TITAM - Technical issues that affected me

This one is likely specific to my machine, but hey.   Problem:  Macrium Reflect backup times in the WinPE boot rescue environment (i.e. booted from a Macrium USB stick) suddenly change from acceptable (~500-700 M/s, 1-6 hours) to ridiculously slow (< 40 M/s, 100+ hours). Macrium starts well, but "hesitate" about 3-6 seconds after starting a backup (no updates on screen), after which read speed is updated to a very slow number.  Additional hesitations may occur as Macrium struggles to read the source disk. Speeds under Windows proper are fine, and this will occur when writing to multiple backup targets  (i.e. to NAS, to another internal HDD/SDD, to an external USB HDD, etc.)  There are no indications of problems with either the source disk or the target disk.   Possible solution:  Try swapping your source drive to a different SATA port. This is a nasty one, as no one expects a SATA port to misbehave.  Because they never do. In my case, I thought...

Proof? Between April 2 and April 4, 2025, all major stock indices dropped more than 5% (Dow) and 20% (Nasdaq).  The S&P 500 was down about 15% from its previous high; the full extent of the sell-off is yet to be revealed. Fox News, however, does not consider this important.   As of 3:00pm EDT on April 4, 2025, the first story regarding the stock market is #12 on their page - "below the fold"* - right between the daily summary and George Clooney's wife . No, not kidding: The first article to mention tariffs is #19, and the words "stock" and "stock market" do not appear at all. Thank God we have Fox.  Otherwise, you might think something was amiss.   *  below the fold = below the first major advertising banner.  Not the same physically, but similar in presentation and intent. **  Yes, Fox uses a rolling format where older stories are pushed lower.  That's an interesting design choice, to say the least.