Macrium - Full, Differential or Incremental?

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kanidrive
I've been using the Macrium Reflect Free (Home) version, which does NOT provide for incremental "snapshots" of drive configurations. Yet all 3 checkboxes you have mentioned ARE TICKED by default in, even in the Free version.

So to answer your question: Yes, its normal.

However, if you are aiming for 3 system snapshots for a specific purpose, we will need more details on your goals. The FULL Backup process is (supposedly) shortened by leveraging the Differential and Incremental Backups as reference points for backing up your system.

If you are looking to be "triple safe" in maintaining your backups in 3 different locations, in the event as many as 2 hard drives fail at once and you could still have a 3rd copy, then you could...
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I've been using the Macrium Reflect Free (Home) version, which does NOT provide for incremental "snapshots" of drive configurations. Yet all 3 checkboxes you have mentioned ARE TICKED by default in, even in the Free version.

So to answer your question: Yes, its normal.

However, if you are aiming for 3 system snapshots for a specific purpose, we will need more details on your goals. The FULL Backup process is (supposedly) shortened by leveraging the Differential and Incremental Backups as reference points for backing up your system.

If you are looking to be "triple safe" in maintaining your backups in 3 different locations, in the event as many as 2 hard drives fail at once and you could still have a 3rd copy, then you could schedule 3 different backups to "target" 3 different drives / network locations. I'm betting this is not what you meant though. You *probably* meant: "I want to have 3 different backups to reference back to in the event I make a mistake by accidentally overwriting or deleting something", much like we used to have to do in "the olden days" before Version Control was as prevalent and function as it is today.

From what I've read up on and gather (as I actually only recently switched to using Macrium Reflect myself), The initial backup of your system is what Macrium uses to reference against your CURRENT state of storage affairs, and in your case (using the Pro version) WITH capabilities of Incremental Backups, you can also build the Differential backups faster.

So from what I've researched and read ( ignoring the "Rapid Delta Restore" Option, since I haven't used the Pro version - see:https://blog.macrium.com/focus-on-macriums-rapid-delta-restore-rdr-5dd3a244a0fb ) I would suggest that you keep the default setting of 4 differential backups, created once a week, and maintain at LEAST 3 FULL Backups for you to go back up to 3 months earlier to "find" what it is that you are hoping to prevent the loss of. The default 14 Full Backups setting is... a bit extreme in my opinion, but it does afford you the ability to go back up to 14 months of scheduled backups. The amount of space the backups could take up might severely reduce the available space your hard drive for no good reason though. Just for reference, I used the default "Medium Compression" setting for a drive with about 380GB of content and Macrium Reflect created the backup image at a size of 177GB. Multiple that by 14 and... well... so much for your hard drive space unless you have around 2 or 3+TB to spare just for backup images. I DO actually have enough space to store than much data, but choose not to pack my hard drives / NAS / RAID will data that I will probably never need again if I lost it over 3 to 4 months ago and didn't notice it was missing. Just my opinion though. Everyone's circumstances are different. Especially for work / business related materials.

You *COULD* save a copy of your oldest backup and store it elsewhere every <4 to >12 if you really REALLY want to be safe. But doing these sorts of things makes for messy and inconsistent backup management that Macrium Reflect is actually VERY good at keeping organized and "sane".

So if you are "Aiming for 3 system snapshots": I suggest keeping a weekly scheduled Differential backup (retain 4, with a once a week schedule), since you paid for the Macrium Reflect Pro version, keep at LEAST the 14 (bi-weekly) Incremental Images, and then keep at least 3 FULL BACKUP Images at once a month (which seems to be the longest amount of time possible between backups with Macrium Reflect on ANY version - an assumption based on the UI design). Then you will have 14 backups that are never more than 48 hours older than each other (Incremental) and 4 Differential backups that will match the contents of the Incremental Backups in weekly snapshots (which I assume you can restore using the "Rapid Delta Restore" feature only available to Pro Version users) and then at least 3 months worth of backups from different time intervals (eg. The first Monday of each month), in the event you lost something and have not noticed until months later.


 
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Solution
I too use Macrium, the full version. I am a die hard incremental backup guy because I don't want a whole pile of differential backups where one gets lost or corrupted.

You start with a full backup and then a differential will generate a new image since the last differential.

I prefer the full backup and the latest incremental since it goes back to the last full backup.

On the other hand you do a full backup and then use incremental
 
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Actually, that's backwards.
Differential is ALL the changes since the last Full
Incremental is the changes since the last Incremental.

Diff:
Pro - You only need the Full and the most recent Diff
Con - The Diffs get larger as time goes on

Inc:
Pro - Small file sizes
Con - You need all the Inc's since the last Full.

See here: https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW7/Differential+and+incremental+disk+images
 
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Fragments? No, it's the whole file.
And you can even mount a Differential or Incremental image in File Explorer, and extract a single file.

On the Free version, if you leave Incremental selected, it will just tell you that is unavailable in the Free version.
You can continue on from there.
 
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I think there is a knowledge gap here as to how the methodology of Macrium Reflect works. It took me a bit of reading to fully wrap my head around it.

Reflect is one of those rare gems that have FANTASTIC FEATURES built-in, but there is not much "marketing and fanfare" about them;

eg. High compression algorithms, automatic purging of dated backup images, possible to image multiple partitions from MULTIPLE DISKS, all ON ONE BACKUP IMAGE... AND/OR EXCLUDE THEM. The list goes on. All these features are on the Free, Home edition too. Super simple to use, even for a very tricky backup config like mine where I am using 3 different hard drives in a highly custom configuration to optimize Windows and increase the longevity of "the Precious NVMe SSD". I have custom locations for Temp files of all types (scratch disk partition), I've moved the %systemroot%\User directory to its own disk partition, and I have my repos for development, local servers, Virtual Machines, PortableApps Platform Directory (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), and more, all running at different 'platter points' of a large local drive, all while getting frequently 'backup imaged' by Macrium Reflect Free Edition via 3 separate "jobs" that run once a week to a remote NAS Station. Macrium Reflect has GREATLY simplified my life as far as backups go. And that's just the Free Version. The biggest difference in Free vs Pro that I have found is its ability to leverage the various aspects of INCREMENTAL backups, which are MUCH faster to restore from, but also greatly speed up/reduce seek reads/writes to hard disks over time. Since I don't use this for "work machines", since they have their own "IT Department enforced" backup/restore methodology (which is usually pretty awful) I don't really *need* the Pro features to get what I need from the backup imaging. Though, I admit, it would be nice to have those Incremental and "Delta-based" features enabled, lol. It's certainly not necessary though.


If you've ever used any kind of Version Control software like Git, SVN, Mercurial, CVS, etc. it helps GREATLY to understand what is so great about how Macrium Reflect actually works. I think those of us who have "gotten the hang of" using Macrium Reflect are picking up on the language and tone you OP is using that is clearly unfamiliar with "delta-based" types of version control (delta, being the "Greek Triangle" that isn't just part of the name of a Frat/Sorority, but it represents "change" in higher-level mathematics). No judgement, some people literally NEVER wrap their heads around the concept, and those who do grasp it, sometimes need to take a moment to think it all through to reach their intended goals.

If you never much care for understanding how these "Diff's" and "Increments" work, you *could* get away with just creating FULL Backups from the scheduler during the creation wizard, and leave out Diff's and Incremental's completely. I don't recommend that, since the backup imaging process will take MUCH longer than you need it to... and you clearly paid for the Pro version, may as well use the Pro features.

What REALLY SOLD ME ON but also HELPED ME COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND just the depth of how AWESOME Macrium Reflect is, I read this KB Article on how to use the Macrium viBoot feature - https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW7/Macrium+viBoot

It's a tricky way of thinking, at first. you have to realize that Differential & Incremental Backups are working WITH the FULL Backup(s). That is the reason why when you initially create a new "job" for Macrium Reflect to image a particular disk or partition, it (correctively) steers you towards creating the initial FULL Backup that is needed to get the most out of Macrium Reflect.
 
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Yes, it is, my brain was on idle at the time apparently. :)

 
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I routinely make full images of the System Reserved, OS, Data partitions of each computer onto two twin "pancake-sized" usb external HDs using both MR7 and Image for Windows. I haven't had the courage to try Incremental or Differential backups on a long-term basis - yet .
 
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