Hard Drive Imaging Freeware

[TheKid7]

Which of the freeware hard drive imaging programs would be the simplest to use for the "Average PC User" while still having enough features enabled?

Yesterday, I ran across "Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Free". I installed it on my Windows 7 RC 32 bit PC. I made an image with it but did not restore the image. It appears to me that this new imaging program has a lot of features. Does anyone have any opinions on Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Free?

Thanks in Advance.

[wtsinnc]

Try this.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

Completely free and compatible with Windows 7.
I use it and prefer it over Paragon free, DriveImage XML, or the free versions of Acronis.

[philby]

What wtsinnc said.

:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

Support is top-drawer too.

philby

[firzen771]

-{ Quote: "What wtsinnc said.

:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

Support is top-drawer too.

philby" }-

i liked macrium, but it has a service running when u install, thats something i dont like.

[philby]

I've set the service to manual.

Nick comments on this here (http://support.macrium.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1065).

philby

[firzen771]

-{ Quote: "I've set the service to manual.

Nick comments on this here (http://support.macrium.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1065).

philby" }-

is the service necessary for macrium to run or work properly?

EDIT: nvm just read that thread, thx. :)

[andyman35]

Another one for Macrium here,it's fast,simple to use and most important extremely reliable (still waiting for a bad restore after hundreds of uses).;)

[Tony]

I must say i am very impressed with the speed of free Macrium.
If the full version performs as well then this may very well be my next purchase.

[Dundertaker]

Hi;

Macrium Reflect free. http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

EASEUS Todo Backup www.todo-backup.com/download/

If you have a Seagate or WD hdd they have their own versions of drive imaging freeware. Just check out their sites. What they offer is a downngrade version of Acronis True Image 10 or 11.

I use Macrium and never failed me yet.

Kind regards!

[Kees1958]

Advantage of Paragon freeware is that it alllows to backup/restore to different partition sizes. Macrium does not allow to restore to a smaller partition size.

[philby]

You can (http://www.macrium.com/blog/2009/07/19/HowToUseRoboRestoreToRestoreADiskImage.aspx) do that with Macrium + Robocopy, but it's not as simple and elegant as it could be.

philby

[aigle]

I have two Qs.

1- Have they plan to add imge backup option in free version CD also( i suppose it,s already added to pro version CD)?
2- I am not sure but I suspect i heard that feature of restore to a smaller partition is on to do list. Am I true?

Thanks for any answers.

[bman412]

EASUS Todo Backup seems more robust compared to the macrium freebie at first glance. Has offline backup capability via winPE CD as well. Macrium on the other hand is amazingly fast in backing up my hd last I tried it compared to a GAOTD Paragon freebie. Is anyone using EASUS as their main backup program? Experiences and thoughts?



offtopic:
Is it better to do an offline backup as opposed to hotbackup?

[Technic]

Macrium Free works very nicely on my W7 32-Bit laptop.

First restore is done successfully. :)

Thanks for tip guys! Appreciated. Any info about special discount for paid version? :D

[fosl]

I have a question in regard to Macrium reflect free. Must I use an external hard drive or dvd, or can I have a single hard drive with a second partition to store the image?

Thanks

[Technic]

-{ Quote: "I have a question in regard to Macrium reflect free. Must I use an external hard drive or dvd, or can I have a single hard drive with a second partition to store the image?

Thanks" }-

You can use that 2nd partition. It is not that safe compared to external drive.

Remember create the rescue CD.

[andyman35]

Yes there's nothing to prevent you imaging to a second partition but in the event of mechanical HDD failure you're toast.:'(

[fosl]

Thanks. I do not currently have an external harddrive. I plan on getting one soon. Right now my computer has one drive with vista on C: and a second partition with music and movies. I realize if the hdd fails, both partitions and the backup image are gone! But in the event of a virus infection or some other vista problem it would be nice to be able to use the backup image stored on the other partition. I think Ill download Macruim free and give it a try!

[Tony]

Had a bit more time to play with Macrium free today.

The linux rescue cd does not work, it only comes up with the line across the top as others have reported on the forum.
The Bart PE rescue disc is not compatible with Vista or Windows 7.
And the Windows PE disc is only available with the paid version.

I was going to seek help on Macriums forum, but it is now only for paying customers.

So for me its a :thumbd: for Macrium Reflect, no way am i going to buy their product just to see how the Windows PE rescue cd works.

[Technic]

Pretty valid points Tony. I totally agree. Linux rescue CD worked for me, luckily.

[prius04]

It's a reputable company and they offer an unconditional, 30-day, guarantee if you're not satisfied for any reason.

All purchases from us come with an unconditional guarantee. If you are not satisfied with one of our software products, contact us within 30 days for instructions on obtaining a refund.

[aigle]

Actually their free offer is mazing, if linux recovery disk boots ok on ur system.

[Sully]

Macrium Free is my choise. I will buy it once the 'next' version releases. I think that is version 5. The ETA on it is still in the air. Once you buy a version, you get free upgrades for the life of the version, if I understand it correctly. Thus for me, I won't buy version 4x only to have to pay for version 5x.

Regardless, Macrium Free has been stellar for me. I have made so many images and restored them with no errors, I am amazed. Many others I have tried usually work, but occassionally (maybe hardware dependent) I run into problems. Others I have read have had different success.

I have been playing with Comodo Time Machine, and really thought it might work well. However, after running some performance test softwares, I noticed it chewed up space like crazy. I want simplicity. Using Shadow Defender is also nice, but the whole issue with not being able to install software that needs reboots leaves it lacking.

So this thread is of relevance to me because I am about to embark on yet another tweaking journey. My goal is to use macrium with the robo-restore feature. I find it interesting that there may stand the possibility of restoring my image to my c: drive, yet with the robo-copy/robo-restore method, all new files will be left intact if I don't format. I can think of some good uses for that feature.

I currently have a bartpe image booting from the c: into ramdisk, so getting to an OS to run the reflect restore is fast and easy. However creating this method was not very straight forward (the ramdisk part). I aim to create a grub-loader setup, where my c: can house the bartPE images so that under normal circumstances you can just choos a boot.ini type instance and boot directly into bartPE from RAM. This is how I do it now. The bartPE is in memory, so I can run the reflect restore program, and image the c: drive at will. However, should the c: become corrupt, I still want the bartPE images on another partition/drive so I can still quickly boot into bartPE. Booting from cd or usb is fine, but booting from hdd is much better.

I have decided that the rollback apps are nice, but not really what I want. I want to install a new firewall, and if I don't like it, quickly and conveniently restore my image. Who knows where all of this leads to, but I do know that because of macrium and it's features/tools, this could become pretty robust for my needs.

I will release my technique when I have it completed.

later.

Sul.

[Fuzzfas]

-{ Quote: "
The linux rescue cd does not work, it only comes up with the line across the top as others have reported on the forum.
" }-

I 've made my Linux Macrium CD a long time ago, but i remember that there was an option to create a Linux CD with "increased compatibility" or something like that. I remember that the "normal CD" wouldn't work for me either but once i activated the option, it worked. The option is somewhere in a menu (semi-hidden) when you create the CD.


What i don't like about Macrium, is that the license is tied to the hard disk. Quite a few cases in their fora, especially those who installed it on PC without internet connection, had problems and they had to contact by mail the support to have their license "reset" and given new codes. I hate such things.

[Tony]

-{ Quote: "I 've made my Linux Macrium CD a long time ago, but i remember that there was an option to create a Linux CD with "increased compatibility" or something like that." }-

Yeah Fuzzfas there is a compatibility mode and a debug mode none of which work for me.
Ta m8 :)

Macrium are very generous to offer a free version.
Where they fail, is to offer no support to the free version.

If free does not work, no way will i spend my hard earned on a license, even if there is a 30 day money back guarantee.

Edit: If free did not work, and they offered support to fix this, then i would hand over my hard earned for a license.

[prius04]

-{ Quote: "...If free does not work, no way will i spend my hard earned on a license, even if there is a 30 day money back guarantee." }-
Perhaps I misunderstood (or failed to read closely) but I was under the impression that the s/w worked well for you *with the exception* of the 'linux rescue cd'.

[Howard Kaikow]

-{ Quote: "Hi;

Macrium Reflect free. http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

EASEUS Todo Backup www.todo-backup.com/download/

If you have a Seagate or WD hdd they have their own versions of drive imaging freeware. Just check out their sites. What they offer is a downngrade version of Acronis True Image 10 or 11.

I use Macrium and never failed me yet.

Kind regards!" }-

TI 10 or 11 will not do for Win 7.

[Tony]

-{ Quote: "Perhaps I misunderstood (or failed to read closely) but I was under the impression that the s/w worked well for you *with the exception* of the 'linux rescue cd'." }-

I was very happy with the speed and performance of Free Macrium reflect.
But one of the most important features (for me at least) is being able to restore an image by using the recovery cd.

When i used linux i had to add acpi=off to the boot process as no linux os be it PCLinux, Ubuntu would boot without it.
It may just be something simple as that to get the linux recovery cd working, which would benefit both free and paid users.
But, as there is no support for the free version then there is no way of trying to resolve this.


Anyway, back on topic, Paragon Back up and recovery free always performed well for me in the past, it was just very slow, although very reliable.
I dont know what the new version is like.
Maybe time to check it out.

[Fuzzfas]

-{ Quote: "Yeah Fuzzfas there is a compatibility mode and a debug mode none of which work for me.
Ta m8 :) " }-

I see. Well, you 're very unlucky.

-{ Quote: "
Macrium are very generous to offer a free version.
Where they fail, is to offer no support to the free version.
" }-

Yes, it's great program, but i too wanted to register to their forum and ask specific questions about the license limitations and saw that you can't even register unless you 've bought the paid version...

Other than that, i am too among the users that Macrium free has never failed them. Also since i moved to Win7, i do the images with "high compression" (while the recommended is medium) and they still don't give me errors. It's very good. You can also disable the Macrium service from running at background when you 're not using it and restart it on demand when you want to image. All this very nice.

-{ Quote: "
If free does not work, no way will i spend my hard earned on a license, even if there is a 30 day money back guarantee. " }-

I agree. Furthermore, i don't think the paid version does some new "miraculous" Linux CD. If the free version's CD doesn't work will you, it's pretty much certain that the paid version's CD won't work either.

And it's a shame really because their Linux CD is very easy to handle and restore an image.

[DOSawaits]

Count me in as another that was extremely satisfied at first after installing Macrium Reflect and making a first backups, but then found out that the Linux Recovery CD (including with Compatibility mode enabled) didn't do more than a blank screen or a menu without any way to navigate, no mouse, and no keyboard shortcuts to get through the menu's either.

Sorry, but this doesn't give me the feeling that the paid version WinPE recovery environment will be any better.

[Tony]

-{ Quote: "
I agree. Furthermore, i don't think the paid version does some new "miraculous" Linux CD. If the free version's CD doesn't work will you, it's pretty much certain that the paid version's CD won't work either.
" }-

The paid version has a WinPE recovery cd that they say supports a greater range of disk devices.

Anyway, i have been trying Paragon Back up and recovery free version.
A full image file created was 47,8 gb using normal compression compared to 45.2 with Macrium free.
The image took 59 minutes to create whereas Macrium took 58 minutes.
More importantly the recovery cd loads on boot and restored the image perfectly.
Backup & Recovery 10 Free Edition (http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/awards.html) has improved a lot since the last time i used it, especially in terms of speed so for the moment this is my recommendation for anyone wanting free imaging software.
The support forum is not too far away either ;D

I hope i do not seem to be knocking Macrium as a lot of people are very happy with their product.
But they really do need to provide support to the free customer, even if only in the support forum.
After all, free customers turn into paying customers.

[pandlouk]

-{ Quote: "Anyway, i have been trying Paragon Back up and recovery free version.
A full image file created was 47,8 gb using normal compression compared to 45.2 with Macrium free.
The image took 59 minutes to create whereas Macrium took 58 minutes.
More importantly the recovery cd loads on boot and restored the image perfectly.
Backup & Recovery 10 Free Edition (http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/awards.html) has improved a lot since the last time i used it, especially in terms of speed so for the moment this is my recommendation for anyone wanting free imaging software." }-
With paragon you do not even need a recovery boot media (unless you have problems entering in windows).

Panagiotis

[Tony]

-{ Quote: "With paragon you do not even need a recovery boot media (unless you have problems entering in windows).

Panagiotis" }-

Yes i realise that thanks Panagiotis :)
Actually the more i play around with Paragon the more impressed i become.
There is a lot you can do with it for a free program.

[prius04]

I took a quick peek at the Paragon product and it certainly looks decent.

Just curious as to why it's a ~102MB download versus ~28MB for Macrium and ShadowProtect. ???

[Raza0007]

-{ Quote: "I took a quick peek at the Paragon product and it certainly looks decent.

Just curious as to why it's a ~102MB download versus ~28MB for Macrium and ShadowProtect. ???" }-

Because it is a .msi file, not an .exe

[Sully]

Now maybe this is just me, but in general *nix boot discs of the fashion Macrium is using have always been a little 'hit or miss'. My experience with them has been 50/50. BartPE or WinPE, IMO is somewhat easier, because usually all you need is the correct driver for the chipset. And I think everyone agrees that if you cannot find a driver for M$ for your chipset, then you will have less luck finding one for *nix.

Bashrat the Sneaky's driver packs take care of finding a driver for your chipset, thus I consider PE to be better. (strictly from a getting it to work easily with your harddrive standpoint). I could imagine that the WinPE option is better, but have never tried it.

The *nix cd that Macrium free makes does not work on my computer. But the bartPE plugin works fine.

Sul.

[Fuzzfas]

-{ Quote: "With paragon you do not even need a recovery boot media (unless you have problems entering in windows).

Panagiotis" }-

Since i have not used Paragon, i 'd like a clarification about that. Do you get a boot menu instead? Can you restore image of the system active partition from the boot menu, without CD? That would be great!

[Raza0007]

-{ Quote: "Since i have not used Paragon, i 'd like a clarification about that. Do you get a boot menu instead? Can you restore image of the system active partition from the boot menu, without CD? That would be great!" }-

If you can enter windows, you just choose the image you want to restore (even of the active partition) and hit restore. Paragon will inform you that the active partition can not be restored online and the process will be completed upon system restart. When you restart the system, Paragon loads before windows and performs the operation.

You only need the boot media if you can not boot into windows or you want to do a backup/restore from outside windows.

[Fuzzfas]

-{ Quote: "If you can enter windows, you just choose the image you want to restore (even of the active partition) and hit restore. Paragon will inform you that the active partition can not be restored online and the process will be completed upon system restart. When you restart the system, Paragon loads before windows and performs the operation.

You only need the boot media if you can not boot into windows or you want to do a backup/restore from outside windows." }-

Wow, that sounds very nice! I will download it!

Thank you very much.

[aigle]

Same feature is in acronis as well.

[rolarocka]

How do you make it in Acronis?

[Howard Kaikow]

-{ Quote: "How do you make it in Acronis?" }-
Same way.

Acronis boot disk is Linux based.
Otherwise, you can restore from within Acronis, unless the drive has pagefile or boot related files, in which case you have to boot from the Acronis boot cD.

I expect that Paragon works the same way, but has winPE.

[pandlouk]

-{ Quote: "Same feature is in acronis as well." }-
No, there is not a similar feature in acronis.
-{ Quote: "Same way.

Acronis boot disk is Linux based.
Otherwise, you can restore from within Acronis, unless the drive has pagefile or boot related files, in which case you have to boot from the Acronis boot cD.

I expect that Paragon works the same way, but has winPE." }-
Paragon does not need a PE enviroment to restore.

Panagiotis

[800ster]

There IS this feature in Acronis. Select an active partition to restore and Acronis will inform a reboot is needed. This then reboots the system, loads Acronis and automatically restores.

[pandlouk]

-{ Quote: "There IS this feature in Acronis. Select an active partition to restore and Acronis will inform a reboot is needed. This then reboots the system, loads Acronis and automatically restores." }-
Are you talking about "Acronis Startup Recovery Manager"?

Panagiotis

[Howard Kaikow]

-{ Quote: "Are you talking about "Acronis Startup Recovery Manager"?

Panagiotis" }-
No.

Just choose Recovery in TI, then choose partitions to be restored..
If it cannot restore a partition whilst Win is running, then just boot with Acronis boot CD.

Do not see how this is any different than with Paragon, except TI has linux based boot CD.

[rolarocka]

I was understanding that if the partition is locked it will boot and restore an image without cd. I dont think Acronis can do that. Perhaps with the "Secure Zone" it is possible. Never tried it.
-{ Quote: "The Acronis Secure Zone is a secure partition that enables keeping backup archives on a managed machine disk space and therefore recovery of a disk to the same disk where the backup resides." }-

[pandlouk]

I just checked. The result is similar, but the technology is different.

As I said Acronis use a linux PE enviroment to perform the restore.
Paragon does it from the windows enviroment (the only program that had a similar technology was powerquest's drive image). Is similar with the offline defrag of prefectdisk,diskeeper,puran, etc.

Panagiotis

[Raza0007]

I do not know about Acronis, but paragon will do the job on reboot without using any cd or boot media. It does not even need a safe zone or a recovery environment to be present on your hard drive.

[rolarocka]

Im tempted to try Paragon :)
Can i exclude folders from Backup in Paragon or only full Backups possible?
Any services running all the time? Thx

[Howard Kaikow]

-{ Quote: "I was understanding that if the partition is locked it will boot and restore an image without cd. I dont think Acronis can do that. Perhaps with the "Secure Zone" it is possible. Never tried it." }-

Nobody, in their right mind, should use the Acronis scure Zone.

Backup ONLY to external drives.

A more important difference between Acronis TI and Paragon DB is that TI has real incremental image backup.

There is no reason I can think of for anymore using any form of file backup.

[Raza0007]

-{ Quote: "Im tempted to try Paragon :)
Can i exclude folders from Backup in Paragon or only full Backups possible?" }-

You have the facility to do selective backups/restores or exclude items from your backup. This facility is present in the free version too.

[Raza0007]

-{ Quote: "Nobody, in their right mind, should use the Acronis scure Zone.

Backup ONLY to external drives.
" }-

Why not? I use Paragon as a replacement for system restore, so I have to backup to a different partition of the same drive. I need to be able to restore my laptop's OS partition wherever I am.

Of course, if you are backing up to protect yourself in case of hard disk failure, then it makes perfect sense to backup to a external drive.

[Raza0007]

-{ Quote: "
Any services running all the time? Thx" }-

No service runs in the background other than the built-in windows task scheduler. Paragon schedules its scheduled jobs using the windows scheduler.

[prius04]

-{ Quote: "...It does not even need a safe zone or a recovery environment to be present on your hard drive." }-
That's interesting. Do you have any other details re how it works?

The paid version of Macrium doesn't require media either, but it does trigger a boot menu after a restart (when a restore is begun from a previous Windows session).

[Howard Kaikow]

-{ Quote: "Why not? I use Paragon as a replacement for system restore, so I have to backup to a different partition of the same drive. I need to be able to restore my laptop's OS partition wherever I am.

Of course, if you are backing up to protect yourself in case of hard disk failure, then it makes perfect sense to backup to a external drive." }-

Yes, backing up to internal drives exposes you to at least the following risks:

1. A power glich can toast the drives used for backup. With external drives, you at least can easily swap them.

2. If using internal drives, unless the partitions are isolated on separate drives, the disk is subject to the usual wear and tear of a running system. External drives get less wear and tear.

3. For a laptop, either one carries an external drive, or uses a USB stick.

4, Having the backup partition on the same physical drive is just asking for trouble,

[Raza0007]

-{ Quote: "That's interesting. Do you have any other details re how it works?

The paid version of Macrium doesn't require media either, but it does trigger a boot menu after a restart (when a restore is begun from a previous Windows session)." }-

What I meant was that Paragon does not require a separate, special partition to be able to do a restore on reboot.

[Raza0007]

-{ Quote: "Yes, backing up to internal drives exposes you to at least the following risks:

1. A power glich can toast the drives used for backup. With external drives, you at least can easily swap them.

2. If using internal drives, unless the partitions are isolated on separate drives, the disk is subject to the usual wear and tear of a running system. External drives get less wear and tear.

3. For a laptop, either one carries an external drive, or uses a USB stick.

4, Having the backup partition on the same physical drive is just asking for trouble," }-

All valid points. But if you take the hard drive failure out of the equation, then it is okay to backup to the same drive. I find it convenient and I do not need to carry an external hard drive around. Since it is only a replacement for system restore and it is only my OS partition and not my personal data, so I can take the risk.

[Technic]

-{ Quote: "That's interesting. Do you have any other details re how it works?

The paid version of Macrium doesn't require media either, but it does trigger a boot menu after a restart (when a restore is begun from a previous Windows session)." }-

Please give some more info.

My scenario is this: my Windows OS wont boot. I have no rescue CD/DVD.
I have few backups created by Macrium on HDD's. How to access rescue console? :wacko:

[DOSawaits]

-{ Quote: "Please give some more info.

My scenario is this: my Windows OS wont boot. I have no rescue CD/DVD.
I have few backups created by Macrium on HDD's. How to access rescue console? :wacko:" }-
Simple: You can't.;)

[Howard Kaikow]

-{ Quote: "All valid points. But if you take the hard drive failure out of the equation, then it is okay to backup to the same drive. I find it convenient and I do not need to carry an external hard drive around. Since it is only a replacement for system restore and it is only my OS partition and not my personal data, so I can take the risk." }-


First, I NEVER have, and NEVER will, use System Restore.
Proper use of an image backip program is more reliable and gicves one proper control over the timing of backups.

Second, hard drive failure is THE main poiny. If I had to travel with a notebook, I'd use a USB drive, thumb or not. The alternative, if a drive fails, is to sit in the hotel room watching TV, sports, porn. or whatever is one's pleasure.

[Technic]

-{ Quote: "Simple: You can't.;)" }-

That's what I meant mate. :)

Luckily I have that rescue CD available.



These are the basics:

1. You must have working rescue media - CD/DVD/USB HDD etc.
you must be able to boot/start rescue console from these medias

2. Your backup software should be able restore your files/image/partition without any problems

3. You can not trust rescue/recovery consoles/capsules which are only installed on your operating system HDD etc. You must have SEPARATE rescue media (HDD/CD/DVD etc.)

All these stories about Paragon/Macrium/Acronis working without SEPARATE rescue media 100% are false.

Please correct me if I am wrong. :P

[Howard Kaikow]

-{ Quote: "What I meant was that Paragon does not require a separate, special partition to be able to do a restore on reboot." }-

Neither does Acronis.

[Technic]

-{ Quote: "Neither does Acronis." }-

Oh! Which media do they use?

[Howard Kaikow]

-{ Quote: "Oh! Which media do they use?" }-

Whichever has the archive containg the partition(s) you wish to restore.

[Technic]

-{ Quote: "Whichever has the archive containg the partition(s) you wish to restore." }-

How do you access these archives?

My scenario is: your system wont boot and you do not have SEPARATE rescue media.

[prius04]

-{ Quote: "Simple: You can't.;)" }-
You can't with the free version, no doubt. However, the paid version has an option whereby MR System Recovery can be added at boot time. Thus, you simply choose whether to boot into Windows or the recovery environment.

Admittedly, I don't have the paid version of Macrium, just the free version. If I'm in error here, perhaps someone with the paid version can point out any inaccurate information.

As a side bar, if the boot failure is due to the failure of the HDD itself, then I can't see how a restore is possible using *any* imaging s/w without some form of recovery media (e.g. CD, DVD, USB stick).

[pandlouk]

-{ Quote: "How do you access these archives?

My scenario is: your system wont boot and you do not have SEPARATE rescue media." }-
The same way that you'll access them in the following scenario:
your system wont boot, you have a separate rescue media but the rescue media went bad or you lost it.... :P

Panagiotis

[Sully]

You guys are going around in circles here.

It is self evident that if your only backup image is on the same drive your OS is on, you run risk of losing everything. Optical media is the only answer when you are considering 'safe keeping' or 'failure proof'. USB drives you can also consider safe, but unless you 'write protect' it, I would not consider it failure proof.

That being said, why should one not use thier hdd to store images? It is much faster and more convenient. I personally have many images on my secondary internal hdd. But, I also have my important images on DVD as well.

Regarding how you can restore your image, it is of no great trouble to look into winPE or bartPE. Macrium gives you a plugin for them. I have a boot.ini option to load bartPE from my c: drive. If that fails, I boot it from dvd. Either way allows me to access the macrium restore program. I believe that the paid macrium uses a similar approach by making winPE boot up on a reboot.

There is no need worry about how you can restore an image, it has been very well documented on many websites. Bootland and MSFN are chock full of them, as well as many others.

Maybe a trip to those places and seeing their sticky threads will help you develop your own plan, but rest assured, it can all be done. At least with macrium. Some of the others will also run from a PE environment, which is my favorite way to do it.

Sul.

[rolarocka]

I tried macrium free and the backup worked. Good
The problem is the restore. Booting into the linux cd wont let me chose the both partitions at the same time. The one with 100mb "System Reserved and "C". You can only choose one of the two. :wacko:

[rolarocka]

I also tried Paragon backup and Restore. To be honest i dont know what to think of it. The GUI looks like an Partition Manager. It ask me for a backup name but the it sets a weird name by itself in an folder. Excluding things isnt very intuitive. Also if you start the backup it seems that nothing happens. Its a bit slow taking snapshots it seems?

[Brian K]

-{ Quote: "The one with 100mb "System Reserved and "C". You can only choose one of the two. " }-
rolarocka,

Have you considered removing the System Reserved Partition? It isn't essential and not having the partition makes life easier.

[Raza0007]

I am slightly confused. Wasn't this thread meant for imaging programs that were freeware? So why are we comparing software capabilities of a free version of one company with a paid version of another. Take example of Acronis. Does Acronis even offer a free version of their imaging software? It is getting all very confusing.

[pandlouk]

-{ Quote: "I am slightly confused. Wasn't this thread meant for imaging programs that were freeware? So why are we comparing software capabilities of a free version of one company with a paid version of another. Take example of Acronis. Does Acronis even offer a free version of their imaging software? It is getting all very confusing." }-
Welcome to the wilders fora. ;D :P

Panagiotis

edit: It happens all the time in this community, you'll get used to it. It's confusing but won't let you get bored. ;)

[Raza0007]

Even vendors want to confuse you it seems. See here:

Backup & Recovery 10 (http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/)

Backup & Recovery 10 (http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/index.html)

One is a paid ware from Acronis. The other is a freeware from Paragon. Go figure :wacko:

[rolarocka]

-{ Quote: "rolarocka,

Have you considered removing the System Reserved Partition? It isn't essential and not having the partition makes life easier." }-
Thanks. That would be an option. So this means that there is no way of selecting the two? I just want to be sure that im not missing something here.

[Raza0007]

-{ Quote: "I also tried Paragon backup and Restore. To be honest i dont know what to think of it. The GUI looks like an Partition Manager. It ask me for a backup name but the it sets a weird name by itself in an folder. Excluding things isnt very intuitive. Also if you start the backup it seems that nothing happens. Its a bit slow taking snapshots it seems?" }-

Under the "tools" --> "settings" ---> "backup image options" --> uncheck "set file name automatically" option.

[Howard Kaikow]

-{ Quote: "How do you access these archives?

My scenario is: your system wont boot and you do not have SEPARATE rescue media." }-

ANY worthwhile image backup pprogram, perhas not a free version, provides a means to create a rescue disk (and t original CD oft serves as a rescue disk, but it is better, if not required, to create a new rexcue disk each time you update tg esoftware).

When you boot with te rescue disk, ypou would be given an opportunity to select an archive from your backup media.

Backup software is nothing to fool with.
Get a paid version.
Unless you wish to try using a Linux prog as your backup and restore. I would not recommend this for most folkes.

[Howard Kaikow]

-{ Quote: "All these stories about Paragon/Macrium/Acronis working without SEPARATE rescue media 100% are false.

Please correct me if I am wrong. :P" }-

Yes, they are false.

Some backup progs have an option to create an archive on an internal drive, and may provide a special mechanism to access that archive.

Howeve, to be as tactful as I can, it is quite foolish to backup to internal drives.

In the old acronis forum, there were postings from Acronis foles who even deprecated the use of the Acronis Secure Zone. The feature was available back in the daze when using external drives was not so common. The feature should also be deprecated in the manual and the software.

Of course, there are those willing to take a chance on an internal back up, but that might make sense ONLY on a notebook. Even then smallish USB cards/drives are available for notebooks.

Bottom Line: Pay for a good backup program.

[pandlouk]

-{ Quote: "Yes, they are false." }-
You are joking right?
-{ Quote: "Some backup progs have an option to create an archive on an internal drive, and may provide a special mechanism to access that archive.

Howeve, to be as tactful as I can, it is quite foolish to backup to internal drives.

In the old acronis forum, there were postings from Acronis foles who even deprecated the use of the Acronis Secure Zone. The feature was available back in the daze when using external drives was not so common. The feature should also be deprecated in the manual and the software.

Of course, there are those willing to take a chance on an internal back up, but that might make sense ONLY on a notebook. Even then smallish USB cards/drives are available for notebooks." }-
Simple BS.
On my desktop I have 5 internal drives (3.5T in total). You really believe that they will fail all together?
-{ Quote: "Bottom Line: Pay for a good backup program." }-
Not true. Some freewares work perfectly.

Panagiotis

[Longboard]

-{ Quote: "Simple BS.
On my desktop I have 5 internal drives " }-
Pandlouk: I think HK is referring to a set-up with one "internal" drive ie the system drive itself and the foolhardyness of not having external drives or multiple "internal" drives
??

LOL: 3.5T :o what you got in there ?

[Howard Kaikow]

-{ Quote: "Pandlouk: I think HK is referring to a set-up with one "internal" drive ie the system drive itself and the foolhardyness of not having external drives or multiple "internal" drives
" }-

Most folkes do have only 1 internal drive.

I happen to have 4 internal hard drives, all SCSI.

Heck the drives could work, the SCSI/other controller card could go belly up.
Of course, in this case, you would not be able to restore anything.

Due to drive or power issues an internal drive is more likely to fail than an external drive. Not to ,ention, you could have a chain reaction with more than one drive dying.

[Fuzzfas]

Well, here's what happened to my PC:

Partition size to image: 21.7 GB:

- Paragon with high compression: resulting file: 6.4 GB

- Macrium Free with high compression: 7.5 GB.

Unfortunately, Macrium did the backup at about 5 minutes quicker.

However, Pagagon Free has even differential imaging! This is amazing! It's all i need! I never thought a free product would give differential imaging. This is great!

I was thinking about eventually buying Macrium one day, but with their license quirks, tying to 1 hard disk, online activations etc, after i get Paragon with free differential, i see no reason to spend money on Macrium...

Thanks guys!

EDIT: Restoring Paragon image without CD failed. Maybe it is because of Rollback, i don't know. It asked me to insert a floppy to write exceptions, i have no floppy drive. But the Recovery CD worked fine, so at this point i may as well use Paragon with CD instead of Macrium with CD and "earn" the ability of differential imaging and getting rid of Rollback.

[aigle]

-{ Quote: "
As I said Acronis use a linux PE enviroment to perform the restore.
Paragon does it from the windows enviroment (the only program that had a similar technology was powerquest's drive image). " }-Can you explain this?

Thanks

[aigle]

-{ Quote: "I do not know about Acronis, but paragon will do the job on reboot without using any cd or boot media. It does not even need a safe zone or a recovery environment to be present on your hard drive." }-
Hmm... so is acronis as far as I know.

[TerryWood]

Hi All

The Problem with Paragon Drive Backup & Recovery 10 is that the you cannot "disengage image splitting". So if you are saving an image to a USB drive for example you get a plethora of 2GB splits.

I raised this in the Paragon forum which has been confirmed by the moderator Paragon Tommy. There are other issues with this software as well.

Frankly, for all the extolling of it by quite a number of people, very few seem to have put it through its paces, relying rather on a high end free spec to justify it.

I am not impressed so far, its no point in being free if the price is unnacceptable bugginess.!!

[Fuzzfas]

-{ Quote: "Hi All

The Problem with Paragon Drive Backup & Recovery 10 is that the you cannot "disengage image splitting". So if you are saving an image to a USB drive for example you get a plethora of 2GB splits.

I raised this in the Paragon forum which has been confirmed by the moderator Paragon Tommy. There are other issues with this software as well.

Frankly, for all the extolling of it by quite a number of people, very few seem to have put it through its paces, relying rather on a high end free spec to justify it.

I am not impressed so far, its no point in being free if the price is unnacceptable bugginess.!!" }-

Maybe you mean "20GB"? On my hard disk where i backup, i have one 6,4 GB non splitted image.

Maybe it's a problem that appears when you save to USB device?

[TerryWood]

Hi Fuzzfas

No I meant what I said. If you look at the software as installed it quite clearly tells you that the image is split into 2 GB segments. This is also the default setting.

The inability to disengage splitting applies both when you backup from the installed software or if you backup from the Rescue CD.

As I said the MOD of the Paragon forum tried it and confirms that when you try to remove the 2 GB split it does not work

Terry

for your info the install file is br free.msi and I downloaded it on the 8th November

[Tony]

In tool - settings - back up image options, you can uncheck "Enable Image Splitting".

It worked for me and i have a 48gb image.

[TerryWood]

Hi Tony

Please refer to this thread in Paragon Forum (Wilders):

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=257814

Terry

[Fuzzfas]

-{ Quote: "Hi Tony

Please refer to this thread in Paragon Forum (Wilders):

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=257814

Terry" }-

Ah, i see! This happens when you want to create image from within the Linux CD instead from inside Windows! I would have never suspected that!

Well, if you want to use the CD for backup, that's a serious bug alright!

[pandlouk]

-{ Quote: "Pandlouk: I think HK is referring to a set-up with one "internal" drive ie the system drive itself and the foolhardyness of not having external drives or multiple "internal" drives
??" }-In this case I agree that is always better to backup to a different drive (be it internal or external)
-{ Quote: "LOL: 3.5T :o what you got in there ?" }-Only 2+T is used (actually 1+T coppied twice) mostly films, music, family videos etc. :P
-{ Quote: "Most folkes do have only 1 internal drive.

I happen to have 4 internal hard drives, all SCSI.

Heck the drives could work, the SCSI/other controller card could go belly up.
Of course, in this case, you would not be able to restore anything.

Due to drive or power issues an internal drive is more likely to fail than an external drive. Not to ,ention, you could have a chain reaction with more than one drive dying." }-Not true, the same applies to external disks as well.
I have seen both internal and external drives fail. (the reason that I backup in more than 1 place).

Panagiotis

[pandlouk]

-{ Quote: "Can you explain this?

Thanks" }-
Acronis loads a LinuxPE image in ram and this is what performs the restore.
Norton/symantec and Macrium load a WinPE image in ram to perform the restore.
You do not actually boot your installed windows OS but the PE OS instead, when restoring.
Paragon uses the installed windows OS to perform the restore.

ps.I am not saing that one is better from the other. Only that they are different.

Panagiotis

[rolarocka]

Ok can anyone confirm this:

In Acronis i try to restore an image. It detects that the windows partition is locked. Offers me a reboot. Restores the image without a boot cd? (like the paid version of Macrium it seems)

[pandlouk]

-{ Quote: "Frankly, for all the extolling of it by quite a number of people, very few seem to have put it through its paces, relying rather on a high end free spec to justify it.

I am not impressed so far, its no point in being free if the price is unnacceptable bugginess.!!" }-
Terry you realise that the new Paragon freeware is less than a month old. Most people (me included) recommended it based on the findings of their previous freeware.

Anyway since you know how to make a bartpe cd, I think that you'll be better off with DriveImage xml (http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm).

Panagiotis

[pandlouk]

-{ Quote: "Ok can anyone confirm this:

In Acronis i try to restore an image. It detects that the windows partition is locked. Offers me a reboot. Restores the image without a boot cd? (like the paid version of Macrium it seems)" }-
Confirmed

Panagiotis

[rolarocka]

Thank you. I have tried it. Theoretically it works. But not on my machine :)
So back to the good old boot cd.

[pandlouk]

-{ Quote: "Thank you. I have tried it. Theoretically it works. But not on my machine :)
So back to the good old boot cd." }-
Strange, if he normal cd boots fine.
Is the image placed on an internal disk or on a usb?

You should contact acronis about this.

Panagiotis

[Brian K]

Does anyone know how Acronis TI (or Macrium) does the restore without a boot disk? Does it create a Virtual partition similar to the Ghost 2003 method or is it done from a "bootfile" where a new MBR is created temporarily?

rolarocka, how many primary partitions are on your HD? Strange that the non disk restore doesn't work.

[Doug_B]

-{ Quote: "
-{ Quote: "Hi Tony

Please refer to this thread in Paragon Forum (Wilders):

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=257814

Terry" }-
Ah, i see! This happens when you want to create image from within the Linux CD instead from inside Windows! I would have never suspected that!

Well, if you want to use the CD for backup, that's a serious bug alright!" }-

When I tried one of the version 9 Paragon backup offerings (likely the Pro version offered on GAOTD), I encountered the same 2GB limit from the Linux rescue CD. I do not believe there was an option to choose no splitting, though memory fades. When subsequently perusing Paragon's pre-Wilders forum, the explanation that I found in a post was that the version of Linux used was restricted to 2GB file sizes. I'm not well versed in Linux so cannot offer an opinion of that assessment, but if that was in fact the case, it may still be a problem, or alternatively they could have overcome the Linux version issue but screwed up in invoking the no splitting user option.

Doug

[rolarocka]

The image is placed on an internal hd. I have two primary's called "system Reserved" wich will be hard to delete/format and a "C:" partition.
I think the problem is this:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1524329&postcount=2
-{ Quote: "...ISO image is based on different loader which has more embedded drivers" }-

Everytime i install windows i need a floppy disk with the hd driver on it to get Windows installed. Otherwise it wont "see" my hd. Its probably the same now with restoring without the boot-cd.
The boot-cd seems to have more drivers in it so that my hd is recognised.

[culla]

trying Macrium now much faster/better than acronis 10 and its free ;D

[Brian K]

-{ Quote: "
I think the problem is this:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1524329&postcount=2
" }-
Ah, drivers.

Let me know if you want to get rid of the SRP.

[TerryWood]

Hi All

With Macrium Reflect free does anyone know if there is a method to view and copy files from an Archive?

Thanks

Terry

[TerryWood]

Hi Panagiotis

Thanks very much for your input I had not realised that Paragon Backup & Recovery was only a month old. Insofar as DriveImage XML is concerned, I like it but it is incredibly slow and I cannot get it to Restore on my machine.

Terry

[Sully]

-{ Quote: "With Macrium Reflect free does anyone know if there is a method to view and copy files from an Archive?" }-
If you mean, can you peer inside a Macrium image file, then yes, you can mount them with Macrium. They are read only but you can copy out of them AFAIK.

Sul.

[Tony]

-{ Quote: "Hi Tony

Please refer to this thread in Paragon Forum (Wilders):

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=257814

Terry" }-

Never spotted that.

Thanks Terry.

[Raza0007]

-{ Quote: "
Frankly, for all the extolling of it by quite a number of people, very few seem to have put it through its paces, relying rather on a high end free spec to justify it.

I am not impressed so far, its no point in being free if the price is unnacceptable bugginess.!!" }-

You are right I never tested the linux based recovery cd, but keep in mind Paragon backup and recovery 10 free edition is basically designed for novice users or users who do not need a lot of advanced features from their backup software. So, for such users the recovery cd is only essential if there is a hard drive failure or boot problems. Under normal circumstances, you can perform all your backups and restores from inside windows and you can do that all for free, which is a big plus.

I personally do not like the linux based recovery option and that was the only reason I decided to go with Paragon HDM pro, otherwise HDM suite would have sufficed for me. WinPe based recovery environment is only available with Paragon pro lines.

Paragon free edition, from within windows, lets you make and schedule a full backup as well as a differential backups and restores with extremely high reliability. And all that is for free.

Those who need advanced functionality can of course switch to their paid versions.

[Howard Kaikow]

-{ Quote: "You are right I never tested the linux based recovery cd, but keep in mind Paragon backup and recovery 10 free edition is basically designed for novice users or users who do not need a lot of advanced features from their backup software. So, for such users the recovery cd is only essential if there is a hard drive failure or boot problems. Under normal circumstances, you can perform all your backups and restores from inside windows and you can do that all for free, which is a big plus.

I personally do not like the linux based recovery option and that was the only reason I decided to go with Paragon HDM pro, otherwise HDM suite would have sufficed for me. WinPe based recovery environment is only available with Paragon pro lines.

Paragon free edition, from within windows, lets you make and schedule a full backup as well as a differential backups and restores with extremely high reliability. And all that is for free.

Those who need advanced functionality can of course switch to their paid versions." }-

The use of a recovery CD has nothing to do with whether a user is advanced.

A recovery CD is also needed to restore other than a system partition, if certain conditions are met, e.g., the partition might have a pagefile, or there might be open handles used by the OS.

The only advantage of WinPE over a linux based recovery disk is that a WinPE boot allows you to add drivrs for devices not covered by the WinPE. As far as I know, linux based recovery CDs do not allow additional drivers to be added at boot time.

[andyman35]

-{ Quote: "If you mean, can you peer inside a Macrium image file, then yes, you can mount them with Macrium. They are read only but you can copy out of them AFAIK.

Sul." }-
That's correct you can copy any archived files once you mount a Macrium Reflect image.:thumb:

[TerryWood]

Hi Andyman 35 & Sully

Thanks for your replies. Can you explain to me how to mount a Macrium image of an archive so I can view and copy it?

On my installed FREE version of Macrium there is no mention of how to do it

Thanks

Terry

[Raza0007]

-{ Quote: "The use of a recovery CD has nothing to do with whether a user is advanced.

A recovery CD is also needed to restore other than a system partition, if certain conditions are met, e.g., the partition might have a pagefile, or there might be open handles used by the OS.

" }-
Can you explain a little more? You can restore any partition whether it is system or not from within windows using paragon. If the process can not be completed while the system is online, then you will be given a notice that you need a reboot. The process will be done on reboot. You will not require a recovery CD.

In case of paragon, recovery CD is only required if you can not boot into windows at all.

Like I said, sometime people want to backup and recover from outside windows only and if this is true, then they can switch to the paid versions of Paragon. However most users do not need to do this and so the free version will suffice for their needs.

[andyman35]

-{ Quote: "Hi Andyman 35 & Sully

Thanks for your replies. Can you explain to me how to mount a Macrium image of an archive so I can view and copy it?

On my installed FREE version of Macrium there is no mention of how to do it

Thanks

Terry" }-
You just click on the highlighted tab in the screenshot and choose which image you wish to mount,it then appears as an additional drive in Windows Explorer.

[TerryWood]

Hi All

And thanks to all who have been helping me including the Private Messager.

I now have another problem.

I am using Win XP SP3 Plus a USB external Hard Drive to store my image files.

When I use the the various methods to explore and mount the image I get the following error message.

"The system cannot find the path specified"

a) USB drive IS SWITCHED ON

b) In the backup selection box the path to the folder is correctly shown ie F:\MacriumReflect

c) The tick is in the box to select the image, yet when I click on OK I get the above error message

Any ideas please

Thanks

Terry

[rolarocka]

-{ Quote: "Ah, drivers.

Let me know if you want to get rid of the SRP." }-
Thx Brian K. I already tried it. I followed this link:
Removing 100MB system partition - no re-install needed (http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/31456-removing-100mb-system-partition-no-re-install-needed.html)
The problem was that the Windows "Repair Disc" doesnt recognise my hd again and having the drivers in a floppy disk and choosing them doesnt help either. Perhaps i could try to make a custom Repair Disc with the drivers in it....
But I can live with that partition. Thx for trying to help :)

[pandlouk]

-{ Quote: "Hi Panagiotis

Thanks very much for your input I had not realised that Paragon Backup & Recovery was only a month old. Insofar as DriveImage XML is concerned, I like it but it is incredibly slow and I cannot get it to Restore on my machine.

Terry" }-
Hi Terry,

-I agree DriveImage XML is slow. But what do you mean you never got it to recover on your machine? Never had any problem from a BartPE disk with it.

-Now you got me confused. You do not want to backup from a windows enviroment and you chose macrium? Unless I have missed something macrium does not allow you to take an image from the recovery media. ???

Panagiotis

[TerryWood]

Hi Panagiotis


Thanks for you reply.

1) DriveImage XML

When (approximately 3 months ago) I needed to restore an image I was at that time using DI XML. I had never bothered to check that it would actually restore (lesson no one) So when I tried to restore, everything went well until (I am stretching my memory here) until you have to put a code in at the end of the restore sequence in DM XML 2.12?. In short, one of the letters of the code, I was not able to reproduce.

I contacted DM XML, unfortunately they were most unhelpful (I am in diplomatic mode when I say this). I never got it resolved. However I did post in a forum and I got 4 replies with a similar problem as mine. So I assumed it was not me or my PC, and I said goodbye

2) Macrium Reflect

No you are not confused. You are correct in everything you say.

It is simply pragmatism on my part. My preference would be to use a Backup and Recovery freeware that allows me to Backup, independent of Windows and that allows the widest range of operating systems including Windows 7.
Todo Backup does not cover Win 7. You know the score with Paragon Backup & Restore, I have covered DI XML. Acronis 8 Does all of what I want well and just may cover Win 7 so I am told but there is doubt ?

Returning to Macrium Reflect it is very good and now I have resolved the issue of Exploring archives, it is quite fast easy on the eye and simple.

The best beyond any shadow of doubt, by miles and 8/5 kilometres is ShadowProtect. It is the fastest the most dependable and quite simple, not the simplest. Unfortunately it is not free.

So If you know the holy grail or if Paragon moves in that direction let me know.

Terry

[Brian K]

-{ Quote: "Removing 100MB system partition - no re-install needed
But I can live with that partition. " }-

rolarocka, their solution was drastic. I experimented and found two methods that work. I used BootIt NG (BING) as the partitioner but other apps should work.

1. Delete the SRP from a BING CD as it can't be deleted from Windows. In View MBR, set the Win7 partition active. When you try to boot Win7 you will see a "BootMGR is missing" message.

Do two repairs from the Win7 DVD. It is only on the second repair that you will get to a big menu where you can choose "Startup Repair".
Win7 then boots normally.


2. Using a VistaPE boot CD, copy the contents of the SRP to the Win7 partition. A BartPE CD can be used instead.

From a BING CD, delete the SRP. In View MBR, set the Win7 partition active.
Win7 then boots normally.


Remember, the SRP is an Active partition, so after deleting the partition you MUST make Win7 the active partition. I've done these procedures about 10 times each. They work.

On my test computer, if I don't set Win7 as the active partition I see, "Invalid boot diskette, insert boot diskette in A:" (you might get a different error if you don't have a floppy drive)

[Sully]

Your criteria for making a backup outside the OS (the installed OS) probably limits you. Holy grail wise, I dunno. But I do know that you can use Macrium to make an image pretty quick, and if you use BartPE with either the Macrium Restore plugin or the RoboRestore method, it is very quick to restore. Having BartPE boot into RAM from hdd makes it about a 30 second boot, and around 3-5 minutes to restore a basic OS image. For me, it is the most robust and cheapest ;) route.

Sul.

[pandlouk]

-{ Quote: "Hi Panagiotis
...
...The best beyond any shadow of doubt, by miles and 8/5 kilometres is ShadowProtect. It is the fastest the most dependable and quite simple, not the simplest. Unfortunately it is not free.

So If you know the holy grail or if Paragon moves in that direction let me know.

Terry" }-
Well... it depends on the needs.
For me (since I do not need and do not trust incremental imaging) the best ones are Image for Windows(Image for DOS) and DriveSnapshot.

In your case (from the free options) the holy grail would be Paragon with the BartPE plugin. http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=257771

Panagiotis

[Brian K]

-{ Quote: " Having BartPE boot into RAM from hdd makes it about a 30 second boot, " }-
Sul,

Could you expand a little on "boot into RAM"? I have BartPE on my HD and it does boot faster than from a CD.

[pandlouk]

-{ Quote: "Sul,

Could you expand a little on "boot into RAM"? I have BartPE on my HD and it does boot faster than from a CD." }-
The easiest way to create an InRam BartPE is to use Winbuilder with LiveXP project and enable the ramdisk.sys from 2003.

Panagiotis

[TerryWood]

Hi Panagiotis

Agreed, both are very good even excellent, neither are free and as far as I am aware neither accomodate Windows 7. So if one is planning to migrate to Windows 7 in the near future. You would be taking a punt on whether these two will be upgraded. In addition both are what I call boutique software.

Also agreed about Paragon. BUT there are companies that produce products that when released don't need addons ('cause they are already included) like BartPE plugin, and somehow their internal testing & QC is upto scratch. Don't forget Paragon Backup & Recovery is not a totally new product, it is a derivation from and an improvement to Drive Backup 9. So the changes in it (in my opinion) are not seismic and ought not to cause problems. Yet..........

Terry

[Brian K]

-{ Quote: "The easiest way to create an InRam BartPE is to use Winbuilder with LiveXP project and enable the ramdisk.sys from 2003.
" }-
Thanks.

[pandlouk]

-{ Quote: "Hi Panagiotis

Agreed, both are very good even excellent, neither are free and as far as I am aware neither accomodate Windows 7. So if one is planning to migrate to Windows 7 in the near future. You would be taking a punt on whether these two will be upgraded. In addition both are what I call boutique software.

Also agreed about Paragon. BUT there are companies that produce products that when released don't need addons ('cause they are already included) like BartPE plugin, and somehow their internal testing & QC is upto scratch. Don't forget Paragon Backup & Recovery is not a totally new product, it is a derivation from and an improvement to Drive Backup 9. So the changes in it (in my opinion) are not seismic and ought not to cause problems. Yet..........

Terry" }-
IFW works fine in 7... actually almost every imaging app that uses VSS and was compatible with Vista/2008 should not have any problem with 7.

About Paragon 10. From the quick testdrive I took yesterday (x86 version) it works fine in the windows enviroment.
For me at the moment is the best freeware because is the only one that gives you differentials.

Panagiotis

edit: I would suggest to give it a proper run before you decide. Macrium is very very good (I love the interface which is perfect for novices) but differential imaging is handy especially with Vista and 7 since they are huge OSes compared with XP.

[Sully]

That is one way, but the easiest way that I know of is to use a script called makebs.cmd by Jaclaz (an awsomely knowledgable fellow) that is incorporated into a project located here (called now U-XP-Set) by a fellow named Wimb.
http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21883

In there is a tool called Boot_Img. It is supremely easy to use. Create your BartPE .iso file, rename the extension to .img instead of .iso. House it in the root of c: . Run Boot_Img, with the required ramdisk.sys and setupldr.bin into the proper directory (it will tell you where). Then you point Boot_Img to your .img file. Seconds later you have a few new files in your root, and a modified boot.ini file with a value to let you boot into BartPE. BartPE is read from the .img file, and read into RAM where the BartPE OS is executed from. I average a shade under 30 seconds boot time if I don't do any network driver installations etc.

If you already have a working BartPE image file for your hardware, you are done other than locating the ramdisk and setupldr files. They used to be included, but maybe they have been removed due to copyright or something.

Sul.

[layman]

-{ Quote: "I personally do not like the linux based recovery option..." }-

I'm a Macrium user (switched from Acronis) who thought Windows PE would solve some of the problems I'd had with unsupported hardware in Acronis recovery disks. To my surprise, I've found that Macrium's Linux-based disks sometimes provide more up-to-date driver support than WinPE! On a Vostro machine I recently purchased, only the Linux disk works.

One great thing about Macrium Reflect is that the boot disks update independent of the product. You can get an up-to-date bootstuff without buying a new version of the basic imaging product. With Acronis, it was like pulling teeth to get anything other than what was shipped up front.

[rolarocka]

-{ Quote: "rolarocka, their solution was drastic. I experimented and found two methods that work. I used BootIt NG (BING) as the partitioner but other apps should work.

1. Delete the SRP from a BING CD as it can't be deleted from Windows. In View MBR, set the Win7 partition active. When you try to boot Win7 you will see a "BootMGR is missing" message.

Do two repairs from the Win7 DVD. It is only on the second repair that you will get to a big menu where you can choose "Startup Repair".
Win7 then boots normally.


2. Using a VistaPE boot CD, copy the contents of the SRP to the Win7 partition. A BartPE CD can be used instead.

From a BING CD, delete the SRP. In View MBR, set the Win7 partition active.
Win7 then boots normally.


Remember, the SRP is an Active partition, so after deleting the partition you MUST make Win7 the active partition. I've done these procedures about 10 times each. They work.

On my test computer, if I don't set Win7 as the active partition I see, "Invalid boot diskette, insert boot diskette in A:" (you might get a different error if you don't have a floppy drive)" }-
Thx. I did these steps:
Inside Windows copy the contents of "System Reserved" from an Image made previously to the "Win" partition (to C:\). After that, reboot with BING CD and set the "Win" partition to Active and delete the "System Reserved" partition. Bingo! It boots without errors.
I think the same is possible if you unhide the SRP and copy the contents to C: like above.
Now i only need to merge the 100mb to the main partition.

[aigle]

Only big drwaback with Marcium reflect is that u can,t restore to a smaller partition. To me, it,s a very significant drawback.

[Sully]

Indeed Aigle, that is somewhat of an issue. I have been toying with thier tool to circumvent this problem called Roborestore. I have to say it works pretty slick. I don't make images of anything but the raw tweaked OS, so my images are very small. I just resized my drive to around 20gb, and made in image of that. This way I can restore to the full 750gb or anywhere inbetween if I want. For those imaging 40gb worth of drive, I don't envy that size at all.

I also find BartPE to be better than LiveXP or WinPE. Overall, BartPE offers me the best success rate when concerning drivers than even Linux CD. But then, everyones mileage will vary I am sure.

Sul.

[Brian K]

-{ Quote: "Inside Windows copy the contents of "System Reserved" from an Image made previously to the "Win" partition (to C:\). After that, reboot with BING CD and set the "Win" partition to Active and delete the "System Reserved" partition. Bingo! It boots without errors.
" }-
Nice. I hadn't thought of that. It is easier than using a VistaPE CD. I'll make that Method #1, out of three.

[Brian K]

-{ Quote: "
I think the same is possible if you unhide the SRP and copy the contents to C: like above.
" }-
Correct again. My SRP had a drive letter. In Folder options I chose "Show hidden files, folders, and drives". I removed the tick from "Hide protected OS files". Now the contents of the SRP are visible. A new Method #1.


Edit..... This method doesn't work because BCD is in use by the System and can't be copied to the C: drive.

[aigle]

-{ Quote: "Indeed Aigle, that is somewhat of an issue. I have been toying with thier tool to circumvent this problem called Roborestore. I have to say it works pretty slick. I don't make images of anything but the raw tweaked OS, so my images are very small. I just resized my drive to around 20gb, and made in image of that. This way I can restore to the full 750gb or anywhere inbetween if I want. For those imaging 40gb worth of drive, I don't envy that size at all.

I also find BartPE to be better than LiveXP or WinPE. Overall, BartPE offers me the best success rate when concerning drivers than even Linux CD. But then, everyones mileage will vary I am sure.

Sul." }-
Can you use Roborestore with linux restore CD or BartPE?

[Sully]

BartPE. I am not sure if it even works on linux at all as it uses robocopy to do the work, it is just able to peer into a macrium image file to get the source from. I have ran it a couple times now, and it seems straight forward. I will be giving it a much more in-depth run-down in the coming week or two hopefully.

Sul.

[TerryWood]

Hi All

One for for the brainboxes.

I have never been able to restore from DriveImage XML (Win XPSP3) because at the last bit of the restore process in that the following has to be typed in

DIX1#1

For some reason on my machine (using a UK keyboard) the hash (#) symbol is replaced by a backslash (\) when typing in the DriveImage codebox.

I should say that in all other operations that I am aware of such as this post the hash symbol is represented correctly.

Yesterday I had another go with DriveImage and same problem, however I was lucky to find some information on the internet that shows if you press ALT 35 this will also input the hash symbol. This time it works, messy but it works.

Can any one explain the apparent disparity wherebye the hash symbol is displayed correctly under most operations, but when typing within DriveImage it does not?

Also, is there a way to get the hash key to type correctly in DriveImage?

Thanks

Terry

[aigle]

Hmm.. I read and Ia m almost sure that roborestore will not work except with windows images.

[Raza0007]

-{ Quote: "-{ Quote: "I personally do not like the linux based recovery option..." }-I'm a Macrium user (switched from Acronis) who thought Windows PE would solve some of the problems I'd had with unsupported hardware in Acronis recovery disks. To my surprise, I've found that Macrium's Linux-based disks sometimes provide more up-to-date driver support than WinPE! On a Vostro machine I recently purchased, only the Linux disk works.

One great thing about Macrium Reflect is that the boot disks update independent of the product. You can get an up-to-date bootstuff without buying a new version of the basic imaging product. With Acronis, it was like pulling teeth to get anything other than what was shipped up front." }-

I have nothing against Linux. I was referring to the Paragon Linux based recovery option only, or more accurately the difference between the Paragon WinPE based recovery environment and the Paragon Linux based recovery environment. Paragon Linux based recovery environment is limited. It even says in the help file that certain advanced options can only be used from the WinPE based recovery environment.

Perhaps folks at Macrium prefer linux, so they have designed a comprehensive linux based recovery environment.

[JAH]

Has anyone been able to test out Macrium in Virtual PC 2007? VM has two partitions. It makes an image to 2nd partition, but the recovery CD will not allow me to select the folder where the image is stored on the 2nd partition.

JAH

[rolarocka]

-{ Quote: "Edit..... This method doesn't work because BCD is in use by the System and can't be copied to the C: drive." }-
Hi you can copy locked files with this:
http://www.runtime.org/shadow-copy.htm
and it works btw.
But its getting too off topic :)