By Froggie - 24 March 2015 1:08 PM
Greetings! Many of us use MANUAL imaging for lots of different reasons. You DEFINITION FILES allow us to take those images painlessly through either PowerShell scripts, VBS scripts or just plain DeskTop shortcuts. The issue is none of these may be commented at the time of execution.
Sure, these MANUAL imaging operations may be commented using the Macrium UI but that requires many <click>s to get it to the execution point.
It would be very beneficial if such an inquiry ("add a coment" or offer a comment field for use) were available for those scripted MANUAL operations. It's those MANUAL (unscheduled) operations that need commenting the most.
|
By Trapper - 31 March 2015 5:47 AM
I can't believe hundreds (or at least dozens) of people aren't clamoring for this feature.
This would be an EXTREMELY desirable feature, so put me down for a dozen votes.
|
By Arvy - 31 March 2015 1:53 PM
I'll happily add my 'clamor' for whatever it may be worth. Those job definitions are great in most respects, but they retain comments entered at their creation.
|
By Drac144 - 31 March 2015 9:30 PM
I have no need for comments on my backups. But I DO think it is a good idea and even an important feature to have in a backup program. As Froggie pointed out when one DOES need to create a comment it should be easy to do.
|
By CSPonMR - 5 April 2015 12:17 AM
+1
Again a +1 from me for an easy-to-use commenting option for backup tasks - to be added at the time they are launched.
(There's another thread nearby which asks for an option to assign comments to Desktop Shortcuts, which for me would be an equally welcome improvement.)
I run almost all of my backups manually and I still find it easier to create a new on-the-fly .TXT file in the target folder alongside the newly created backup file, rather than try to add a comment via the Default Settings dialogue.
(Using that comment option via the Default Settings dialogue is actually a two-step task because - in my case - any comment I would add to that comment box would only be relevant for one specific backup ... so I'd need to return to erase (or re-modify) the comment before the next backup commenced.)
Colin P.
|
By Nick - 5 April 2015 12:31 AM
Hi Colin
Thanks for posting.
(Using that comment option via the Default Settings dialogue is actually a two-step task because - in my case - any comment I would add to that comment box would only be relevant for one specific backup ... so I'd need to return to erase (or re-modify) the comment before the next backup commenced.)
I'm not sure if this addresses your concerns, but as you are running manual backups, right click on your backup definition and select 'Run Now' > 'Prompt' then press 'Set Backup Comment'.
 
If you leave the check-box 'Save this comment with the backup definition' unchecked then the comment only applies to the backup you are about to run.
|
By CSPonMR - 5 April 2015 1:26 AM
AhA!!! Thank you Nick. Sorry! I admit I had forgotten about that rather more streamlined 'comment' option - which I now recall was added a while ago in Reflect version 5.x.
My excuse is that I rarely use that route (by right-clicking on a task definition then choosing the 'Prompt' option ...) because - so far with Reflect V5.x - I launch most of my backups manually via Desktop shortcuts, which allows me to keep the LOG tab visible ... so I suppose I'm still yearning for an optional "add comment" pop-up which would appear later - after I've launched the specific task - but before the backup actually starts.
But maybe soon - with an Incremental Forever pattern running in Reflect V6 - I can entrust my backups to an almost certainly faster overall (and hence more easily scheduled) sequence of shorter duration Incrementals (with just occasional longer consolidations), and I can then delete all these Reflect shortcuts from my Desktop 
Colin P.
|
By ddk - 25 March 2020 11:30 PM
Just came across this. Would really find this useful. Currently I have shortcut to create incremental images when I am about to do something to the system that I might want to roll back from. So I know which incremental was created why, I rename the resulting image file with something meaningful. Because Reflect file naming is particular, I seem to get away with naming like this: CDRIVE-00-00.mrimg --> CDRIVE-about to run ccleaner-00-00.mrimg
I achieve the renaming using a script that asks for a comment, runs the image, renames the resulting image file. It would be so much better if the script could pass a comment that Reflect could apply to the image. Though I confess, even then, I like the comment in the filename rather than having to run Reflect and trawling through the list there.
I started looking at options to set a custom file property that could then be shown as a column in explorer but haven't managed yet.
|
By jphughan - 26 March 2020 2:22 AM
+xJust came across this. Would really find this useful. Currently I have shortcut to create incremental images when I am about to do something to the system that I might want to roll back from. So I know which incremental was created why, I rename the resulting image file with something meaningful. Because Reflect file naming is particular, I seem to get away with naming like this: CDRIVE-00-00.mrimg --> CDRIVE-about to run ccleaner-00-00.mrimg I achieve the renaming using a script that asks for a comment, runs the image, renames the resulting image file. It would be so much better if the script could pass a comment that Reflect could apply to the image. Though I confess, even then, I like the comment in the filename rather than having to run Reflect and trawling through the list there. I started looking at options to set a custom file property that could then be shown as a column in explorer but haven't managed yet.
Fyi this thread is 5 years old, and it's also in the Reflect V6 section of the forum, and V6 reached end of support over 2 years ago. However, variations of this feature request have been made since then -- others have asked for the comment field to support including other types of information via pre-defined variables and such -- which led to my adding "Allow backup file comment to be specified on command-line (to dynamically generate comment text using PS/VBS)" as one of the items in the "Aggregated quick win feature requests" thread that I created in the Reflect V7 section here.
|