Which Imaging Programs for UEFI/GPT?

Wow thanks Manolito, that's an expensive program and it sounds quite flawed and too expensive to buy to see if the rest pans out with a paid version for me for sure.

 

I'd like to add some clarifications : if you downloaded the Linux boot media, you could have booted from it and try the restoration. When I got the 3.5 licence, I was able to download a .iso file that contains the WinPE recovery media and the installer. I already restored my system with 3.1 version and it worked fine, and as said before, the speed is amazing. AIP, like most imaging tool, requires a boot media to restore locked partitions, this is not uncommon.

AX64 is a fine competitor, but AIP has a longer background and I suspect it is currently more reliable in many exotic situations, but this may change with time. Also you can encrypt your backups, not with AX64, which is annoying for data partitions.

 

Sorry but I don't fully agree with "flawed". The full products works perfectly for backup and restore, not proposing the recovery media in the trial version is certainly annoying but it's not a flaw (apparently they do propose the Linux version, which worked fine on my system, took a long time to boot but worked in the end). And I suspect their support service could solve this very easily when asked.

Anyway, I don't want to support them more than necessary, I was merely pointing out an imaging solution that claims to work fine with UEFI/GPT.

Currently my preferred imaging solutions are R-Drive Image and Drive Snapshot. I intend to add AX64 to the list but I have yet to try a system restore to be confident in this recent software.

 

This sentence is my whole problem here. Acronis also claims to work with Uefi bios and it did with 2 desktops I had in use. However it mangled 2 new Ultrabooks, destroyed their image files and caused me to send one back to the factory and the other to do a long and arduous reinstall of Windows. Based on that the amount of things that went wrong for manolito here, there is no way I would enter that arena again and chance all the troubles I had there. And merle, you apparently are reading "claims" with no first hand trials with Uefi bios so let me warn you this endeavor is not for the light hearted!

 

You're right, I have no UEFI/GPT system to test AIP Desktop on, it's just a claim from the Publisher, but I tend to trust them more than Acronis. What this means, it's that it is probably worth a trial, no more, no less. Anyway, I guess that within a few months, most imaging system will adapt to this new standard and there will be plenty to chose from.

 

Trust them more than Acronis, absolutely, but until you have felt the full brunt of what can go wrong, let caution be your guide as I maneuvered into my mess without an afterthought and walk away stunned by what really happened. The Uefi is more than a replacement for a bios, it its involvement in the works of a pc can be extremely intricate and touch everything differently and I made the mistake of thinking it was just a "pretty new face" that would make bios entries easier and wow was I wrong. Have a read here if you like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Firmware_Interface

 

I know that feeliing all too well, I once made the mistake of resizing a Dell Media special partition and was never able to make it working again, I used 3 different imaging tools but none was able to put the partition exactly where they were before the changes (IFW, O&O DiskImage and Drive snapshot). I should have used a full disk cloning like HDClone from miray.de but at that time I only used partition imagers. Big mistake. Thanks for the link to UEFI

 

Welcome. This whole problem with the Uefi was a nightmare and in many respects is still playing out thorough the worst is over.

 

Well, I gave ActiveImage Protector another whirl on a different machine (XP SP3), hoping that some of the flaws of the trial version would be attributed to the first computer I tried it, but no luck. Exactly the same problems...

On their trial download site
http://www.activeimage.net/download-full-trial
you can download an ISO file which contains the Linux version. But this ISO (when burned to a DVD) is not bootable, it's not a rescue DVD.

They say that you can request a WinPE based rescue ISO by contacting them via phone or email.

The trial version itself is unable to create any kind of rescue media...

They are a little vague about their ability to do a hot restore or not. The manual does not say anything about it, and the white paper kind of gives the impression that a hot restore is possible.

The behavior is the same on both computers I tested it on. When it comes to selecting a target drive for the restore, the selection box only offers "No Selection", nothing else. It is also not possible to manually specify a target drive or partition.

This can mean that the software does not have the capabilty to do hot restores at all (AX64 proves that this is possible using this technology). Or they intentionally crippled the trial version...


I certainly do not doubt that AIP has many features which AX64 lacks right now (backup multiple partitions, verify the images...). Speedwise it is just as fast as AX64 and a lot faster than traditional imagers. It is just that their trial offer does not really make it possible to test the software, so right now I would be very reluctant to spend 59 bucks for a software which I could not test thoroughly.



Cheers
manolito

 

Any company that offers a trial version that will not allow you to fully utilize the functions of the program is a waste of time IMHO.

 

Hi again. Sorry about the non bootable Linux DVD. There was a time where the publisher proposed a similar Linux Live CD, on aipfree.com (website is now redirected to NetJapan I think). And that one was definitely bootable and was used as recovery media.

I am pretty sure the full version of AIP doesn't allow for hot restore, only AX64 and RealCopy seem to propose that.

BTW, I have done the following several times in the past, even recently with NTI (a software publisher) : I bought a license, trialed the full version a while and quickly saw it was not what I wanted, I then asked for a refund, which they gave me in exchange of a promise of destroying all received software & license, which I did (I am referring to NTI Photo Backup). So if you were unsure, you could ask for their refund policy before buying and if they offer you a possible refund, you don't take any real risk. Granted, it is time consuming, but it usually works well.

Also, I am not really an expert with AIP trial version, you may want to report to them directly all the points you mentioned. The speed and the quality of the response is generally a good indicator of the trust you can have in the product. I admit that it is excellent with AX64.

Just my 2 cents...

 

I have done the same thing but in a case where the program I wanted was one of a kind. I wouldn't even think about behaving like that where there are so many "fish" in the sea. I mean I doubt there is another category where there are more programs offered and I can't remember one of the other ones not being fully functional in trial version. Macrium Reflect not only works splendidly with UEFI systems but they even have a free version which is really only missing incremental and differential backup potential as the main differences and their standard version offers 3 licenses of $59. I t would not make sense to even consider one that I couldn't fully compare with it, to replace it.

 

I also use Macrium V5 on one Win 7 PC and I am extremely satisfied with it, except it seems to have modified something on the recovery partition. I have a "family pack" of 4 licenses (V4) but I can only upgrade the whole pack which is quite costly whereas I just need to upgrade one or two licenses. Too bad they don't have this flexibility.

 

Could you explain what you think was modified on Recovery Partition? This sounds scary.

 

I saw that during a Macrium update, there was a reference to drive Y: and a .wim file on it. Y: is the recovery drive and supposedly not mounted. IMO, Macrium should not touch this partition. Having this reference is not a good sign, but I have not investigated any deeper.

 

OK so its not that something transferred incorrectly, and I have seen issues like that in Acronis anyway so that is all I would worry about.

 

What is a "Macrium update"? An actual restore or a software update?

If it is a software update, Macrium will update their WinPE environment that you can use as a boot menu option. Nothing to worry about. It is actually a good thing. In fact, you want it to update their environment. I don't know what is so bad about it.

 

I meant by "Macrium update" a patch applied to the Macrium software, which happens quite often. To me, the recovery partition must remain untouched by any software and it bothers me that Macrium interacts with it.

 

Why? It is allowing you to boot to Macrium even when Windows isn't booting. Isn't that what a recovery partition is supposed to do? If you don't want that level of security and recovery, then Macrium isn't for you.

 

No, IMHO, the Dell recovery partition should be self sufficient and untouched by any other software, only activated by a special boot menu in the BIOS. I don't see why Macrium has to fiddle with it whereas on my XP system it was perfectly able to boot in Macrium Recovery Console without ever accessing or changing anything to the Recovery partition.

I like to keep these partitions intact so when I get rid of the PC, I recover the original system as it was when unpacking the PC. This is very different from the imaging feature proposed by Macrium, where you generally want to recover the latest working version of your system.

To sum it up, I want both : the Macrium features and the Dell Factory Recovery feature and I want to keep them separate. Maybe that's too much to ask on Win7x64 systems ?

 

I don't think Macrium touches that. That's a Dell partition. The partition I'm referring to is the 2nd boot partition (or system partition) that Windows 7/8 create when you install it fresh. That has the boot loader that needs to be informed or any other boot environments to consider. Unless you're saying that Dell is also storing stuff in that system partition.

Either way. Stop using Macrium right now. Others will benefit from its protection, but you don't want it.

 

Thanks, but I don't intend not to use Macrium (I paid for the license and it is quite costly) and yes, Macrium has apparently interacted with the Dell Recovery partition, which is seen by some applications as Y: and during the updates, Y: is definitely mentioned. My impression is that Macrium was mistaken and chose to use Y: rather than the boot partition which has no letter assigned to. This letter assignation is rather strange BTW, sometimes Y: gets assigned to it, not at system startup but after a while. I must be using some app that "awakes" this assignation, but I have not found which one.

So far, Macrium works fine and the CD recovery media too, that's all I need. And I cannot really test the Recovery partition, unless I really have to.

 

MerleOne,

Would you mind posting a screenshot of Disk Management?

Is the Macrium boot disk WinPE or Linux?

 

WinPE is for creating and restoring images.
Linux is restoring only. HDD only no partition restore.

Also Macrium only uses the boot partition for creating WINPE boot disk.
that's where is stores the drivers for the WinPE.

Chris

 

Chris,

Thanks. I'm trying to understand MerleOne's drive letter issue. The booted OS assigns the drive letters. When in Win7 the OS is usually C: but when in WinPE the OS may not be C: because WinPE is the booted OS and it is assigning drive letters. When in DOS, Win7 will definitely not be C: because DOS is the booted OS and it is assigning drive letters (via NTFS4DOS etc).

Other drive letters may be different in WinPE for the same reason. It depends on the WinPE.

There are no drive letters when the computer is turned off. Unfortunately, some folks refer to their hard drive as their C: drive.