So what image tools are you using now?

i'm using "ACRONIS true IMAGE Western Digital edition". Its a special version for WD-customers (i have several external and internal WD-drives):
its completely free but some features are not available in this edition. Had no problems at all with this software in the past years...

Few months ago i purchased (quite big discount) the latest editions of True Image: full version of "True Image 2017" and
full version of "True Image Next Genatation"). Both editions are also running fine on all my sytems so far....

 

What do you mean by Marcrium doesn't support flash drives?

 

For me IFW/IFL/IFD are on a different league above everything else.
- their support is second to none.
- it can backup almost every filesystem (I use it on windows, linux and mac)
- you can tweak every option/parameter according to your needs (no other program gives you that flexibility).
- they are constantly improving it by adding new features, without breaking the reliability.
- one license can be used on 5 machines (if you are a home user).

the only downside is that if you really want to understand every parameter you have to spend a couple of hours reading the manual.

From the rest I have licenses of Macrium 6, Paragon and Drive Snapshot and I must say they are also very reliable... But my first choice and recommendation is IFW/IFD/IFL.

 

UFDs can be used for creating Reflect rescue media or as Reflect backup destinations, but can't themselves be used as a source for Reflect backup imaging or cloning. Also, any Windows OS version prior to W10.1703 will only recognise a single UFD partition (i.e., the "first" one) and that also applies to any Reflect rescue media built using their WinPE derivatives.

 

I must still not understand. I am using Windows 10 Home insider build 16232.
I installed the PE to a 256 gig USB stick. I can boot into Marcruim on the stick.
I also have three full images on the USB stick. All files are IMG files.
Each backup has like 14 - 4 gig MRIMG files. I restore my image from the USB stick.

 

The TB downside is that it´s not suited to the average user. It´s a patchwork of different interfaces, lots of obscure options, collections of scripts, long manuals...

The idea of graphical interfaces is that you don´t have to write complicated scripts to use the program. Also, you should have "modern", "white", Windows 10-type interfaces (a good example are the interfaces of Paragon HDM 16). Much of TB seems like a relic of DOS times.

 

Not sure what you don't understand. There is no inconsistency between what I said and what you've done with your USB stick. It can be used as Reflect rescue media and, depending on available space and formatting, it can be used as a destination for Reflect backup imaging of other drives. Those images are then retrievable from that destination. The USB flash drive cannot itself, however, be used as a source for Reflect backup imaging or cloning.

__
P.S.: It may be possible to use it a source for Reflect File and Folder backups, again depending on formatting and your Windows OS version's recognition and handling of its partition(s). Dunno about that for sure. Never tested any of mine that way myself and various UFD makers do some strange things to their flash drives.

 

Hold on now...I can use IFL on a Mac? I assume you mean using IFL on the boot CD/USB? That would be awesome...never tried it.

 

Obscure options? Such as?

Graphical interfaces is not for avoiding writing scripts. They are for avoiding using the keyboard and writing commands.
For me windows 10-type interfaces are not modern are only touch oriented interfaces and personally I hate them (too much mouse movement from moving from one button to another).

 

Yes. Either cd/usb or you can create a small fat 32 partition on your mac and extract/copy the contents of an IFL partition/usb in it. Then use the mac boot manager during post to load that partition or the cd/usb.

 

Ditto this.

 

Wow awesome. Thanks for the information! I wonder if it works with their new APFS file system.

 

You are welcome.

I have no idea.

 

For a beginner, IFW, IFL, IFD are extremely easy to use. No need to read any manuals. Three or four mouse clicks to backup or restore. Just install IFW in Simple Operations mode.

 

Don't know about that... Simple operations are an all or nothing.
If a novice has a 4tb disk and IFW tries to backup the entire disk and not the partitions of the active OS he will ditch it without second thougt (at least I would).

 

O)k got ya. That is how I do the backup from within windows.

 

IFW/IFL.

 

To me, that sounds like a "plus" in its favour assuming, of course, that it handles unused sectors and sparse files intelligently and can run in the background during idle hours. Better that than omitting some "unlettered" partitions and/or those where user data (documents, images, etc.) may be stored apart from the operating system's own partition. A motto that has saved my bacon more than once has always been "back up comprehensively and recover selectively."

 

I am currently using shadow protect SPX. the only downside I found is having to use a separate program image manager to contro/maintain the incremental images. I own a license for IFW/IFL version 2 and i have always found it reliable. I switched to shadow protect due to it being easier to setup continuous incremental images.

 

My 'go to' is IFW 3.xx (my only paid backup license). Always reliable, and Brian K's support gets a big
I also do less frequent backups with DS (renewable trial), MR6 (free) and recently, VAW (free) which is looking good so far!

 

For the past year I've been relying on MR6-Free (monthly full with daily differential backups). Very reliable backups & restores! The only issue I've had with it is an inability to create the Recovery Boot Menu Option (TRF lent me his tireless support, but to no avail).

 

I'm happy with MR6 (Home Ed.) for daily scheduled hot backups and IFL3 for weekly cold backups. I also do DS backups on a less frequent basis.

Fwiw, I had the same issue as Jo Ann (creating the MR recovery boot option menu), so I use the MR's WinPE boot disk to restore.

 

I have been using Drive Snapshot for several years to backup various Windows systems and it works just great (over many restores)!

I love that DS can initiate a restore from within Windows (automatically re-booting into DOS) and that the tiny executable is portable (which can come in handy)!

 

@Jo Ann and @Cruise -- It's very puzzling that anyone who has successfully created and used Reflect's WinPE rescue media would encounter any difficulties with including the MR recovery option in their regular system boot menu. In fact, that option merely adds an entry into the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store pointing to exactly the same WinPE boot.wim build under C:\Boot\Macrium\ that gets copied by Reflect's rescue media "wizard" onto the optical or USB media. It would seem likely to involve some kind of error or corruption in the system's BCD store itself and/or a problem with Reflect's invocation of the Windows BCDedit utility command lines.

Did the option not show up in your system boot menu, or did it show up there but not boot successfully? -- [Edit] Happy to help if I can, but I guess it might be best to open a separate topic if you want to pursue that particular MR issue in detail.