anyway, so I routinely boot from those USB drives for all my imaging.

There is no need to that using Reflect

SC489 · Feb 7, 2023

1DSmII said:
I've always used Seagate Diskwizard . If you have a Seagate drive in your system (or can add one - it does not even need to work, just be attached to the system) it'll do what you require.

It's actually the same software as Acronis True Image, which does not need a particular brand of drive to work. I just bought a Western Digital Blue SN570 1TB M.2-2280 SSD that comes bundled with True Image - perhaps worth checking for similar deals where you are (I'm UK).

Best of luck with Acronis software which is poorly supported and engineered

XiaoDeer · Feb 8, 2023

Sean Nelson said:
Why not spring for the paid version of Macrium reflect? It's a one-time cost and not expensive, particularly when you consider the money you've probably put into producing everything on the drive that you're backing up.

Unfortunately, I would need quite a few licenses and that gets pretty expensive. Note that I only use Macrium for the system disk/software. All of my data is on other drives and backed up separately, mainly using file synchronization software.

I also take pride in the fact that most of the software I use is free.

Macrium Reflect has been shown to be extremely robust and solid. I have the greatest respect for that and seek demonstrably similar performance from any replacement.

So I guess I'm still looking at CloneZilla which is similarly proven even if the UI is ugly.

Chris Noble · Feb 8, 2023

XiaoDeer said:
As one who takes his backups seriously, I need to start thinking about replacements.

Any other/better suggestions for rock solid and free software that can make images of bootable drives?

You get what you pay for.

SecondTimeAround · Feb 8, 2023

SC489 said:
Austinian said:

Use your MRF install to create MRF USB rescue drives. Booting from those to do imaging won't go away even if the original MRF install fails.

I prefer to do backups on inactive drives anyway, so I routinely boot from those USB drives for all my imaging.

Click to expand...

There is no need to that using Reflect

I'm pretty sure Austinian knows how to use Reflect.
I believe what he's saying is that the MRF USB will continue to be useable even if the current (and final) version of MRF may fail to install on future versions of Windows.

Sean Nelson · Feb 8, 2023

XiaoDeer said:
Sean Nelson said:

Why not spring for the paid version of Macrium reflect?

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I would need quite a few licenses and that gets pretty expensive.

Note that you can buy a 4-pack license which reduces the per-license cost by 50%. It would be a small fraction of the cost of the machines themselves.

nail33 · Feb 8, 2023

XiaoDeer said:
On another thread I leaned that Macrium Reflect Free will be going away at the end of the year. That's a real shame.

As one who takes his backups seriously, I need to start thinking about replacements. I understand that existing copies of the software may continue to function but there's a risk they won't and I don't want to discover that the hard way.

I use Macrium to image systems disks only. Mainly MS Windows but some of my machines have a bootable Linux drive too. I use other approaches for backing up my data drives.

Right now, one of the few products I have used and trust for making a disk image is CloneZilla. It's a solid piece of work and open source (which I consider a plus) but the user interface is profoundly fugly!

Any other/better suggestions for rock solid and free software that can make images of bootable drives?

Other than CloneZilla being ugly, what do you want to do that CloneZilla can't do for you? Just curious

1DSmII · Feb 8, 2023

SC489 said:
1DSmII said:

I've always used Seagate Diskwizard . If you have a Seagate drive in your system (or can add one - it does not even need to work, just be attached to the system) it'll do what you require.

It's actually the same software as Acronis True Image, which does not need a particular brand of drive to work. I just bought a Western Digital Blue SN570 1TB M.2-2280 SSD that comes bundled with True Image - perhaps worth checking for similar deals where you are (I'm UK).

Click to expand...

Best of luck with Acronis software which is poorly supported and engineered

To be fair, it is a bit clunky, but it's never let me down, and it's free.

Morris0 · Feb 8, 2023

Pay a few bucks for the quality product. Backups are too important to avoid paying a small fee.

Morris

CAcreeks · Feb 8, 2023

XiaoDeer said:
So I guess I'm still looking at CloneZilla which is similarly proven even if the UI is ugly.

CloneZilla does not have incremental and differential backup, so it's not really a substitute.

Actually it sounds a lot like FreeFileSync, which I would not characterize as "ugly" UI.

Does CloneZilla run on Windows? Wikipedia says POSIX|Linux where you have rsync, or

Create incremental backup in linux using tar - GeeksforGeeks

Your All-in-One Learning Portal: GeeksforGeeks is a comprehensive educational platform that empowers learners across domains-spanning computer science and programming, school education, upskilling, commerce, software tools, competitive exams, and more.

www.geeksforgeeks.org

XiaoDeer · Feb 8, 2023

nail33 said:
Other than CloneZilla being ugly, what do you want to do that CloneZilla can't do for you? Just curious

Not much. It's useful that Macrium runs under Windows with VSS. CloneZilla means I would have to boot a thumbdrive with a minimal Linux.

tkbslc · Feb 8, 2023

XiaoDeer said:
Sean Nelson said:

Why not spring for the paid version of Macrium reflect? It's a one-time cost and not expensive, particularly when you consider the money you've probably put into producing everything on the drive that you're backing up.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I would need quite a few licenses and that gets pretty expensive. Note that I only use Macrium for the system disk/software. All of my data is on other drives and backed up separately, mainly using file synchronization software.

I also take pride in the fact that most of the software I use is free.

Macrium Reflect has been shown to be extremely robust and solid. I have the greatest respect for that and seek demonstrably similar performance from any replacement.

So I guess I'm still looking at CloneZilla which is similarly proven even if the UI is ugly.

So you love a software product and it solves your needs perfectly, but you won't pay those that worked to create it. You even "take pride" in demanding free labor from others. I'm not sure what to call that, but it certainly is not "the greatest respect" as you put it.

Imagine being this entitled in any other area of the market.

XiaoDeer · Feb 8, 2023

Chris Noble said:
XiaoDeer said:

As one who takes his backups seriously, I need to start thinking about replacements.

Any other/better suggestions for rock solid and free software that can make images of bootable drives?

Click to expand...

You get what you pay for.

Yep, also with Linux, Firefox, Thunderbird, Chrome, IrfanView, FastStone, LibreOffice, Handbrake, VirtualBox, Perl, Audacity, Visual Studio Community, Kodi, VLC, pCloud, VLC, and many, many more

Replacement for Macrium Reflect Free

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