Hey guys, I just tried using my Macrium Reflect Free to backup my 256 GB Linux drive and it took 10 mins !! The restore took 15 mins ! Is this normal ? Clonezilla takes ~5 mins to backup and restore this 255 GB drive. Macrium is supposed to be good ? The backup is done on a moderately new 2023 core […]
Hi Victor,
yes—those times are entirely plausible, and 10 minutes is not poor performance.
A 256 GB drive is its capacity, not necessarily the amount copied. Reflect’s
Intelligent Sector Copy skips unused blocks; Ext2/3/4 filesystems are supported for that mode, and compression can further reduce how much reaches the backup disk. Check the log for the amount processed, resulting image size, compression and whether Intelligent or Forensic/Sector-by-Sector Copy was used. Macrium explains the distinction here.
Even if it really processed all 256 GB:
- Backup in 10 minutes: roughly 427 MB/s
- Restore in 15 minutes: roughly 284 MB/s
Those are reasonable SSD transfer rates. Restore speed is usually limited by the destination drive and connection, while decompression and the older machine can also contribute. As Macrium notes, the slowest storage device or interface generally sets the pace.
Clonezilla’s five minutes is impressive, but it is not a meaningful head-to-head comparison unless both tests used:
- The same source data and destination disk
- Comparable compression settings
- Used-block copying rather than sector-by-sector copying
- The same verification setting
- The same interfaces and rescue environment
Backup software is not judged solely by who wins a five-minute sprint. If the restored Linux installation booted and its data was intact, that successful restore test is much more important than the stopwatch.
One separate 2026 caveat:
Macrium Reflect Free is now an end-of-life product and has received no security patches since January 2024, although Macrium says existing installations may continue to be used. I would not treat that as a speed problem, but it is worth considering for a long-term backup plan. Macrium’s support policy confirms this.
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