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| Note: New Backup Definitions will use the default values set here. Existing backups definitions will not be affected. |
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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 |
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| 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. |
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| Macrium Reflect uses a very fast, real-time, *streaming block compression algorithm. This will not provide the same overall compression ratio as common compression utilities such a 7-Zip which use, much slower, whole file data compression techniques. *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 | ||
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| 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.
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| 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. |
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File Size
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| Incremental Retention Rules will not be run if backup files are split. This can be caused by setting a fixed size or if the destination file system is FAT32. |
Option | Description |
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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. |
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Password
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| With the Password option turned on all the images created will require a password before they can be browsed or restored. |
| 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. |
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Auto Verify Image
Option | Description | ||
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| Verify image | Images will be verified automatically when the backup completes.
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For more information on image verification please see Understanding Image Verification Failures
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Retention Rules
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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.
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Cloning
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| 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.
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| Perform a Forensic Sector Copy | Backup every sector. This can add a significant amount of time to the backup process. |
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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
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| System Reparse Points | Attributes
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| 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 |
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| 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. |
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Shutdown
Option | Description |
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| 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. |