Mainly Windows 7 Built-In. I've been looking for a 3rd-party solution though but haven't settled/decided on one. Bets are on Macrium Reflect and/or Image for Windows.
Ditto... using the "Standard" v4.2 here on XP Pro SP3 (32-bit). What advantages do the higher/more expensive versions provide over the Standard? I mean I read the differences on the home page, but I don't really understand (in Lehman's terms) what they are/do. I guess the question I should really be asking here is: Why did you buy the version you did over the Standard? What features did it have that you wanted/needed that justified it? I personally chose the Standard for the boot option. It's very convenient to be able to just hit F12 when booting your computer and have the option to boot from your image right there with boot in safe mode, from CD, etc... I've never had to use it yet and probably never will, but just knowing it's there... worth the money.
I can't comment on 4.2, short of just reading the published changes since 5.x was released I mean, because I bought Reflect for the first time at v5.x. But with regard to the Pro vs Standard versions of 5.x I required GPT (GUID Partition Table) support for one of my hard drives. (This is a replacement for MBR which allows for hard drives bigger than 2TB. It also works with the new EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) which is the up-to-date replacement for the BIOS (used to allow the computer to boot before it passes control to the operating system,) but my motherboard uses the older BIOS so that's not an issue for me yet.) The other reasons I went with the Pro version are 1) to better support the company; 2) I may at one point want dynamic disk support; and 3) I may find ReDeploy useful at some point. But when it comes down to it, really needed the GPT support.
to many to select but i picked ifw since its my main one and LOVE the new non winpe based builder they have. but i own just about every imaging program out there. i also use active@ often. no longer a macrium fan after i got blown off basically when v5 came out and i was like a week or two outside of the "upgrade" time and when i emailed them they said i was outside the limit when i had literally just bought 6 lic's to 4.2. and i responded and got no further answers other than a link to buy the upgrade. no thank you.
None. I write batch files to back up data to several USB drives. Why? I like to do things manually when possible. ---- rich
ShadowProtect on my own machine most times for image backups, and Image For Windows on the rest of the family's machines. I use Task Scheduler to run IFW data backups from one internal drive partition to another internal drive's partition. I also use TS weekly to run a batch file that copies (XCOPY) one week's worth of backups off the second internal drive to my external drive. A task is run 15 min beforehand to remind me to power on the drive (of course this part is manual and I have to be around ), and another 15 min after the backup start time to remind me to power it off. It (IFW command line switch) sends me email notifications of all successful or unsuccessful backups. What I like best about IFW over SP is that it runs no real-time processes when idle.
Interesting to see your post. It reminded me that I need to test a PowerShell script that backups stuff with 7zip and copies it automatically to USB. Pretty cool. I'll have to redownload it and most likely modify it to my needs, but when I get it again (and the link), I'll provide it, because it may be useful to others as well.
Using Farstone total recovery pro v7.03. It has full image backup and ISR module. At the moment testing out some "factory backup" software used by OEM system builder.
I use Clonezilla. It's very stable. I compared it against Macrium Reflect Free and Acronis - compression and speed are on a par with them.
Didn't vote since the poll doesn't allow multiple choice. I have separate partitions for each OS plus several data partitions. For the system partitions, I use an older Acronis rescue CD. IMO, the Acronis program itself is bloatware and offers nothing I need compared to its rescue CD. For creating, restoring, and switching system partitions, it's worked flawlessly for me. For data partitions, I've been using 7zip. It's slower but gives better compression than Acronis on my system. When running in the background at a lower priority, it doesn't affect my normal usage.
May I ask if you have done restores too? If so how many? And if you have done multiple, have all restores been without problems? Does it have snapshots? (fast ie within, lets say - one or two minutes at max?) I have noticed that there are many that think that a imaging software is good when it doesnt give any errors while taking the image or if the verification was ok, but surprisingly often they have never actually restored the image. Personally I dont trust any imaging software until it has done at least 5 or 6 different restores without problems. I have noticed that it is built in Windows 7 Ultimate, but I have never used it actually (since I have two other imagine software that works flawlessly and according to my needs. But I am always looking for something faster and better )
i estimate i did well over 200 imaging AND restore using Windows 7 imager. it never failed once. never had a problem.
