.BMR File Extension

I have a .BMR file on my C: drive and my Maxtor mini drive is the F: drive. Can I delete the .BMR file on my C: drive? If I do am I losing anything important?

I have a Maxtor OneTouch4, and on it is a file with a ".BMR" extension. It will not "open", and does not seem to be associated with any programs to open it.

What is it, and what opens it?

I have a Maxtor Onetouch 4 Plus and have a .bmr$D image file on it. Can I just reinstall just that file to the D: partition of my hard disk without messing up the C: drive partition using the SaftyDrill boot CD? Jan 26, 2010

I am having the same problem as everyone else with a Maxtor Onetouch and the BMR files. What is a BMR file and why can't I open them, they are taking 139GB on my Maxtor.

The .BMR file is a disk image created by Safety Drill which is one of the tabs in Maxtor Manager. I'd recommend deleting it because the restore fails about 75% of the time. The restore CD that came with the drive only has a limited number of start-up drivers. Seagate has another disk image utility called DiscWizard that has a much higher success rate. If all of your data is backed up with Maxtor Manager you should be fine deleting the .BMR files. If any of you are interesting in using DiskWizard it can be downloaded from seagate's website under the download section.

I realize this is way late to be of any help to the people who've asked questions thus far, but perhaps it could help others in the future.

The Maxtor Manager ( S/W that is installed from the Maxtor Drive itself, using the "launch.exe" executable ) software has two distinct functions as it pertains to the backing up of your data.

The first is known as "Safety Drill". Safety Drill is a "disaster recovery" program that copies every single "Used" byte of data from on your internal hard drive and stores it in a single "image file". Furthermore, this image file is compressed thus saving space on your Maxtor and is thus uncompressed during a restore operation.

The naming convention for the image file is as follows. Upon execution, the SD program checks the Computer name ( ie: JIMSPC ) and simply creates a subfolder with the same name. Hence, if you use SD to backup more then one computer, you will see more then one subfolder in the BMR folder with the name of the computer it backed up. After creating the subfolder, SD creates yet another subfolder of that folder called "image", and stores the imaged backup file in this folder with the name "image.bmr".

The other backup is what is known as an "incremental backup". Click the "Backup" icon and create your own custom backup routine. Unlike "Safety Drill" which can only be run manually, you can schedule this backup to run automatically according to your needs. When "Backup" is run, it will copy only the files that have been either changed or accessed since the last SD copy was completed. The Backup program then stores these files on the Maxtor in a folder called "Maxtor backup".

Incidentally, the "image.bmr" file is NOT designed to be opened with any program other then the Maxtor restore program found on the CD supplied with your Maxtor Drive. When you get a virus or lose your hard drive for instance, you simply boot from the CD with the Maxtor plugged into a USB port and the software will afford you the option to restore an imaged backup file from the Maxtor BMR subfolders.

Hope that clears up some of the questions...

In addition to my last post, I've installed many of these drives at my clients offices, and contrary to Dave's comments that the BMR files only restore 75% of the time, I've found a much greater degree of success with the units I've used. Granted, there have been a few times the restore has failed, but this happens very seldom and when it works, there is nothing quite so beautiful.

A life saver if you're sick of repairing virus infected hard drives. Incidentally, I don't work for Maxtor or Seagate. In fact, I detest Seagate in that everytime they swallow up another Hard Drive manufacturer, the consumer always ends up suffering as a result. In this instance, Seagate offers you the same old type of backup utility everyone else out there does, ALL of which are incapable of DISASTER RECOVERY !!! I guess it's back to Norton Ghost or pay an arm and a leg to find something equivalent.