Free imaging software

Hi,

I need a free imaging software to add to my security setup. So do you guys have any suggestion of a good one?

Thanks for any reply.

 

Here's a good, recent thread started by Mrkvonic that may help you in choosing one.

 

Another good review: http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-drive-imaging-program.htm
More options at 19.12. of here: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/probably-best-free-security-list-world.htm#Backup

 

Hi,
I finally came down to only two free imaging software. So far I found these two to be good. Please help me choose one because I'm really confused.

1. Paragon Backup Advanced
2. Macrium Reflect Free

Thanks for any reply.

 

Make absolutely certain whichever program you use, that you can use the boot disk they ask you to create. Some are Linux based and your hardware might not work with it. I tried Paragon free (very good option, btw), and while the program itself was great, I had to stop using it as the boot cd it makes will not work on my system. You don't want to find that out when the crap hits the fan.

 

+1

 

Hi AMS963

My experience with the two products is this:

Paragon is overhyped and over complex. Macrium Free is simple and works consistently well. I rarely see complaints about Macrium. By contrast look at Paragons forums. And yes one of the mods on Wilders uses Paragon.

My personal experience of Paragon is that they are following in the footsteps of Acronis.

For the record I won a Paragon advanced version of their product and that does not work properly.

To balance things, the Linux CD in Macrium free is very basic but it does work and the Professional WinPE version is truly complicated.

Go with Macrium

Terry

 

I agree with you, Macrium is very good. Already restore 5-6 times without any problems.

 

Macrium Reflect and Paragon B&R both have the capability of creating plugins for a BartPE disk in the event that the Linux boot disk is incompatible with your particular hardware.However it's far easier to so with Macrium and for that reason (along with many others),I'd recommend it.

In terms of reliability I've yet to experience an issue creating/restoring a Macrium image over a number of years and hundreds of occasions.

 

I've had a revisit with the recent Paragon B&R 2011 (Advanced) Free and I'm still impressed by what I've seen (had tried the 2010 version a few months ago). It's incredibly full-featured, although I've still to test it's backup/imaging reliability. It will even backup sector-by-sector. I did use it to create a VMWare machine out of my host disk and it worked perfectly.

 

Oh! I found another that many have recommended and many of the Wilders here use the paid version:keriver one click restore free.

Now I'm really confused. Paragon free or Macrium free or keriver free. Hmmm..... Most of you guys seems to be recommending macrium free. I guess I can try that out. But I've read a lot of reviews in many other forums and in cnet's download.com that its users face restoring problems. They say macrium sometimes does not restore an image and they get no support from macrium. So, I'm a little ...... you know, scared.

And when I see paragon's forum in this Wilder's always filled with so much problems, it's not helping me choose paragon free either.

No cons on keriver free so far but its features are very limited compared with the other two.
I guess I'll wait and see a few more posts in this thread before getting into any conclsions.

So, guys please don't stop recommending me the one you think the best out of the three:

1.Paragon Backup and Recovery Advanced free
2.Macrium Reflect free
3.Keriver One Click Restore free

Thanks for any reply.

 

Check "EaseUS Todo Backup Free ", it has a lot of features.. and its free
You can create WinPe CD with it

 

Imhe the best by far.

 

1. Acronis True Image Western Digital edition or Seagate DiscWizard ( size of image archive is smallest of the 4 given)
2. Macrium Reflect free
3. Paragon Back-up and Restore free (biggest size of image archive)
4. Keriver 1-Click Restore

 

ams963

Are you using W7? If so, have you taken the native imaging for a spin?

I have tried it and it's all you need, unless you have a need it can't fulfil of course...

philby

 

No I'm using win xp.

Thanks for the suggestion.

well, I actually I asked for one. But I can still get your suggestion based on your rating! As I don't use seagate or western hardware, no.1 is out of the question. This leaves me with your next top backup software which is macrium reflect free.

 

Nice site, it will be very useful for a lot of things. Thank's.

 

I've been using Paragon B&R free on my recently built (2months) system which has some of the latest hardware and Windows 7 64 with good results. I have done about 3 restores with no problems, the last one yesterday using the inline restore function for the first time rather than the boot disc and it worked fine. Building the Linux boot disc was a problem as I could not get the first 3 tries to verify until I used a Taiyo Yuden DVD disc. It verified and booted, but it takes a few minutes after booting with the disc for the menu to appear. I image almost every day and Paragon is fast, much faster than Acronis 2009 which I had on my older system (which had some problem installing with Windows 7 x64, but worked fine with Windows 7 x32). This has been my experience with Paragon, I would recommend testing your image restore with a spare disk as different hardware combinations may produce different results.

 

I tried a restore of a Paragon B&R 2011 image last night and no problems encountered. This is one program/recovery disk I'd place right up there with the likes of Macrium free as an excellent option for those looking for a free imaging tool. Windows 7 built-in tool is, of course, an excellent choice as well.

 

There also http://redobackup.org/. It you want a cold image.

 

One big plus for Easeus ToDo Backup Free is the "restore to dissimilar hardware" feature,I'm not sure if any other free option offers this function

I had cause to try this out recently on a system that had a ton of games (with updates,etc.) that'd have been extremely laborious reinstalling from scratch.Although it took a long time to re-image onto the new hardware (couple of hours),the result was very impressive with no subsequent issues.

For that reason alone I'll be keeping the Easeus disc to hand.

 

I'd say that a couple of hours to re-image on dissimilar hardware is pretty good.

 

You can use Seagate DiscWizard and Acronis True Image Western Digital edition with non-Seagate and non-WD drives. This has been tested. It also worked for ATI-WD.

See link and here and here

Have used EASEUS Todo Backup Pro v2.5 previously. Backing up a 160gb drive (around 50%) was slow at around 1.75-2hours. Got errors especially on long file names. Size was also big, reminding me of Paragon BR. Removed it after a week. But it may vary on your part.

 

same

 

There is also AIP Personal (see www.aipfree.com). Doesn't work well on a my 64bits system ,but does work nicely on the others (32bits).