Macrium Reflect V7 Home Edition Review
A backup utility that offers SSD support and more.
When you think of backup software Macrium Reflect doesn’t spring to mind for most users, but it is solid and well worth a look. Whether your backing up your system before an Operating System upgrade, or backing up to protect against disk failure or malware threats it is important to have software that is easy to use and understand and gets the job done first time.
Backups are important - But have you updated your operating system, browser and other software installed on your PC, Mac or mobile device?
Download and install
You can download and install Macrium Reflect as a trial here. You click to download the small install file, installation is quite straightforward. You are given a screen to choose which type of installation, Trial or Full Software install, once you have decided you click to download and install.
"It is always important to make backups of your digital life. Photos, documents and work files". On starting up Macrium Reflect it first reminds you that you have not yet created rescue media and asks if you would like to create rescue media straight away. On the left of the main user interface you have three main backup tasks. Image selected disks, create an image to backup and restore Windows and last, create a File and Folder backup.
Running a simple file and folder based backup, for instance, will be quick, but only because you'll probably leave so much behind: emails, contacts, browser favourites, digital photos, music, fonts, Windows and application settings, Office add-ons, browser extensions - the list goes on.
The usual options are available and the backup can use three levels of compression depending on you want fast backups or to save some disk space. You can also verify and password protect the backups.
The program is easy to use, and keeps backup hassles to a minimum. Support for Microsoft's Volume Shadow copy Service means it can create a hard drive image while you continue to use your PC, for instance. A built-in scheduler lets you run backup jobs even when you're not around You can save to external or network drives, and even DVD (there's a built-in CD/DVD packet writing engine, so no additional burning software is required).
Macrium Reflect – Home Edition also lets you create a bootable Linux-based rescue CD with network support. If your PC won't start in future then you can boot from this, and use it to restore your last backup. But if you only need a few files, then the program can handle that, too. In just a few clicks you're able to attach an image, browse it for the files you need, then copy them back to your hard drive - it's all very quick and easy.
Features include:
- Macrium Super-Fast Imaging
- File and folder backup
- Incremental cloning
- Backup file Consolidation
- Synthetic full backup support
- Pre-defined backup plans templates
- Item level recovery
- SuperRapid Delta restore
- Complete SSD trim support
- Restore images to dissimilar hardware using Macrium ReDeploy
Conclusion
Macrium Reflect 7 Home is a great backup utility with plenty of features. Geared more towards intermediate and advanced users it can be used by novice users with some time, and the best way to see how you get on with it is to download the trial version.
Check out the latest software here.
Manufacturer: Paramount Software UK
Website: www.macrium.com
Operating System Covered: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10
Price: Paid versions
Editor's rating
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