	Resumable Images and Write Failure Retry Experience uninterrupted backups with Reflect X, designed to conquer network issues and other transient errors effortlessly. It even resumes seamlessly after a system reboot, ensuring your data is always secure, no matter what.
	Reflect X is Faster! We've dramatically enhanced backup, restore, and clone speeds, all while maintaining our unmatched reliability.
	Our File Format is Now Open Source! We've now opened up our .mrimgx & .mrbakx file format on GitHub, and provided the full source code for restoring all data. We enable our customers to access their data freely, eliminating the need for proprietary software and ensuring complete data independence. It's your data, and you own it!
	Filter Files from Images Reflect X enhances your backup efficiency by allowing you to exclude files and folders from Volume Shadow copies using customizable wildcard filters. Now, you can easily omit temporary files and other non-essential data from your disk images.
	Windows Copilot+ ARM Support Reflect X now extends full support to Windows CoPilot+ on ARM architecture. This update allows you to enjoy smooth, efficient backups and flawless recovery operations using the Windows RE rescue media on your ARM devices.

Macrium Reflect X introduces a new file format for disk images (.mrimgx) and file and folder backups (.mrbakx). Macrium Reflect X is backward compatible with images and file and folder backups created by Macrium Reflect 7 and Macrium Reflect 8. Existing backup sets will be continued in the existing .mrimg and .mrbak formats until a new backup set is created.

Resumable Images and Write Failure Retry

'Resumable Images' and 'Write Failure Retry' are only available for Reflect X (.mrimgx) image files. This functionality is not available for Reflect 8 (.mrimg) images.

Macrium Reflect X now creates persistent VSS snapshots that can be used to resume images in the event of a transient, or even catastrophic, error. Images will automatically resume in the background.

These settings can be configured on the 'Advanced Error Handling' page of the 'Reflect Defaults and Settings' under the 'Advanced Settings' section:

Checkpoint Interval

The 'Checkpoint Interval' option controls the frequency of saving metadata and index information. This process is detailed below.

Additional Files Created

When resumable images are enabled, several additional files are created in the destination folder for each image and volume:

.metadata file: Contains information related to the entire backup, such as the status of the backup, the number of volumes, and snapshot information.
.bitmap file: Stores volume bitmap information.
.block.table file: Stores index information.
.tmp file: Stores the actual backup data, similar to non-resumable backups.

Metadata and Index Information

Metadata and index information are periodically saved, a process controlled by the 'Checkpoint Interval X minutes' setting with a range of 1 minute to 30 minutes.
The .metadata file contains overall backup information.
The .block.table file contains index information for the volumes.
The .bitmap file contains bitmap information for the volumes.

Temporary Files and Backup Completion

Upon successful completion of the backup, all the temporary files are deleted, the .tmp file is renamed to a .mrimgx file, and the index information is written to the .mrimgx file.

Handling Read/Write Errors

In the case of write errors, the backup will be retried for the time specified by the 'Retry for X minutes' setting, with a range of 0 to 60 minutes.
Temporary files will be deleted at the end of the retry period, regardless of whether the backup completed successfully or failed.
Customers may want to increase the retry count to avoid premature deletion.

Automatic Resumption of Failed Backups

Reflect service periodically checks (every 1 minute) and automatically resumes failed backups caused by Reflect crashes, system restarts, etc.
During the resumption, metadata, .block.table, and .bitmap files are validated against the data stored within the .tmp file to establish a restart point.
The validation process (hunting process) starts from the end of the .tmp file and moves backward to find verifiable data.
The .tmp file position is reset to a valid data point, and the backup resumes from that point.
If no verifiable data is found (e.g., if a failure occurred early in the backup), the backup will restart from the beginning.
Snapshot IDs are validated during resumption, and any missing snapshots will be recreated for that volume, restarting the backup from the beginning for that volume.

Scenarios Based on Volume Backup and Snapshot Availability

The following table describes various scenarios based on the state of the volume backup and snapshot availability:

Scenario	Description
Backup Success	All temporary files are deleted, .tmp file is renamed to .mrimgx.
Backup Failure (Early Stage)	Backup restarts from the beginning if no verifiable data is found.
Backup Failure (Later Stage)	Resumes from the last valid data point after validating .tmp, .block.table, and .bitmap files.
Snapshot Missing	Missing snapshots are recreated, and the backup restarts for that volume.

These procedures ensure data integrity and minimize the risk of data loss during backup operations.

File System	Reflect Crash	System Restart
Unformatted or no volume drive letter	No snapshot Resume backup for the incomplete volume	No snapshot Resume backup for the incomplete volume
FAT32	If the snapshot ID is still valid, resume from where it left off. Otherwise, resume from the beginning.	Recreate the snapshot and resume from the beginning
exFAT	If the snapshot ID is still valid, resume from where it left off. Otherwise, resume from the beginning.	Recreate the snapshot and resume from the beginning
ReFS	If the snapshot ID is still valid, resume from where it left off. Otherwise, resume from the beginning.	Recreate the snapshot and resume from the beginning
NTFS	If the snapshot ID is still valid, resume from where it left off. Otherwise, resume from the beginning.	If the snapshot ID is still valid, resume from where it left off. Otherwise, resume from the beginning.
Other recognised by Reflect	If the snapshot ID is still valid, resume from where it left off. Otherwise, resume from the beginning.	Recreate the snapshot and resume from the beginning

Reflect X is Faster!

We have overhauled the compression algorithm that is used by Macrium Reflect, as well as introduced multithreading into the restore process. This has had a significant impact on the performance of backups, restores, and disk clones using Macrium Reflect X.

Leading up to the release of Reflect X, we performed extensive testing against Macrium Reflect 8.

Testing Background

This table compares the performance of Reflect X and Macrium Reflect v8 based on the time taken to create full image backups. The source drive was a SATA SSD, and the destination was an internally connected NVMe SSD. Tests were conducted across three data sizes (100GB, 500GB, 900GB) and three compression levels (None, Medium, and High).

Testing Result Summary

The results show significant improvements in backup creation times for Reflect X compared to Reflect 8, for scenarios involving compression. Reflect X consistently outperforms Reflect 8, making it a more efficient option for users who utilize compression in their backup workflows.

Testing Results

Compression Type	Data Size	Reflect X Time	Reflect 8 Time	Reflect X Improvement
None	100GB	00:03:59	00:03:58	0%
	500GB	00:24:28	00:23:21	0%
	900GB	01:03:47	01:04:07	0%
Medium	100GB	00:02:11	00:04:27	50.94%
	500GB	00:11:59	00:25:24	52.82%
	900GB	00:19:55	00:40:19	50.60%
High	100GB	00:03:50	00:08:09	52.97%
	500GB	00:21:16	00:34:33	38.45%
	900GB	00:27:46	00:57:31	51.72%

Our File Format is Now Open Source!

We're excited to announce that we've created an open-source GitHub repository that provides a comprehensive guide to the format and layout of Macrium Reflect image, as well as file and folder backup, files. Our aim is to enable our customers to access their data independently, without the need for proprietary software tools.

We've also provided a pre-built demo, img_to_vhdx.exe, bundled with a Reflect X image file and a batch file named demo.bat.

See the GitHub repository for more information

Filter Files from Images

Macrium Reflect X now includes a Macrium-created VSS writer that enables the exclusion of unwanted files from VSS snapshots. Using this filter, you can exclude various standard file categories, specific files, or apply wildcard filters recursively to selected folders.

This can be configured on the 'Exclude Files' page of the 'Reflect Defaults and Settings' under the 'Backup Defaults' section:

On this page are a set of safe-to-exclude presets; these are items that users will often not want to restore and will not impact the operating system or installed applications. 'Advanced Exclusions' enable user-specified files and wildcards to be excluded from the image.

Below are the available options to exclude from an image file:

Option	Description
Exclude files matching the criteria below	Enables or disables the file filtering.
Downloads folder	Files that have been downloaded from the internet, generally downloaded via a browser.
Temp folders	Temp folders are used to store short-term files created by the operating system and applications.
Temporary Internet files	Cached files that speed up web browsing.
Windows software distribution files	Downloaded updates from Microsoft.
Recycle bin	Files that have been deleted but may still be recovered are moved to the recycle bin. If this option is applied, items in the recycle bin cannot be recovered following a restore.
Advanced Exclusions	Selecting the 'Filters...' button opens the 'Advanced Exclusions' dialog, enabling user-specified file and wildcard exclusions. This is detailed below.
Selected options	This will display the number of files that will be excluded and their combined storage size.

Advanced Exclusion Dialog

On this page are three main options:

Option	Description
Add File...	This button opens an Explorer window, enabling specific files to be excluded from the disk image.
Add Wildcard...	The window that opens enables folders to be selected (using the 'Select Folder...' button) or folder paths to be specified: Once a folder has been selected, the 'Wildcard' will default to ., which excludes all files in the selected folder. This can be changed to specify files by name or by extension (temp.* and .temp). The 'Include subfolders*' option will recursively exclude files that match the wildcard filter in any subfolders.
Remove	Removes the selected filter from the filter list.