Hasleo Backup Suite

@Rainwalker - Macrium is looking into offering yearly SUBSCRIPTION license fees (currently in place at $49USD) as their ONLY licensing option... dropping the permanent licensing option that they've always used from the past. I have no idea when this may happen, if at all (feedback, to date, has been brutal)... rumors point to when v9 comes available (no idea when that will occur... don't think it's that close).

 

I know. They need a signed driver in order to "mount" the drive. I'm the one that forced that issue, and suggested an alternative similar to what TBIview does for Image for Windows.

 

Sad news indeed. Will take a look to Hasleo soon.

 

'(feedback, to date, has been brutal)..'
hi @TheRollbackFrog
I intrigued by your comment and I wondered where I might view view the discussions?

If Macrium implement the proposed changes I can see this program dropping of the map and particularly when there are good alternatives.
Macrium Reflect is advanced in development so current versions will do the job anyway and any additions would not merit a subscription model for the user. .
In my opinion 'Proposed Subscription licence fees' is a terrible idea for a program like this which users might only use now and again.
I dislike subscription licence fees intensely or any type of rentware/leaseware. It creates a need in the company to add more bells and whistles to justify the constant drip feeding off you and risks destabilizing or changing a software out of all recognition functionaly, visually and usage wise. We've seen that happen a lot over the years.
Life 'on the drip', yuk!. Let a sale be a sale and cut the umbilicus.

 

@Antarctica GREAT!! This really does seem like a terrible idea for MR to implement.

 

@sdmod - I moved this inquiry to the Macrium Reflect THREAD in order to get some better perspective on this issue.

 

@TheRollbackFrog

Hi Froggie

I took a full disk/partition backup today of my windows 10 pro 22H2 x64 Dell Optiplex 9020. I chose that backup over System Backup, though both backups within the Hasleo interface,
it is backing up same partitions. I was glad to see a full disk/partition backup actually restored the entire backup, not one partition at a time as far as I could tell. I chose "disk mode".

It went through the entire restore process as smooth as it gets, I think at one time it would only restore one partition at a time for disk/partition backups in older versions?

Anyway, I began the restoration process within windows after updating MS Edge to the latest version and it had some issues so I thought I'd restore the whole disk backup.

Hooked up my external USB backup drive, clicked on the Disk/Partition backup within the interface of hasleo, chose Restore and the process began. Restored to original location
and used "Delta Restore" function.

Process began, then restarted, loaded the Hasleo winpe files, external drive still plugged in, Hasleo interface appeared and took some time reading the external drive, then began the restore process.

Truly impressive, first time I ever initiated a fulldisk restore from within windows. The delta restore was fast, I think complete disk restored within 2 minutes, about 28GB total.

I then clicked finish when restore was successful. Takes about 15 seconds or so to reboot, then I unplugged the external drive, and it rebooted perfectly.

I have restored before with Hasleo, but just a partition restore, this was full disk backup. I'm impressed at the job it did, and I am very grateful for ALL the testing you have done and your cooperation with the developers who I think have been fantastic.

I am also making it my primary solution, after seeing its performance and getting the job done, I am trusting it more daily, been using it for awhile as you know.

For a free solution, I really think it offers about as many features as most folks would ever need. Just had to share with you and others about doing an entire disk restore, initiated from within windows,
pretty impressive how it does the one time boot entry to complete a restore, etc.

Thanks again for all of your information and assistance over the last what 6 + months or longer. Hasleo developers appear to have brought this product into prime time as a very strong competitor
to even most paid solutions in my opinion.

 

@TheRollbackFrog

Hi Froggie

In my above post about restoring entire drive using a complete disk partition backup, not system backup, I restored the disk using "Disk Mode"
and "Delta Restore".

it restored fine, I didn't have to restore partition by partition, I am assuming that is because I restored in actual "Disk Mode" and not partition mode.

Does that sound proper? I think if I would have chosen Partition Mode, that is when you have to restore each partition, but in Disk Mode, it will restore entire disk
as requested.

I usually perform Disk/Partition backup rather than system backup, but both backups include all the partitions, but I notice backing up the entire disk rather than system
backup, the disk backup is slightly larger.

I just wanted to ask you, and thank you for everything. Hasleo is really a worthy solution.

 

A "Disk Mode" restore will restore all partitions from either a "System" or "Disk/Partition" backup... and as you mentioned, "Partition Mode" restore can only do 1-partition at a time. Your assumptions above are correct. I have not seen the image difference you speak of between a "System" and a "Disk/Partition" backup but I'll be happy to check it out for you.

Hasleo is planning (at least I believe they are) the ability to do partition selection (rather than the whole image) when restoring a "System" or "Disk/Partition" backup. This would probably offer the ultimate in flexibility for restorations... I believe Macrium REFLECT allows for this as well.

Their current phase of product development is concentrating on beefing up the file mode of the System... especially in the restoration area, trying to make it a bit more robust and flexible.

 

@Jim1cor13 - I ran your test in both modes. I decided to run it from the Emergency Media to insure no dynamics were occurring with the OS disk at the time of imaging. My System image was 26.4gB and included the EFI, OS & Recovery partitions (it's an UEFI System). The "System" backup was 20,061 bytes smaller that the "Disk/Partition" backup... smaller but I know not why. I'll take it up on their Forum with their Devs and see if they can identify the difference.

 

One small question, if I may? How can Hasleo afford to provide the backup suite, so that it rivals Macrium Reflect, yet keep it free? Does anyone know what their business model is?

No point moving to software that may not be there longterm...is there? Not that I am saying that Macrium will be if they get their pricing wrong.

Just intrigued, that is all.

 

They sell a number of different apps.
https://www.easyuefi.com/store-easyuefi.html

 

Hasleo quickly became my primary imaging solution after a few tests. I have licenses for Macrium, EaseUS, Aomei, Acronis, and Qiling, but I prefer using Hasleo. Macrium was reliable, but EaseUS failed me twice, specifically with the Workstation version. I never used Aomei extensively because of its slow incremental backup speed compared to others. As for Acronis and Qiling, I haven’t tried them yet. However, I really liked Hasleo because of its ease of use, speed, and reliability. Since trying Hasleo for the first time, I have performed over 200 full and delta restores on multiple HDD/SSD laptops using both stable and beta (on my test laptop) versions, and I have encountered no issues or failures.

@TheRollbackFrog, Have you ever tried Qiling, or do you have any experience with it?

 

Thanks...still find it hard to believe that they are obviously investing a lot of resources into the free product, and am wondering if this is sustainable.

Having said that please don't get me wrong...I applaud what they are doing & what they have produced. And apart from that one question they are a serious contender the next time Reflect is up for renewal.

 

If my understanding is correct, Hasleo is a small team of independent developers with only a website and no formal company. They might be individuals with jobs who set aside time for Hasleo. Does running a business like this require substantial investment or resources?

 

Balders, I'm sure not one to tell what the invested resources are in this case (they just may be a really sharp group!), but they've been around for almost 12-years, picking and choosing what products they will sell vs offer for FREE. Why the HBS has been chosen to be free vs a licensed product is not mine to question... just something to enjoy while it lasts

Yes, indeed... it's an excellent product to date

 

Does anyone remember the "gang" surrounding the AX64 imaging solution? Another group of employed side developers attacking a cool approach to imaging. Problem was, it was their only product and it just didn't make it across the finish line before the group members had to worry about keeping food on their table . Hasleo, aka EasyUEFI, seems to have solved this issue... at least for the last 12-yrs.

 

Thank you very much @TheRollbackFrog for taking the time to test this and to bring it up on the forum at easyuefi. I just was curious, I am assuming it has to do with type of backup, disk/partition, system backup and the little something extra that gets saved with the disk partition backup? Perhaps a file creation within the backup, who knows.

 

@TheRollbackFrog

Yes, I remember the project. the guy that offered support here went by Isso. he would post links to new builds and offer support. this was back in 2013-2014. I still have his communication with me from then in my messages.

Remembered the AX64 and at the time, recall it was really fast and actually did pretty good overall, but had some issues that we all tried to uncover at the time.

If I recall correctly, Isso left the project for another job offer, cannot recall the company he went to, but it was for financial reasons, understandable.

Below is the link for the entire thread, 464 pages! Isso was a genuinely decent guy, I wish the project would have continued development.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/thr...hine-hybrid-imaging-snapshot-software.339999/

 

Thank you, Mr Frog...I will investigate the product given all of the interest. And may be back with some questions...if that is OK?

 

I do indeed, and it was indeed Isso...Jim1cor13...you have a far better memory than I. Yes, much was promised by AX64 but alas...it was not to be...and then Macrium came up with CBT...which I think did not help the cause as far as the future of AX64 (Time Machine) that is.

 

It was actually the RDR (Rapid Delta Restore) feature in 2015 that broke the back of AX64 (besides the Devs being hungry, that is )...

 

My bad, Mr Frog...thanks for putting me straight.

Will give Hasleo a go and see how it does. Cheers.

 

@Jim1cor13 - In the case mentioned above, I have the following information...

Hasleo currently has a function in place where every time a user does a recovery media operation, the application produces a small LOG file and places it in its Windows installation folder on the main OS drive (you can delete these if they bother you). It started doing this when issues would come in for discovery... nobody would have manually made a LOG file for the Devs to assist in problem determination... so they now do it automatically (this "feature" may disappear in the future as the product moves forward).

In my case above, I performed the System Backup before the identical Disk/Partition Backup... so the second manual backup included the LOG file from the first backup. I don't know whether this covers all issues like yours, but it covered mine to a "T."

Hope this helps a bit...

 

Moving along in my product evaluation...

CLONE Function - I have used this function, successfully, on both Legacy-MBR and UEFI-GPT Systems. In the case of Legacy-MBR, the CLONE and the original were only allowed in the System simultaneously after the original had its ACTIVE partition marked as NOT ACTIVE... this was as expected according to MBR BOOTing rules.

In the case of UEFI-GPT, this same type of issue rears its ugly head when the CLONE winds up with the same disk signature as the original drive... I couldn't get this machine's UEFI BiOS to accept the CLONE as a BOOTable drive no matter what I did (I think this is a local UEFI BiOS issue). As soon as I removed the original from the System, the CLONE did what was expected of it.

UFD Imaging - some unusual findings here (as related to other products that do the same). HBS refuses to image any UFD under the LIVE System... it requires you to BOOT into the pre-OS Emergency Disk image and do the imaging from there. Other imaging apps that do UFDs do not have this issue. The HBS Devs say that since all their LIVE imaging requires the use of VSS, and that VSS is not available in Windows with USB connected devices, they must do the imaging from the separate Emergency Disk environment. This is a real conundrum for imaging app developers. Without the OS's VSS FileSystem lock, if you image a LIVE UFD device from the System, there can clearly be some inconsistencies in the imaging result. Hasleo has currently embraced the environment that there should never be any inconsistencies in their images... VSS provides that environment in LIVE System imaging, the Emergency Disk provides for that in any situation that VSS is not available.

This is an admirable approach, although it causes extra System steps and additional System downtime when doing the operation. It's up to the user to determine what's most important to them... exact images or possible inconsistencies when imaging UFDs.

I am working with the Devs at the moment with an additional anomaly I've discovered while testing UFD imaging... when I hear back, I'll be happy to report.

Have a great day everyone!