Free alternative to Acronis True Image?

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by Durad, Apr 5, 2009.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. prius04

    prius04 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 14, 2007
    Posts:
    1,248
    Location:
    USA
    I did. No dice. No matter what, I just couldn't boot with any Linux CD I made with Macrium. After three attempts, I threw in the towel and tried the DBE Linux-based CD which, to my surprise, actually worked. Still can't figure out why the Macrium CD didn't work but I suppose it's sort of moot if one can make a BartPE CD.
     
  2. accessalternative

    accessalternative Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2008
    Posts:
    40
  3. tonyseeking

    tonyseeking Former Poster

    Joined:
    Nov 12, 2008
    Posts:
    406
    I dont get it... are you saying its not possible to boot a CD and create and restore images?
     
  4. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Posts:
    12,115
    Location:
    NSW, Australia
    tonyseeking.

    The CD boots and you can restore an image from the recovery environment. But not create an image from the recovery environment. Ghost is like this. Other software will do both.
     
  5. zarzenz

    zarzenz Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 19, 2002
    Posts:
    502
    Location:
    UK
    I must admit, as I'm very new to all this, I am confused about what the term cold imaging actually means.

    Let's see if I have this right so far... Macrium lets you copy all the files on your drive to a DVD. This is then called the image of your drive. It also gives you the option of making a Recovery CD which can be based on Linux boot or BartPE boot, which we have a choice of making.

    Then... once a system is booted with this Recovery CD... we can restore the image to the new drive to get the computer back to the state it was in when the image was made.

    Right... so now... what is cold imaging all about and why is it ever needed.

    Have I missed something here.
     
  6. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Posts:
    12,115
    Location:
    NSW, Australia
    zarzenz,

    Hot imaging is done from Windows. Cold imaging is done when Windows isn't running. Some people prefer cold imaging but most people never use it.
     
  7. zarzenz

    zarzenz Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 19, 2002
    Posts:
    502
    Location:
    UK
    Brian K,

    Now I get it... yes, I would think that as long as the hot image is sound then that should do the job perfectly well.

    Thanks for the clarification.
     
  8. andyman35

    andyman35 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Nov 2, 2007
    Posts:
    2,336
  9. Baldrick

    Baldrick Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 11, 2002
    Posts:
    2,674
    Location:
    South Wales, UK
    Must be your rig because everything is fine here...similar to ATI:D
     
  10. philby

    philby Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2008
    Posts:
    944
    When I first tried Macrium, an initial backup took over an hour and the restore took about 7 hours.

    I was using a Buffalo 8GB USB drive and, for some reason Vista hadn't searched for and and downloaded the required driver for the stick.

    I did this manually after the first comically-overlong effort.

    A second attempt took only minutes for both backup and restore.

    Perhaps this was your problem with Paragon.

    Hope this helps.

    philby
     
  11. RAD

    RAD Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2007
    Posts:
    332
    Some time I will try to get accurate times on my Paragon imaging.
    I am pretty sure that images and restores both take about 45 minutes on my 320 GB disk that contains 3 partitions.
    This is with all the 'Highest compression", "Verify", "Protect data Integrity" options. I also usually do it "Hot Processing". I think it is a little faster doing it offline.

    I have never gotten exact times, because I usually just go out for a run, or go to bed. It is certainly not "hours" though. It may be a full hour. When I come back, it is done. Any of these image programs take long enough that I am not going t sit there and watch it. Once it goes beyond about 5 minutes, it really wouldn't matter much to me if it took 30 minutes or 3 hours, so long as it is RELIABLE. :D
     
  12. tonyseeking

    tonyseeking Former Poster

    Joined:
    Nov 12, 2008
    Posts:
    406
    So a person creates an image in Vista or XP using FREE Macrium, then can boot the CD to restore it?
     
  13. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Posts:
    12,115
    Location:
    NSW, Australia
    That is correct.
     
  14. philby

    philby Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2008
    Posts:
    944
    Exactly.

    EG:
    • You make your rescue disk using the Macrium s/w
    • You create a (hot) image via the Macrium s/w during a normal Windows session
    • If you hose your system partition, you then boot with the RD and restore the image

    It's advisable therefore, to store the image at least on another partition, or even better, another HD.
    philby
     
  15. tonyseeking

    tonyseeking Former Poster

    Joined:
    Nov 12, 2008
    Posts:
    406
    What exactly did you do to make it faster? Can you give me step by step instructions?
     
  16. philby

    philby Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2008
    Posts:
    944
    First, like I said, this might have been your problem - I don't know what device you were trying to image to / restore from.

    In my particular case, with the pen drive, I did the following:

    Win key + E
    Right click 'Computer'
    Manage
    Device Manager
    Disk Management
    Select relevant drive + right click > update driver software

    After I did this, I assume the pen drive worked at the correct USB speed as Macrium was super-fast.

    Hope this helps

    philby
     
  17. tonyseeking

    tonyseeking Former Poster

    Joined:
    Nov 12, 2008
    Posts:
    406
    That makes no sense at all.

    What you mean:

    Device Manager
    Disk Management

    What did you do in "Disk Management"?
     
  18. RAD

    RAD Registered Member

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2007
    Posts:
    332
    Paragon Drive Backup 8.51 Imaging Times:
    Imaging a 118 GB Partition of a SATA 1 drive.
    ~40 GB of actual data
    "Data Loss Protection" enabled.
    "Fast Compression"
    Archive size: 31 GB
    20 min. 59 sec. I also noticed that I had my PC Power Settings set to operate at only 1 GHz. on a 3.1 GHz. processor. I don't kno how that would affect this result.

    Imaging a 108 GB Partition of a SATA 1 drive.
    ~7 GB of actual data
    "Data Loss Protection" enabled.
    "BEST Compression"
    Archive size: 5.6 GB
    PC running at 3.1 gHz.
    9 min. 36 sec.


    I will try to remember to come back here and update when I do more.
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2009
  19. tonyseeking

    tonyseeking Former Poster

    Joined:
    Nov 12, 2008
    Posts:
    406
    Ok thanks Jimmy :thumb: :D
     
  20. philby

    philby Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 10, 2008
    Posts:
    944
    Apologies - disk management should have read disk drives.

    Right click on the attached device you're using and update driver s/w

    philby
     
  21. tonyseeking

    tonyseeking Former Poster

    Joined:
    Nov 12, 2008
    Posts:
    406
    It says all drivers are already updated.
     
  22. GlobalForce

    GlobalForce Regular Poster

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2004
    Posts:
    3,581
    Location:
    Garden State, USA
    Regardless .... make sure your usbstor files are in their appropriate folders. Vista can be problematic when dealing with USB storage devs.
     
  23. zarzenz

    zarzenz Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 19, 2002
    Posts:
    502
    Location:
    UK
    I've been doing some testing and have found I can boot from the built in Linux system Rescue CD with Macrium with no problem.

    But then I wanted to try building a BartPe Rescue CD to compare and just to see how it works.

    So I followed the instructions from the Bart site to do this, but because I had to put my Windows XP installation disk in the CD drive to allow the build process to find the XP files, I got all the files to copy ok but then got an error when it tried to write... obviously this was because the XP disk was still in the drive.

    There didn't seem to be a way to overcome this error even though the Bart site mentions using the << and >> buttons to go back, doing this doesn't seem to do anything. I have no idea what to do now to get the disk to build.

    Has anyone ever had this problem and is there an easy way to swap disks without getting any errors... maybe I'm missing some vital info here.
     
  24. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2006
    Posts:
    9,065
    Hello,
    tell bartpe to create a .iso file and browse a location for it.
    it will build as normal and then create the .iso file.
    all you need to do then is burn the .iso file to disc.
    you can use burncdcc to burn the .iso file to disc.
    extract all files somewhere and run the .exe file
     
  25. zarzenz

    zarzenz Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 19, 2002
    Posts:
    502
    Location:
    UK
    Thanks lodore,

    So this would suggest it is a known issue, in which case I'm a bit surprised that the Bart site build instruction isn't more clear about this.

    I'll try what you said there.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.