Question Acronis True Image or Macrium Reflect X -- which is best to stick with for backups on 3 computers ?

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bikemanI7

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Jan 9, 2020
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Should I resume using Acronis True Image, subscription valid til June 2025 or continue using Macrium Reflect X ?

I panicked back in February 2025 and bought Macrium Reflect X worrying about paying for the renewal of Acronis, but now I think I can do it as long as I can cut out ordering doordash so much, i should have more than enough funds to cover it for my 3 computers.

Or should i wait til June and see if I can really cover the renewal of Acronis, and go from there?
 
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Well never did much Recoverys with Acronis while i had it installed, i probably should've tested how that works with my E drive that is Extra Storage.

Macrium Reflect X i can do that soon here though, or practice recovery scenario with Secondary Laptop machine, should be similar to the Desktop recovery i assume there.

In Process of Verifying Macrium Reflect Images today as don't think i had that on when did the images in Macrium Reflect X
 
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bikemanI7 said:
Well never did much Recoverys with Acronis while i had it installed, i probably should've tested how that works with my E drive that is Extra Storage.

Macrium Reflect X i can do that soon here though, or practice recovery scenario with Secondary Laptop machine, should be similar to the Desktop recovery i assume there.
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50% of having a backup routine is knowing how to recover when things go bad.
 
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Ok will work on learning Macrium Recovery steps, update the rescue USB sticks.

Make sure it boots on both systems, both Desktop and Secondary Gaming Laptop, then one of the machines will do a Recovery one of the the drives.
 
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I'm really confused about why you switched due to worrying about the renewal costs. Why were you even panicking about the renewal cost and switched a full 4 months before it would be due instead of using what you'd already paid for and considering options at your leisure? You've paid money for Reflect while wasting months of your True Image licenses, and now you're considering abandoning Reflect so you'll have wasted whatever time is left on those licenses.

In terms of multiple machines, Macrium Reflect only has licensing for 4 machines at $100 per year, while True Image is $80 for 3 machines and $100 for 5. How was switching to Reflect the cheaper option? (I personally chose Reflect as well because I was using the Free home version for a long time and I like it. True Image however is cheaper and just as effective for the primary use as a backup application.)

If you're that hard up for money to pay for this, there are other legitimate free image-based backup applications. They might not be as slick or well-designed or have quite as many features, nor the best support, but they do work. Even Windows 11 still has the Windows 7-era Backup application built in which definitely is not the most feature-full but works very well for what it does (and for some reason uses up WAAAAY less space on the backup destination than others).
 
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Well i had a deadline March 31st 2025 to swap to Macrium Reflect X, and get it lifetime for $49.99 and Trade in All my Macrium Reflect 8 Licenses.

Yes i know i wasted months of my Acronis True Image licenses, but i was like do i want Macrium Reflect X for $49.99 for Lifetime, or do i wanna stay with Acronis True Image

Not really hard up that much for money if i just manage it right, and try to get my Family members to manage it right also.

Time left on Macrium Reflect X Licenses is til 2/11/2026

I do overly panic at times, i did use Macrium Reflect 8 Home for a long while, and before that Macrium Reflect 7 free when it was free for a while.

Honestly i probably shouldn't even bought True Image in first place, and just stayed with Macrium Reflect Home 8 last year, and upgraded to Reflect X before March 31st, would've saved money
 
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bikemanI7 said:
Should I Resume using Acronis True Image, Subscription valid til June 2025? or Continue using Macrium Reflect X?

I paniced back in February 2025 and bought Macrium Reflect X worrying on paying for the renewal of Acronis, but now think i can do it as long as i can cut out ordering doordash so much, i should have more than enough fund wise to cover it for the 3 Computers.

Or should i wait til June and see if i can really cover the renewal of Acronis, and go from there.
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I use both. My newer PC's I have two Acronis licenses exp 6/26. With my 13 year old windows 10 machine I use Macrium free. Limited options but it works. Free licenses are still available. Windows 10 PC now running Ubutu. Still using Macrium.
 
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Think i'll just stay with Macrium Reflect X at this point, no real use switching back to Acronis True Image i suppose, Just know i waste money sometimes too often.

i gotta learn to relax more, and try to order doordash less, and i'd have plenty of money each month for various things.

Windows 10 Machines i hope to replace with Windows 11 Machines closer to October 2025. As I know absolutely nothing on Linux at all, been using Windows since 1993.

2011 P6 2133W HP Desktop
and HP Omen 15_ce019dx Gaming Laptop
 
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Switching again now would absolutely be a dumb waste of money when you still have nearly a year on the Reflect licenses, so I honestly can't imagine what would make you even be considering it. I tend to spend on things I don't need but I certainly don't just throw away perfectly good functioning things for something else that doesn't do anything different or better.

I am confused about how "lifetime" equates to having an end date in 2026. You just got an annual license for $50 it sounds like, which is the normal price for one license.

JeffreyP55 said:
Free licenses are still available.
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Although you can download the installer from unofficial sources and unpublished links on Macrium's site, Reflect 8 Free hasn't received any security or feature/bug updates for over a year. Whether it's considered a "free license" still is debatable, philosophically and legally, as they don't provide links to download it but it is still available on their servers via direct links, and they pretty much absolve themselves of any responsibility for your continued usage. Even if it still works now, it could suddenly not be compatible, especially with the way Microsoft handles changes to Windows 11.

JeffreyP55 said:
Windows 10 PC now running Ubutu. Still using Macrium.
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I can't imagine what that's supposed to mean.
 
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The License is for 4 PC's $49.99 a year. Which is cheaper than Standard 4 user license. though i don't have space to setup a 4th system at this time, but maybe in the future i'll get a Mini PC, and be able to used the 4th license with that.

Acronis was only for 3 Actual computers do have in use

So yes i made a dumb move switching sooner than i needed to, but in the end just will stick with Macrium Reflect X
 
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Well, I guess it wasn't the dumbest move ever at that price per license. :) Just not the most cost-effective given that Reflect's ongoing price would be higher than True Image's along with losing out on the time you'd already paid for. So I guess just short-sighted unless you really prefer Reflect.

But you're in good company with all of corporate America and its shareholders demanding profits NOW regardless of the effect later on. Maybe you'll get rich, too.
 
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Tired of “Greedy” subscription based backup software?? You might want to check this out when you current subscriptions run out. Here is what I have been using for the last 5 years. Has never failed me in the dozens or so times I have used it. It has all the “Bells & Whistles” that you could ever want.

Minitool ShadowMaker Pro Ultimate for a one-time fee of $79.00. https://www.minitool.com/backup/shadowmaker-pro.html

Perpetual / Lifetime version upgrades - 1 license for 3 computers.
 
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MajorTom308 said:
Perpetual / Lifetime version upgrades - 1 license for 3 computers.
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Are they actually giving you free upgrades for life to every new version (i.e. 8 to 9 to 10), or just minor version updates to the version that you buy (8.1 to 8.2 to 8.3 but not 9)? They don't make any details of it clear. In fact they don't even mention the upgrades on the purchase page that compares versions. You have to click "view full comparison" to see it and there's no further information. I think it's most likely you are stuck on the major version that you buy, which will eventually become incompatible with your OS.

I hate the "normally $158" on their own site which they never actually charge just to make it seem like you're getting a deal but $79 is always and always has been the price. It's disingenuous, like Black Friday sale pricing. But I think the annual subscription is actually a better deal than the perpetual license here at $3 for two PCs, because unlike most subscriptions you don't end up paying more for the same amount of time that the perpetual license is useful. It would take over 17 years of the annual subscription to equal what you paid for the perpetual license, per-PC ($1.50 per year versus $26), by which time that perpetual license would be outdated if they aren't upgrading you to every new version. (Usually subscriptions cost so much that this happens in only 2 to 3 years.)

PCWorld's review of ShadowMaker also mentions R-Drive Image which is a lifetime license for $45 per machine, slightly discounted with multiple licenses. More expensive but they preferred that program though I'd never heard of it before.
 
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evermorex76 said:
Are they actually giving you free upgrades for life to every new version (i.e. 8 to 9 to 10), or just minor version updates to the version that you buy (8.1 to 8.2 to 8.3 but not 9)? They don't make any details of it clear.
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Started with version 3.5 in 2020 and currently using version 4.7 in 2025. Have not spent a penny on upgrades!!! So the upgrades include both minor and major versions.
 
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evermorex76 said:
Switching again now would absolutely be a dumb waste of money when you still have nearly a year on the Reflect licenses, so I honestly can't imagine what would make you even be considering it. I tend to spend on things I don't need but I certainly don't just throw away perfectly good functioning things for something else that doesn't do anything different or better.

I am confused about how "lifetime" equates to having an end date in 2026. You just got an annual license for $50 it sounds like, which is the normal price for one license.


Although you can download the installer from unofficial sources and unpublished links on Macrium's site, Reflect 8 Free hasn't received any security or feature/bug updates for over a year. Whether it's considered a "free license" still is debatable, philosophically and legally, as they don't provide links to download it but it is still available on their servers via direct links, and they pretty much absolve themselves of any responsibility for your continued usage. Even if it still works now, it could suddenly not be compatible, especially with the way Microsoft handles changes to Windows 11.


I can't imagine what that's supposed to mean.
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That is correct. I believe Macrium went cloud only. The license you receive for the no longer supported onboad version is exactly the same for every download. I am retired, not tons of data to backup. The only cloud storage I use is Onedrive installed on two Windows 11 PC's sharing desktops only. Plenty of NVMe storage. I have used Acronis for many years. Don't use their cloud storage either. 50 free gigs is nothing espessially if you have a lot of music to store.
 
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JeffreyP55 said:
That is correct. I believe Macrium went cloud only. The license you receive for the no longer supported onboad version is exactly the same for every download. I am retired, not tons of data to backup. The only cloud storage I use is Onedrive installed on two Windows 11 PC's sharing desktops only. Plenty of NVMe storage. I have used Acronis for many years. Don't use their cloud storage either. 50 free gigs is nothing espessially if you have a lot of music to store.
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What do you mean by "cloud only"?
AFAIK, it still stores backups locally.
 
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USAFRet said:
What do you mean by "cloud only"?
AFAIK, it still stores backups locally.
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Does it? I wasn't sure. When I looked into the new version of Macrium it was a bit more expensive than Acronis. So, I stick with Acronis for newer and simplified disk backups with Marcrium. Like I said, retirement I really don't need tons of disk space. Sharing data only OneDrive Desktop backup enabled between two PC's. Backing up the backups. One internal NVMe and one external USB C/NVme drive. Sooo much faster than the WD Black 2TB HDD's I have.
 
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JeffreyP55 said:
Does it? I wasn't sure. When I looked into the new version of Macrium it was a bit more expensive than Acronis. So, I stick with Acronis for newer and simplified disk backups with Marcrium. Like I said, retirement I really don't need tons of disk space. Sharing data only OneDrive Desktop backup enabled between two PC's. Backing up the backups. One internal NVMe and one external USB C/NVme drive. Sooo much faster than the WD Black 2TB HDD's I have.
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Cloud is available (not required or 'only') in the 'server' editions.
https://www.macrium.com/scalable-backup

But the regular MR Home thing still saves locally.

And they still have a 30 day trial, to test for yourself.
 
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USAFRet said:
Cloud is available (not required or 'only') in the 'server' editions.
https://www.macrium.com/scalable-backup

But the regular MR Home thing still saves locally.

And they still have a 30 day trial, to test for yourself.
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I still use the free unsupported home version but thanks for the offer.
If Macrium was significantly less expensive than Acronis I would of jumped. Too late now. I re-upped with Acronis for two years. I have been using Acronis since 2001.
 
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For probably 95% of people, they're functionally the same product with a different user interface. (It would be interesting to see telemetry or feedback numbers from them on the actual usage of the more niche features that they share as well as the ones that are exclusive to each.)

I tried some other free products when Reflect Free stopped being updated, and finally decided that I was going to stick with Reflect even if I had to pay for it because of one single feature: it only shows an icon in the system tray when a backup is running. All the other products (and True Image) show an icon at all times. I don't need a constant icon there just to let me know that it's ready for 14 hours from now when the backup is scheduled to run again, or to let me check status of the last backup at any moment of the day. And I didn't want to just disable the icon via the Windows setting because I do want to be notified about warnings/failures or when backups start/end and other "right at that moment" stuff, I just don't want it idling there for no reason.
 
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Ok this morning finally had time to test Macrium Restore, and the USB Rescue disc

Successfully booted on first try once i got it set in bios to boot to that USB stick

No problems loading into Macrium

No Problem finding the Image to Restore for The Extra Storage drive (used that one since i was like if something goes wrong, i got a secondary backup of that Drive on my other 8TB Storage drive)

Restored from Western Digital 8TB My Book--speed wise took about an hour, which isn't too bad considering it had to restore 475MB worth of data.

This included Verifying first before restoring, Restoring, SSD Trim, and rebooting, and stopping in UEFI bios to set boot drive back to First M.2 Drive

So if it was this easy for a Storage drive, In the future i'm confident now if i had to restore C Boot drive with the USB stick, i can definitely get it done now.


Tested Music folder on E:\Storage, and all files playing just as they were before with no problems at all

Overall think all is well

**Acronis i only attempted 1 Image restore in the past, and 1 Clone, though the clone didn't work for some reason on Samsung 990 Evo Plus at the time, so i ended up just doing a clean install on Christmas 2024, i was like i'll figure it out later**

Imagine if i ever need to do a clone, Macrium Reflect X probably will work right, only way to test that soon is possibly maybe Clone Boot NVMe to Samsung 990 Pro Game NVMe, and then move them to the other ones slot, and make the 990 Pro as the new Boot drive if i ever wanna go thru that hassle
 
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