TR Forums

So, after a lot of noob-ing around with virtual machine issues before finally getting to Macrium itself, I've found that the Linux-based Macrium recovery CD doesn't recognize VMware Workstation SCSI disks; I don't know if it has any issues with Virtualbox disks of any kind. Has anyone been using the Linux-based recovery CD to restore a physical disk and found it to work well for such things, or is it best to go with the WinPE-based recovery CD in every case?

Update: Macrium's WinPE-based boot disk finds VMware's SCSI disks just fine. I made a disk image of the virtual machine, then made a new virtual disk, removed original virtual disk, added new virtual disk, restored the image to the new virtual disk, and booted right up without issue.

As free solutions go, Macrium Reflect is excellent. I'm sold, and quite glad. I've wasted a tragic amount of time with Window 7 built-in disk imaging.

I think I'll be buying some seats of Reflect for the workstations at the office. Macrium has earned it.

Just wanna say that my 3 year old version of Acronis True Image Echo was able to make and restore Windows 8 64Bit images when used from the Rescue/Boot CD.

That is good enough for me for now, as I am setting up and testing various Window 8 setups, with and without some apps installed.

I also want to make a image before Windows 8 activates, and then try restoring it on another box, changing the serial number, and then activating it.

I've been using http://www.todo-backup.com/ to deploy SSDs by copying from existing HDDs. I'm not a huge fan of the partition sizing, it's graphical rather than allowing you to set exact sizes, but I haven't had any issues yet. I know you already got your solution in place but I wanted to throw this out there for anyone else lookin'.

I'll put in another vote for Clonezilla. Works fine for SSD's and traditional HDD's in my experience.

FYI - I tried to upgrade my Acronis since my v11 did not run on Win 8. I paid and downloaded the upgrade version and then find that the sn they gave me for the Win 7 versions is now "not recognized" and I can't upgrade Eben though it worked as the sn for the version I used for two years on my Win 7 box!! I even have it on the acronis backups made before the upgrade!

Their support email was no help - just polite nonsense and repetitive. I am canceling the purchase on my credit card since its unusable.

There have been mutterings on other threads that the latest versions are also not reliable. I have had no prior problems with acronis - and fortunately never needed it beyond cloning to new disks - but am now turned off and will go elsewhere.

ordskiweicz wrote:

FYI - I tried to upgrade my Acronis since my v11 did not run on Win 8. I paid and downloaded the upgrade version and then find that the sn they gave me for the Win 7 versions is now "not recognized" and I can't upgrade Eben though it worked as the sn for the version I used for two years on my Win 7 box!! I even have it on the acronis backups made before the upgrade!

Their support email was no help - just polite nonsense and repetitive. I am canceling the purchase on my credit card since its unusable.

There have been mutterings on other threads that the latest versions are also not reliable. I have had no prior problems with acronis - and fortunately never needed it beyond cloning to new disks - but am now turned off and will go elsewhere.

They should've given you another serial with the new version. You need *both* serials to install the upgrade.

I've never had issues with Acronis in the past, but the past 2-3 years I've just been using a Linux live CD + gparted ('cause it's free).

Edit: Have you checked this KB article on their site?

Another vote for Macrium. Used it to clone an HDD boot partition to an SSD ... worked very well and dealt with alignment as well.

Another vote for Macrium - started using it after hearing about it in this thread and no complaints and you can't beat the price. I was strictly Acronis before this, using the free WD edition at home and multiple versions at work with great success. Between those two (Macrium and the WD version are both free) you should be able to get something to work well. I haven't used the bootable version of Macrium yet, but I have had some frustration with the Acronis bootable in the past, but it was typically related to a bit more complicated maneuvers involving multiple resized partitions (from Dell and HP oem installs usually) but I was able to use the Windows client of Macrium to accomplish the same feat.

I've been using XXClone http://www.xxclone.com/ to do cloning. Just used it last night to clone my XP setup to a new HD in preparation for upgrading to Windows 8. It is Windows only but it has the nice feature of being able to backup a system while running. Since it doesn't do a disk image copy, but a file copy it avoids the SSD issues. It's also free unless you want the extra features.

Hello. I am greatly intrigued by Macrium Reflect, so I have downloaded the Pro trial.

One feature that very much interests me is the "Redeploy" feature. Has anybody successfully used this to prepare a backup/image for new hardware and then use that image to recover when the old hardware is suddenly no longer available?

Here's my thinking on the matter: I just built a new system, but let's say it's 3 years later and my motherboard, CPU, and SSD models are no longer available for purchase (this is entirely plausible, all three of my choices have already been on the market for a year or more, and the Samsung 830 SSD is already off the market).

Anyway, I'm exploring the trial now and maybe I can answer my own question. I would very much like to be able to image my three SSDs onto unlike device types (maybe even imaging them to a single spare 1.5 GB HDD) but still have confidence that I can recover from a catastrophic event that might take my hardware out of the picture.