Anybody Moving from Reflect Free?

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Greetings All –

With the free version of Reflect soon to be no more, I’m wondering how many users will be migrating to a different disk imaging solution, and if so, to what.  I know that the software will continue to work just fine, but there will be no further updates or security patches.  Is this even a program that needs security patches.  I was tempted to by the pro version, but it’s an annual subscription, and I don’t want to head down that path.

Casey H.

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jburk07, jnmcewen55, LHiggins

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Casey,

I’m still using version 6! Works great. It doesn’t contact the internet so why the need for security patches? If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Casey H, jburk07, SueW, WSbobby-p, Tom in Az, TechTango

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If you use Western Digital and/or ScanDisk Hard or Solid State Drive(s) (including USB drives) you can download and install Acronis True Image for Western Digital at no cost to you.

Acronis True Image for Western Digital allows you to:

• Backup a drive,
• Clone a drive,
• Add a new disk to your PC, and/or
• Clean a drive.

It also includes an app. that allow you to defend your machine from:

• Ransomware,
• Viruses, and
• Other threats.

The download is available on the Western Digital support site.

We have used Acronis for several years and have had no problems with it.

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garyfritz, Casey H

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 I was tempted to by the pro version, but it’s an annual subscription, and I don’t want to head down that path.

If  go here then scroll down the page you’ll see a One-Time purchase option.  It’s not a subscription.

https://www.macrium.com/products/home

Desktop Asus TUF X299 Mark 1, CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz, RAM: 32GB, GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. Display: Four 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2 quad.

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Casey H, jburk07

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I am on paid V7 and have no plans to update.

My backups work and the software does not talk to the internet except when I ask it to check for updates, so there are no issues that need to be “fixed”.

cheers, Paul

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Casey H, Berserker79, jburk07, TechTango

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I’ve moved to Computer Backup, Boot Manager, and More – TeraByte Unlimited. It is NOT free. It is robust and reliable. I used free versions of several backup programs through the years. Macrium being the last. I decided that for something as important as my data I should quit chasing the free version of whatever.

--Joe

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Casey H, jburk07

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I decided that for something as important as my data I should quit chasing the free version of whatever.

This has been my choice as well.  I’ve used Shadow Protect, Acronis and now Macrium paid stand alone.

I’ve always kept all my personal files backup on external drives.  However, after a C drive failure once a long time ago, even though my data files were not lost, the work of reinstalling windows from scratch on a new drive and reinstalling my software and data took about 3 days with all the small tweaks and housekeeping.  It would have been a 20-minute project with image backups.

 

 

Desktop Asus TUF X299 Mark 1, CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz, RAM: 32GB, GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. Display: Four 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2 quad.

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I’m on Reflect Free 8 and have no plans to update to a paid version or a different software for the time being: even in the absence of updates it will continue to be enough to meet my needs (i.e. create backup disk images for my home PC and eventually restore if need be).

While I’m not too concerned about the lack of further security updates, it might be more of concern the fact that according to the Reflect FreeEOL notice:

“Macrium Reflect Free v8.0 supports Windows XP SP 3.0 up to, and including, Windows 10 & 11 version 22H2.
There will be no new features or support for later Windows operating system updates.”

With the upcoming release of version 23H2 for Windows 11, I’m not sure what lack of an update for Reflect Free might mean: I’m under the impression the program should still work just fine with 23H2, but maybe I’m missing something.

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My version 6 still works just fine on Win11 23H2!

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Berserker79

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That is Macrium just covering their butt in case Microsoft changes something that breaks Reflect.

--Joe

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Berserker79

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Thanks everybody for weighing in.  Lots of good stuff here.  After mulling it over, I decided to go with the paid version, one-time purchase.  I do have a little buyer’s remorse, however.  The license is for one PC only, and I still have a laptop, which I somehow inconveniently forgot about at the time. I’ll stick with Macrium Free for it, with hopefully no future issues going forward.  I stayed with Macrium, because I’ve used it for quite sometime and know which things to click on to get the job done.  I only use images for backing up Windows and the installed software.  I make an image about once a month, after the most recent update proves itself without any glitches.  All my data is on a separate drive, backed up to two other separate drives.  A desktop PC with a big case has lots of room for that sort of thing.  I also back up the data to two external hard drives which alternate to my safe deposit box at my bank.  I swap them about once a month, so worst case, I’m only out about one month’s  worth of data.  And in reality, much of the recent stuff is recoverable from various websites.

On an associated note.  I did have to do some fiddling with the rescue media.  The default Windows RE environment for the base WIM wouldn’t boot, and I had to go with the PE 10  files.  Thanks again everyone.

Casey

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Casey H wrote:

The default Windows RE environment for the base WIM wouldn’t boot

Why not?
Errors?

cheers, Paul

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No error messages–just kept in an endless cycle of asking what country keyboard I wanted to use.  Macrium technical support directed me to use the WIN10 PE for the WIM build instead of the default RE.  After doing that, it worked perfectly.  I had to do the same thing with the Macrium vs Windows choice on normal boots.  Got the same indications.  What language do I want for the keyboard.  I rebuilt it with the WIN10 PE, and it works again, too.  I’m glad I checked it.

Casey

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Deo

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