Macrium Standard vs Acronis??

Not talking about the free stuff. I am going to grab one of these two products for a family member. I am curious about what feedback this thread may generate.

PLEASE don't suggest anything other than either Acronis or Macrium Standard Edition.

I have used tons of different programs and it has come down to these two in the final analysis for me. Both will do the trick.

To be fair even the "freebies" would do the trick (password excluded). We are going to backup an unencrypted system disk and a few other normal windows data partitions. There is no need for sector to sector cloning. The backup image goes straight to an external drive. It is imperative that the image is AES encrypted, which both products do. I know that Macrium allows a 45 digit password, but I don't know how many characters Acronis 2012 allows. Anyone using ATI2012 that could tell me that?

I do have an "upgrade" option available since he has an older Acronis product. That drops the price alot. Wonder if Macrium would match their offer?

Anyway, you guys are good around here. I would appreciate comparisons between the two from YOUR perspective.

 

What is the difference between Macrium Reflect Free and Macrium Reflect Standard?

Best regards,

KOR!

I bought Macrium Reflect 4.0 and paid $100 and that was waste of money.

 

imo way to many issues with acronis for me i would go with macrium in this case. personally acronis is way to bloated and i have had nothing but bad luck with it in the past. i do not think they will match anyones offer though sometimes you can find a discount code or if you email them they will send you a code but they dont match other companies prices, i will not suggest anyone else since you mentioned that buy i can say i feel there are better choices out there than either of these

 

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

and scroll down

 

Six months later, the v5 came out and they wanted another $60. Free one is as good as the paid one. I am not into Differential and Incremental backups.

 

Thanks ZFactor, I know the difference between the paid and free version, and my question was rhetorical.

The only thing that paid version does is Differential and Incremental backups, which the free version doesn't.

Best regards,

KOR!

 

I also bought Acronis 2011, and it is pretty good too. Especially it has TRY & Decide, which is like Shadow Defender. And, it didn't require online activation. So that it was easy to move from one of my computers to the another one.

Both paid version of Macrium Reflect and Acronis 2012 require online activation.

Best regards,

KOR!

 

I wasn't aware of the online activation requirement. That sucks. I have used ATI2009 and never had an issue with it. I have Acronis 2011 on a private FTP, but I was trying to be a "good boy" if you know what I mean. LOL!!

I also appreciate the comments on this thread. About the only thing missing from Macrium free is the password thing. He just wants his backup images on the external to be encrypted. He doesn't want the hassle of opening a TC volume and having to move it to an open drive for a system restore.

Thanks again for the input.


ps ---- one last thought. Has anyone here installed ATI2009 on a 7 system? I have heard it works, but it isn't supported "on the box". Just curious

 

well if it works on vista it can be installed on 7 normally.. but i stopped using it after they started all the activation junk. i have tested the newest version and still am not a fan of acronis..i know you may not want to check out anything else but ifw and active@disk image are very nice also and do not have the activation requirement..i own pretty much EVERY imaging program out there and i personally use those 2 on my own systems..again not trying to recc "others" but maybe check out the sites for them they can be found pretty cheap prob cheaper than either of the other two and simply use a lic key to activate them.

macrium free is def nice but for me i need incrementals and free doesn't offer them imo i would go for macrium way before acronis

 

This. Ditto. Acronis' products, at least 2011 & 2012, have been a nightmare - full of bugs and problems. I wouldn't touch them at this point.

Unlike @zfactor, however, Reflect is at the top of my short list. I'd currently recommend it as a first choice for any Windows imaging utilities I've tested/purchased. Part of that, though, is based on my needs vs others' possibly differing needs.

 

The online activation started from Acronis v2012, not before. I own the Acronis v2011 and it doesn't require online activation. I bought it on sale for $19.99 and it is one of the best software I have owned, this came with the Plus package too. One of the things, I liked about Acronis v2011, that it has "Try & Decide" which is like "Shadow Defender". Acronis v2011 is a solid software. Which I believe is same for Acronis 2012.

Last year, when I got into imaging the computers, instead of formatting the computers, I spend tons of money on imaging programs. The first imaging program I bought as a family package was Macrium Reflect v4 and paid $100. Within less than six months they came with v5 and they wanted another $60.

The only thing I liked about Macrium Reflect that it was available at bootmenu. Others were not available nor the free version of Macrium Reflect. Later on the member Raza007 taught me that any imaging program and as many can be available as a bootmenu with EasyBCD.

The best imaging software and the easiest I own is IFW/IFD/IFL (Image for Windows). I was put off with all those acronyms. If one buys it with BareMetals, then it is for $50. Without BarMetals it is for about $32. Legally, you can use it on three computers at the same time and it doesn't require online activation. It doesn't come out every year with nothing but 2010, 2011, 2012 and/or v4, v5 and asking for more money. It is updated on a monthly basis.

I have it as a bootmenu. Now it is the first imaging software which has come out and could be included as "Recovery Environment" [F8] of Windows 7.

Best regards,

KOR!

 

KOR, would you please elaborate on this? I'm a new Win7 user who (up to now) has been using Acronis TI 2011 with Vista (which worked well), but if the above method with IFW makes backing up even simpler with Win7, I wouldn't mind buying IFW.

Cruise

 

Basically, you need to download TBWinRE from Terabyte site. Here is the link:

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/howto/tbwinre_tutorial.htm

This files you need to use to include Image for Windows (IFW) in Windows 7 Recovery Environment.

For download of TBWinPE, here is the link:

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/howto/tbwinpe_tutorial.htm

The above files you need to build your boot CD/DVD/USB. And, with EasyBCD you can have Image for Windows (IFW) at bootmenu, while booting Windows 7. For taking control of your boot loader.

Here is the link for EasyBCD:

http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

Best regards,

KOR!

 

its a piece of cake now to make the recovery disk with ifw. basically download the file as posted above the tbwinre. open the imagew.ini and add your lic info save it. then click the tbwinre.cmd to run the program. follow the prompts and it will do it all for you. very easy now!! and we can all help here if you need it im sure. and backing up with ifw is just so simple imo...

 

KOR/zfactor,

Thanks very much for the links and info on this. I'll do my homework for sure. While I have been a satisfied Acronis user (although there are lots of dissatisfied users around), IFW seems to rule here!

Cruise

 

When I bought Macrium a few years ago, I bought it because the free version didn't support RAID0. Use the free version 5 on my laptop with one disk (SSD).
Don't know if the new version 5 does support RAID-configurations.
But used to be another difference between the two versions.

 

People like TeraByte's products because they are :
-reliable
-different backup and restore environments provided e.g. Windows, linux, DOS
-reasonable price (maybe )
-faster speed


What I do not like Macrium free edition is its linux bootcd did not have backup function, and Acronis is quite a lot of bugs.

I like TeraByte and Paragon v12 more.

 

Here is the comparsion chart:

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Best regards,

KOR!

P.S. It does show that the Free version has, "Windows PE 3 Rescue Media (RAID support)".

 

LOL. USD 33/- for three computers, it makes it about USD 11/- per computer.

Best regards,

KOR!

P.S. Did you have to pay for Paragon 2012, when you upgraded from Paragon 2011?

 

I am a long-time Acronis user (for how much longer remains to be seen...).
Of the 'domestic' products:
- TI 2010 was the last relatively stable and bug-free version
- TI 2011 had a terrible and entirely reworked (dumbed down) user interface and introduced some new serious bugs
- TI 2012 is in my opinion unusable

I found out the hard way that they all insert drivers and the like which simply cannot be removed again without a BSOD, and even Acronis have admitted as such. The underlying problem is that the Windows HAL is bypassed and Acronis writes direct to the hardware. And there is, for example, the latest debacle with TI 2012 of Windows being corrupted such that many USB devices are not recognised.

TI 2010 is still available cheaply from e.g. Amazon (but not, unsurprisingly from Acronis direct)

The business product is Backup and Recovery which, at my last look at least, retained the older more sensible user interface. It is mroe expensive and I cannot comment on its reliability

 

Not yet. I just tested its demo version
-http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=323448-

If your current imager is good enough, you need not to change to another.
Maybe you can wait for its new free edition.

 

Used Acronis for a few months around a year ago and it worked great, also had some really handy features!

 

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 allows 45 digit passwords, so I assume Acronis' True Image line of products does as well.

The main difference between Acronis and Macrium is that former has more bells and whistles but is also rather bloated. Since your described needs are very basic I'd go for Macrium.

However, if you think you might need extra features in the future then Acronis is worth considering. Acronis Try & Decide feature can be very nice for test installing new software without committing to the installs. I also know Acronis includes USB 3.0 support within their recovery environment which many competitors have not done yet (not sure about Macrium?), so Acronis probably has better driver support within their boot media.

I haven't used the latest versions of Acronis True Image because I found some of the older versions a bit unreliable (especially with respect to some of the newer specialty features), so I switched to Acronis Backup & Recovery, which I like a lot, except that's it's also bloated as hell.

In terms of backup and recovery speed both have been similar in my experience (at least older versions of them), but if you want to be thorough, then you should test trial versions of each with your computers and external HDDs and also with the recovery disks of each (if available to you). In terms of incremental backups, both use a the same, very fast, method.

 

Live and learn KOR

 

How true my dear friend!

Best regards,

KOR!