Backup related issues, starting with Macrium Refect

[Ferdinand]

This is a continuation of https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=4746.msg32875#msg32875
[There used to be a backup thread on the old 3.6 forum, and I thought it useful to have one here, rather than simply comments appended to a W10 upgrade thread.]

I've finally gotten around to installing the trial version of Macrium Reflect, in line with the general consensus of the other thread.  I have a couple of questions that MR users may be able to assist me with:

1.  With Acronis True Image, what I used to do was backup the partitions / disks C:, D: and E:.  So I'd create an initial full backup and then a series of increments.  If I wanted to restore individual files I could extract them, and if I needed to restore the system partition, I could restore that as a partition.  I.e., I could do either from the same backup set.  I'm looking to do the same thing in MR.  There are two options - "Image selected disks on this computer" and "Create an image of the partion(s) required to restore Windows".  The problem with the second option is that it only includes the C drive.

Qu 1:  Does  "Image selected disks on this computer" create a backup of the system C: partition that you can use to restore it in a bootable form to a new virgin drive if needed?

2.  MR allows you to create a full backup and a series of increments, and to limit the number of incremental backups.   Since restoring a file from an incremental backup requires access to the full increment chain, what MR does is merge any increments that it's deleting to meet this limit with the full backup, to create a synthetic full backup.

Qu2a:  How much does creating a synthetic backup slow the process down, once you hit the limit?

Qu2b:  How much does the size of full back grow as each deleted increment is merged with it?  It only enough information is merged in order to maintain the increment chain then perhaps not all that much, but if the entire increment is merged then I'm not sure I see the point, as there is little if any space saving.

[Ferdinand]

No replies.  I answered #1 myself - the answer is yes.  I've read conflicting information on #2 on the Macrium forum, so that's still an open question.  I have another question:

3.  How do Macrium Reflect users find it for speed and compression?  I'm still doing tests, but I and finding that a full backup is larger than one created by ATI.  Do others find this?  I'm also finding the full backup and verify a lot slower than ATI.   MR is supposed to be faster, isn't it? The increments seem pretty fast, but not the initial full backup.

[Mario]

Didn't see your post, sorry.

1. Yes.

2. I backup each partition separately. This is because MR rolls back the entire backup when it encounters a problem, e.g., a disk with a glitch that requires a run of chkdsk to fix. Doing each partition individually gives you more options.

3. I  never merge incrementals. Too risky. This is backup. merging backups may be safe in 99.999% of all cases, but it will fail in the most unwelcome moment.
I tried merging when I evaluated it, but it was real slow. My external disks are USB 3.0 disks, rather new WD 2 TB disks.

I work with four external disks which I swap every week. I then do one full backup which takes about 5 hours on my system (while I work with it). Then incrementals twice a day. The external disk gets never full.

I use only the most basic MR functionality. Performance is about the same as TI here. Running MR in the background has less impact on the computer than TI had.
Maybe check some of the options like compression factor, priority etc to speed up the dailies.

[Ferdinand]

I never merge incrementals. Too risky. This is backup. merging backups may be safe in 99.999% of all cases, but it will fail in the most unwelcome moment.

That was my feeling too. 

Maybe check some of the options like compression factor, priority etc to speed up the dailies.

I ran a series of eight tests with different combinations of options.  AES encryption slows things down quite a lot. High compression takes about 35% longer (full backup) for a 2% space saving compared to standard compression, so you'd have to be desperate for space.  I've gone for the fastest combination of options. 

Did you managed to create a backup recipe that takes separate backups for each drive in one run, or do you have to initiate a series of runs - one for each drive?  Did you automate your backups or is this all manually triggered?

[Mario]

Multiple scheduled backups. MR just adds entry to the Task Scheduler so you can fine-tune them there if needed.

[sinus]

I have also a test-version of MacriumReflect, I think, I will buy it.

But, as usual, for the normal user too complicated. Like for me! 

I have "installed" it, that every morning  runs a backup of the IMatch - DB.
These infos are located under File backup:
Retention Rules
  Rules will be applied to all matching backup sets in the destination folder

Full: Retain full backups for 26 Weeks
  Linked incremental and differential backups will also be deleted

Backup Sets: 2 sets found
  Nothing to delete

Incremental: Retain incremental backups for 30 Days
  The oldest incremental backups may be consolidated

Incremental Backups: 9 found

Then, 10 minutes later, a backup from a drive, under Image:
Retention Rules
  Rules will be applied to all matching backup sets in the destination folder

Incremental: Retain 30 incremental images 
  Create a Synthetic Full backup if possible.

Incremental Backups: 11 found

To be honest, I do not understand  it yet. I ought to check this all today ... but it will be, I am afraid, in January. 

[JohnZeman]

Qu2a:  How much does creating a synthetic backup slow the process down, once you hit the limit?

For incremental forever backups it does slow it down significantly when the limit you set is reached.  For my 3TB data drive it'll take a good hour just to merge the older backups to make room for the newest one.  On the other hand that's still much faster than doing a full folders and files backup once a month or so.

3.  How do Macrium Reflect users find it for speed and compression?  I'm still doing tests, but I and finding that a full backup is larger than one created by ATI.  Do others find this?  I'm also finding the full backup and verify a lot slower than ATI.   MR is supposed to be faster, isn't it? The increments seem pretty fast, but not the initial full backup.

Ferdinand I've found Reflect to be about the same speed as TI for imaging my 500GB main C drive.  Haven't actually compared times (or size) but each takes roughly an hour to complete.

I have also a test-version of MacriumReflect, I think, I will buy it.

Markus for what it's worth I do a full image of my C: operating system drive once a month and daily incremental images during the month.  I also have a 3TB data (D:) drive that I created a full files and folders backup for last winter.  On my data drive I do daily incremental forever backups but as mentioned above to Ferdinand it takes a good hour each time now to merge the older backups to make room for the newest one that I'll make next time.

I plan to clone and replace both hard drives around the end of this year. 

Side notes.

You can exclude certain folders and files from a backup, I exclude my TrueCrypt container folder (yes I know I should change to Bitlocker but TrueCrypt has been serving my needs nicely), all temp files along with a few other unimportant files and folders.

I use an even and odd scheme for my images and backups.  On the odd months (January, March, May, July, September, November) I'll run my odd month imaging for the C: drive and Files and Folders backup for my D: drive.  Likewise I have a similar scheme I use for even months (February, April, June, August, October, December).  That way I always have a backup of my backups plus I can go back at least two months to retrieve data if I need to.

[sinus]

Hi John

Thanks for your input, interesting.
I will look into this stuff as soon as possible.

This full image of your operating system, does this mean the question at the beginning? Should I do so, I guess yes!
(see attachement)

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[JohnZeman]

Markus the question your attached screen shot is asking you is something you should do very soon.  That is to create a rescue CD or USB Flash drive that you will need to use if your computer system disk goes bad.  When you create a rescue disk (or flash stick) Macrium Reflect is installed on that rescue disk so you can still boot up your computer and image a new blank hard drive from your backup.

I created a USB flash stick rescue disk.  Once I created it and verified that the computer does boot up on it, I stored it inside my computer where I will hopefully never need it.

[sinus]

Thanks, John,

So I will do it now or tomorrow.
Thanks a lot for your answer, I appreciate it very much.

Generally it is nice to know, that we have a Forum here, where most of the people are very helpful. So, and you are for sure in the circle. 

[Ferdinand]

For incremental forever backups it does slow it down significantly when the limit you set is reached.  For my 3TB data drive it'll take a good hour just to merge the older backups to make room for the newest one.  On the other hand that's still much faster than doing a full folders and files backup once a month or so.

Thanks.  I found some comments to that effect on the MR forum.  Although I'm disinclined to use this feature, I'm also interested in how fast the synthetic full grows.  I.e. after a merge, is the new synthetic full the same size as the old full plus the increment just merged, or is there some space saving, and if so how much?

I've found Reflect to be about the same speed as TI for imaging my 500GB main C drive.  Haven't actually compared times (or size) but each takes roughly an hour to complete.

That's not the case here.  I have compared backing up my entire system using both, and while the size is about the same, just the backup of my entire system (2 x 256Gb SSDs + 2Tb RAID1) takes nearly 7 hours using MR, whereas ATI takes a little over 4 to produce the same 1.46Tb backup archive.  On its own that's manageable, as I just run it overnight.  The problem is adding in the verify.  Doing both in ATI takes 7.5 hours, and using MR I estimate would take 13 hours.  That eats into the next day a fair bit.  I found an article on solving performance issues in MR and will explore those options.  I could do the verify the next night I guess.

Re your side notes, I broadly agree.  I'm still using Truecrypt as well.  I Truecrypt my external backup drives and I've found a MR support article on now to insert TC into the MR boot CD.

[hro]

Here is my experience with MR.

I did switch from ATI some 3 months ago after testing MR for my needs. Everyone will have somewhat different requirements (frequency, number/size of volumes etc.). I use MR to perform system backups (i.e. volume backups) of my main machine (approx. 1 TB) and volume backups of my image disk (approx. 2 TB).
I backup to a NAS, which is of course not the fastest device.

With compression settings left at default I found that the backup times of ATI and MR are pretty much the same. Obviously the NAS would be the speed bottleneck here. But I am not so concerned if the backup would take one hour more o less.

Important to me is that I could never really trust ATI for a restore, Many times my backup settings were lost after an upgrade or even the backups couldn't be accessed anymore. I also found the Emergency boot facility is shaky and more often than not it couldn't restore. I feel that MR is far more robust here.

I had to restore my system disk twice now with MR because of flaky W10 Insider build updates that badly corrupted my system. What a relief, each restore went without the slightest problem. I also found the restore is super fast. If you restore to the same volume MR only restores the sectors that were modified. For both restores I had to do it took about 40min. each time to fully restore my system disk (1TB) from a full backup and maybe 3 incremental backups. I am not sure if other backup solutions can do this at this time.

To me a safe, secure, and fast restore is the most important requirement for a backup solution. I'd rather compromise on backup time if needed.

Cheers. Hartmut

[sinus]

But I am not so concerned if the backup would take one hour more o less.
Cheers. Hartmut

In Relation to speed this is also, what I think. Backups can be done, when I am not or not much at work on the computer. So, if it runs 1 or 2 hours... does not really matters for me.

[Ferdinand]

To me a safe, secure, and fast restore is the most important requirement for a backup solution. I'd rather compromise on backup time if needed.

Hard to argue with that.  I successfully did a test restore of C: from a series of increments using MR. 

But none of my MR backups were anywhere near as fast as ATI in terms of Mb/sec, no matter what the drive being backup up or MR options were.  Speed is not a deal maker or breaker, well, within reason, but all the same, faster would be better.  There are some tips for me to work through:
http://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW/Understanding+and+resolving+backup+and+restore+performance+issues

[sinus]

If you allow, I would like to ask some questions here.
Generally and specific.

I have now a test-version of MR. I am quite sure, that I will buy it.
I created at the beginning two different backups, what I have not changed

First I would like to backup the IMatch-Database. In my case these are 4 - 6 DBs, some are copies, some different DBs. My main DB has about 11 GB.
To backup, say 6 files (IMatch-DBs) with a total of about 50 GB, what would be the best backup strategy?
I mean, is it for a backup-system not important, if the files are photos or word-documents, or such a big DB like my 11GB-DB?
Maybe, would it make more sense, to simply backup these DBs every day FULL? (no incremental)?

As you can see in Attachement 1 of my backup-harddisk, I choosed "File and Folder backup", I think, incremental.

If I look at the files, they are numbered.
Started at 2.12. with 28 GB. 
Then some smaller files.
Then, at 7.12. again a big file (39 GB), with the same number as at the beginning. Has MR there started a new full backup?
And if so, can I then delete all files from 2. - 4.12.?

Then, the second backup is for the files, about 200'00.
In this case, it makes sense for me, that I do not backup every day all files. I can also imagine, that MR can good see, what files are deleted, new or edited and hence creates some incremental files.
You can see this in attachement 2.
I choosed, as I can see now, a "Disk Partition image". This because I have all files on one harddrive, and thought, MR should simply backup all files and folder there.
Would it have been better, also choosing "File and Folder backups"?
And, from time to time, would it make sense, simply delete all the backups and simply start from beginning, means with a full backup?

Sorry, for my basic questions, but first it is not easy to understand all this technically, and it is also not very helpful, that English is a problem for me, to understand such detailed explanations. And like usual, there are much more Englisch written documents and help then German (ahhh, yes, like the IMatch-help  ).

And John, thanks a lot: I made my first CD for backup the system. I think, I will buy an USB-stick, what I can overwrite and hence to this every week or so.

And sorry, folks, the last question.
Say, you have one harddisk with important files, DBs and so on.
You make a backup on a extern harddisk.
So you have 1 original and 1 backup.

Do you make a second backup?
And if yes, would you do it from the original or backup the backup? Means in the last case, backup the compressed backup of MR?



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[ColinIM]

I'm sorry Ferdinand that until now, I too had missed your posting above.

(I BEGAN writing this as a quick, one sentence reply, but dammit, I've written another tombe. Sorry for the length)

I mainly wanted to mention this detail about my off-site backups:

In order to speed up my MR backups onto my "external" hard disks (the ones I rotate off site each week), and in order to achieve SATA disk speeds rather than USB speeds, I have installed one of these into each of my PCs:

StarTech Trayless Hotswop Mobile Racks (that's an Amazon UK link)

I plug the "bare" 2TB hard disks (handled with due care) into them as needed.

After struggling for months with many permutation of USB based solutions I could never get 'workable' speeds nor 100% reliable backup + verification cycles onto USB-based hard disks.  Happily, this SATA solution is now as reliable (100% for many months)(touch wood!) as my NAS backups have always been.

The Macrium 'defaults' for my backups are as follows:

Medium compression
Intelligent sector copy
Automatic file size
Auto verify
128-bit encryption (the 'Standard' bit level encryption) (Encryption is essential for disks that I move off site!)

I've never found the 'priority' settings to make any noticeable difference to my backup speeds, but I leave mine at 'Highest (cpu) priority'.

I backup each volume independently and (until I get around to merging the per-volume Macrium XML scripts ... someday!) I have created a 'desktop' shortcut for each backup / XML task, with the shortcut command-lines modified for '-full' or '-diff' (etc.) as required.

I double-click each of the shortcuts as a sequence, with just a short pause between each double-click (Macrium queues the tasks in the background).  By using my shortcuts like this it allows me to interact with the main Macrium program/GUI so I can watch the green 'successes' as they appear on the log panel. (This log-watching is a hangover from my torturous USB backup days when I was getting 25% verify failures - and I haven't broken the habit yet!)

I write each Volume's backup into its own folder on each backup device:

[Computer name]\Macrium AES\C
[Computer name]\Macrium AES\D
[Computer name]\Macrium AES\F  for example.

I hear what others have said about merging backups, but I've learnt (from experience) that Macrium is able to recover from a hiccup that occurs during the 'merging' phase of an 'Incrementals Forever' backup. My logs show a recovery on one occasion from a single hiccup that it spotted during a 'merge consolidation' phase.

So ... in order to get my backup + verify durations down to what I consider tolerable (see some timings below) I use 'Incrementals Forever' for my daily Macrium backups to my NAS boxes (I have two NAS boxes), with a rotating cycle of 10 incrementals.

For clarity, and for non MR users here, this means that every time I backup a hard disk Volume, the 'oldest' of that chain of 10 incremental backup files is merged with what Macrium calls the "Synthetic Full" backup file, then just the catalogues inside the remaing eight incremental files are updated.

I keep an eye on the folders (I'll skip details for now of what I assess when I look in the folders) and then whenever I see for example that my series of incrementals is approaching the 50th 'merge' cycle, I will park that folder aside (by simply renaming it) and create a fresh target 'C' folder, which automatically begins a whole new 'Full', followed (on the next backup for that Volume) a fresh series of 'Incremental Forevers'.

Sheeeesh! Sometimes I don't know when to stop typing ...!)

Now - for oblique reasons which suit my preferences - I do not use Incrementals Forever when backing up to my SATA-Caddy-based backup drives. Instead for these backups, destined as they are to be sent off-site, I create a Full backup of my System drive each time and make Differential backups of my other volumes. (I then need to 'manage' the accumulation of those Differential backups by deleting older ones periodically.  Yes, I might switch to Incrementals Forever here too, but I will keep the System drive backups as Full backups on these off-site drives.)

Here are some example backup+verify durations that I achieve:

When writing Incrementals Forever to my NAS box, over a 1Gbit-capable network -

1:  From my SanDisk 128GB SSD System drive: (first example)
"New File" size (in other words the changed data since the previous backup) = 325MB
      Duration (in other words "Image-creation and Verification and consolidation (merging) combined ...") took  4min 41sec

2:  From my SanDisk 128GB SSD System drive: (second example)
"New File" size = 550MB
      Duration = 5min 53sec

3:  From my SanDisk 128GB SSD System drive: (third example)
"New File" size = 481MB
      Duration = 6min 2sec

4:  From my 2TB 7200rpm Drive D (a WD2000FYYZ)
New File size = 2GB (that's 2GB)  (I think "2GB" might be an approximation, so treat this value with caution.)
      Duration = 5min 46sec

5:  From my 2TB 7200rpm Drive D (a WD2000FYYZ)
New File size = 3GB  (I think "3GB" might be an approximation, so treat this value with caution.)
      Duration = 21min 25sec

6:  From my 2TB 5400rpm Drive F (a WDC WD2002FYPS)
New File size = 875MB
      Duration = 7min 40sec

Now - writing Incrementals Forever Full backups (of my System Drive) and Differentials to the SATA/Caddy drive on the same PC -
(Sorry for those errors! The corrected versions are in blue.)
(Note these next examples are from my younger, faster, other Windows 7 PC.)

7:  From my Corsair 128GB SSD System drive:
New File size (Full backup) = 20GB
      Duration = 9min 38sec

8:  From my 2TB 7200rpm Drive F (also a WD2000FYYZ)  (first example)
New File size (Differential) = 5GB
      Duration = 2min 42sec

9:  From my 2TB 7200rpm Drive F  (second example)
New File size (Differential) = 4GB
      Duration = 2min 46sec

10: From (one partition of) my Drive D (a WD1001FALS)  (first example)
New File size (Differential) = 803MB
      Duration = 0min 55sec

11: From (one partition of) my Drive D  (second example)
New File size (Differential) = 649MB
      Duration = 0m 49s

Cautionary notes - a.
Yes, there is huge variation in the timings for the over-the-network backups.
I usually run simultaneous MR backups over the network; from each of my two PCs to my two separate NAS boxes, with each PC writing to a different NAS box of course. This might possibly(?) result in a certain amount (though never troublesome) bottle-necking on my HP network switch. (No ... I don't think so either !!!!  But what else would account for the variable network backup times?!?!?!)

Cautionary notes - b.
(For now) I've only shown network-backup times from my older, slower PC, and I've only shown SATA/Caddy-based backup timing from my younger, faster PC.  But hopefully they'll still be usefuil as ball-park examples.

Time for bed.
(Sorry I haven't yet read your last post Markus.)

Edited to fix my backup-type errors. Apologies to all.

[hro]

Most interesting Colin.
Here are some of my backup timings.
1st example is 278GB in 2h56m from my laptop to USB3 external disk incl.  compression and veryfying
2nd example is 120 GB in 7h39m from my workstation to a NAS over pretty busy 100mbit network incl.  compression and veryfying
I don't consider these timings bad compared with my ATI experience.

I remain impressed with the time it took to restore a complete system disk (4 volumes)  in about 40 minutes. You can look at the following link for an explanation:
http://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW/Rapid+Delta+Restore+-+RDR


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[hro]

Hi Markus.
Let me try to answer your questions. I know it is hard to write this down if English is not your mother tongue.

1. You have two datasets you like to backup,  IMatch DBs and image files
2. IMatch files are databases and much larger than image files. As soon as you open an IMatch file it is marked as changed, i. e. MR would back it up.
3. For a file backup job,  incremental makes no difference as the IMatch file would always be backed up.
4. I don't know how your files are stored across volumes.  Say you had one volume with your IMatch dbs.  If you did a volume backup instead of a file backup,  an incremental backup could be beneficial as only changed disk sectors in this volume would be backed up and not entire files.
5. With your image files it is a bit different, as these files are smaller and not too many files are changed at a time.  Generally,  an incremental file backup may be good.

But here is a caution.  I started out using an incremental file backup for my image,  video,  music and many other media files (all different directories on a disk).  In total about 800GB. This wasn't a good idea as the initial full backup took over 24 hours to complete (incl.  verification)  over a LAN.  The reason I think is that there is quite an overhead for the backup software to maintain the file structure etc.

I changed this and created a separate volume for my media files. I now do incremental image backups on this volume and achieve the speeds as mentioned in my previous posts.

I would suggest you consider creating one or two volumes for your files (I have both IMatch and the image files in the same volume) and perform incremental image backups. This works for me, but different situations may require a different strategy,  hence the various options offered in MR.

[sinus]

Time for bed.
(Sorry I haven't yet read your last post Markus.)

No problem, and your post is interesting, no reason to stop writing. 

And yes, bed is a good idea, I guess, depends, where you are. 

[sinus]

I would suggest you consider creating one or two volumes for your files (I have both IMatch and the image files in the same volume) and perform incremental image backups. This works for me, but different situations may require a different strategy,  hence the various options offered in MR.

Hi hro
thanks a lot, your answer is clear and I can understand it.
I have my IMatch - DBs on the drive C, and that is an SSD-drive.
Because I have lerned, that an SSD is best for the IMatch-DB, I store them there on C in a separate folder (IM-DBs)
So I could simply add a full-Backup with MR for this folder, if I understand you fully, then I could create here not an incremental backup, but simply a full backup.
Finally for 50 GB (all 5 DBs) it takes not that long on my USB3-external disk (western Digital).
This I would let run every day once.

My files are on one drive, an internal harddisk, letter F.
This HD has only my files, but in several folders (monthly).
Totally there are about 200.000 files, with a total about 2,2 TB and my extern USB3-HD has totally 4 TB.
Hence I guess, here I could perform incremental backups.

Leaves me "only" 2 questions:
This incremental backup for my Harddisk F (with all the files), in MF should I choose "Image selected disks on this computer", where I would choose Harddisk F or is it better to choose "Create a File and Folder backup", where I would choose my 2 main-folder in the Harddisk F?

And the last question, do you personally also make a second backup, and if yes, do you backup your backup-files from MR or do you simply let do your backup on a second Harddisk, so that you backup your original a second time?

best wishes to Wellington, phew, what is quite a bit away from here! 

[hro]

Hi Markus,
I see you still have a lot of important questions to get your backup strategy sorted.  You can certainly implement a good strategy with MR.
Too late for me now to answer in detail 😪😪.  Bedtime in Wellington.  I will reply tomorrow.
Happy IMatching.

Hartmut

[sinus]

Hi Markus,
I see you still have a lot of important questions to get your backup strategy sorted.  You can certainly implement a good strategy with MR.
Too late for me now to answer in detail 😪😪.  Bedtime in Wellington.  I will reply tomorrow.
Happy IMatching.

Hartmut

Danke, Hartmut
of course, thanks, so sleep well in Wellington (could not resist  )

[hro]

Hi Markus,

I try to answer your questions from yesterday.

1. Different backup types.
MR offers Image backups and File backups. An Image backup can be applied to an entire disk or one or more volumes on that disk. A file backup can be applied to one or more folders in a volume. So for example
- Disk 0 on your machine (usually the first disk) could have 3 volumes C:, D:, E:
- Volume C: (usually your system drive) has a number of folders, e.g. IMatch_Databases
You can create full, incremental, or differential backups for an image or file backup.

2. You say your IMatch dbs are on the C: drive which is an SSD drive. I assume this is your system drive (contains operating system) and also assume you want to regularly backup your system as well.
I would suggest then you define an Image backup job for your SSD drive (including all volumes on that drive, C: may just be one volume on it, there may be others created by Windows). You would start with a full backup, say once a week, and incremental backups say daily. Depending on your backup disk space you can vary this, keep any number of full/incremental backup sets.
This would give you a reliable backup of your system drive, including the IMatch databases.I am running something similar to that and the daily incremental backup of the entire system drive takes only about 10-15 minutes.
You could, of course, also define a file backup job for just the IMatch DB folder and also run regularly full and incremental backups. But I think this is unnecessary in the case I described.

3. You say your image files are on another internal drive F:. This is good. In the same way I would suggest you also define an image backup job for the entire disk (that includes volume F:). You would also run full and incremental image backups. Again, you would have a reliable backup of this disk. Again, you could also define a file backup job for your image folders. However, I also tried this initially. I backed up a huge folder structure (some 800 GB, many thousands of folders in it) with a file backup job. This took extremely long, 48lhours or so. I then moved this entire folder structure on to a separate volume, as you have it, and ran an image backup job. This is much faster.
Remember, you can still restore individual folders or files from an image backup, you do not need a file backup for this.

4. You ask about the best way of taking a second backup. I personally don't to that. But I cannot see anything wrong with copying the backup set files to another disk. If the backup sets are verified (which is the default setting in MR) they should be safe. Other may have more suggestions or other opinions here.

Hope this helps a bit.
Regards. Hartmut

[hro]

[This specific response is in GERMAN]

Hi Markus,
Das ganze nochmal in Deutsch, vielleicht ist das besser fuer dich.

Ich versuche Deine Fragen von gestern zu beantworten.

1. Verschiedene Backup Methoden
MR bietet "Image" backups und "File" backups an. Beide Methoden koennen separat oder zusammen benutzt werden um ein komplettes Backup zu verwalten. Mit einem Image backup kannst Du eine komplette disk oder eines oder mehrere Volumes auf dieser disk sichern. Mit einem File backup kannst Du einen oder mehrere Folders in einem Volume sicheren. Zum Beispiel

- Disk 0 auf deinem Rechner (normalerweise die erste disk) koennte 3 Volumes haben C:, D:, E:
- Volume C: (normalerweise dein Betriebssystem Volume) koennte eine Anzahl von Foldern haben, z.B. IMatch_Datenbanken
Du kannst nun full, incremental, oder differential Sicherungen erstellen fuer einen Image, sowohl auch einen File backup.

2. Du sagst dass Deine IMatch Datenbanken auf drive C: sind (richtig waere Volume C:). Dieses Volume ist auf einer SSD disk. Ich vermute mal dass dies auch Deine Betriebssystem disk ist und weiterhin dass Du diese auch regulaer sichern moechtest.
Ich wuerde Dir vorschlagen einen Image Backup job in MR fuer Deine SSD disk zu definieren (einschliesslich aller Volumes auf dieser disk, C: ist sicherlich nur eins von mehreren, es gibt wahrscheinlich noch andere die von Windows angelegt wurden). Du wuerdest mit einem Full backup beginnen, z.B. einmal die Woche and mit Incremental backups fortfahren, z.B. taeglich. Du kannst das jederzeit aendern, je nachdem wie viel Sicherungsspeicherplatz Du hast. Du kannst jeder Anzahl von full/incremental sets haben.

Dieses Verfahren wuerde Dir eine solide Sicherung fuer Deine Systemdisk geben, einschliesslich der IMatch Datenbanken. Ich benutze ein aehnliches Verfahren und die taeglichen incremental Sicherungen meiner Systemdisk benoetigen nur ca. 10-15 Minuten.
Du koenntest natuerlich auch einen File Backup job nur fuer den IMatch DB Folder definieren und Full und Incremental backups erzeugen aehnlich wie das Verfahren mit dem Image backup oben. Ich glaube allerdings dass dies nicht notwending ist wie in meinem Beispiel beschrieben.

3. Du sagst dass Deine Image Dateien auf einer anderen externen Disk F: sind. Das ist gut. In gleicher Weise wuerde ich Dir vorschlagen einen Image Backup job fuer die ganze Disk zu definieren (was Volume F: natuerlich einschliesst). Auch hier wuerdest Du mit einem Full backup beginnen und mit Incremental backups fortfahren. Wie gesagt, auch hier haettest Du eine solide Sicherung Deines F: Volumes.
Auch hier koenntest Du einen File Backup job definieren fuer Deine Image folders. Ich hatte das auch urspruenglich probiert. Ich sicherte eine grosse Folder Struktur  (ca. 800 GB mit vielen tausend Sub folders) mit einem File Backup job. Das dauerte unheimlich lange, ca. 48 Stunden. Nach diesem "Experiment" habe ich meine gesamte Folder Struktur (Images, Videos, Musik, usw) auf ein separates Volume kopiert, so wie Du es schon hast mit Volume F:. Ich habe den mit einem Image Backup das Volume gesichert. Das war sehr viel schneller.
Was wichtig zu verstehen ist, Du bist immer in der Lage auch  individuelle Dateien oder Folders von einem Image Backup wieder herzustellen, Du braucht keinen File Backup dafuer.

4. Zu Deiner Frage nach der besten Methode einen zweiten Backup zu erstellen. Ich mache das selbst nicht. Allerdings sehe ich keine Probleme die backup set files die MR erzeugt auf eine andere Disk nochmal zu sichern. Wenn die Backup sets verifiziert sind (was eine Standardeinstellung in MR ist) sollte das sicher sein. Andere Posters haben vielleicht weitere Vorschlage oder andere Meinungen.

Ich hoffe dies hilft Dir ein wenig.
Guesse aus dem Sommer. Hartmut

[sinus]

Hi Markus.
Let me try to answer your questions. I know it is hard to write this down if English is not your mother tongue.

Hi Hartmut
Thanks a lot, really, for your VERY good answer. Easy to understand, the technical stuff easy and understandable wrote. Great.
As a man, where English is not the mother tongue, specialy technically terms are not easy to understand, and then, if someone creates long sentences, with accessory sentences, then is is specially hard.
That is why I understand your answer very good. A great answer, thanks a lot!

[This specific response is in GERMAN]

Hi Markus,
Das ganze nochmal in Deutsch, vielleicht ist das besser fuer dich.
Guesse aus dem Sommer. Hartmut

Hallo Hartmut
Tausend Dank, dass Du so eine gut verständliche Antwort geschrieben hast! Wow, und sogar in zwei Sprachen, ich weiss gar nicht, wie ich das "verdient" habe, das ist supernett von Dir!
Und Deine Anwort ist für mich echt gut verständlich, sogar das Englische, und das Deutsche, well, da ich Schweizer bin, ist es im Prinzip nicht meine Muttersprache, aber wir lernen das in der Schule und die Zeitungen, Fernsehen sind auf Hochdeutsch, so ist es kein Problem (der neue Heidi-Film soll zb in Schweizerdeutsch sein).
Ich nehme mal an, dass Du Deutscher bist, so wie Du Deutsch schreibst, und wegen Deinem Vornamen!?

Auf jeden Fall, ich habe das ganze jetzt verstanden, echt, und werde es genau so machen, wie Du geschrieben hast.  Auch das erste Mal verstanden habe ich die Begriffe und Unterschiede "Disk" und "Volume". Also Disk ist das gesamte Laufwerk, das ich kaufe, zb eine Western Digital und dieses kann dann verschiedene Volumes haben, also zum Beispiel D und E. Ich denke, das habe ich auch begriffen.

Und vor allem weiss ich jetzt, wie ich das machen werde mit MR, genauso werde ich es machen. Ich habe gestern noch - so als Tests - eine IMatch-DB mit verschiedenen Einstellungen laufen lassen, also "Grossvater, Vater ...", "Differential" und "Incremental" und "Incremental mit Synthetisch" und lasse das mal einige Tage sein (tägliches Backup), nebst Deinem Vorschlag, den umsetzen werde.
Das hilft mir dann ev. auch, die Unterschiede zwischen diesen Einstellung zu verstehen, und sehe, welche und wie grosse Backups angelegt werden.

Also, nochmals vielen herzlichen Dank und hey, Sommer in Wellington, cool (hier beginnt ja grad der Winter langsam), ich wünsche Dir eine gute Zeit und ein schönes Wochenende!
Markus

Thanks a lot - Danke schön!

[Ferdinand]

Thank you to hro for answering Markus' questions so clearly in both English and Deutsch.  I was reluctant to attempt to translate these technical concepts into plain language in just English.  The concepts themselves are not than complex, but the terminology used in these programs is not immediately clear to the ordinary person.

I have compared backing up my entire system using both, and while the size is about the same, just the backup of my entire system (2 x 256Gb SSDs + 2Tb RAID1) takes nearly 7 hours using MR, whereas ATI takes a little over 4 to produce the same 1.46Tb backup archive.

I have partly solved the problem of the time MR was taking to backup my system.  I made three changes, and the time taken reduced from 7+ hours to 5½.  It's not clear which of the three changes was responsible, so I'll do some further testing.  One of them was a suggestion in that MR knowledge base article that I referred to above, which was to use an advanced option in MR about "Direct disk writing" which might solve slow backups.  I have a hunch that that was the main reason for the increased speed.  Further testing will indicate whether that's correct or not.

[hro]

Hi Hartmut
Thanks a lot, really, for your VERY good answer. Easy to understand, the technical stuff easy and understandable wrote. Great.
As a man, where English is not the mother tongue, specialy technically terms are not easy to understand, and then, if someone creates long sentences, with accessory sentences, then is is specially hard.
That is why I understand your answer very good. A great answer, thanks a lot!

My pleasure. It was fun doing it. As Ferdinand says it can be hard for 'ordinary'  people to grasp the concepts. This is often ignored by the IT pros.  Once the concepts are understood the solution is usually straight forward.
In reading your response I believe you have got it now and are able to setup an appropriate backup plan.
(And yes, I am German living in Aotearoa for some 28 years now  )

[sinus]

Yep, Hartmut, thanks, I have understood it now.

Oh, for 28 years you are living there ... phew, must be love for the landscape or for ... 

Have a good day.

[ColinIM]

Yes, thanks from me too Hartmut for answering Markus's query so thoroughly!

And Markus, I would just echo two of the points that Hartmut made ...

Remember, you can still restore individual folders or files from an image backup, you do not need a file backup for this.

Indeed, it is easy and fast to 'mount' a full-volume Macrium backup (.mrimg) file as a new temporary 'Drive' by using a right-mouse-click / context-menu on the .mrimg file in Windows Explorer.  This is one reason why I no longer use particular File & Folder backups.

4. You ask about the best way of taking a second backup. (....) I cannot see anything wrong with copying the backup set files to another disk. (....)

I would just add that if you do copy a whole Macrium backup .mrimg file onto another disk or another computer as a second backup, then it would be wise to RE-verify that second copy of the .mrimg file in its new location ... just in case an unseen data error occurred during the copying process.  (I think I am "preaching to the already persuaded audience" here when I worry about "unseen data errors", but it is worth repeating that, with our backups, we must not just cross our fingers and hope that all is well  )

If you have copied just one, single .mrimg file, and if it is a complete backup file without any Incremental or Differential sub-files then (I suggest) you could RE-verify the copied .mrimg file by comparing (for example) its SHA-1 hash with the SHA-1 hash of the original .mrimg file.

But if you are copying a "set" of backup files comprising a main (Full) backup image-file, plus one or more associated Incremental or Differential backup files then it would (I suggest) be much better to use the Macrium program itself to RE-verify the copied backup set.  Or you could use the stand-alone, command-line Verification tool that Macrium offers here ...

http://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW/Verifying+image+and+backup+files+from+the+command+line

I will sometimes use this stand-alone, command-line Verification tool myself to RE-verify my backups, but because these extra RE-verification steps can also take many hours to run, I now prefer to run an entire, second Macrium backup+verify task instead, and write the whole second backup to the second backup location!

(I wonder how we will manage our backup tasks 20 years from now!!  I'm sure we will not need to run these slow backup tasks over and over again like we do today!  It's nice to think about the future ... but in the meantime, data backups continue to be a fairly complex, time-consuming yet essential task!!  Sigh!!)

Best of luck with your backups Markus.

[sinus]

Best of luck with your backups Markus.

Thanks, Colin, for your sophisticated answer.
I will still think about this. One possibility, even if it is time-consuming, would be to simply add a second extern harddisk to the computer and let backup MR the same files or volumes like with the "normal backup".

This would mean, for example on my SSD in the computer resides the IMatch-DB on Volume C.
I would create a backup from all volumes on drive C, like Hartmut proposed, on an external USB3-Harddisk.

So I had the original on my computer (on the SSD-drive) and a backup on the external Harddisk.
This I would make daily.

What I could imagine, that I do plug-in for example every friday a second USB-3-harddisk. Then I would let run MR also a Backup from all volumes on the SSD.
I would end with a second backup.

The first backup I would let run every day.
The second backup I would let run every week.

I the worst case, if the SSD and the harddisk with the daily backup would be defect, I had still my second backup, with the weekly backups. In this (bad) scenario I would lost some files, but not more than a week.

Maybe this I could imagine. So I would not backup the backup  , but the original twice.
Hm, I must think about this, but finally one backup is better than nothing, I would say.

And btw: MR has a built in veriying the backup, I have this enabled, just to be sure. It takes longer, but I think, like you wrote, Colin, it is worth to do so.

Thanks and have a nice weekend!





Then I create a backup on

[Mario]

I have used Reflect now also on my new computer, to transfer an entire hard disk from the old system and for multiple scheduled daily backups.

I backup all disks (C: and D:) in the system every evening on an external disk (image backup).
Twice a day I backup my source tree, IMatch databases, the "photools.com\IMatch5" folder to a BoxCryptor drive (for safe encryption), which is then automatically synchronized into my cloud storage using OneDrive. I know I could set Reflect to encrypt the files, but I prefer to use only one software for encryption (and that from a German company).

I've tested backups and restores (image and file modes).
I've also created a and tested bootable USB stick with Reflect (the new system has no DVD/BR drive anymore).
It worked perfectly, the system booted Windows PE from the stick, Reflect worked, my backup disk was mounted, accessible and I could restore files.

The performance of Reflect on the new system is way better than on the old PC. On the old PC a full backup took between 5 and 6 hours, plus maybe 40-60 minutes for the daily incrementals. That was for a 256 GB SSD and one 512 GB disk (RAID1) and one TB disk (RAID1), both filled to about 60%.

The new system has a 512 GB SSD and a 2TB disk (RAID1 provided by the on-board controller).
The total data amount is slightly less than on the old system because I've cleaned up a bit during the migration.
Reflect reports a steady transfer rate of between 1.3 to 1.5 Gb/second for the SSD, and 850 Mb/sec for the hard disk. The total backup time for a full backup takes about 1 hour and 10 minutes - instead of 5 - 6. The daily incremental backups take only a few minutes.

[Ferdinand]

The total backup time for a full backup takes about 1 hour and 10 minutes - instead of 5 - 6.

Oh good grief!  Do you have any idea which aspect(s) of the new system resulted in such a dramatic decrease?

[Mario]

Yes, I also thought "Wow!" when I ran reflect for the first time. And then I mounted the backup and did some checks to ensure that it really worked 

I think it's a combination of various factors:

1. Getting rid of all the stuff no longer needed. A lot has accumulated over the years. This reduced the total data volume by about 20%.

2. Standard SATA 6Gb/s disk interfaces for the SSD and the regular hard disk (which is a hybrid disks hence a bit or even a lot faster than normal disks).

3. New 2 TB 2.5" portable WD hard disks connected via USB 3.0.
These are also a bit faster than the old 3.5" USB 3.0 disks I used. And don't even need external power supplies.

4. Faster CPU with more cores (6+HT), which should help with the compression and other Reflect operations.

I just did a fresh full backup this morning, after swapping the external disks. It took 1:14 start to finish. Resulting data on the external disk: 550GB.
(I worked on IMatch during that time, running compiles which use up 100% CPU time on all cores and also perform a lot of disk I/O on the SSD.

[Ferdinand]

I just did a fresh full backup this morning, after swapping the external disks. It took 1:14 start to finish. Resulting data on the external disk: 550GB.

That explains quite a lot, actually.  My full system backup is about 1½Tb.  There's no way that I could get down to 1½ hours.  I have been pruning things down quite a lot, so that there is still room on my collection of 2Tb external backup drives for a number of incremental backups after the full.  Sooner or later I'll have to upgrade to larger drives, but that means 5 new drives (two for RAID1 and three for backup), and I'm trying to put that off.  No doubt new hardware would help a little, but there are limits.

I'm still a bit puzzled that MR is slower by 1-1½ hours than ATI.  MR reports read and write speeds in the logs and the read is pretty fast but the write is a bit slow.  I don't know how to interpret these numbers.  I've been through all their suggested tips for solving backup performance issues.  I've resigned myself to what it is.

[Mario]

Have you enabled the write cache in Reflect?
Other Tasks > Edit Defaults. In the dialog click on the Advanced button in the toolbar and then on Advanced Backup Options in the list on the left.
This was a tip in the FAQs and I always used this.

The source data for the full backup was about 600 GB.
I don't keep my image archive on that machine, only the most recent sets.
For daily backups MR handles about 10 to 40 GB (depending on what I did that day). For a 40 GB image it takes ~ 18 minutes.
It reports I/O Performance: Read 3.1 Gb/s - Write 786.0 Mb/s overall.

[Ferdinand]

Have you enabled the write cache in Reflect?
Other Tasks > Edit Defaults. In the dialog click on the Advanced button in the toolbar and then on Advanced Backup Options in the list on the left.
This was a tip in the FAQs and I always used this.

Yes.  This got me down from 7 hours to 5½.  ATI was / is 4-4½.  I've been through everything in this list:
http://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW/Understanding+and+resolving+backup+and+restore+performance+issues
except updating the Intel RAID drivers, which I will do shortly.  Although you'd think that that would also affect ATI, so I don't hold out any great hopes. 

The source data for the full backup was about 600 GB.
I don't keep my image archive on that machine, only the most recent sets.
For daily backups MR handles about 10 to 40 GB (depending on what I did that day). For a 40 GB image it takes ~ 18 minutes.
It reports I/O Performance: Read 3.1 Gb/s - Write 786.0 Mb/s overall.

Last four times in reverse chronological order, the first three of which were increments and the fourth is the base full
I/O Performance: Read 91.7 MB/s - Write 2.9 GB/s - 00:12:01 - 6Gb
I/O Performance: Read 127.2 MB/s - Write 3.0 GB/s - 00:08:30 - 2Gb
I/O Performance: Read 153.1 MB/s - Write 3.0 GB/s - 00:08:00 - 3Gb
I/O Performance: Read 94.7 MB/s - Write 1.9 GB/s - 05:27:25 - 1½Tb

Quite different to yours.

[JohnZeman]

This week I decided to use Macrium Reflect to clone and replace both my C: (OS and programs) and D: (data only) drives.  The C: clone went flawlessly although I needed to go into my computer BIOS to tell it to boot up on the newly cloned drive.

The D: clone was another story.  At 92% of the way through the clone Reflect aborted with a Broken Pipe failure message.  After a lot of head banging by your truly I finally traced the problem down to a corrupt jpg that had an I/O error.  Once I deleted that jpg and re-exported the original file to IMatch from Lightroom (via CS6) the D: clone worked as it should.  Side note:  CHKDSK did not find a problem on the C: drive even though that corrupt jpg was there.

My nearly full 3TB data drive required 4.75 hours to clone to a new 4TB drive.  The 500GB C: drive that was about 50% full only took 35 minutes to clone.  5 Year old Dell XPS 9100 computer.

[Mario]

This sounds more like a temporary connection loss or a problem with the Windows volume shadow copy service, which is used by MR to produce consistent images. MR does not process 'files', it only looks at the hard disk sectors / clusters. Unless you do a file-based backup. It therefore should not trip over a broken JPEG file.

[JohnZeman]

It tripped over that same file 3 times during 3 clone attempts with each attempt resulting in a broken pipe error.

You very well might be right about this Mario because oddly enough the Macrium folks have been uncharacteristically quiet when I posted this issue in their forum.  I received an initial response to it when I first posted but they haven't said anything about it since which makes me wonder if they may not be looking into a potential problem.  Normally they are very good about responding until an issue has been resolved.

[cthomas]

I have used Reflect now also on my new computer, to transfer an entire hard disk from the old system and for multiple scheduled daily backups.

I backup all disks (C: and D:) in the system every evening on an external disk (image backup).
Twice a day I backup my source tree, IMatch databases, the "photools.com\IMatch5" folder to a BoxCryptor drive (for safe encryption), which is then automatically synchronized into my cloud storage using OneDrive. I know I could set Reflect to encrypt the files, but I prefer to use only one software for encryption (and that from a German company).

I've tested backups and restores (image and file modes).
I've also created a and tested bootable USB stick with Reflect (the new system has no DVD/BR drive anymore).
It worked perfectly, the system booted Windows PE from the stick, Reflect worked, my backup disk was mounted, accessible and I could restore files.

The performance of Reflect on the new system is way better than on the old PC. On the old PC a full backup took between 5 and 6 hours, plus maybe 40-60 minutes for the daily incrementals. That was for a 256 GB SSD and one 512 GB disk (RAID1) and one TB disk (RAID1), both filled to about 60%.

The new system has a 512 GB SSD and a 2TB disk (RAID1 provided by the on-board controller).
The total data amount is slightly less than on the old system because I've cleaned up a bit during the migration.
Reflect reports a steady transfer rate of between 1.3 to 1.5 Gb/second for the SSD, and 850 Mb/sec for the hard disk. The total backup time for a full backup takes about 1 hour and 10 minutes - instead of 5 - 6. The daily incremental backups take only a few minutes.

How does Reflect compare to Acronis True Image? What is the best way to backup my IMatch?

[Mario]

How does Reflect compare to Acronis True Image? What is the best way to backup my IMatch?

This thread, and the other thread linked to in the first post in this thread discuss exactly that.
For information how to backup IMatch, please see the IMatch help. Just type backup in the help index to find the corresponding information.

[jeknepley]

Late to the party. Just starting out with Macrium Reflect. I have four Win 10 PC's (& 4 MR licenses). I installed 1 copy and immediately created a bootable rescue media using a USB flash drive.

Can I use that same rescue drive on all 4 PC's? I plan to find out by trying it as I install MR on the other PC's, but thought it would be nice to know in advance.

[Mario]

I would say that this is rather a question for Macrium Support or the Macrium community.

As far as I know, the boot disk / stick created by MR can be used on any PC. It only boots Windows PE and this allows you to access and restore your backup from another media, e.g. an USB disk. It is not linked to a specific PC.

I have used MR to recover from RAID damage two times. But only on the system on which I created the boot stick.
It worked flawlessly both times, booting into ME from the stick, then restoring from an external USB disk.

But you have to try if you can boot every system from the stick to know it. There may be BIOS issues (especially with UEFI) or other problems and it's better to know all this before the worst case really happens.

Remember: Never trust a backup unless you have restored it successfully!

[ColinIM]

(....) Can I use that same rescue drive on all 4 PC's? (....)

I'll begin by echoing Mario's cautions about UEFI BIOS and about making test restores.  (My computers are not (yet) UEFI BIOS based so I can't comment on possible UEFI differences in my reply below.)

It is indeed possible to use one Macrium 'Recue Media' stick, or one Rescue CD or DVD on more than one computer, but in order to do so we need to run the Macrium 'Create Rescue Media' feature on each computer using the same memory stick (or CD etc.) as the 'target' Rescue Media device.

The reason is that when it creates the Rescue Media, Macrium Reflect gathers up the various device drivers that are installed on that computer to match that computer's exact hardware, and then writes those drivers to the Rescue Media so they're available during the Restore process.

(Naturally, if we use a CD or a DVD as our Rescue Media for more than one computer, then they must be RE-writable CDs/DVDs  )

I can't recall the specific details just now, but I know that the idea of maintaining one USB Rescue thumb drive (for example) for more than one computer has been endorsed by a member of the Macrium team on the Macrium Forum, and - for my own computers - I take advantage of exactly that 'ploy'.

On every update of the Macrium Reflect software I update one of my thumb drives as the Rescue Media 'device' for both of my computers, but in addition (and more importantly in my opinion) I also update one separate, dedicated thumb drive as the Rescue Media for each specific computer.  Thumb drives are relatively inexpensive 

I also write new Rescue CD's - one per computer - periodically after some Macrium Reflect updates, or any time I change any hardware or drivers on the computer. (Graphics drivers change most frequently!) ... but otherwise I don't write new CDs with every Macrium Reflect update.

Macrium Reflect can recover later-written backups using earlier-written Rescue Media, but it's clearly wise to keep our Rescue Media up to date with changes to our installed hardware, etc..

[jeknepley]

Although I managed to boot all 3 PCs from the same Rescue Media stick, I've opted to make a separate stick (2GB @~$2 each) just to be safe.

Except for Windows 10, all three are quite different in terms of hardware and accessories. Since, at a minimum, this means many different drivers, etc. I'll spend the extra $4 for two more sticks and eliminate one unnecessary bad surprise in the future.

I'm doing a monthly full image backup/restore plus daily incrementals (same plan is used for each PC). My transfer rates on my newest PC (internal SSD and external drive via USB3) are similar to what Mario reported for his newest. I use a very fast USB 3 64 GB stick (manual copy as needed) for my ~9+ GB IM5 DB.

I use GoodSync (on a schedule) to keep the PC's in sync with the "master" (all IM5 related programs, DB's & images) and also to copy the master to my Synology RAID 1 NAS (where changed/deleted files from the master are left as they were - not deleted or modified when copied to the NAS).

[Frank]

I do have a backup related question.
My Backupplan currently is abaout files and folder only. If my system crashes I can install it from scatch.

I have 5 different 5TB harddrives where I synch all my files and folder in a roundcircle on it. So if my main harddrive brakes I have several backup of my files.
The Tool I use is "FreeFileSync". I like that tool because I can access the data on the backup directly without any other software.

Why do I think of changing this situation?
If I update metadata in Imatch the whole file is modified and "FreeFileSync" copies the file on the connected external harddrive. If a file becomes corrupt and I just see it after I have backuped this file to all harddrives I cannot restore a older Version of that file. Storing versions of files using "FreeFileSync" cost an amazing amound of external diskspace because the whole file is synced!

Now I do have four questions to you as the experts:

1. How can I check if a file (e.g. jpg) becomes corrupt while copying it to the backup drive? Does IMatch cares about the file somehow for becoming corrupt?

2. Does "Macrium Refect" has a way to just backup the part of one single file (block - Level) which has changed instead of the whole file again?

3. What is the advantage of using "Macrium Refect" instead of a tool like "FreeFileSync"

4. Using "Macrium Refect" with incremental backup. Is it possible restoring an very old backup with an new version of "Macrium Refect"? Or do I have to do a new backup while a new version of "Macrium Refect" is out.


regards
Frank

[Mario]

1.
The probability of a file becoming corrupt while being transferred is very low. Today's disk systems are really reliable.
The problem is that a disk may silently become damaged, corrupted files without you noticing it (Just had such a case in my support email system).
To protect against such creeping damage, you would have to compare each file on your backup disk with the original files on a regular basis. Many backup tools offer such verify features.

To verify that a particular file or a bunch has been transferred correctly (or is binary identical to another file), you can use checksum tools or something like the XXCopy tool which supports "post write verify". Or even the comp command line utility.

IMatch Pack & Go performs after write verify by comparing the SHA checksum of the resulting file with the SHA checksum of the original file. The Verify command in Pack & Go unpacks each file and compares the checksum of the resulting file with the checksum of the original file. This is very safe.

2. This is the default behavior of Macrium or any other imager backup program. They backup snapshots of files, but only the changed sectors.

3. I don't know much about FreeFileSync. It works file-based and creates a full copy (deep copy) of each file for each backup, it will use a lot more disk space than a  tool like Macrium Reflect or another imager.  Copying a 10 GB database file just because 50 MB of it have changed does not make much sense.

4. I assume that this is the case, where would be the sense otherwise? You should check this with Macrium pre-sales support.
Backups don't grow that old, really. A disk backup from a year ago is probably not useful today. And a backup is not long-term archival, e.g. for document files. You need to combine both approaches anyway.

The best backup solution is one that functions totally automatic, in the background. For me, it's Macrium. For you it may be something else. Best to try it for yourself, there is a free version of Macrium Reflect. And the full version costs less than 70€ which is very fair.

From my own experience and bickering customers I know that for some people (not you, of course) it's incredibly hard to shell out some hard-earned cash for a decent piece of software. There has to be something 'free' somewhere, right? But sometimes it's just better to spend some cash, buy a decent and well-supported software for the task and then enjoy your time while your computer does the work for you. Mhm...reminds me of another product 

[Frank]

Hi Mario,
thanks for teh answer

Regards
Frank