Why Do You Prefer Macrium Reflect Over Windows's Own Image Backup Program?

Because Microsoft told me to.

I guess I will jump the gun use something . Windows Backup/restore(Windows 7) has quit working on my Winn 11 machine. It will restore bot back up

hi Leo, it stupifies me that microsoft leaves something needful as a backup app out of the OS while stuffing it full with other needless bloatware like xbox apps (wich i dont have) cloud backup apps (wich i wont never use) all those thiongs make leaks to your privacy more feasable, i always have to uninstall their bloatware after a big windows update pfff, cheers Leo

I love your channel Leo! You give wonderful advice and I'm hooked. However, I must disagree with you about the Windows 7 backup. Here's why:
1) I've been using windows 7 backup for several years now and I've NEVER had a problem restoring my data. (In fact, it doesn't hurt to have more than one backup, right?)
2) Windows 7 backup DOES NOT have nag screens asking you for money.
3) Unless those third party solutions are open source, what makes anyone think that Macrium or Easus aren't collecting your data as well?!?! (Why not just use Microsoft because they have your data anyway.)
I usually don't respond to these things, but in this case, I feel I have to say something.

This video got marked as sponsored???

I just found your channel and site. You remind me of the old days when I leaned on Fred Langa's Langalist for tips. Outstanding! I've used Reflect for a few years now, ever since Windows backup/restore became, to be generous, unwieldy. Reflect has clear menus, is easy to set up for both imaging and restore, and works perfectly every time. The one time I emailed support I got an answer back within one day. Excellent software.

On a similar but different item, Microsoft suddenly decided to move all of my Hotmail files up to the cloud, despite me never having used the cloud, then they said it was over the limit and I could buy more space. Now I have had that email address for many years without any problems, and I did not have a desire to use it , so I managed to access it and spent several days just deleting email after email, mainly they were old and of no value to me now. Now it is virtually empty and I am using my Gmail account more.
So the lesson on email is to read it and either reply and if of no value delete., If I need to store it copy to my hard drive then delete the email.😊

Can you do a video on the Moveit data breach

just use a clone drive utility like clonezila and have cone drive at hand swap the drive in 5min you will be up and runing , and when you have time restore you original drive with conezela again

Appreciate your videos Leo. Watching from the Philippines. I have a ton of data to back up so will check out macrium.

if using windows autoruns you can also disable programs not being used then enable them once you want to use them (if you don't want them running in background at all times)

Backblaze for the win

Leo, do you have any opinions as to why Microsoft doesn't just scuttle the Windows 7 Backup and Restore program and develop a new, robust backup program? Why does Microsoft keep an antiquated program around and advise people to get a backup program from a third-party vendor?

About Macrium Reflect not being free anymore: Backup is one of those things that's worth paying for. I pay for Backup software, online backup service (iDrive) and VPN. When it comes to this kind of system stuff, pay the reasonable cost. It's worth it.

The solution I use: Clonezilla. Disk0a - OS on 240 GB SSD. Disk0b - OS cloned on second 240 GB SSD. Cloned quarterly. Disk1a - four partitions of data on 1TB HDD. Disk1b - same data cloned monthly (same type of drive) from Disk1a. Each time a clone is made, it becomes the active disk, to ensure a good clone occurred. Overkill? You won't convince me!

I had tried to restore a windows installation wenn the update made problems . The backup windows told me i could use to restore didnt work and the machine went in a blue screen. After this i switched to macrium and everything works fine

Thanks☺
About a year back I used the then available Free version of Macrium. After restoring to a larger capacity drive the data part was exactly the same size as the original space, with wasted balance on the larger drive. I started a battle that I can't win! I deleted the System Reserved Partition at the end of the larger Drive, expanded it to the Maximum, sacrificing any possibility of System Restore. If your viewers have any suggestion for improvements, I'll appreciate it.
However if Macrium no longer has updated Free Version, I'll likely look for alternatives.

When I tried using the "built in" Windows back up program, I found it to be very error prone and mostly non functional. I've been using the Macrium Reflect paid version for 5 years now and I believe it to be worth every penny. It can be extremely complex and somewhat difficult to use at first but reading through the manual (only the sections you need as it has many functions most users will never use) makes things very clear and easier to use. Creating Full, Differential and Incremental backups and combinations of those will give you the security of having just what you might need to restore a full system image or just to recover one file or folder. I've tested images from both my PC and my wife's PC made on removable storage to an older test PC and have never had a glitch or error in doing the restores. I've used it to upgrade drives from MBR to UEFI and to upgrade from SSD's to M.2 drives. They have a user's forum that I've found to be very useful with many "gurus" who are glad to help if you have a problem or need help setting things up. Anyway, I'm not a salesperson for them but I can't say enough good things about the program. I feel very comfortable knowing I have a reliable backup waiting for all those "situations" that Leo talks about all the time.

Interesting video Leo. For people who have a Synology Nas, active backup for business is a good solution. The name is somewhat confusing as one thinks it is only for businesses, but it is not. And it is free and included in the software package of the Nas. It takes some learning how to restore as a bare metal backup. However it is an incremental backup system and very simple to use. Besides that, if you lost just one file, you can pick it up from the last backup of the one before it. And it works with versioning. It is simular to the TIme Machine used by Apple Mac.

but macrium is not free anymore that beeing said can you use a outdated free version of macrium still or dise it have to be the latest version