Macrium Reflect vs Clonezilla: What Are the Differences?

A disk image is a complete copy of everything on your computer’s hard drive. It helps to repair your computer in case anything bad happens or to quickly restore images on multiple machines. There are many tools for making disk images, Clonezilla and Macrium Reflect are two of them. This post introduces information about Macrium Reflect vs Clonezilla.

Overview of Macrium Reflect and Clonezilla

Macrium Reflect

Macrium Reflect is a piece of backup, disk imaging, and cloning software for commercial and personal use. Macrium Reflects can safeguard your PC and allows you to back up files to local, network, and USB drives. Once the system is crashed or your files are lost, you can use the system image to restore the entire disk, one or more partitions, or even restore the individual files and folders.

In addition, Macrium Reflect allows you to upgrade your hard drive to a larger one and mount images as a virtual drive in Windows Explorer to easily recover files and folders using Copy and Paste.

Clonezilla

Clonezilla is a free and open-source cloning software. It allows you to perform system deployment, back up the system, clone disk, and so on. Clonezilla supports a range of file systems and different platforms including Linux, Windows, macOS, Chrome OS, etc.

Macrium Reflect vs Clonezilla

Macrium Reflect vs Clonezilla: Pros and Cons

The first aspect of Macrium Reflect vs Clonezilla is the pros and cons.

Macrium Reflect

Pros:

• Supports various file systems and operating systems.
• Offers single-machine and network cloning options.
• Efficient encryption, compression, and incremental backup.
• User-friendly graphical interface for all experience levels.

Cons:

• Available only for Windows users.
• Limited flexibility in restoring individual files or folders.
• Paid versions require ongoing subscriptions for updates and support.

Clonezilla

Pros:

• Supports various file systems for different operating system platforms.
• Offers stand-alone and network cloning options.
• Includes encryption, compression, and cloning options.
• Custom-configured command line interface.

Cons:

• Text-based interface can be difficult for beginners to understand.
• Limited ability to edit or resize partitions during cloning.

Macrium Reflect vs Clonezilla: Aimed Users

The second aspect of Clonezilla vs Macrium Reflect is their aimed users.

Macrium Reflect is suitable for general users and small businesses. It is ideal for users who want to find a reliable, straightforward imaging solution without the need for advanced features. Macrium Reflect creates disk images to effectively protect and recover lost data. This feature is very convenient for home users who want to quickly protect and recover data in the event of data loss.

Clonezilla is great for IT professionals and system administrators due to its advanced features. Clonezilla is extremely valuable for managing broad deployments across multiple machines. The versatile options and command line control make it suitable for experienced users.

Macrium Reflect vs Clonezilla: Price

Clonezilla is available for free as open-source software. Although the core software is free, users have the option of professional assistance or custom solutions, which may involve third-party vendors.

Macrium Reflect Retied is a paid product, but you can get a free 30-day trial. In the free and paid versions of Macrium Reflect, the free version of Macrium Reflect provides a basic disk image. However, the paid version offers advanced features like incremental backup. You can go to its official website to check the prices of its different versions.

Macrium Reflect vs Clonezilla: Which One to Choose

You need to choose between Clonezilla and Macrium Reflect based on your needs or preferences.

Macrium Reflect, offers a user-friendly interface, structured knowledge base, and additional features, making it suitable for users who prioritize ease of use and are willing to accept limited direct support. Clonezilla is a great option if you like getting help from the forum without paying anything extra.

Macrium Reflect /Clonezilla Alternative

Both Macrium Reflect and Clonezilla have shortcomings, besides, you may encounter issues such as Macrium Reflect error 9, Macrium Reflect unable to dismount volume, Clonezilla unable to find NVMe drive, etc. The free backup software – MiniTool ShadowaMaker, as the Reflect/Clonezilla alternative can satisfy most demands.

MiniTool ShadowMaker has a simple interface and it supports different operating systems including Windows 11/10/8/7 and Windows Server 2022/2019/2016/2013. It allows you to clone SSD to larger SSD, move Windows to another drive, back up files, back up systems, etc.

MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

If your hard drive includes the Windows operating system, you need to register this software since system disk cloning is paid. You can use Trial Edition and register it before the last cloning step.

Now, let’s see how to clone the disk via MiniTool ShadowMaker.

1. Connect your hard drive to your PC. Launch MiniTool ShadowMaker, and click Keep Trial.

2. Under the Tools tab, click Clone Disk.

3. Choose a source disk and target disk to clone.

4.  Click the Start button to begin the cloning process.

Bottom Line

In this post, we show you some information on Macrium Reflect Free vs Clonezilla and you know which one to choose. Besides, MniTool ShdowMaker can be an alternative. If you have any questions when using MiniTool software, don’t hesitate to tell us by contacting our support team via the email [email protected]. We will reply to you as soon as possible.