I've tested on 2 different up to date Win 10 Pro Laptops and the latest Macrium Reflect v7.2.4601.

Tested with a 4TB drive and a 128GB usb stick.

On both drives I can delete Macrium Backups despite Image Guardian being on?

https://dataproof.workplace.datto.com/1/filelink/bv2my-cukx2zq-skwxd4xe

For the drive shown in the video, Image Guardian is enabled as a service, but it's not enabled for the partition you were working with, as indicated by the lack of an Image Guardian icon on that partition in Reflect's "Create a backup" tab.  See my screenshot below for comparison.  To fix that, select that partition, then click Actions > Enable Image Guardian.  This capability exists so that users have the option of not protecting certain volumes with Image Guardian even while others maintain protection. (This is all explained in the KB article about Image Guardian.)

For the 128 GB USB stick, I don't know if Image Guardian can protect removable storage class devices (most flash drives) as opposed to fixed disk class devices (HDDs and SSDs), especially because removable storage class devices don't show up in Reflect's "Create a backup" tab, so you wouldn't even have a way to manage protection on a per-partition level with such devices.  It also only works for NTFS partition, fyi, just in case your flash drive is using something like exFAT instead.

+x

 

jphughan - 17 January 2020 6:06 AM

For the drive shown in the video, Image Guardian is enabled as a service, but it's not enabled for the partition you were working with, as indicated by the lack of an Image Guardian icon on that partition in Reflect's "Create a backup" tab.  See my screenshot below for comparison.  To fix that, select that partition, then click Actions > Enable Image Guardian.  This capability exists so that users have the option of not protecting certain volumes with Image Guardian even while others maintain protection. (This is all explained in the KB article about Image Guardian.)

For the 128 GB USB stick, I don't know if Image Guardian can protect removable storage class devices (most flash drives) as opposed to fixed disk class devices (HDDs and SSDs), especially because removable storage class devices don't show up in Reflect's "Create a backup" tab, so you wouldn't even have a way to manage protection on a per-partition level with such devices.  It also only works for NTFS partition, fyi, just in case your flash drive is using something like exFAT instead.

Thank you for that
I'm not sure why it was turned off?
I also tried with a usb stick and Reflect doesn't see it.

I am having the same issue as referenced in this thread's header. And that goes for both of my computers. In "Other Tasks" From the title bar in MR, MIG settings show that that the radio button is "On". Notwithstanding, in File Explorer where my different backups are saved on External HDD, the image guardian icons are nowhere to be seen, meaning I can easily delete the backups by right-clicking on any one of them. That is not supposed to happen normaly like that.

Futhermore, in MR's Local disks (See screenshot in attachment) the MIG icons are present for all drives concerned with a backup. I really cannot tell what had triggered this change. Pretty sure that three or four days ago, everything was OK. If anyone can help me in fixing this issue, that would be greatly appreciated. I am on a paid version and MR's latest update took me to version V8.1.7387.

What do you see when you go to Other Tasks > Image Guardian Settings in Reflect?

As far as I know, the MIG icon is not visible in File Explorer but should be within Reflect.  Check Other Tasks > Macrium Image Guardian Settings > Volume Tab and make sure the volume where your backups are stored has a check mark.

+x

 

jphughan - 2 March 2023 12:02 AM

What do you see when you go to Other Tasks > Image Guardian Settings in Reflect?

Thanks for your prompt reply. Here is what I see:

+x

 

capair45 - 2 March 2023 12:16 AM

As far as I know, the MIG icon is not visible in File Explorer but should be within Reflect.  Check Other Tasks > Macrium Image Guardian Settings > Volume Tab and make sure the volume where your backups are stored has a check mark.

I can guarantee you 100% that the MIG icons are always there in File Explorer for each backup. That's what usually tells me that everything is OK. As for the Volumes Tab, I have already checked  as per a previous post in this thread saying the same thing and everything is hunky-dory at this level. 

Image Guardian itself shows as Enabled in its settings, so if you’ve also confirmed it’s enabled on the specific volume of interest and can still rename/delete backups, I’m not sure what to say. Normally Image Guardian would either be disabled on that volume or would show a status of Error in settings to allow that result. I guess you could try uninstalling and reinstalling Reflect.

Image Guardian icons don’t show in Windows Explorer though. It appears in Reflect under the Local Disks tab.

+x

 

jphughan - 2 March 2023 1:16 AM

Image Guardian itself shows as Enabled in its settings, so if you’ve also confirmed it’s enabled on the specific volume of interest and can still rename/delete backups, I’m not sure what to say. Normally Image Guardian would either be disabled on that volume or would show a status of Error in settings to allow that result. I guess you could try uninstalling and reinstalling Reflect.Image Guardian icons don’t show in Windows Explorer though. It appears in Reflect under the Local Disks tab.

I don't know what to say either. The last thing I tried was to repair MR In control Panel > Programs & features > MR > Change. That has not fixed the issue after the reboot. On another note, I always use MR Differential for my backups, never incremental fearing that with the latter if any sequence in the chain is screwed up, I am done (Just the paranoid side in me).  I'll try to  roll back to a previous time where I think MR was working fine. If not, I will go for the reinstall.

At one point, I thought that my license had expired when I checked about MR in Help, but it was only the support. At any rate, I will keep you posted if and when I happen to fix the issue.
Thanks again for your intervention.