Macrium reflect free backup software full#
Macrium reflect free backup software windows 7#

And ultimately robustness, power and features aside, I have to say that I simply trust Macrium more.ДЄnd when it comes to backups, trust is incredibly important.ДЇirst, my apologies for the lengthy message. I just believe itвЂ™s a more robust solution created by people who are actually trying to create the best backup program. And, Reflect installed on any of those can read backups created on any of the others. It is very clear about what itвЂ™s doing when you set up your backup, while the backup is happening, and when you need to restore.ДЄnd, yes, IвЂ™ve written, Saved: Backing Up with Macrium ReflectВ to help you get the basics set up and to recover when the time comes. The interface can be a little confusing, itвЂ™s true, but I have yet to find a backup program that meets all those minimum requirements and isnвЂ™t somewhat confusing. It has all of the features we might want and then some. Macrium Reflect, on the other hand, is a program that is specifically architected to back up your computer. ItвЂ™s as if itвЂ™s there because they needed to have something вЂ“ they needed to check a box вЂ“ not because they wanted to create a really good robust backup system.

Macrium reflect free backup software windows 7#

That could and should be readable not only by Windows 7 backup, but by other programs as well.ДЄnd lastly, Windows 7вЂ™s backup just feels like an afterthought in many ways. That just doesnвЂ™t help you if youвЂ™ve moved to, say, Windows 7 and need to recover a file from an old backup. Windows XP backup images, as I understand it, are readable only by Windows XP backup. Microsoft has a very poor track record with maintaining backup compatibility across Windows versions. The big risk I see with using Windows 7вЂ™s own backup program is actually kind of an odd one. Some sense that the backups are reliable and will be there when you need them.

Macrium reflect free backup software full#

The ability to restore not only a full image, but to extract individual files from that image.

A controlled and obvious way of managing your disk space so that you know what youвЂ™re getting.

Full image backups that you can schedule to happen automatically.

ItвЂ™s one of the reasons I wrote my book, Saved: Backing Up With Windows 7 Backup.В While itвЂ™s capable of doing all the things that I feel are necessary, itвЂ™s not at all obvious. That being said it is, as I said, the first backup program to come with Windows where I feel comfortable saying, yes, if you do nothing else, go ahead and use it. You have little control over just where things go, and not a lot of control over exactly how the backups are created. One of the biggest issues I have with Windows 7вЂ™s program is that I have a very hard time telling exactly what itвЂ™s doing.В Because backups are so incredibly important, I want things to be clear and complete.В In Windows 7, the interface for backing up data only is confusingly melded with the interface for creating full image backups. While the Windows 7 backup program is perhaps the first utility built into Windows that meets what I consider the bare minimum necessary for a backup program, I definitely prefer solutions like Reflect. But the term вЂњdisk imaging utilityвЂќ really implies, to me, a lot more functionality than the Windows 7 backup program actually has. Yes, it can create what we would call an image backup. To begin with, I wouldnвЂ™t call Windows 7вЂ™s backup program a disk imaging program exactly.