Which free disk imaging for win 8.1

Hi:

Does anyone know of a good and working free disk imaging software out there that takes excellent backup and restore imaging plus incremental or differential (if possible) that works and has been tested on win 8.1 pro 64bit with media centre?

I am thinking of upgrading to win 8.1 pro 64bit with media centre and was wondering if there is a good free backup and imaging that works?

Thanks in advance.

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

Macrium Reflect

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

Is it good and safe? I have read some negative posting over at CNET by posters about it?

Also is there any FREE imaging software out there that runs from a dvd-cd, or USB (mobile) and dose not need installing and works great on win 8.1. Thanks again.

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

That depends on UEFI, Secure Boot, and GPT. You can try out one of these: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/probably-best-free-security-list-world.htm?page=0,19 (20.14)
More info: http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-drive-imaging-program.htm

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

Oh no, you don't take those comments (especially from CNET) seriously, do you.

Yes, Macrium Reflect is good based on my experience with it. And yes, it is safe (assuming that you're talking about possible malware). It's a legit imaging software and many of the people here use it.

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

I'd say AOMEI Backupper, works great on 7/8/8.1

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

You know I have no idea why, but AOMEI stuck at ~85% when creating an image last time I tried it. Guess I'm the only one who didn't have it work properly.

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

By safe I mean creating and specially restoring an image not malwares. I have some bad experience with restoring by AOMEI, Ocster and a few others. So does its restore feature work fine?

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

Nah it screwed and crashed my windows 7 when tried to restore it yesterday. Asked for windows disk repair and the pc was messed up. At 85 percent restore gave error and reboot the pc to a crash.

I do not trust AOMEI backupper anymore.

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

I've used Macrium Reflect Free with Window 7/8/8.1 on a MSATA SSD (desktop) and have found it very reliable.

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

Ubunutu based Clonezilla runs on 8/8.1 (the "saucy" version.)
Boots from a CD.
Does not install.
Creates full images of drives or individual partitions, no differentials or incrementals.
Backs up only to hard drives.
The GUI is a bit intimidating at first but after you've used it a couple of times, it's easy to use.

Basic Info
http://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live.php

Creating an image
http://clonezilla.org/show-live-doc-...ave_disk_image

Restoring an image
http://clonezilla.org/show-live-doc-...ore_disk_image

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

As far as I can remember, I never had any problems with creating images or restoring them. A bit of fair warning though, Linux-based recovery media didn't work well for me. So I suggest to use WinPE instead (requires a pretty big download). For the free version, you have to create a recovery media and restore your image from there. That's the only way to do that in the freeware version AFAIK.

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

I had issues with WINPE dvd disk creation in the past with macrium free. After downloading the big files and all was done during creation macrium asked me for upgrade to paid version to create WINPE recovery disk and I could only make a linux based recover disk. This happened a few months ago.

Thats why I gave up on it.

Also how is Recimage manager by slimware? Its a free win 8 made imaging and snap-shotting if I am not mistaken?

Anyone using it?

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

Taleblou... if you read their Forum, there apparently are a lot of issues with their current release. I'd wait a while 'til the dust settles.

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

Well finally decided to use macrium reflect free for imaging and kriver 1-click free for differential/incremental snapshot. Hopefully they work out and work as it should.

Thanks for all your suggestions

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

Damn kriver 1-click free SUCKS on win 8.1. I test it and it gave error on restoring. SO its not win 8.1 ready. I had to use realcopy for snap-shoting instead and hopefully this one works fine when its needed.

On the other hand macrium reflect free worked like a charm and restored my win 8.1.

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

Macrium Reflect is a charm, and it only needs 340GB download for the WinPE recovery media, not a massive download anymore.

You can use EasyBCD to modify the BCD Store, so that you can have dual boot:

1. Windows 8.1
2. Macrium Reflect

P.S.1 The Paid version of Macrium Reflect, does the dual boot itself.

P.S.2 You can have more than dual boot, for example you can add RealCopy to boot menu too!

Best regards,

Mohamed

 

Macrium Reflect

Macrium Reflect for sure.

"It Just Works"

Thanks guys, for introducing me to this amazing application.

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

Aladdin,

you have mentioned this before

Would this negate the necessity for using the rescue disk? Could you post the steps about how to perform this for someone who is new to this type of process?

I found this through search
http://en.kioskea.net/faq/26380-configure-a-multiboot-with-easybcd

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

Realcopy also sucked. It did not recover or restore. So far macrium reflect free works like a charm. Too bad I am a bet short of cash right now to get the paid version so to have dualboot and differential and incremental options.

It seems all the FREE snapshoters, or apps capable of differential/incremental have FILED big time on win 8.1

When I get my hand on some cash then macrium reflect paid is the way to go. SO foe now I guess I have to wait.

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

I just tried macrium reflect professional trial and I do not see any differences between it and the free and I can not find differential/incremental or dual boot option in it??

Anyone knows were these are??

 

Re: Which free disk imiging for win 8.1

Hi Jima,

I see that you have found some excellent information but screen shots of old EasyBCD v1.7.1. The latest version is 2.2. Please see the attached images.

After you make either your WinPE or WinRE ISO of any imaging program, then de-compress the ISO. Once you have done this, move the directory to other partition/disk and use the option, "WinPE". For "Path", browse to the directory, then to sources and pick "Boot.Wim". Give it a name and then push the "Add Entry" button. You are done.

Any questions?

Best regards,

Mohamed

 

The easiest way is for you to check out the help pages in the program. Don't neglect the tutorials on the bottom. They probably have it in one of the tutorials.

 

Aladdin

I have made the barpe and copied to a dvd. Can I use this?

I guess I don't understand this step and what follows. (also not too familiar with Linux terms)

Where does the easybcd come in?

 

Hi Jima,

I am allergic to Linux too, and don't know much of Linux.

What is BCD?

BCD is Boot Configuration Data which was introduced by Microsoft since Windows Vista for dual/multiple booting. The BCD is a boot file used by the Win Vista/7 bootloaders to store its entries in. According to Microsoft this is stored in BCD Store.

See here, just for info and not to worry about it:

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/rebuild-bcd-store-windows.htm

What is EasyBCD?

EasyBCD is a editor like notepad, and there are other editors beside EasyBCD. You can use EasyBCD to edit, modify, delete and/or add data to the BCD Store. Once this is done, EasyBCD is no longer required.

To help you, we will take baby steps. We will first build either WinPE or WinRE and then add it to BCD Store for dual boot. So, I need to know the following.

1. What OS you use?
2. Is it x64 bits or x86 bits?
3. What imaging program you use?
4. Is it Free or Paid?

Best regards,

Mohamed

P.S. The process is very simple.