Windows 10: Macrium Reflect very slow differential backup but very fast verify

Hi,
So today I tried to use Macrium for the first time.
I first made a full windows restore backup that took 56mins to finish and right after that made a Differential image that took 41mins to finish.
The full backup files size is 113gb and the differential backup file size is 1,7gb.
How is it that the differential backup took almost as much time as the full backup to finish even though the file size is that much different.
Also, as the titles says, when macrium verified the differential bckp image it took only 30s to complete when for the full backup image it took about the same time to verify it than to make it.

I am using a WD Elements external HDD to store the backups, plugged-in trough a USB3.0 port and the reported data rates for full and differential are respectively "Read 2.0 Gb/s - Write 598.5 Mb/s" and "Read 1.5 Gb/s - Write 495.8 Mb/s"

Thanks in advance for any help.

:)

 

Macrium Reflect Backup Failures

Macrium offers the option of verifying your images when they're created, if you check that box when creating your instruction file.








Otherwise, you could open Macrium, go to the restore tab, navigate to your most recent image and run Verify on it, to be sure it's good.

No, you must find the exact path that's listed in the RKILL log. Do you have show hidden files and folders enabled?

It is, and I can't tell from the Tweaking forum if he ever included reparse/junction fixes, but the guys at Bleeping Computer would know.

 

Restoring Windows 10 Image using Macrium Reflect


In addition to the above. Here's my suggestion in step by step.
I assume you have Macrium Installed in your current HD and already made a backup copy.

1. Connect your new HD via USB port and boot up.
2. Run Macrium, click on Restore tab then select the Backup Image that you made to restore
3. click on "select a different target disk" then select your new HD as destination
   
   
   
4. Proceed to restore then Shutdown and disconnect the old HD and replace with the new HD
5. Boot up with your new HD.

 

Question on Macrium backups

Short answer:

This is not about archive bit, it's all about a backup plan; if the Sunday and Wednesday full backups belong to same backup set, a differential image when restored restores the last full backup regardless if it's your Sunday full or Wednesday full, then the last differential backup.

In other words, archive bit has nothing to do with Macrium Reflect backup.

If your Wednesday full backup files have a different backup definition (the 16 character hexadecimal part of the filename) than your Sunday full / every other day differential set, then it's exactly as it should be. The Wednesday full will not be used when the original plan's differential will be restored.

Somewhat longer answer:

Let's say that you created a full backup now on Sunday, today Tuesday a differential, tomorrow Wednesday again a full backup, on Thursday a differential and so on.

If you now restore the differential made on Tuesday, it restores itself and full from Sunday. If you restore the Thursday differential, it picks up besides itself the full from Wednesday. This is not because Wednesday full backup cleared the archive bit, it is because both Sunday and Wednesday full backups belong to the same backup plan.

A backup set is a set of full, differential and incremental backups. When you created your first backup with Macrium Reflect you were asked to name that backup set (backup plan):





The file names of each backup file in each backup set have the same hexadecimal string as filename, followed by digits. Below an extract from Macrium Reflect tutorial here at Ten Forums, its Part Four Step 8:

What you want to achieve is simply done by creating a new backup plan for your Wednesday full backup. This puts the Wednesday full backups to a new backup set, without any whatsoever connection to your other backup set. Macrium Reflect is an intelligent application, by default it assumes you want to create a new plan and prompts for the name:





If you now give a new plan name, the backup will belong to new backup set with a different filename. To include this backup to your existing backup set you would need to browse and select the name of that set.

How backup sets are created and maintained - KnowledgeBase - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase

I might have misunderstood the highlighted part in above quote, but just to be sure I want to add this:

You don't have to restore first the last full image and then the last differential image. Simply restore the last differential image, it will automatically restore last full it finds belonging to same set, thereafter itself.

Restoring first a full image is completely unnecessary.