AOMEI Backupper & AOMEI Partition Assistant

I tried AOMEI Backupper for the first time and wanted to make a recovery cd .
Backupper told me that I first needed to download AIK for Windows7 ( similar to Win PE ? ) , burn it to a DVD then install it.
Did that , thinking that it would be a small widget but discovered that it is 1.8 GB !!!

Anyone else been down this road ?
Seems like a LOT of work / hassle , just to create a rescue cd.
First thing I did when I bought the laptop was to create a rescue disc using the utility that came bundled.

Would that not do the same job when used with the disc clones from Backupper ?

 

The whole huge Windows AIK only needs to be downloaded if you are under WinXP. If you use Win7 or Win8 then this is not necessary. Please note that there are two different versions of AOMEI Backupper for download. Make sure you download the one which is appropriate for your OS.

In any case you can also create a Linux based rescue CD which is very fast. The catch is that with this rescue disc you cannot make backups, just verify, restore and clone operations are supported.

The rescue disc you created with the bundled utility from your laptop can only restore the factory installation. It cannot restore any backups you created with other backup software.


Cheers
manolito

 

Great stuff Manolito , that's exactly what I needed to know

.... many thanks !

edit - looking at their download site it seems the confusion is with them
I chose the second option thinking it would be more comprehensive
and since I'm getting the dialog box about AIK , it appears I chose wrong !
yet the "AB Standard for W7" option DOESN'T include the bootable linux option
.... baffling

 

You can download the Linux rescue disc ISO file separately, just search their download page...


Cheers
manolito

 

All the buzz on this board about AOMEI piqued my curiosity so I decided to download the AOMEI PE Builder and build a WinPE CD based on v1.4 of the builder. Everything appeared to proceed normally during the build and burn process and I was able to create a supposedly bootable CD. The only problem is the CD doesn't boot; I wind up at a screen that informs me a driver is missing, specifically stornvme.sys (in the system32/drivers folder). If I do nothing for a short period of time while this screen appears, my machine actually powers down completely.

Any ideas with respect to what I might have missed? Suggestions? I tried building the CD twice, one time without the ADK installed and another with the ADK installed. Even with the ADK installed, the builder ignored it and used the WinRE to build the WinPE ISO. I'm running 64-bit Win 8.1, FWIW, and I pretty much assumed the CD would boot without having to resort to legacy mode.

 

I'm in exactly the same place as yourself with AOMEI today on a W7 system .

I've always used EaseUS to make my backups in the past , but have never actually needed to use them.

It was reading the posts on here that made me question if my back-ups could actually
be used by the EaseUS software to rebuild a screwed-up system , and so I started with
" AOMEI Backupper " .... and I'm not super-impressed , or filled with confidence so far .

The only "rescue" cd I've been able to create is the Linux based one.
I've tried with both of the free " AOMEI Backupper " downloads ( one is ~ 20 MB , the other is ~ 60 MB ).
and NEITHER of them are able to create a working WinPE cd/dvd , as advertised by them .

I've also tried their " stand-alone" download for creating the rescue disk ( WinRE version ) and the result
is the same ..... useless !

I have already downloaded the AIK package and burned it to a DVD ..... it's 1.8 GB ! ; but I haven't installed it yet
..... it will have to wait for a less busy day .....
....it all seems like a lot of hassle to make a simple Windows rescue disk to work with their backups !!

 

I've had similar problems with PE Builder. When it first came out, it would not work on Win 8 x64 PC's, but it recommended creating the CD or USB on a Win 7 x32 ater which it was supposed to work on any Windows PC. I did that using a Win 7 x32 laptop, however, it would not boot on my Win 8.1 x64.

The 1.4 version it appears is supposed to be created on all versions of Windows. I created the CD with no problems. However, when I attempted to boot from the CD, things changed. For a while it appeared that everything was working OK. The progress bar ran it course, followed by the Win 8 logo, then the program just hangs there.

What I don't understand is that when I first started using Aomei Backupper, the Win PE disk installation works perfectly. So I frankly don't understand why PE Builder is problematic.

 

@quietman and @SA Jack: thanks for the confirmation re the dysfunctional (for us, at least) PE builder. I still don't quite understand why it doesn't work given the following from AOMEI's web site:

Version 1.2: Windows PE bootable media supports both UEFI and Legacy BIOS boot mode.
Version 1.4: Support for creating a Windows PE bootable media on Windows 8.1.

Given the foregoing, the WinPE should work on Win 8.1 x64 with secure-boot enabled. It appears as if that's not accurate. Oh well, at least it didn't cost me anything but some time and a couple of CDs.

 

Well I have a totally different experience : I have downloaded the WAIK component on a XP system and was able to burn a perfectly functionnal recovery CD, I have already restored my system partition several times without a glitch. On a Win 7 PC, 32 bits and another one 64 bits, WAIK was not necessary and I created bootable flash keys and they boot fine. I have not tried restore yet on those systems. The only strange thing that I saw is that on a Win7x32 bits Samsung laptop, when I mount the image, there are errors in chkdsk, but no error on the source disk. On other PC I don't see this behavior.

 

AOMEI never really worked for me the few times I tried it about a year ago. Either the boot cd not bootable, or the restored Windows went through BSOD the first boot after restore. I quit using it and stick with Acronis and IFL/Paragon.

 

Well, apparently the AOMEI WinPE works for some users. It clearly failed miserably on one of my x64 8.1 machines and without any discernible cause, as far as I have been able to determine. I did notice a statement to the effect that it was only tested 'on a few machines', so perhaps more testing needs to be done on a wider variety of machines. In all fairness, they are giving their PE builder away free of charge so it's tough to come down too hard on the developers.

 

That is strange indeed. I've been using AB 2.2 on my XP system and have made several backups and restores from the boot disk which hasn't given me any problems whatsoever.

Why don't those of you experiencing boot disk issues contact AOMEI with the particulars?

 

Did you tried AOMEI OneKey Recovery or AOMEI PE Builder?

 

Personally, I tried the AOMEI PE Builder. No luck.

 

I have Windows 7 SP1 Pro N, and tried AOMEI PE Builder on a USB drive and boot without any issues...

 

Looks like hit or miss, though. I mean, myself included, there are 3 members who posted that they were unable to create a bootable WinPE recently using the Builder. Another member posted that he tried about a year ago, experienced issues, and gave up. So, simply put, there are definitely issues with the Builder for some users.

 

Definitely!

Maybe you and others can use their support to see if they can fix these issues...

support @ aomeitech . com
http://www.aomeitech.com/forum/

 

After reading this, I tried PE builder. It worked fine with no problems. I made both a bootable CD and a USB drive in Windows 7 Ultimate. The WinPE environment was quite nice compared to other versions I've used. A full Windows 7 explorer no less. I had both Partition Assistant and Backupper installed and the installed versions were copied along with a nice selection of freeware utilities. I verified that it had copied the installed versions of the Aomei software along with registration information on my drive by upgrading Partition Assistant from 5.5 to 5.6. When I created the USB boot drive it copied the upgraded version to it.

This is quite nice and useful. From the other posts, it looks like Windows 8.1 compatibility could be an issue but it is great in Windows 7. Having Backupper and Partition Assistant installed is necessary to get the full benefit of PE Builder, obviously. Within the WinPE environment, Backupper worked just like in Windows.

 

I did the same as MisterB on a LEGACY (MBR-based) i7 system with a H51 chipset. Tried it out on an i7 (LEGACY) system with a Q77 chipset... FAILED. Tried it out on the H51-based system it was made on... also failed. Both wound up in a BLACK screen under the WinRE OS.

It really doesn't look like this thing is ready for prime time yet.

 

I don't understand - how did it fail (i.e., doing what)?

 

Upon BOOTing, it wound up at a BLACK SCREEN, unresponsive to mouse and keyboard... no desktop of any kind. It appeared to BOOT into the PE (RE?) environment (watched the Win811 LOGO load) then nothing at a BLACK SCREEN.

Edit: I participated in discussions on the AOMEI forum concerning this app... no participation by any AOMEI folks was apparent. It appears to be a "toy" that they haven't really vetted very well yet. Very much like a lot of FREEware around the net.

 

I created a WinPE boot UFD in Windows 7 x64 and found the same problem I had found previously: the process finishes successfully (I added the Renesas USB 3.0 drivers), and it boots, but only to the "repair" Windows environment. No AOMEI program in sight.

I don´t agree that these problems are justified because the program is free. A mediocre product is just that, whether or not it´s free. Lots of free programs are very good. Rufus, for example, that I used to build the UFD.

 

Hi Robin! I never meant to say that problems like these are JUSTIFIED just because they are FREE... as you've mentioned, there are many great FREE products. BUT, FREE products tend to be a lot more mediocre than PAID fully supported products, but that surely doesn't justify anything about their mediocrity.

 

Yes, that is exactly what I experienced; an error screen that offered, among other things, the option to reset Windows at the bottom.

What annoyed me more than anything else was that I actually had the ADK installed but the AOMEI Builder wouldn't use it. According to the web site, the Builder defaults to using the "self-contained recovery environment (WinRE)" and only uses the AIK/ADK if the WinRE is not present.