Compression
Backup files can be reduced in size without compromising data integrity. Compression results may vary depending on compressibility of the source data, e.g., a standard Windows install OS partition will compress to around 60-70% of its original size. The compression effectiveness for user data partitions and files will depend on the types of files being backed up. Files that won't compress further include most audio and video files, as well as existing compressed file such as .zip, .tar, .7z etc.
| Compression Level | Description |
|---|---|
| None | Backup without compressing. |
| Medium (Recommended) | Medium compression generally provides the best compromise for performance and file size. |
| High | High compression may make backups take considerably longer to complete but the difference in file size may be marginal. |
*All 'mountable' backup files, such as those created by Macrium Reflect, require discrete blocks of data to be compressed and decompressed 'on the fly'. This enables images and backup files to be incremented and mounted as drives in Windows Explorer,
Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Intelligent Sector Copy | Only backup data blocks that are being used by files on the disk. This significantly reduces the time it takes for backups to complete and reduces the size of the backup files. The data blocks in Pagefile (pagefile.sys) and hibernation (hiberfil.sys) files will be excluded from images. Data blocks in these files are temporary and not required when Windows starts. These files will be visible in the imaged file system, but will take up zero space in the image file. |
| Forensic Copy | Backup all data blocks. This may significantly increase the size of image files. e.g., An image of a 1TB file system with only 1GB in use will contain 1TB of data blocks prior to any compression. |
File Size
Option | Description |
|---|---|
Automatic (Recommended) | Let the system decide on how large the images are going to be created dependent on file system (NTFS, FAT32, DVD, CD) e.g. FAT32 files are limited to 4GB therefore images are going to be split into 4GB or less files. |
| Fixed file size | Create Images that will be split into many fixed size files. This is useful when copying Image files to optical media or to some cloud storage providers. |
Password
| Enter Password: | The minimum password length is determined by the selected AES encryption level. Long passwords are much more secure than shorter passwords and can easily be constructed and remembered by adding together phrases and words that are unique to your memory. Passwords are not saved to backup files. Macrium Reflect uses standard PBKDF2 key derivation functions with 260K iterations to save an irreversible hash of the password. To view existing saved passwords, click the 'eye' icon in the password edit field. After entering valid Windows Administrator credentials, the password will be shown in plain text. |
| AES Encryption | |
| None | No encryption and the password can be any length. |
| Standard 128 Bit | This is the default and requires a password containing at least 8 characters. |
| Medium 192 Bit | Requires a password containing at least 16 characters. |
| High 256 Bit | Requires a password containing at least 32 characters. |
| Encrypt stored passwords | Passwords are stored in backup definition files to enable unattended backups to run. Select this option to encrypt your passwords in the xml file using a steganographically hidden asymmetric key. |
Auto Verify Image
Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Verify image | Images will be verified automatically when the backup completes. Note: This can add a significant amount of time to the backup process. |
For more information on image verification please see Understanding Image Verification Failures
Retention Rules
Choose how backups are matched, and how retention rules are applied to the target folder
Retention rules are applied to the target folder of the backup by selecting one of two options:
| Similar backup sets in the target folder. | Disk Images are purged if they contain exactly the same Partitions as the current Image. Partitions are identified using the unique Disk ID stored in sector 0 of the disk and the Partition sector offset. Note: For GPT disks the unique GPT disk GUID is used instead of the Disk ID For File and Folder backups retention rules are applied according to the File and Folder 'Backup Set Matching' selection. |
| All backup sets in the target folder. | All backup sets in the target folder of the same type (Disk Image or File and Folder) are purged according the retention rules. |
Select the age or number of backup types that you wish to keep
Option | Description | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full | When deleting Full backups all linked incremental and Differential backups in the same backup chain (set) are also deleted This operation will delete the entire backup set. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Differential | When deleting Differential backups all linked incremental backups in the same backup chain (set) are also deleted. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Incremental | When deleting Incremental backups the integrity of the backup set is maintained by ensuring that the chain is never broken. This is achieved by merging older Incremental backups when required. In the example below, before retention, there is 1 Full backup, 1 Differential backup and 6 Incremental backups. The retention rules are set to retain 4 incremental backups. After retention, the most recent 4 incremental backups are retained. Deleting the oldest 2 incrementals would cause the backup chain to be invalid as the oldest retained incremental requires the previous 2 incremental backups to complete the chain. To ensure backup integrity the 2 older incremental backups are consolidated with it to create a new incremental backup.
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| Create a Synthetic Full if possible | When purging Incremental backups, if the backup set only contains a Full backup followed by Incremental backups, then this option causes the Full backup to be 'rolled forward' to create a Synthetic Full backup. This is also known as Incremental Forever. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Run the purge before the backup | Select this option to run the retention rules before the current backup. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Delete oldest backup set(s) if less than n GB | Automatically remove the oldest backup set(s) in the target folder if the free space on the drive drops below the GB threshold. |
Verify File System
Verify File System is used to check the integrity of the file system before a backup.
Macrium Reflect will automatically verify the integrity of FAT32 and NTFS file systems being backed up. This means checking that all files and folders have their data entries correctly mapped to the file allocation table (FAT) or $MFT Bitmap (NTFS).
This is a comprehensive check, and similar in functionality to the MS-DOS chkdsk command that may increase the time taken to complete a backup.
Cloning
Option | Description | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perform an Intelligent Sector Copy | Only backup the sectors that are being used by data on the disk. Pagefile (pagefile.sys) and hibernation (hiberfil.sys) will be excluded. This reduces the time it takes for the clone to complete.
| ||||||||
| Perform a Forensic Sector Copy | Backup every sector. This can add a significant amount of time to the backup process. |
Reparse Points
Reparse points are a feature of the NTFS file system that provides the ability to create a link to a directories which then fictions as an alias of that directory.
e.g. Reparse point is the folder "Documents and Settings" which when followed points (or expands) to a number of other folders. If followed then all folders the reparse point "contents" will be included in the backup.
The options below define whether reparse points are followed or whether reparse point definitions are backed up.
Reparse points are defined by folder attributes, and all reparse point tags are considered.
See: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/reparse-point-tags
Option | Description | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| System Reparse Points | Attributes
| ||||
| User Reparse Points | Attributes
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Backup Set Matching
The options below define the logic used for appending to an existing backup set and how retention rules are applied when selecting 'Apply retention rules to matching backup sets in the target folder' in the backup wizard.
Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Similar - Match on backups with at least one matching folder | Add and remove folders in your backup definition and still maintain a single backup set. |
Strict - Match on backups with the same folders and filters | Retention rules will only be applied to exact matched backup sets. |
| All - Matching on any backup | Retention rules will be applied to all File and Folder backup sets. |
Shutdown
Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Shutdown | This will Shutdown your computer after the backup is complete. A sub-option can be enabled to Force the shutdown process - All programs will be forced to close without being queried. |
| Hibernate | This will Hibernate your computer after the backup is complete |
| Suspend | This will put your computer to Sleep after the backup is complete. |