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Notes for Beta testers

Macrium Reflect v7.2 includes new features, small improvements and bug fixes. Please see below to find out what's changed, what's new and what's yet to be added...

New Features


New Rescue Media builder include Windows RE with WiFi Support

We've added a Rescue Media Builder (RMBuilder) application with support for Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) as well as the existing PE environments supported by Reflect 7.1 and earlier. WinRE supports WiFi and is available on most |Windows installs without any further downloads. 

There have been a few bug fixes since the last RMBuilder beta release, including compatibility with Windows 8.1 and Server 2008R2/2012 as well as RE support for all Windows language installations.  Apart from these fixes the functionality remains unchanged from the last beta...


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New Changed Block Tracker driver with support for Windows Restart Persistence 

We've created a new Changed Block Tracker (CBT) driver that automatically upgrades the previous version when you install v7.2 with the CBT feature enabled.... 


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Our original implementation of real-time block changes erred on the side of caution by resetting the tracking index whenever a volume was mounted. This meant that after Windows reboot an image was required to be created on a volume without using CBT before the benefit of CBT was available.

We've improved on this by reliably detecting whether NTFS volumes have been mounted without the CBT driver in the kernel stack. This applies to all Operating Systems that can mount NTFS volumes, including Linux. The operation of CBT has also been vastly improved by tracking changes in RAM rather than by flushing to disk. This also has a fail safe method to reset the CBT index should a power failure or other problem occur.  We're confident that this implementation is class leading and robust. 

With that said, we understand that some customers prefer not to monitor changes over a mount/reboot so we've added a check-box to make CBT behave in a similar way to the current (v7.1) implementation....



New Macrium Image Guardian driver with additional features and streamlined operation

MIG is now Windows kernel only!. Our Macrium Image Guardian (MIG) feature has been improved to remove the dependency on a Windows service and we've added popup notifications when a blocking event occurs. The popup shows blocking activity as it happens.


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We've added real time popup notifications when Macrium Image Guardian blocks file access to a backup file.

When file access is blocked for the first time the file name is shown in the popup...

Click 'System' to open the Windows Event Viewer system messages showing a custom view of MIG events:

Click 'Settings' to open the MIG disable settings dialog:

Additional functionality over the v7.1 MIG settings dialog in Reflect include:

1. An Apply button to accept changes to the dialog immediately.

2. A 'More Options...' drop down in the 'Turn off' selection:

3. Live countdown if a temporary disable has been applied.

4. A Re-Enable button to cancel a temporary disable.

5. The MIG shield icons in the Reflect disk view will automatically update to Reflect the state of MIG. 

Note: The same dialog can be displayed in Reflect by taking 'Other Tasks' > 'Macrium Image Guardian Settings'



When multiple access attempts are blocked the process that's been blocked will be shown in the popup. together with the number blocked attempts. 

Click "Reset" to reset the blocked activity count. 

Note: Windows Explorer deletion or modification activity may generate multiple blocked access events. 



Why aren't you using the built-in Windows 10 toast notifications?

We decided to not use the built-in Windows 10 toast notifications because:

  1. MIG blocking notifications should remain permanently on the screen until closed.
  2. We need to support earlier Windows Operating systems. 
  3. Most importantly, we can add additional functionality to the notification Window such as menus and buttons for directly interacting with MIG settings. 

The Free Edition can now automatically  'convert' to a Trial by taking any of the features not available in the Free Edition

We realized that many of our Free Edition users are unaware that there are additional features available in the trial and paid for versions of Macrium Reflect. All 'premium' features, such as Image Guardian, Changed Bock Tracker, Incremental Images, Encryption.. etc..can now be activated and trialed for 30 days. After 30 days a further 7 day extension is offered. On expiration of the trial the functionality Macrium Reflect reverts to the Free Edition and Premium features will no-longer be available.  We've tried to make this process as seamless and unobtrusive as possible without losing any of the functionality of Macrium Reflect Free. 

To help with testing there's a hidden feature to reset to Free and change the expiration date of trial keys....

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Registration for Macrium Reflect Free and trials of Home, Workstation, Server and Server Plus

The registration process has been improved to ensure that  registration is a one off process and we can retain communication preferences. We've tried to make it as painless and smooth as possible.


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Registering your installation of Macrium Reflect Free or Trial of Home, Server or Server Plus requires entering a Unique Registration Code to confirm your registration.
Registration is mandatory for business installations and optional for home users. 


If you don't have a registration code or if you have previously registered but don't have the code handy then click 'Get My Code'


If you haven't previously registered then you will be emailed a link to an online registration to continue:

For business users:


For home users:


If you have already registered or after completing the form above you will receive an email containing your Registration Code to enter in the installer. 


Thank you for your interest in Macrium Reflect.

Your Registration Code is : !*URC*!
This code is paired with your email address. Use copy and paste to enter it when prompted 
in the installer registration page.

For more information please see here:
https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW7/Unique+Registration+Code

We hope you find our software useful.
The Macrium Team

At any time, you can unsubscribe or update your communication options here.
https://www.macrium.com/consent?id=!*URC*!

Please read about how we protect your privacy here.
https://www.macrium.com/terms-and-privacy-statement







Macrium Reflect update notifications and downloads can now happen without the Macrium Reflect application running

Recent history has shown that the current method of requiring Macrium Reflect to be running to alert of updates has proved ineffective. We've now added a systray icon in Window notification area to alert when an update is available to Macrium Reflect. 


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In the Macrium Reflect Updater dialog take 'File' > 'Configure Check...'
Note: The same options in the Update Settings dialog below are available by taking 'Other Tasks' > 'Edit Defaults...' > 'Update' and 'Help' > 'Configure update check..' in the Macrium Reflect UI


This displays the Update Settings dialog...

SettingDescription
Hourly background checksThe ReflectUI process will monitor for updates by checking every hour
Send email

If background check is enabled then an email is sent to the supplied email address when an update is found.

  • Only one email is sent for each update
  • SMTP server settings are the same settings setup in the Macrium Reflect defaults. This can be configured by clicking the 'Settings..' button,


Daily checks when Macrium Reflect GUI loadsA check is made once a day, when Macrium Reflect is started interactively.
Restart Macrium Reflect after patchingIf the Reflect Updater process was launched by taking the 'Other Tasks' > 'Check for updates..' menu in Reflect then setting this option will automatically launch Reflect when the patching completes.




If background checking is enabled then an update icon is shown in the Windows notification area  when an update is available. If enabled, the updater checks every hour.



Click 'Update Macrium Reflect' to launch the 'Macrium Reflect Updater' dialog.


New Warning and Cancelled backup completion results

We've also added the option for email notifications on Warnings as well as the existing Success and Failure results


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v7.2 adds a Warning and Cancelled completion results for Images and File and Folder backups. 

Warnings are generated for the following events:

  • VSS failure and fallback to VSS without writers
  • Bad sectors, if the default option is set to ignore them
  • Consolidation failure for any reason
  • Retention purge failure for any reason
  • File and Folder backup file copy failure 
  • Incomplete backup set when creating non-delta incremental Images or File backups. 


The Log tree now shows  Warnings and Cancelled backups...


And can be filtered...



Warnings are clearly displayed in the log...


And can be sent using email notifications...

Note: To ensure that existing backup email notifications don't miss warnings, if either a Success or Failure email notification is configured then the backup definition will be automatically upgraded to include Warning notifications


Cancelled backups can be excluded from Failure email notification.

Note: Existing backup definitions will be upgraded to include Cancelled backup so the behaviour is unchanged.






Minor Enhancements


New - Mounting incomplete backup sets


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We've noticed that some customers have frustratingly been unable to extract files from backup sets where at least one backup file in the image chain is broken or missing. We've now added the ability to attempt to browse a backup set that contains missing files. 

When browsing an incomplete set you will be prompted to continue with the mount:

If the image set has missing backup files then it is possible that the data you are trying to recover is lost. It depends whether the missing file(s) contain critical data for mounting the file system and also whether the data you are attempting to recover was in the missing files.  In most cases you may find that you files and data are completely recoverable. 


New - Backup monitoring restriction


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Customers with PCs and Servers that have multiple users, especial Windows Terminal Server customers, have complained that non-Administrators can interact with and cancel scheduled backups. We've now add an option to restrict ReflctUI.exe and REflectMonistor.exe to only run for users in the Administrators group. 

To activate take Other Tasks' > 'Edit Defaults' > 'Advanced' > 'Advanced Backup Options' and select 'Only allow Administrators to monitor running backups' 



The default for password protection is now AES 128 Bit. 


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Previously the default password option was to exclude ecryption from backup files and images. To improve security we've now made the default AES 128 bit.  As before, you can increase this to 256 bit or disable AES if you wish.


The 'Delete' functionality in Reflect is now available when 'Browse for an image file' is selected.


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Previously the 'Other Actions' > 'Delete File' menu was unavailable when 'Browse for an image file..' was selected in the 'Restore Tab'...

This functionality is now available.



Bug fixes


Backup Running Mutex

To prevent multiple backups running at the same time and conflicting with VSS and I/O operations on the source or target it's only possible to run one backup at a time. Simultaneous backups backups are 'queued' and run asynchronously.  With v7.1 and earlier the Backup Running Mutex, that prevents other backups from running. was held open while the backup dialog was open, even if the backup had finished. This could lead to a 'stall' in sheduled tasks if and interactive backup wasn't closed at the end. This has now been corrected and the next backup will start as soon as the current backup has completed. 


ReflectMonitor improvements

ReflectMonitor is a standalone exe that communicates via IPC to the running Reflect application to duplicate the backup dialog when backups, clones or restores are running. We have made the integration tighter to prevent some of the progress bars and other glitches that previuosly existed. 


Server Plus - Large Exchange Backups

Server Plus copies backup data to a 3TB virtual NTFS file system. Some customers have experienced backup failure if the size of the backup data exceeds 3TB. We've now made the virtual file system size dynamically based of the amount of data and size of the source volume to overcome this problem.  We've also improved the error messaging on backup failure to make it easier to troubleshoot problems. 


BitLocker drive without a drive letter

On systems with unlocked BitLocker drives that aren't assigned a drive letter, a 'BitLocker Live Restore' would always perform a 'Full Copy' restore rather than a 'Rapid Delta Restore (RDR)'.  This has been resolved.







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