Category Archives: Backup/Restore

Backup/Restore, Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Managing Macrium Reflect Keys

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Right now, I’m paying for 8 keys’ worth of Macrium Reflect X Home. I just conducted a survey of all the machines here at Chez Tittel and observed that only 2 currently run Reflect X, 2 run Reflect 8, and the rest run something else. Since I’m paying for 8 and currently have 8 machines at hand, I could use them all. As I’ve been managing Macrium Reflect keys, I have to compliment the company’s web interface  at manage.macrium.com/. It now works lots better than it did the last time I messed with it.

You can see part of the License info page as the lead-in graphic. Quite naturally, it doesn’t show any license keys. But it does show which ones are available, when they come up for renewal, and more. It also offers controls to add more info or revoke the license for some current installation. Nice!

Better Use from Managing Macrium Reflect Keys

Indeed, the key list now shows status, and provides controls to give each one a ‘friendly name.’ For those of mine in actual use right now, I assigned the associated machine name. That lets me know exactly which PC has which license, which is just what I want. The other licenses show “Available” which tells me I can use them if I want to.

When I tried to free up one license, however, instead of allowing the “Reset License” operation to proceed (that’s what Macrium calls it), it asked me to submit a support ticket. So that’s what I did. I’ll be interested to see what kind of response that engenders, and how soon it appears.

The Round Tuit Has Arrived!

I’ve been meaning to do this for 6 months or more. But I’m glad I’ve gotten my licenses organized. I’m even gladder to use the ‘Friendly Name’ feature to show me which PC is using which license. I plan to stay in that habit going forward. I also plan to install another copy on AsusSnap (my lone Snapdragon X based laptop right now) because Reflect X is unusally adept and speedy at backup on such CPUs.

Here in Windows-World, it’s not always about solving problems and fixing things. Sometimes, it’s about making the time to keep things neat and orderly. I’m glad I got the backup act together here. I’m sure I’ll find other, similar tasks to tackle, when I have time. Stay tuned: I’ll tell you all about it.

That Was QUICK! Note Added 1 Hr Later

The response from Macrium was as quick as such things get. It’s already fixed. They didn’t tell me why I couldn’t reset the key myself, but they did reset it for me. Now that’s what I call great service. And now, I’ve got six (count ’em: 6) Macrium Reflect X licenses to play with. A truly happy ending: thanks Francisco (name of service agent who handled my request)!

 

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Lenovo Recovery UFD Works, But…

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I’ve been documenting the path away from a stuck (and incorrect) Dev Channel build to a clean install of production 25H2 on my ThinkStation P3 Ultra for nearly two weeks now. Today’s episode is a simple one. After problems getting the device to boot to any UFD, I ordered a Lenovo factory recovery USB directly from Lenovo (see my “It’s the Layout, Stupid” post for more info). Last night, it arrived in a plain padded envelope, and I inventoried it. That’s the whole story. Except, of course, there’s more to it than that. I’ll explain…

Why Say: Lenovo Recovery UFD Works, But…

The first thing I noticed when the envelope hit the desk was the lack of any Lenovo branding on the drive itself. What I pulled out was an ADATA UVI128 32 GB USB 3.2 Gen 1 flash drive (available for about US$8 online; old enough to be unavailable from big US e-tailers). No ThinkStation logo, nor Lenovo red trade dress. No embossed branding of any kind. For a machine that runs somewhere in the neighborhood of four grand, I appreciate the transparency. It’s just a recovery drive, nothing more.

What’s On That UFD, Anyway?

I plugged it into Flo6  (my main Windows 11 PC here at Chez Tittel) and ran a quick PowerShell inventory. That let me see what I had in hand. These numbers came back: 26.41 GB used on a ~29.3 GB drive, with 2.86 GB free. Every major payload file was timestamped August 3, 2026, which tells me this was a fresh burn, not a dusty warehouse pull. That’s genuinely good to know.

7 Folders With Lots of History

The folder structure is straightforward once you know what you’re looking at. At the root you get seven directories: \boot, \EFI, \mfg, \preboot, \RECOVERY, \SWWORK, and \tvtos.

\boot and \EFI handle dual-mode booting — Legacy BIOS and UEFI respectively, with \boot packing 30-plus MUI language files for good measure. \mfg carries manufacturing metadata and a document called W11_RUSB_TEMPLATE_64_DEV.docx that makes absolutely explicit what this thing is: a Windows 11 recovery set. It’s just manufacturing boilerplate, but as internal tells go, it’s a nice one — you can see exactly which template Lenovo’s recovery build team signed off on. \SWWORK is a staging scratch area, and it’s essentially empty.

The real substance lives in \RECOVERY and \tvtos. The \RECOVERY folder holds the actual image payloads — the largest being LCAFKQ2BA0.IMZ at 957 MB, which is the core Windows 11 OS image, plus fifteen or more companion .IMZ bundles covering P3 Ultra-specific drivers and Lenovo’s software suite. Familiar utilities ride along for the restore process: imagex.exe, bootsect.exe, bcdboot.exe, 7z.exe, and a few Lenovo-proprietary tools including hddcln.exe and rcadm.exe. \tvtos is where the bulk of the 26 GB lives. That’s home to the WinPE-based ThinkVantage OS environment, which is the preboot shell that actually orchestrates the whole restore operation.

Python 2.6 Drives the Lenovo Recovery Engine

Here’s where the archaeology gets interesting. The recovery orchestration engine living in \preboot runs on Python 2.6. Python 2.6 reached end-of-life on October 29, 2013 — nearly thirteen years ago. It has not received a security patch since Barack Obama’s first term. I resisted the urge to feel old about this. Mostly unsuccessfully.

The image format is equally vintage. Those .IMZ files are Lenovo’s proprietary compressed image format. Indeed, there’s no public tooling to mount, extract, or meaningfully modify them. They travel with .CRI catalog companions and are handled entirely by Lenovo’s own restore .exe files. You are explicitly not intended to poke around. You are meant to click Restore and walk away while the progress bar does its thing.

ThinkVantage itself tells a similar story. Lenovo quietly retired the brand years ago, replacing it with Lenovo Vantage on the consumer side and Lenovo Commercial Vantage for enterprise. The preboot environment on this Lenovo factory recovery USB is frozen legacy infrastructure now past its expiration date. It’s functional, tested against this specific hardware configuration, and going absolutely nowhere. It works. It just works using technology that’s old enough to have its own nostalgic Reddit threads.

I Meant What I Said, and I Said What I Meant

All that said: it does the job. Boot it using F12 at the Lenovo splash screen, then select the USB from the boot menu. Bam! The ThinkVantage preboot environment launches and walks you through a factory restore of the P3 Ultra to its original Windows 11 configuration, complete with all Lenovo drivers and software. No internet connection required. MSA prompts, nada. No drama, either. On a machine this complex, that’s pretty cool.

The dual-mode boot support, confirmed by both \boot and \EFI folder trees, means the drive works whether the firmware is set to Legacy or UEFI mode. Coverage is thorough: Windows 11, P3 Ultra-specific drivers, the full Lenovo software bundle. All available on one generic flash drive in one plain envelope.

My verdict: label it clearly, drop it in the P3 Ultra’s machine folder with the rest of the hardware documentation. Then, treat this Lenovo factory recovery USB exactly as the break-glass emergency media it is. I wouldn’t try to explore the ThinkVantage environment for entertainment. Why not? Because it’s a straight-up restore wizard, not a sandbox, and it doesn’t reward curiosity. And don’t get any ideas about cracking open those .IMZ files, either. You’ll need AI or serious programming chops in Python 2.6 to get anywhere.

That’s not my thing. Here in Windows-World, I’m OK with treating a black box as such. Shoot! I’m just surprised it came on a USB-A UFD. After my local success only with the USB-C Data Traveler to bring the P3 Ultra back to life, I’d expected the same kind of UFD to show up from Lenovo. I was wrong…

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USB-C UFD Restores X12 Boot

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I wasn’t sure Copilot was right. Even some of my regular commenters here at edtittel.com were sure Copilot was wrong. Fact is, I couldn’t get into WinRE to repair my damaged BCD until I inserted a brand-new USB-C based Kingston Data Traveler 70 (US$28) into the X12 Hybrid Tablet (Gen 1). Now it’s working. More explicitly using the USB-C UFD restores X12 boot capability.

Before that, I had tried known, good working USB-A UFDs via a USBA2C adapter. I’d also tried native USB-C NVMe SSDs as well. Apparently — as Copilot averred and my experience shows — it will only boot to a real USB-C UFD. Same format, same files, same creation approach on the other devices just didn’t result in a boot into WinRE for on-disk boot repairs to the C: drive. That much of the travail, at least, is now over…

After USB-C UFD Restores X12 Boot, Then?

Now I need to fix Secure Boot (SB), which is what got me in trouble in the first place. Right now, the unit boots fine with SB disabled. I’ve run the Garlin check script and have installed SkuSiPolicy.P7b. But still, I get the red text “Secure Boot mismatch” error info when I try to book with SB turned on. I’m going to reset the keys to factory default, and pick up from there to see what happens next.

But first, after I rebooted again on the X12 without making any changes, it took me to the Windows 11 lock screen. Windows Security gives the system its blessing (green checkmark on the Secure boot entry). So I may already be over the hump, because of the second reboot.

If at First You Don’t Succeed, Reboot Again…

On a third reboot, I get the spinning circles while the OS loads and get right to the Windows 11 lock screen. No more boot issues, no more “boot mismatch” refusals. I seem to have things working again.

As the old saying goes “Get the right tool for the job.” In my case I had to learn the hard way that I MUST use a USB-C UFD to boot the X12 into anything. Now I know. It’s in my little plastic bin of UFDs and I guess I know how to use it. Case closed, I hope!

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X12 Boot Fix on Hold

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Boy, howdy. I just spent the best part of a day figuring out I can’t fix a boot problem on one of my laptops. The Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Hybrid is a capable and compact Windows device, but its UEFI firmware has strict requirements for external boot media. After extensive troubleshooting, it’s clear that continuing repair attempts without a native USB-C flash drive won’t work. This post explains why that process must pause until the correct media shows up. Until it does, I’ve put the X12 boot fix on hold. Let me explain…

Why Put the X12 Boot Fix on Hold?

The X12 Hybrid’s UEFI boot environment is designed to recognize and boot only from a narrow set of external devices. Specifically, it supports:

  • Native USB-C flash drives
  • Native USB-A flash drives (when connected directly to a built-in USB-A port; my X12 has only two USB-C ports & no USB-A ports)
  • SD cards (on models equipped with an SD slot)

Alas, I’ve confirmed by experiment that it does not boot from:

  • NVMe enclosures
  • SATA enclosures
  • USB-A drives connected through USB-A-to-USB-C adapters
  • USB hubs or multiport dongles

Even when such devices appear in the boot menu, the firmware rejects them during handoff to the bootloader. My problem right now is that I don’t own a USB-C flash drive.

Why the Current Media Fails

During troubleshooting, multiple external boot media were tested:

  • USB-A flash drives: Not recognized as bootable when connected through an adapter.
  • Modern NVMe enclosures: Enumerated in the boot menu but immediately returned to the boot selector when chosen.
  • Older NVMe enclosures: Presented themselves correctly as USB Mass Storage devices but were still rejected by the firmware.

These behaviors indicate that the X12 Hybrid’s boot ROM enforces strict transport and device-class requirements. Only a native USB-C flash drive meets all these constraints. Sigh: I’ve got a US$28 Kingston DataTraveler 70 on order from Amazon (delivery : 7/1).

Why a USB-C Flash Drive Is Required

A native USB-C flash drive provides:

  • Direct USB-C connectivity without adapters or bridges
  • USB Mass Storage Class (BOT) compatibility
  • Reliable FAT32 formatting for UEFI boot
  • Full compatibility with Windows installation media

This combination ensures that the X12 Hybrid’s firmware can properly read and execute the Windows bootloader.

The Practical Decision: Pause and Wait

Given the firmware limitations and the consistent rejection of all other media, I can do no further troubleshooting until a USB-C flash drive appears. Once in hand, the following steps will occur:

  1. Format the USB-C drive as GPT + FAT32
  2. Rebuild the Windows installation media
  3. Boot the X12 Hybrid from the new drive
  4. Repair or rebuild the EFI System Partition (ESP)

Pausing now avoids wasted effort and boosts the odds that my next troubleshooting step will help.

Still Waiting…

The troubleshooting process for the X12 Hybrid now sits where the correct hardware is needed. A native USB-C flash drive is the only reliable path forward for UEFI boot and system repair. Once it arrives, the repair process can continue with confidence. Or so I hope: here in Windows-World there’s always the chance that a (nearly) sure thing turns out otherwise. Sigh again: I’ll be finding out!

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Nearly Perfect PITR Makes Windows 11 Debut

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Point-in-Time Restore (PITR) is one of the most interesting recovery features Microsoft has added to Windows 11 in recent memory. It arrived quietly through cumulative update KB5095093 in June 2026. Yet it brings a welcome new option for users who want a fast way to roll back their systems. PITR works by capturing snapshots of key system areas. These snapshots let you return your PC to an earlier state when something goes wrong. The idea is simple, and the execution is surprisingly smooth. In fact, I’d say MS has delivered a nearly perfect PITR to the OS.

What Makes It Nearly Perfect PITR, and Nor More or Less?

PITR creates restore points that include system files, settings, and some application data. These snapshots live on the local drive. They also tie into Microsoft’s cloud services when available. This hybrid approach gives PITR more flexibility than older tools like System Restore. It also makes the feature more resilient when local files become damaged. With the release of KB5095093, PITR gained a major upgrade: it now appears directly inside WinRE. That means you can access PITR even when Windows won’t boot. You can see it as a Troubleshoot option in WinRE in the lead-in graphic.

Seeing PITR listed in the WinRE Troubleshoot menu feels like a big step forward. It signals that Microsoft wants PITR to serve as a real recovery tool. You can boot into WinRE, choose Point-in-Time Restore, and pick a snapshot to roll back to. The process is quick and clear. It also avoids the complexity that sometimes comes with older recovery methods. For many users, this will be enough to fix common problems.

What Limits Warrant a “Nearly Perfect” Label?

Still, PITR is not a full replacement for image-based backup solutions. Tools like Macrium Reflect and Hasleo Backup Suite offer deeper protection. They create complete disk images that capture every sector of a drive. These images can be mounted like virtual disks. That means you can browse them, copy files out of them, and inspect their contents. PITR cannot do that. Its snapshots are not mountable. They do not support file-by-file access. They also do not cover the entire disk.

This difference matters when you need more than a simple rollback. If a drive fails, PITR cannot help. If you need to recover a single file from a past state, PITR cannot help there either. Image backups shine in these situations. They give you full control over your data. They also let you restore a system even when the internal drive is gone. PITR is faster and easier, but it is not as complete.

Even so, PITR fills an important gap. It offers a middle ground between System Restore and full image backups. It is quick, lightweight, and built into Windows. The addition of WinRE support makes it far more useful. You can now rely on PITR when Windows refuses to load. That alone makes it worth enabling.

Worth Enabling, But Not A Panacea

In the end, PITR is a welcome addition to Windows 11. It is not perfect, but it is close. For everyday problems, it may be all you need. For deeper issues, image backups remain essential. The best approach is to use both. PITR gives you speed. Image backups give you safety. Together, they create a strong recovery strategy for any Windows system.

To check PITR and it settings visit, Settings > System > Recovery > Point-in-time restore. On my systems it’s enabled by default with a single PITR restore point every 24 hours, 72 hour retention, and a space ceiling 2.0% of disk capacity. YMMV. Check it out: seems like a nearly perfect addition to Windows 11’s recovery capabilities.

To learn more about PITR, read this June 23 Windows IT Pro blog post “Point-in-time restore for Windows 11 is now generally available.” Lots of good stuff in there!

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Checking Boot/Recovery Media CA-2023 Status

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Here’s an interesting consequence of the switchover in the Secure Boot chain of trust from CA-2011 to CA-2023. Once that occurs, you can’t boot from install, repair and recovery media that doesn’t support CA-2023. The PC firmware will reject it as “non-compliant.” What that means is with the revocation of CA-2011 upcoming in June, it’s time to start checking boot/recovery media CA-2023 status. When you can, it’s also time to replace older non-compliant media with newer, compliant versions.

I had Copilot write me a PowerShell Script that did 3 key things:
1. It checked to make sure drive G: (default letter for my UFDs) was present and accounted for
2. It showed me the top-level directory so I could see what I was dealing with (handy to distinguish installers, repair tools, etc.)
3. If it found EFI files, it reported Yes/No on their CA-2023 compliance.

After Checking Boot/Recovery Media CA-2023 Status, Then…?

The TL;DR answer to this question is: replace it if needed, keep it otherwise. I also used this opportunity to label my UFDs so I would know what I had in the future. I found all kinds of interesting stuff, including:

  • An MSI flash drive for my “new” MAG Tomahawk B550 mobo, a UEFI updater for v 2.90 on the ASRock B550 Extreme4+
  • Multiple Macrium Reflect and Hasleo Backup Suite rescue UFDs
  • A copy of the Windows DaRT (Diagostics and Recovery Toolset)
  • Multiple Windows Installer UFDs, mostly via MCT, some from UUPDump

Here’s the interesting thing: NONE of these items is CA-2023 compliant. Copilot says, in fact, that MS has not yet released an installer or repair ISO that includes the CA-2023 boot files in the EFI partition (see lead-in graphic bottom portion). I’d planned to update my dozen or so bootable UFDs today if I could. Looks like I’ll be waiting a while…

Key Takeaway

If you revoke CA-2011 support on any or all of your Windows PCs, you put yourself in the position of having to go into UEFI and turn off Secure Boot sometimes. When might that be? Whenever you want or need to use media to boot that PC for repair, recovery or installation. Good to know! That’s not the kind of thing I’d like sprung on me as a total surprise. Bet you feel the same way, too…

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Two Checkboxes Means 12X Faster

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I plugged a Samsung 990 Pro 1TB NVMe into the Thunderbolt 5 port on my Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 3 mobile workstation. ICYDK, TB5 promises up to 80 Gbps bandwidth. The 990 Pro is one of the fastest consumer NVMe drives money can buy. I expected fireworks. I got a firefly. Fortunately, I determined that clicking two checkboxes means 12 faster results. This comes from foregoing quick disconnect and enabling write caching. Let me explain…

Exploring: Two Checkboxes Means 12X Faster

As shown in the lead-in graphic, CrystalDiskMakr tells the ugly truth. As you can see on the left hand side, read speeds looked good. But writes are stuck in what I’d charitably call “USB 2.0 territory.” Something was very, very wrong — and it wasn’t the hardware. Results come from CrystalDiskMark 9.0.2 x64 software.

Now, look to the right, you can see that write speeds jumped significantly, while read speeds stay more or less the same. Indeed, the Thunderbolt 5 (TB5) link and Acasis TB501Pro enclosure weren’t the whole bottleneck. Sequential writes jumped from 473 to 5,943 MB/sec for a 12.6X speed boost.. Even more amazing: 4K Q1T1 writes leapt from 1.04 to 110 MB/sec, for a 105X gain.

All this came from two little checkboxes, on the Policies tab from the Properties window for the Acasis TB501Pro enclosure. Deets follow…

Two Related Settings in DevMgr Do the Trick

Here’s the 30-second procedure:

  1. Open Device Manager → expand Disk drives → right-click your external NVMe → select Properties → click the Policies tab.
  2. Switch from “Quick removal” (the default) to “Better performance.” This unlocks the write caching option that’s otherwise grayed out.
  3. Check the box for “Enable write caching on the device.” This is the setting that actually turns on write caching.
  4. Click OK, then rerun your benchmarks and enjoy the results.

Both settings are required. Selecting “Better performance” alone without the write caching checkbox won’t deliver these numbers. You need both.

Here’s the Tradeoff

Windows defaults to Quick Removal for a good reason: it protects against data loss if you yank a drive without ejecting it first. With Better Performance and write caching enabled, you must use “Safely Remove Hardware” before unplugging, or you risk losing data still sitting in the write cache.

That’s the tradeoff. For a stationary workstation drive that stays plugged in during work sessions, it’s a no-brainer. For a drive you hot-swap constantly throughout the day, think twice. I’m going for maximum speed on backups and restores, so I’ll make myself remember this tradeoff if I need to unlplug the NVMe enclosure.

The Results Could Still Be Better

I’m still of the opinion that — as I opined in my Feb 20 blog on this topic — that buying a TB5 NVMe enclosure isn’t worth the added expense. TB4 enclosures cost about US$100 less, and deliver nearly the same performance as TB5 (it’s a 10-15% difference at best). Doubling the price for a modest gain just doesn’t make sense. TB5 shines for video and networking. For storage links, not so much, because controllers basically limit links to PCIe x3/x4 levels.

That’ still true today. But I was pleased to get much more out of my rig once I made the enclosure behave more like a USB drive and less like a USB stick! Here in Windows-World you sometimes have to take your wins where you can find them…

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On Windows 11 Restore Points

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In Windows 11, a restore point provides a snapshot of various essential system files, settings, installed programs, and the registry taken at a specific point in time. Restore points can roll back the OS and associated state info should something go sideways. They don’t replace backups (especially image backups) because they don’t contain personal files and documents, nor do they capture other boot disk partitions for full restoration (e.g. EFI, MSR and recovery partitions, if present). I’ve been thinking on Windows 11 restore points because I don’t use them (I use daily image backups instead) and because they can take up lots of room on disk.

Looking further into Windows 11 Restore Points

Before I could share my reflections and observations about Windows 11 Restore Points (let’s condense that to W11RPs) I had to find a machine with them turned on to dig into them a bit. Turns out my newest personal acquisition — the very nice ASUS Zenbook A14 I picked up during Black Friday sales last year — still has them turned on. You can see that the C: drive has W11RPs enabled, and the info about a single restore point that I just generated right under neath.

You can find restore points inside the WizTree app pretty easily, if you’ve got any. They appear within the System Volume Information folder, which lives at the root of the boot/system drive (C:\ usually). It’s the big purple rectangle in this snippet from Wiztree, and corresponds to the shadow copy item shown in the lead-in graphic (output from the vssadmin list shadows command, in fact):

At 2.3 GB in size, one can see why keeping numbers of them around might be something of a storage-sucker. In truth, that’s one big reason I typically don’t keep them around.

Turning W11RPs on and off, and more

The controls for W11RPs live on the Protection tab of the System Properties applet in Control Panel. Settings in Windows 11 kind of interferes with access to this info, so the best way to get there these days is to invoke its executable directly (Into the Windows Run box (Winkey+R), type this string:

C:\Windows\System32\SystemPropertiesProtection.exe

That fires up the item screencapped next, and shows the key controls for W11RPs, to wit:

For any drives available on the target system, you select its entry, click the “Configure” button then enable or disable restore points. As you can see about the C:\ drive has W11RPs enabled, and it came that way from the factory.

Problems with W11RPs?

If you read up on informed sentiment about W11RPs (I get my insights from many sources, but find TenForums.com and ElevenForum.com particularly insightful), you’ll learn that they sometimes work, and sometimes don’t. If you use them, you’ll learn that they take a while to load (on the order of 15-20 minutes on most of my PCs). They also tend to happen once a day by scheduled task, and whenever you make system changes or install apps that include built-in RP capture commands.

You can use them if you like. I don’t like, and I don’t use them. Macrium Reflect can restore a full system image on my PCs in the 2-6 minute range, is easier to use, runs from a rescue disk if needed, and has shown itself to be thoroughly reliable and capable. For me that’s the end of the story.

Now, pardon me while I go off to disable W11RPs on the AsusSnap. I seem to have forgotten this little step in my intake process…

 

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WinGet Foils MTPW Sneaky Update

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MTPW is the mostly excellent MiniTool Partition Wizard, which I’ve used and recommended for managing disk layouts on Windows for years. I just got bitten for MTPW v13.5 by what I call a “sneaky update” — a move from v13.0 to v13.5 that includes the company’s companion ShadowMaker image backup tool along with MTPW unless you read its update screens closely and carefully. When I followed the update on one laptop (X380) with another (X12Hybrid), I observed that WinGet foils MTPW sneaky update. Let me explain…

Why I  Say: WinGet Foils MTPW Sneaky Update

After I ran the app-based MTPW update, I found it had installed ShadowMake as well as MTPW itself. You can see the “Trial” screen came up with 0 days remaining for use, which makes it:

  • worthless for those who want to try the program out for free
  • require immediately purchase of a Pro version to use
  • earn my ire by installing itself as part of a different update
  • force me to delete an app I never wanted in the first place

Immediately after I’d been bitten by this sneaky update, I saw MTPW pop up in WinGet on  the X12Hybrid. “Hmmm,” I wondered to myself, “Will this also try to sneak MTSM onto this machine?” Nope! It did what it said it would do: updated only MTPW. That’s why I’m glad I tried it on that other machine, and can now warn readers that if they’re using MTPW, they need to use the built-in update carefully to avoid MTSM. Or, like me, they can use WinGet instead and skip all the drama.

Yeah, I know. I should’ve read the install screens more carefully when running the in-app upgrade utility. My rejoinder: MiniTool shouldn’t make it so easy for MTWM to appear on my machine as part of its MTPW update. It’s neither what I expected nor wanted. ‘Nuff said!

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Hasleo Backup Suite (Free) Handles ARM PCs

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At the end of yesterday’s hopefully thrilling episode, I said I’d follow up on my experiences with Hasleo Backup Suite. I got it installed on the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s (a Snapdragon X based ARM PC). I’m pleased to report it works as it should. Not only did I make and restore a backup, I also built — and successfully booted into — the program’s emergency disk. So far, looks like the Hasleo Backup Suite (Free) handles ARM PCs just fine. As you can see from its tools menu above, it even includes boot menu placement, image handling of all kinds, MBR and VSS repairs, and more. Good-oh!

Proving Hasleo Backup Suite (Free) Handles ARM PCs

How do I get from saying “it looks like Hasleo works” to asserting that the program actually, definitely does the job? That’s going to take time and repeat experience. I’m setting up a daily backup schedule. I’ll be messing around with its other tools and facilities on an ongoing basis. If something is wonky, that will probably clue me in.

I do have one additional piece of positive evidence about Hasleo, however. User Stigg at ElevenForum.com started a long-running and active thread (33 pages, 645 posts) on July 8, 2023 entitled Hasleo Backup Suite. He reports on “extensive testing of Hasleo Backup Suite over the past months” and opines that “it’s looking very promising.” Subsequent long-term traffic and interactions on the thread bear that out.

Indeed, I am coming around to the idea that Hasleo Backup Suite (Free) is a worthy successor to Macrium Reflect 8 (Free), which is no longer being updated (nor works with ARM PCs — one must purchase a license for Reflect X to gain awesome ARM access). I’ll say this, though: Reflect X is at least twice as fast at backups and restores as Hasleo, so those for whom time is money might want to ante up anyway. ‘Nuff said.

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