Drive image/clone backup recommendation?

[pandlouk]

Actually the description in IFW/IFD/IFL has a limit of 127 charracters

Originally Posted by ifw manual

/desc:”my description”
Use this option to specify the descriptive text you want Image for Windows to associate
with the backup, up to 127 characters. If your descriptive text includes spaces, surround
it with quotation marks: /desc:“my description”
Default if omitted: Image for Windows doesn’t add any descriptive text.

I do not use this feature myself but it would be very easy for Terrabyte unlimited to overcome the dos limit by adding extra options like :
/desc1
/desc2
/desc3
etc.etc.

If they didn't, means that noone requested extended description capabilities.

Panagiotis

[Palancar]

I just finished trying easeUS disk copy ---- no thanks. Maybe its because I love linux and my paid products.

EaseUS wrote out the image quickly but then when I tried to restore it to test the operation I ran into trouble. I imaged a partition from my TC encrypted drive. Since the destination external was larger it created unallocated space, which seemed OK. However; trying to go the other way the program sees the backup size as larger than the original partition and doesn't allow the write. Hmmm.

I have never had an issue when using dd in linux. Plus I love the ability to do an md5 to make sure both the source and destination are perfectly the same.

I think that for a somewhat tech savvy user easeUS is just a toy. Sorry if others disagree. This is only my .02

[Brian K]

Palancar,

I don't use encrypted disks but here is a TeraByte Unlimited page about using TrueCrypt...

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=462

[Stilez]

Originally Posted by Palancar

I think that for a somewhat tech savvy user easeUS is just a toy. Sorry if others disagree. This is only my .02

Hmm. How odd It wasn't on my shortlist either, NEW! IMPROVED! marketing notes (with bangs) notwithstanding.

Paragon HD Manager 12 Pro just ruled itself out too. Product may be reliable and fully featured (and has "fail-during-disk-processing" protection I found!) but oh god, features and anything else pales to insignificance faced with an interface designed for 4k TFT or at least 2560x1600 full screen to fit all their iframes, tabs, tabs-within-tabs, collapses, jangled up multiple fonts/sizes, and other UI problems. Tabs, information panels, and options become unclickable or unable to view more than half at a time without constant scrolling. Left panel jumps in and out every time a section is expanded/collapsed. Layout is very hard on the eye. Not to mention I can't see a full disk map (it's my primary disk management tool!) and in ordinary use most of the time panels will be 2/3 obscured by other panels, or duplicating one. Screenshot shows Paragon in VM with just one drive - and to get that I had to hide one vertical panel ("partitions") already! Email sent to Paragon's director of product design for comment. Again, great product spoiled by - in this case - not a feature issue but a need for radical UI improvement. Not difficult. Hopefully v13 they will.



Down to SD and Macrium. IfW and Paragon are both great and maybe the issues in narrow areas are really easy to fix or will be fixed, but right now are problems. Macrium (also trialled) seems less fully featured but the basics I need seem to be there. Score. If it's actually reliable then at least its a cautious possible. I'd go for IfW or Paragon in preference if workable for me. Haven't tried SD yet. That's where it's at.

[oldcoder]

Macrium (also trialled) seems less fully featured but the basics I need seem to be there. Score.

Less fully featured == less to go wrong.

[Stilez]

Originally Posted by oldcoder

Less fully featured == less to go wrong.

Isn't that the truth.
All other things (including coder competence, platform reliability and management pressure) being equal.

[MerleOne]

Hi

There is another nice solution I have been trying since a few months : R-Drive Image from R-TT.com.

Very efficient, works like a charm even on recent hardware. Boot media creation is easy.

Just my 2 cents...

[ellison64]

I like active@diskimage ...no particular reason other than it works,hasnt failed me and easy interface and nice boot disk.
http://www.disk-image.com/

[napoleon1815]

Originally Posted by MerleOne

Hi

There is another nice solution I have been trying since a few months : R-Drive Image from R-TT.com.

Very efficient, works like a charm even on recent hardware. Boot media creation is easy.

Just my 2 cents...

MerleOne, thanks for mentioning this tool. I use this tool once and a while and always loved it. It doesn't get a lot of attention on here, and in some respects it's pretty utilitarian, but it's rock solid. I trust it along IFW/IFD/IFL.

[MerleOne]

Originally Posted by napoleon1815

MerleOne, thanks for mentioning this tool. I use this tool once and a while and always loved it. It doesn't get a lot of attention on here, and in some respects it's pretty utilitarian, but it's rock solid. I trust it along IFW/IFD/IFL.

Thanks. And their file recovery software, R-Studio, is one of the most efficient I ever used.

[Gorkster]

Give the 30 day free trial of Macrium Reflect Pro a run for its money - that's what I'm currently leaning toward after the Acronis debacle and testing out several options. The only problems with your list I know of are: 1) Limited to 256 chars for comments; 2) It does have scheduling abilities, but I haven't tested to see what resources it hogs - doesn't make a noticeable difference to me.

The reason Shadowprotect dropped off my short list is that in order to keep track of changes it has a service that runs in the background and keeps track of changes "on the fly." Presumably good for speed, but I don't like it.

[MerleOne]

This reminds me there is a very nice and free (for personal use) solution : AIP Free on www.aipfree.com.

I use it on a XP machine. The only drawback is when the pc crashes, I have to recreate a full image.

[sukarof]

I have tried most of the imaging software, not all lately though, but before my migration to Linux three years ago. Surely all of them have evolved, but
I have not tried Shadow Protect on Windows 7 64bit. But back in the days when I had SP i just loved its functionality. Totally reliable restores (made hundreds of them) fast. I would buy it for Windows 7 too if they didnt have the silly policy that you only can install it three times and after that the license gets locked and you have to beg them to unlock your license - AND explain why! Doesnt support linux (unless it has changed the latest 3 years since I used it)

Image for windows is the next best imo. It is equally reliable (done hundreds of restores with it too) it is not as fast and the GUI isnt that flashy, but it is a reliable work horse and only a one time cost. Solid piece of work and not as expensive as SP.
I have had it since 2005 and still get free upgrades!. Unfortunately you cant install it in Linux environment (like you can with Image for win) but the boot CDmake images of linux filesystems with ease (I always use Image for Linux to restore everything though.)

I am right now testing Acronis Image for home 12 (can image Linux drives) and it seems to have evolved since I tried it last (4 years ago) back then I didnt manage to make successful restores more than maybe 2 or 3 times. With this latest version I have done 5 backup/restores (really easy) and it has not failed me yet. It has alot of nice utilities. I like the concept of Try & Decide, but havnt yet got it working since it thinks my Root drive is "dynamic". Have to try to figure that one out... It takes the incremental images really fast and restore (45Gb) in 9 minutes on my SSD based machine, wich I think is fast

[Brian K]

Originally Posted by sukarof

Unfortunately you cant install it in Linux environment (like you can with Image for win) but the boot CDmake images of linux filesystems with ease (I always use Image for Linux to restore everything though.)

sukarof,

I understand you can install IFL in a Linux environment and it can image partitions except the OS partition. But as you imply, it isn't as functional as IFW.

Have you noticed there is a potential big problem with Ubuntu if you install Grub2 into the MBR of a 2048 sector aligned partition? This is because Grub2 is installed into the first 103 sectors and not into the 63 sectors of the First Track. So if you restore your image to a new HD and "Restore MBR" or "Restore First Track" then Ubuntu won't boot until you restore all 103 sectors. The same thing happens if Ubuntu is installed into a cylinder aligned partition and there is unallocated free space at the start of the HD.

Apart from the TeraByte apps, do you know of other imaging apps that can restore the first 103 sectors?

[MerleOne]

I guess HDClone (www.miray.de) does this, since it can save a whole disk with the structure, not just individual partitions and the MBR.

[sukarof]

Originally Posted by Brian K

sukarof,

I understand you can install IFL in a Linux environment and it can image partitions except the OS partition. But as you imply, it isn't as functional as IFW.

Thanks, I didnt know that. I actually wrote to Terabyte last year and asked if they had any plans for a image for linux to install in a linux environment, but the answer was that they didnt coz there where some kernel issues (or something like that) that made it impossible for them to do a Linux version.

Originally Posted by Brian K

Have you noticed there is a potential big problem with Ubuntu if you install Grub2 into the MBR of a 2048 sector aligned partition? This is because Grub2 is installed into the first 103 sectors and not into the 63 sectors of the First Track. So if you restore your image to a new HD and "Restore MBR" or "Restore First Track" then Ubuntu won't boot until you restore all 103 sectors. The same thing happens if Ubuntu is installed into a cylinder aligned partition and there is unallocated free space at the start of the HD.

Apart from the TeraByte apps, do you know of other imaging apps that can restore the first 103 sectors?

Im sorry I have not had any problems restoring Ubuntu images, so cant help you there.

[Brian K]

Originally Posted by sukarof

Im sorry I have not had any problems restoring Ubuntu images, so cant help you there.

I haven't had trouble either. I was just testing. The issue would only apply if you were restoring a Ubuntu image to a new HD. Not with restoring to the same HD as the 103 sectors would be present.

A HD clone to a new HD would get around the problem too but if you have a HD failure that option is no longer available and you are reliant on images.

[valnar]

+1 on TeraByte products. No need to look for anything else IMO.

[andylau]

Originally Posted by Stilez

Hmm. How odd It wasn't on my shortlist either, NEW! IMPROVED! marketing notes (with bangs) notwithstanding.

Paragon HD Manager 12 Pro just ruled itself out too. Product may be reliable and fully featured (and has "fail-during-disk-processing" protection I found!) but oh god, features and anything else pales to insignificance faced with an interface designed for 4k TFT or at least 2560x1600 full screen to fit all their iframes, tabs, tabs-within-tabs, collapses, jangled up multiple fonts/sizes, and other UI problems. Tabs, information panels, and options become unclickable or unable to view more than half at a time without constant scrolling. Left panel jumps in and out every time a section is expanded/collapsed. Layout is very hard on the eye. Not to mention I can't see a full disk map (it's my primary disk management tool!) and in ordinary use most of the time panels will be 2/3 obscured by other panels, or duplicating one. Screenshot shows Paragon in VM with just one drive - and to get that I had to hide one vertical panel ("partitions") already! Email sent to Paragon's director of product design for comment. Again, great product spoiled by - in this case - not a feature issue but a need for radical UI improvement. Not difficult. Hopefully v13 they will.

Attachment 232615

Tabs can be clicked.
Some areas/places can scroll, hide or change.
It has three layouts.

[moontan]

Originally Posted by valnar

+1 on TeraByte products. No need to look for anything else IMO.

bloody awesome if you ask me.

i have never seen it fail so far, in over 200 imaging/restore.