AOMEI Data Backuper 1.0

Released;
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/AOMEI-Data-Backuper.shtml

 

As far as I can tell, this program has some nice features, but a few reviews I read stated *some* people had restore issues, sounding similar to Easeus issues that appear to be fine, but not "clean" I guess, as some mentioned a few softwares began asking for activation etc.

Not sure why some imaging programs find it so difficult to simply restore the exact copy of what was imaged, without altering data. I like the feature set, and apparently you can perform a restore without boot media which means it places its recovery console on the disk, but not sure if it alters MBR or BCD, etc.

Some have had no issues with it. If I try it i will report my experience. Thank you guest

Jim

 

I really like the features this thing has, but not sure how well it will do against something like Macrium Reflect.

I've been thinking about replacing my Macrium Reflect with this, But am unsure if I should or not, since Macrium Reflect has been tried and tested with great results.

What do you think? Good or Bad move?

 

Hi Radeon

I too have used Macrium and it is solid. I have yet to try AOMEI but it sounds good. Best advice is to try both backup and then a restore to make sure it works as it should, but I do not think this has the features of Macrium free, but it is worth a try. I think you can also do a restore from within windows and it reboots and does the restore without a boot cd, as long as windows can boot, is that correct? If so, is the recovery console placed in the MBR or via BCD?

Overall, being that this is new, only time will tell how reliable it is. Macrium is certainly reliable. Worth a try if you like it so far Let us know what you think.

Jim

 

Recovery console is via BCD, everything should work.

What I'll end up doing is, set up my testing rig and give it a go.

The reasons why I asked, is because my testing rig has been needing a new OS install, but I have been too lazy to get it going again hahaha. This is the perfect time to get that rig back online.

I'll let everyone know how well this works once I have used it for a while.

 

Ok,made an image without any issue,fast and clean.But the real problem arises when i try to restore the image.The program stalls over and over again,and after ten minutes of waiting still shows more than one hour till complete restoring.I gave up.

 

That sux, features looks so promising at their site.

 

I have to give this product a thumbs down too.

One of my HDD partitions is encrypted with DiskCryptor. After installing Aomei Backuper, the partition volume header is corrupted, and the volume will not mount - causing me to have to manually restore the header.

This is repeatable. I notified the developer - let's see what happens.

I wonder if anyone with a TrueCrypt volume might experience this problem too. I urge anyone with an encrypted partition to backup your volume header before playing with this imaging software!

Too bad, nice looking product otherwise, with a decent set of features. Hopefully, the developers will work thru the bugs.

 

Thanks guys for your experiences. No doubt the application is young and will improve, at least we hope, but some seem to have had good experience with it also. Aomei is not the only imaging app that struggles with the above mentioned issues, and it is good you notify them so they can improve. I think in the case of encrypted volumes, *some* imaging apps can only handle them if one does a sector by sector based image of all sectors, not just occupied ones, at least I have read this regarding some apps.

@Joe: How much data was backed up and what was the resulting image size? Also, as with many imaging apps, the time shown for completion is often very inaccurate. During a restore, an imaging app may state 30 minutes to complete, but restore is actually finished within 10 minutes, etc. Did you use the recovery console or actual boot media?

Other issues I have read about this from some users were restore issues that resulted in some odd behavior as I mentioned earlier in this thread. Some of these restore issues are not just happening with Aomei, but I personally am seeing changes made after a restore that do not represent a true restore in the sense of restoring exactly what was imaged, byte for byte.

Farstone, O&O to name just two, that I have seen alter restored data and added files to the restore that were not present when creating the image. In these instances, I could find nothing about why this is happening. I also do know why some of these apps are taking these liberties to alter either the data or actual partition structures, but I have seen it occur and cannot understand why. The only thing I can think of is in Farstone case, it wanted to do a dissimilar restore even though it was the same drive, original partition, nothing changed, same machine, etc. This is not good, especially for someone who may not have caught what was happening.

i hope Aomei addresses these reported issues, and I agree their interface is nice and a nice feature set, but it is really irrelevant if it cannot offer a clean reliable restore within a reasonable time period, but to be fair, the reports of these restore issues are not yet broad or frequent, but as more users try this, we will likely hear more about what the weak areas are, and that is a good thing hopefully leading to improvement. Systems are changing, hardware is changing, I would think it is frustrating for any company trying to stay on top of keeping up with it all.

Sometimes, strange as it sounds, there are actually still some very good imaging apps that do what they are supposed to do with minimal fuss. Many are also free, although they may lack "features", at least what they do offer is enough for most users. So with Aomei offering a free solution, hopefully they will over time become more reliable once found issues are addressed.

Thanks again for the feedback on this. As with many things, perhaps the release of this was a bit premature.

Jim

 

The data amount is 20 gigs,the image was 11 gigs.Tried without and after with the recovery CD,the restoring problem remains,at least for me.
That "moving data" operation lags over and over....I really hope they will fix these bugs and improve the program because it's very promising indeed.

 

Hi

I tried making the rescue disk, first as a separate iso then burning with Imgburn. No Joy.

Then tried compiling it and burning direct from the software (AOMEI) to CD. Equally no joy.

Presumably, thats why its free. I have used WAIK with any number of Disk imaging programs until this one.

Specs are fine until they do not work.

Terry

 

Sorry to hear this Terry. And @ Joe, also sorry to hear the issues you are still having. Thanks for reporting back.

I hope they improve, as they do have very good potential, and a straight to the point UI. Now they need to work on their algo's and reliability
it appears.

Have a good night guys.

Jim

 

Hi

In an addition to my last post I tried to create an ISO then burn to USB Flash Drive as per the method on AOMEI website using ULTRA ISO.

It does boot, BUT it produces the WIN PE3 basic screen showing the command prompt and there is an error message showing "missing commands"

Something wrong with the ISO making procedure??

Terry

 

Hi Terry

I went and reviewed their instructions on creating the bootable media. It is pretty straight forward, and obviously has its problems from what you wrote. Your message you rec'd about missing commands sounds to me like it cannot find the program to boot into it, or maybe the program is not assembling the Winpe properly. According to their instructions, with Vista or higher OS can create the winpe boot media without having to install WAIK which is great if it works.

Their support needs to know this is not working, and also it would be a good question to ask them if they have a link they could give you to a bootable ISO? Doesn't hurt to ask, but most likely they have to offer it only via creating from within their program. it sure does not instill confidence when an apps boot rescue disc fails.

I am waiting to hear how Radeon experience is going. he was going to report back after he used it for awhile.

Thanks again Terry for your thoughts.

Jim

 

Hi Jim1cor13

I already sent an email to support (prior to you reply) explaining my problems on Windows 7.

Your comments are intriguing because when you use the create rescue media function it says Waik detected/not detected. If it is not detected you have to download it. This seems to be at odds with what you are suggesting in your last post . I quote:-

"According to their instructions, with Vista or higher OS can create the winpe boot media without having to install WAIK which is great if it works."

Terry

 

Hi Terry

Indeed, according to their site here:
http://www.aomeitech.com/features/create-bootable-disc.html

...they state "If your operating system is Vista or higher version of OS, such as, Windows 7/8/2008/2011/2012, usually you can directly create a Windows PE bootable CD without installing Windows AIK."

I went back and re-read it and noticed I made a mistake, I did not pay attention to the word "usually", which implies maybe? I assume they mean it will use the Winre.wim file if one does not need the WAIK.

Hard to tell when it should 'usually' work, I take that when you mentioned it tries to detect WAIK, and if not found, one has to download, then their above comment makes no sense. Now I am confused LOL

Thank you Terry...please let us know what they have to report back.

Jim

 

Hi Jim1cor13

I had missed the bit about "usually you can directly create a Windows PE bootable CD without installing Windows AIK."

I am now going to remove WAIK from Windows 7 so that we can prove or disprove their help commentary.

Terry

ps will revert

 

Hi Jim1cor13

I am "reverting" reference my previous post.

No WAIK installed just AOMEI. Tried to create WinPE rescue disk. It simply offers to download (as I said previously) WAIK.

So their site is wrong or ambiguous.

Terry

 

I can make an image no problem, but, I can't restore from an image for the life of me.

I have tried numerous upon numerous times, still can't restore an image, I give up at this point.

This program sounds and looks great, but I think it needs to bake in the oven a little bit longer.

I might give it ago a year from now, but at this point I see no reason me leaving Macrium Reflect for this.

 

Hi Radeon0101

AGREED

With backup & restore, one has to have absolute confidence in the product.

I have confidence in:

Shadow Protect - very expensive.

Macrium Reflect - Free

Work in Progress

Easeus Todo Backup Free

But their marketing antics do them no favours

Terry

 

In WinPE it still needs drivers supports.
Just putting it files in my custom WinPE, run loaddrv.exe first, then run its main program but backup feature is not worked. I think its drivers are not loaded(loaddrv.exe not work in WinPE?).

 

Thank you Radeon for reporting back your experience. It really is a shame about restoring and makes little sense. At least with everyones help and having similar issues, we are aware of the weak spots, and I am still wondering what could the issue be, hardware?, simply a buggy recovery disc/console? Some do report they had no issues, but most of what I have read restore is a problem as confirmed here also. In some cases, the restore went seemingly well, then issues arose such as software needing reactivated which to me means the restore simply did not work. A restore should be replacing with an exact replica of the drive data. Not too much too ask for a simple restore of exactly what was imaged. Makes me wonder if it is indeed truly sector based.

I do hope their support addresses this quickly. I think they have good potential, but obviously cannot be relied upon as of yet.

Also, thank you Terry about clarifying in regards to their boot media. indeed their site is wrong from what I can tell. It would appear they are depending more upon their recovery console booted via BCD rather than an actual bootable disc or flash drive. Terry, have you heard anything back yet from their support? Would be interesting to hear how they respond and how aware they are of these early issues.

Thanks guys


Jim

 

Hi Jim1cor13

Not heard anything back from support yet. This of course is the acid test isn't it? If they are serious....


I also sent a couple of queries to Lazesoft (Lazesoft is in in another thread). It will be interesting to compare response times (if any) and quality of response. Both are potentially good candidates.

We will see.

Terry

 

RE: Post #8:

Follow up:

(1) Their support responded quickly (+1)

(2) They claim that their program is only designed to work with BitLocker, and not with any other encryption software. (-1)

(3) No indication that this limitation will (or may) change in the future, and no acknowledgement that simply installing their software broke my encrypted volume header even BEFORE I attempted a backup/restore cycle (-1)

That's enough to drive me away from this product.

 

Thank you Terry. Indeed, support response time is definitely the acid test.

In regards to Lazesoft, I have used their free recovery suite several times and find it solid. Lacking some features, but it is straight and to the point. I have imaged and restored a few images and it has been flawless which is most important. Another really nice feature with Lazesoft is how they create their boot media, based upon Winpe. It does it from right within the program, NO WAIK is necessary as it downloads a boot.wim file and adds their tools to it. That is a nice feature for a free suite I think as their recovery suite is only run through a boot disc and it loads quick and does the job. I had a question for their support regarding if the MBR was backed up when doing just a partition to image. They responded quickly, same day, and he stated it is not backed up unless I did a full disk to image backup. I then found within their windows recovery tools, a tab that allows for backing up the partition table which in itself is very useful. Their suite is very useful and a good tool to have available. Their imaging is slower than most because of high compression that cannot be changed, but it is solid in my experience with it.

@Tadoussac Sorry to hear it did not work out. At this point, I hope they simply improve the most basic functions, then work out the remainder as time goes on.

Thanks for reporting back

Jim