Macrium Reflect Free being retired :(

[kalniel]

The rather excellent backup software Macrium is discountinuing their free version of Reflect

https://www.macrium.com/product-supp...nd-of-life-eol

I'm going to miss it a lot - had just that extra bit of functionality/flexibility missing from Windows Backup.

So.. what other backup software do people recommend these days?

[AGTDenton]

Interesting! One of our resellers use that, they're going to get a shock when they actually have to pay for something.

If you can get Acronis at a good price that's highly recommended.

If you don't mind a not so brilliant interface then I've been using Aomei for quite some time, never had a problem backing up or restoring. I believe they still do their lifetime license so becomes very cheap over time.
I also use the technician version for my audit builds for system imaging.

[Output]

Coincidentally, I actually bought Macrium Reflect Home 8 yesterday on its current Black Friday 50% off sale (which ends 1st December).

I've never actually used it so far (although did have the free version installed for a few months despite that), but plenty of people always seemed to say it's good and worth buying (although I forget where I might have actually seen those recommendations, it could be here and/or elsewhere).

It's available for £25.48 - or £50.95 for the 4-pack.

https://www.macrium.com/black-friday

[Saracen999]

One recommendation could well have been me. I've had the multi-licence pack for a while now and, even not at 50%, I still think it's very good value.

The free one is certainly useful but the full package is far, far more configurable and versatile. I doubt you'll regret it, Output.

I did look around at a variety of alternatives and some were free (or cheaper) and good but I just .... clicked .... with Reflect. I also regard backup as one of the most important things I do with my PCs and it's a small price to pay for the power of Reflect. That said, money isn't that tight here (still thinking about Steam Deck and a 3D printer) and I get that sets my perspective but, I'm retired with low outgoings and no family/job to worry about. In this day and age, even £20 you don't have to spend can be a stretch, and a strain.

I guess Macrium are following in the footsteps of many others in that it it's 'free' while they build a userbase but sooner or later, they want to maximise revenue. I'm surprised it's taken this long.

[Output]

I have seen Rescuezilla mentioned elsewhere as a free alternative (and it's also Open Source), but of course have never used it so have no idea how good it may or may not be.

One recommendation could well have been me. I've had the multi-licence pack for a while now and, even not at 50%, I still think it's very good value.

The free one is certainly useful but the full package is far, far more configurable and versatile. I doubt you'll regret it, Output.

Thanks, good to know.

I guess Macrium are following in the footsteps of many others in that it it's 'free' while they build a userbase but sooner or later, they want to maximise revenue. I'm surprised it's taken this long.

At least they haven't gone the subscription route, but it is of course possible that they could decide to change to that in future.

[Saracen999]

...

At least they haven't gone the subscription route - although it is of course possible that will happen in future.

They might, but even if they do, we can just stick with whatever the last version is that the lifetime licence entitles us to, and it's pretty impressive now ... though a fair bit of the sneakiness is hidden a few menu options down.

I'm still learning it, and it's not the easiest backup package I've ever used (and I started with backup to tape when I still had an utterly huge (for the time) 330MB hard drive). And yes, I mean MB not GB or TB. But fortunately, the stuff you need to just get the job done is pretty much at the top level, and it's the bells, twiddles and twirls that are a little less obvious (to me). But several times, I've thought "it'd be nice if it could do this, or that. It turned out, it can do them.

[Agent]

Excellent software, I was always amazed it was free.

The sale on the 4 pack looks good value with the current sale. Certainly as it appears to be a perpetual license. May well pick that up later.

[Saracen999]

Excellent software, I was always amazed it was free.

...

Sort-of free.

IIRC, 3 options :-

- Trial (almost full-featured, but time limited (30 days??)
- Free (personal use)
- Full, paid-for.

I seem to remember one feature being disabled on the trial version, but otherwise, full feature.

The free one, though, again IIRC, is essentially an image backup. So for example, fine for periodically doing an image of a whole drive (logical or physical, I think), either to transfer from HD to HD, or to/from SSD, etc. It also covered (I think) creating an emergency recovery boot on USB, for use with an image. An for a lot of people, I suspect that that will be enough to take care of their backup needs, especially if combined with a bit of cloud sync, say, of your @live data' directory.

The full paid version has FAR more versatie file and folder level backup, as well as image. IIRC, if you want to do fie/folder level sync, and have a granular level of control over what gets backed up, and both when and how often, you need the full paid version, but can test,f course, on the rial. As might be clear by now, I'm hedging my bets on quite what was in which version because it was a wile ago.

I have my data broken down into several categories, including important/no-so-important, and "changes frequently", changes occasionally" and "once created, doesn't change. I design a pretty much automated backup regime, to NAS, based on those criteria.

So some data lives on my PC (so I have access even if the NAS is off), and that stuff backs up to the NAS. The important stuff backs up a couple of times a day to the NAS but also, at different times, to a local USB drive. Most of medium-importance data backs up to NAS, and because it changes less frequently, backs up a lot less often. Then there's what I call "archive" data (like photos here editing is finished), which mainly live on the NAS not the PC. Finally, I don't back up game installs or saves. If I lose those, oh well. I'll re-install, or not. Whatever.

A combination of selective folders and/or mapped drives, being backed up with once-a-week and once a month full backups, topped up by once or twice a day differential backups, and all run by a scheduler, means my data backup keeps both time and backup size to a minimum during the day, and takes care of automating the longer ones at night.

So during the night, the NAS starts up, and about 10 mins later, the PC boots and backs up the scheduled job. Because I know roughly how much data backs up I know how long it'll take, and the Reflect software justs shuts down on completion (it's an option, per job), and after a suitable time, the NAS shuts itself back down too.

Result? No forgetting to do backups, no hassle doing it (I'm lazy), and no waiting around for me while they're running. Meantime, while I'm sleeping, backups are running. And the tiny little twice-a-day back up so little I don't notice them happen.

For the picky, that are about to point that that "NAS is not a backup", yup, I agree. Which is why there's a backup regime running on the NAS, in a similat automatic way, to external HD, and when I get A Round Tuit (say it fast), it'll be to a mirrored NAS. Just need to get to do that.

Oh, and I might (but didn't admit this) actually be using a paid-for cloud backup to back up some very important but fairly small (and encrypted) files, in the very near future. And no, not to Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc, cloud storage.

Anyway ...., if you want to do that sort of backing up, i.e. file/folder, and full/incremental/differential, for a grandfather/father/son style scheme, then the free one (IIRC) won't. There's certainly free software out there that will, but not the 'free' Reflect.

My final reason was that having used the free one for about a year, and tested a skeleton of the above on the trial, I decided that for me, backup is sufficiently important that it's a crucial function, and that I was as impresses as hell with Reflect, and that while I down mind freeloading, as it were, on stuff I use on;y incidentally, the developers of something I do, and want to continue to, really rely on, deserve to get paid. There've been many times in the past where I just couldn't afford to buy things I didn't have to, but now, I'm comfortable enough to get paid versions of things I use a lot, and value. That is not to say I think everybody lse should. I'm an old fart, no family to have to take care of, no debt, no mortgage and a modest but entirely adequate income. So why the hell not?

[kalniel]

The partition level backup was what I used it for - I also use Windows backup for file/folder level, but windows image backups don't work as a partition image for me (demands that I image several volumes, left over from when I once had Windows on a different volume I think). Bootable USB and recovery backup to external hard drive just made recovery (and hdd upgrade) trivial.

[Saracen999]

The partition level backup was what I used it for - I also use Windows backup for file/folder level, but windows image backups don't work as a partition image for me (demands that I image several volumes, left over from when I once had Windows on a different volume I think). Bootable USB and recovery backup to external hard drive just made recovery (and hdd upgrade) trivial.

Yeah, I'd think the free one would be easily enough for that, with the advantage in peace of mind coming from using what is a (generally) very well regarded bit of software, with the bits you don't need turned off. If they're retiring the completely free version, it'd be nice to think that a very modest-cost "imaging" version could be available at a similarly very modest cost, precisey for those who don't want or need the full-blown feature set.

If I have a criticism (of the full version) it would be that it's perhaps not the most user-friendly software I've seen. Some of the terminology is a little unintuitive, and it's certainly not what I'd describe as "Tonka Toy" interface, i.e. lots of pretty coloured buttons, etc. It's got a .... more 'serious' vibe.

There's also always a conflict between 'hiding' features several levels down in the menu structure, vervus having a hugely over-complicated set of top levels. I can't think of anything I wanted to try that I couldn't find, but some of them took a bit of hunting down.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no an expert on backup software, but I'm sure no novice either, having had backups based on the old, what was it, DC-150MB (?) tape drives, then newer but consumer grade "Jumbo" drives, several DAT drives (DAT 2 to DAT 4 IIRC) and SLR tape (luvverly Tandberg unit, but cheap it wasn't), and of course, a variety of optical drives and MO and PD drives.

I still don't remember anything I wanted and didn't find .... eventually. I guess I'm saying there's a lot of power, but a bit of a learning curve to drive it properly. Once you do, though, it works smoothly and perhaps most important of all, everything I did try, not only did the backup side work well, but so did the restore. That has not always been the case with various softwares and hardwares over the years and rather defeats the point of backup if you can't do the restore bit properly. No problems with that, with Reflect, in my experience.

That said, it's just my opinion. Everybody else ... YMMV.

[Percy1983]

So my installed version still says free, I will watch for updates.

Personally I use it as an imaging of my boot drive, I don't do it too often but I just like to have a working image file I know I can go back to in case of hardware failure.

I use freefilesync to backup all my data and work which is great as it just checks for changes and copies what is needed and this is ran daily. I also do occasional checks using its file compare which takes a while but has spotted occasional bit rot in old files.