I wish that Macrium Reflect have the following features in future upgrades.

1. To generate a log file to indicate if the copying of backups or images is successful or not. Without the log files, I have to on a daily basis to check if a copy of backups is successfully copied onto the external backup drive.

2. To have an option to copy backups or images using unbuffered I/O. This function is particularly useful for copying very large files. I face degraded performance with Windows Server 2012 when copying very large files with buffered I/O.

Thank you.

Reflect generates log files for all backup and restore operations.  When you open Reflect, near the top left of the window you will see three tabs: Backup, Restore, Log.  Click the Log tab to see log files.

I do not think Reflect uses buffering (caching) because there is an option to turn it on in the advanced section of the defaults. Maybe I do not understand your question.

Hello Anthony Tan,

Thank you for posting.

1. Reflect generates such logs, they can be viewed by accessing the "Log" tab. As drac144 has mentioned "When you open Reflect, near the top left of the window you will see three tabs: Backup, Restore, Log.  Click the Log tab to see log files."

2. Reflect by default uses direct disk I/O. 

We use the technique described in the Microsoft support article https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/99794

 

Kind Regards

Gosha

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Hi All,

Thank you for your reply. Apologise if I have mislead you in my post. I have configure Macrium Reflect to perform backup onto an internal HDD. Then copy the backup to an external HDD.

Log files - Log file only report the status of the backup and file verification whether it is successful or unsuccessful. But it didn't say if the copying of the backup to the external drive is successful or unsuccessful. So every time before I disconnect the external HDD, I will have to make sure that the backup files are properly copied on the external HDD.

Disk I/O - The server performance degraded tremendously when Macrium Reflect start to "copy" the backup file to the external HDD. ("robocopy f: I: xxxxxx.mrimg", through command prompt). I don't know if this part of the copying process is buffered or unbuffered but it do degrade the server performance to a standstill. (I think it ran out of RAM, and it is a Windows Server 2012 issue.) For very large files, I have always prefer to use unbuffered copy. ("robocopy f: I: xxxxxx.mrimg /J", through command prompt)

Thank you.

Since all of the OP's issues are related to Robocopy and NOT Reflect, I am wondering why they are not posted on the Robocopy forum. 

While people here may be nice enough to help, I would think the best support might come from the manufacturer of the program that is causing the issues.

Hi Arvy,

Yes you are correct. It is about Reflect's option to generate a backup folder. Unfortunately I am not familiar with VB script and Powershell script. Therefore it is going to be a challenge for me to modify the existing script. But I will try modifying it with your link that you have provided.

Thank you very much for your enlightenment.

Hi Drac144,

At first my thought is not on Robocopy. I just thought that if Macrium Reflect could have options to automatically generate a log on the status of Robocopy in the log file, and an option for users to enable Robocopy with I/O unbuffered option without having to modify or writing the VB script. Arvy had already directed me to useful link and I try to modify the required functions.

I will also refer to the Robocopy forum that you have pointed. Thank you.

Thank you Stephen.