Are my compressed backups poor quality?
QFollowing a few positive mentions in Computeractive, I just started using Macrium Reflect Free for system image backups. Out of curiosity I clicked the Advanced Options link, where I noticed that I’ve been backing up with a ‘Medium’ compression level. This is labelled as ‘Recommended’, so I assume it’s the default. I’ve not yet had the need to call on my backups but I’m now a little worried about the potential impact of having this compression setting in place. I know that compressed digital photos lose quality, so will the quality of my backups be affected in some way? Henry Allinson
ANo, in short. The compression applied by Macrium is purely a space-saving technique, so that backups are smaller. The ‘Medium (Recommended’) option is indeed the default but, depending on the backup type and destination, it may be unnecessary. If you’re making a weekly replacement backup to an external hard drive of the same size, for example, then there’s no point using compression — and it only slows down Macrium. Choose the None option instead (see screenshot), unless you need to save space.
If you leave it unchanged then there’s no quality issue: the contents of compressed backups are the same as uncompressed ones. Your concern likely stems from the JPEG image format which, if instructed, will apply a ‘lossy’ form of compression that strips some photo detail — though not enough to be noticeable to human eyes.