Best paid imaging program ?

Unless a free one is as good ? So what is the best paid imaging program right now please ? ty

 

Hi max2.

There is a poll about the best imaging program here.
You would probably do good having a look and post questions there.

 

I'm using Macrium and I'm happy with it. IMO it's better than Acronis True Image which I was using before. Don't know about the others...

 

+1 for Macrium Reflect!

 

If you have a multi-core CPU, nothing beats Acronis boot CD/USB. Speed, compression and reliability. Macrium Reflect is reliable as well, however it lacks in the other two aspects: speed and compression.

 

My personal favourite is Symantec Ghost (not Norton Ghost) because of its ability to do anything and everything using batch files....Its vast command support is great and Ghost Explorer lets you remove / add files into the image (which I've never come across a drive imaging tool that offers that).

I'm glad Symantec finally updated Ghost because its a really great tool that has been around since the 90s but keeps getting neglected by Symantec.

 

I agree on its versatility, however the latest 8006 build it slow as hell when imaging an OS disk. It took about 2-4 times more than when it took for Acronis. Ridiculous if you ask me.

 

On my win 8.1 64 bit system Reflect Free v6 runs much faster than Acronis. I use free as it now does everything I need it to do, and I have done restores. My 512GB SSD with 46GB in use, will backup in 4 minutes! Backup/Verify is about 8 minutes.

 

LOL. Try acronis boot usb, do a full backup with high compression. I bet it will finish within 4 minutes, and the image file size will be much smaller than the Macrium image file. Go ahead and try it.

Edit: the reason for the high speed of Acronis disk imaging is that Acronis can make full use of 4-core or 8-core high end CPUs to expedite the process, and its compression algorithm is superb. Other imaging programs typically use 2 cores.

 

I have the Boot DVD I made is that what you want me to try?

 

There is no such thing as best... only "best for your needs"...
Everyone has it's favourite/s depending on how he uses it/them. (number of machines, OS, offline backups, online backups, full/incremental/differential backups, backup speed, restore speed, features, flexibility and so on...)

What features do you need?

Panagiotis

 

oliverjia,

I have the same view as you

But its installation is quite bloated

That's why I use it to do cold imaging only.

 

Thanks everyone. For some reason I don't like the way Macrium Reflect looks. Maybe I will get use to it. Right now I use Acronis True Image 2014 and love it. Acronis True Image 2015 sucks. I tried the trial.

I need full and incremental backups, automate schedules for backup, usb backup recovery, and the fastest backup speed.

 

Then you need to change your original question to "which is the best looking imaging program on the market". But I must warn you that looks are only skin deep, especially for an imaging program.

However if you still insist on looks, then we can find some nice looking blond imaging program for you

By the way, I would recommend Macrium or Paragon or ShadowProtect, in that order.

 

IMO, there is no "best". There are many programs to choose from and we all have our favorites for our own reasons. My best advice is to use some free trials to find your favorite.

As for my own experience... I have used and trusted Image for Windows (along with Image for Linux) for years and it has never failed me. I also like and use Macrium Reflect.

I used to use ShadowProtect for cold imaging but the later versions Linux boot disc was incredibly slow and the price finally bugged me too much. I tried True Image many years ago and decided to look elsewhere for a better fit for me. It may be very different now but I no longer have any desire to use it. Paragon always worked but was slow for me.

 

I agree with Pete.
Macrium 6 performs the fastest incrementals but it's strongest point is the restore speed. With the Rapid Delta Restore it simply has no competition when performing a restore.
By the way I don't like Macrium's interface either...

Panagiotis

 

I have 6+ paid software's that I got for free, and my favourite are ShadowProtect and Image for Windows.

 

A very informative post.

 

OK, I tested with a Bootable DVD of Acronis 2015. I also used Macrium Reflect Free V6 within Win 8.1.
My System is i7-4790k, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD with 46GB used.
Macrium took 8 minutes to backup full image and size was about 25GB
Acronis took about 14 minutes and size was about 27 GB with MAX Compression.

So, in my case Reflect was faster with a smaller image size.

 

Very surprising result to me. I am not sure why this happened. Two questions: 1. please use high instead of max compression; 2. I have been using the WinPE version of ATI 2015 boot USB and your boot DVD probably is based on Linux. I am not sure if these are where the difference we see comes from. Oh another thing: I always disable the page file and hibernate, therefore the data will be much smaller than yours.
In your case, if you disable (I think you should) page file and hibernate, you'll see your actually data probably smaller than 30GB. The page file and hibernate file is basically useless since your physical RAM is large 16GB.
Do you mind try it again after disabling page file and hiberante file? If you could use WinPE version that would be ideal. Also please use high compression instead of max.

 

All true, lol. Wish Acronis comes out with a clean, simple installer. But either way, I probably still use boot USB for cold imaging only. No need to install a resident imaging tool in OS.

 

It is just a wish......

Sometimes I need to do hot imaging, then Acronis is a pain. Maybe a substitute(another imaging app) is needed for hot imaging..

 

Well, since I do have 16GB RAM and use a Samsung 512GB 850 PRO, I do have hibernate off. Why would High be smaller than MAX? Also, I am using the Linux based recovery media as I do not want to create yet another PE and do not want to install TI on this system under windows.

 

macrium can do an incrimental to my d: backupm destination drive (not an ssd) in a couple of minutes, a full in under 20 from my system )source) disk (128gb ssd, roughly half full) it can do a full restore in 15-20 min., haven't tried the new fast incremental restores yet*. it can do none, medium, high compression, as well as 'smart' imaging (skipping unallocated sectors) or a full sized bit-by-bit image.

i switched from acronis years ago after they couldn't fix their space retention over the term of my license & asked for me to pay yet again for an update at full price to get the fix, which they had released just after my update license expired. tried macrium free then pro & haven't had a problem since. and they publish fixes fairly often & actually respond to support requests.

you can create a winPE or a linux boot dvd/cd/flash drive or boot from winpe as a secondary OS bcd menu item on boot of your pc - which is fastest

edited 16:36 on 21 JUL 15:

*- messed something up a few min. ago, did a 'rapid restore' of last nights image incrimental. it took 2 min 28 seconds & i was back in business. alles in ordnung.