Question Macrium Reflect backup error_loading problem ?

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smalltech

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Apr 10, 2009
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Hello,

I manually created a full backup of my pc on 21 Dec 2024 and saved to an external hard disk, then 22 Dec 2024 I created an incremental scheduled backup for daily 4am auto backup IncrementalScheduledBackupsDailyEveryDay0400AM.xml.

Then I did not touch Macrium Reflect software until today 06 May 2025. I usually wait until the external hard disk is full then the daily incremental scheduled backup will auto fail and tell me [No space on destination] then I will replace another empty external hard disk to repeat the process again. I have been repeating this process for many years without any problems and the incremental scheduled backup did not auto create any full backup in the past years. Today 06 May 2025, my external hard disk has 544GB Free Space which is still enough for many days of incremental scheduled backup. Daily incremental file size is about 5GB to 10GB each day.

These are my questions and I have attached screenshots.

Q1. Why today 06 May 2025, I opened my external hard disk and I saw all the macrium files are auto renamed with additional ".error_loading" at the end e.g. "561E5C36E5DA831F-00-00.mrimg.error_loading"? I remember it used to look like "561E5C36E5DA831F-00-00.mrimg". 04 May 2025 logs shows macrium rename the files. 04 May 2025 Completion Message shows Out of memory.

Q2. I read the Macrium logs and discovered on 04 May, 05 May, 06 May 2025 the incremental scheduled backup tried to do Full backup, why does this happen? I have already manually created a full backup of my pc on 21 Dec 2024 saved in the same disk and the incremental scheduled backups results are successful until 03 May 2025.

Q3. In the Macrium software [Logs] tab, 21 Dec 2024 to 03 May 2025 showed Result: Success, in my external hard disk 21 Dec 2024 to 03 May 2025 macrium files showed ".error_loading" at the end, are the backups from 21 Dec 2024 to 03 May 2025 still usable and in good condition?

Q4. In the Macrium software [Logs] tab, 04 May 2025 the Completion Message shows Out of memory. I think 04 May 2025 had too many opened browser tabs during the scheduled backup started so this Out of memory error occurs, I think 21 Dec 2024 to 03 May 2025 backup are successful (as seen in macrium logs result: success), can I rename all files by deleting the [.error_loading] characters of each file, then continue with the 22 Dec 2024 created incremental scheduled backup for daily 4am auto backup IncrementalScheduledBackupsDailyEveryDay0400AM.xml with the 21 Dec 2024 to 03 May 2025 backups?

Q5. What should I do to solve the problems?

I am using
Windows 10 Pro Version 22H2
Macrium Reflect Home v8.1.8325 [UEFI]
Home (64-Bit) [UEFI]

Thank you very much

Total 9 Screenshots (click right arrow on screenshot to see next screenshot, click on screenshot to enlarge) :
https://imgur.com/a/z2ECOSi
View: https://imgur.com/a/z2ECOSi

Screenshots are attached in this post and also posted in this link Imgur: The magic of the Internet
 
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What version of MR?

That is very much NOT the way to use Macrium and Incrementals.

A recovery needs the original Full image, and ALL of the intervening Incrementals.
With that many Incrementals, failure is likely.

And if you manually 'edit' one or more of the Incrementals, failure is all but guaranteed.



Start over.
Full Image, and keep a rolling 30 days of Incrementals.
 
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Ralston18 said:
I would not expect that you can fix the loading errors by simply editing out the "error_loading" notification.

Nor would I trust any such file as is or renamed.

Just for the record: Was Macrium Reflect allowed to update during those time spans?
Click to expand...
I did not set anything about updating Macrium, in the past I did not encounter Macrium auto update before, it will prompt me latest version is available then I have to manually update. I think macrium is unlikely to be doing update during it is doing a scheduled backup.
 
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USAFRet said:
What version of MR?

That is very much NOT the way to use Macrium and Incrementals.

A recovery needs the original Full image, and ALL of the intervening Incrementals.
With that many Incrementals, failure is likely.

And if you manually 'edit' one or more of the Incrementals, failure is all but guaranteed.



Start over.
Full Image, and keep a rolling 30 days of Incrementals.
Click to expand...
Macrium Reflect Home v8.1.8325 [UEFI]
Home (64-Bit) [UEFI]
 
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Assume scenario 1 and 2 are the exact same days on the exact same computer with the exact same files and data.

scenario 1. Assume first full backup 01 Jan is 5GB, then do daily incremental backup is 1GB each day, 02 Jan 1GB, 03 Jan 1GB, 04 Jan 1GB, so total from 01 Jan to 04 Jan is 5+1+1+1=8GB.

scenario 2. Assume first full backup 01 Jan is 5GB, then do daily differential backup, 02 Jan 1GB, 03 Jan 2GB, 04 Jan 3GB, so total from 01 Jan to 04 Jan is 5+1+2+3=11GB.

Am I right to say differential backup will take up a lot more space than incremental backup?

I intend to keep 365 days of backup, so I can restore to any day within the most recent 365 days, what is the best backup plan?

Thanks
 
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smalltech said:
Assume scenario 1 and 2 are the exact same days on the exact same computer with the exact same files and data.

scenario 1. Assume first full backup 01 Jan is 5GB, then do daily incremental backup is 1GB each day, 02 Jan 1GB, 03 Jan 1GB, 04 Jan 1GB, so total from 01 Jan to 04 Jan is 5+1+1+1=8GB.

scenario 2. Assume first full backup 01 Jan is 5GB, then do daily differential backup, 02 Jan 1GB, 03 Jan 2GB, 04 Jan 3GB, so total from 01 Jan to 04 Jan is 5+1+2+3=11GB.

Am I right to say differential backup will take up a lot more space than incremental backup?

I intend to keep 365 days of backup, so I can restore to any day within the most recent 365 days, what is the best backup plan?

Thanks
Click to expand...
Differential vs Incremental
https://blog.macrium.com/incrementa...ferences-and-how-do-they-compare-3213b093b56a

Differential is ALL the changes since the last Full Image.
Incremental is ALL the changes since the last Incremental.

To recover:
For Differential. all you need is the desired Differential and the original Full.
For Incremental, you need ALL of the intervening Incrementals and the original Full

Macrium strongly suggests to not keep doing Diffs for too long.
Before long, you'll be keeping almost a whole copy of the drive in question, repeated every day.
365 days is WAY too long.
 
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Why 365 days?

What I do is...
On creation of a new system, Day 1 Full Image. That is the basic OS, fully activated and updated.
Day 2. OS + y basic load of applications.
After that, a Full Image, followed by a rolling series of Incrementals. Keep for 30 days, tossing the eldest.
 
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USAFRet said:
Why 365 days?

What I do is...
On creation of a new system, Day 1 Full Image. That is the basic OS, fully activated and updated.
Day 2. OS + y basic load of applications.
After that, a Full Image, followed by a rolling series of Incrementals. Keep for 30 days, tossing the eldest.
Click to expand...
I open a same document to add more information, sometimes I accidentally deleted or edited some text in the document without myself knowing it and then I press saved button then I closed it. After many weeks later when I was reading the older text then I discovered some text is missing or edited. e.g. I may find some sentences abruptly ended or suddenly see some gibberish characters (maybe I accidentally pressed the keyboard while I was using the file previously), then I will need to look into the backups to find out what text did I accidentally deleted/edited to know what was the original text.
 
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smalltech said:
I open a same document to add more information, sometimes I accidentally deleted or edited some text in the document without myself knowing it and then I press saved button then I closed it. After many weeks later when I was reading the older text then I discovered some text is missing or edited. e.g. I may find some sentences abruptly ended or suddenly see some gibberish characters (maybe I accidentally pressed the keyboard while I was using the file previously), then I will need to look into the backups to find out what text did I accidentally deleted/edited to know what was the original text.
Click to expand...
Whatever the reasoning, a years worth of Incrementals on the OS drive is not the way to go.

Possibly File and Folder backups in Macrium.
 
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USAFRet said:
Whatever the reasoning, a years worth of Incrementals on the OS drive is not the way to go.

Possibly File and Folder backups in Macrium.
Click to expand...
I have 2 hard disk, hard disk 1 I installed windows C: , hard disk 2 I store all documents e.g. word, excel, video, images, text...

I have been doing this: In Macrium reflect [Create Backups] I click [Image selected disks on this computer] and selected both hard disk 1 and hard disk 2

In Macrium reflect [Create Backups] I did not use [Create a File and Folder backup]

Since you mentioned "Possibly File and Folder backups in Macrium."

Do you recommend I do these steps below?:

In Macrium reflect [Create Backups] I will click [Image selected disks on this computer] and select hard disk 1 only

In Macrium reflect [Create Backups] I will click [Create a File and Folder backup] and select hard disk 2 only

What difference does it make, comparing with what I have been doing using only [Image selected disks on this computer]?

https://imgur.com/zjNvNIb
View: https://i.imgur.com/zjNvNIb.png
 
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USAFRet said:
You can do both.

Full drive backup on one schedule, File/Folder backup of only a couple of folders, on a different schedule.

365 Days of Full drive images, Full and Incremental, is likely to fail if you actually have to use it to recover.
Click to expand...
Can you write in details what do you mean "Full drive backup on one schedule", "File/Folder backup of only a couple of folders, on a different schedule."?

I am guessing different schedule would look like this Schedule A and Schedule B

Schedule A: In Macrium reflect [Create Backups] I will click [Image selected disks on this computer] and select hard disk 1 only, do a first full backup and then do scheduled incremental backup daily

Schedule B: In Macrium reflect [Create Backups] I will click [Create a File and Folder backup] and select hard disk 2 (all folders and files in hard disk 2) only, do a first full backup and then do scheduled incremental backup daily

https://kbx.macrium.com/macrium-reflect-ltsc/creating-a-file-and-folder-backup
 
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smalltech said:
Schedule A: In Macrium reflect [Create Backups] I will click [Image selected disks on this computer] and select hard disk 1 only, do a first full backup and then do scheduled incremental backup daily

Schedule B: In Macrium reflect [Create Backups] I will click [Create a File and Folder backup] and select hard disk 2 (all folders and files in hard disk 2) only, do a first full backup and then do scheduled incremental backup daily
Click to expand...
Yes, precisely.
 
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