AOMEI Backupper & AOMEI Partition Assistant

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by Masterblaster, Mar 18, 2014.

  1. Masterblaster

    Masterblaster Registered Member

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    For all of you non-experts out there…..
    I needed to backup my HDD. I went away from RRX and AX64 due to technical issues that would not allow me to use either.
    I tried Macrium Reflect but found it a bit confusing relating Windows PE versions and the partitions I needed to backup. Once I figured it out, it did work but I still found it confusing.
    I did more research and ran across AOMEI Backupper and AOMEI Partition Assistant (both free).
    AOMEI is so easy to use. The setup wizard makes all of the correct choices by default. It was amazing.
    For all of you that do not consider backups a hobby, I would highly recommend these programs.
     
  2. manolito

    manolito Registered Member

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    I agree that of all free backup solutions the AOMEI stuff is probably the leader of the pack.

    For the backupper I have only 1 complaint: At least on the two computers I tested it the incremental backups are only marginally faster than full backups. Can someone reproduce this behavior?

    And a word of warning for the partition assistant. When I repartitioned the HDD on my old WinXP machine with a FAT32 system partition, the AOMEI partitioner aligned the partition borders which resulted in a non-bootable computer.


    Cheers
    manolito
     
  3. MisterB

    MisterB Registered Member

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    The software still has to scan the whole partition to make an incremental or differential backup. They are not necessarily faster, just take up less disk space.

    You might try rebuilding the mbr with Partition Assistant with the Xp mbr option selected. This will often fix Xp boot issues. Xp support is a weak area of the Aomei programs. I only get good results with Backupper with sector by sector backup for Xp. A sector by sector backup is actually faster because the program doesn't have to scan and compress data. The image files are larger.
     
  4. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    I can confirm the behavior...

    35gB compressed baseline took 8-min. (SSD source, HDD destination)
    85mb compressed INCREMENTAL took 6.5-min. (same disk specs)

    It used almost 70% of a Core2Quad@2.4ghz to do the baseline and 28% to do the INCREMENTAL. It basically saturated the SSDs capability to deliver data through the interface I'm using during both BASELINE and INCREMENTAL operations.. clearly it's reading the entire partition during both operations. My guess... during these operations the system "feel" will probably be very sluggish (didn't test, just let it run).

    Interface is very simple and easy to use...
     
  5. Robin A.

    Robin A. Registered Member

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    There are different backup programs for different people with different needs, hobbyists included. Not one is perfect or good for all people and all situations.
     
    Last edited: Mar 18, 2014
  6. Masterblaster

    Masterblaster Registered Member

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    I don't understand your comment. I never said AOMEI Backupper was the perfect backup utility for everyone. I implied it was well suited for less experienced users due to it's simplicity and auto configuration.
     
  7. MisterB

    MisterB Registered Member

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    To do either an incremental backup or differential backup, the software has to scan the entire partition and the baseline image file and make a file of the changes--the difference between the two in a differential backup and whatever new changes have occurred since the last incremental backup in a new incremental backup. This has nothing to do with Aomei per se. Any software that performs the same functions will have to do the same. The figures you have make perfect sense because the program will be writing to the disk much less in an incremental backup while it has to read and write all the data in the partition in a full backup. Incremental and differential backups save disk space, not time.
     
  8. aigle

    aigle Registered Member

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    Seems it doesn't support windows 8.1.

    Tried on an 8.1 tablet and it dosen't see my system partition/ drive to backup.
     
  9. manolito

    manolito Registered Member

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    This is definitely wrong. Acronis does incremental backups in a fraction of the time a full backup takes. The same is true for the free vesion of Paragon Backup and Restore. (I haven't tested Easeus ToDo backup)

    I believe there must be a more intelligent method to determine the differences between the last backup and the current state, and Acronis and others certainly make use of such a method.



    Cheers
    manolito
     
  10. MisterB

    MisterB Registered Member

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    Think of the problem from a programmers perspective. How are you going to find the changed areas of the disk partition without examining it entirely and comparing it with the image. There might be a faster and more efficient way of scanning the disk but it is impossible to find differences without a complete disk scan.
     
  11. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    Manolioto is correct. Imagers, whether doing a DIFFERENTIAL or an INCREMENTAL, need to look only at the $MFT and its associated FAT (File Allocation Table), which will be part of the most recent DIFF or INC, and compare them to the current versions (at VSS lock time), then only have to read the differences for imaging purposes. Neither of these files are very big compared to the whole disk.

    Backupper takes a very baseline approach to determining file structure differences by reading the entire used portion of the partition... it works just fine, but extends the time for incrementals or differentials.
     
  12. Masterblaster

    Masterblaster Registered Member

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    I can confirm it works great on Windows 8.1.
    Not sure about tablets.
     
  13. MisterB

    MisterB Registered Member

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    True, I hadn't thought of that approach which is a bit hybrid and file system based. Faster for sure but could cause problems if there are file system problems and errors in the $mft. I recently used Aomei to transfer a dying disk with such problems to a good disk. I had to use a sector by sector copy, of course. It worked nicely and I just had to do a chkdsk /r to fix the disk afterwards which then booted normally.

    It would also be possible to install a service that kept a database of changes to the disk to make for a speedy incremental backup. My personal preference is for cold imaging and I will take reliability over speed any day.
     
  14. aigle

    aigle Registered Member

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    Ok, thanks . May be an issue of eMMC hard drive used in my tablet.
     
  15. aigle

    aigle Registered Member

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    I wonder why they don,t include an option for backup in the linux recovery CD. Paragon and Acronis have this option while macrium doesn't have it. Most linux recovey CDs boot just fine on my laptop so i don,t want to bother for WinPE recovery CD.
     
  16. whitestar_999

    whitestar_999 Registered Member

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    here is my experience with Aomei Backupper:
    i used aoemi win 8 PE based boot usb(btw had to manually paste the bootx64.efi from win 8 iso to \uefi\boot folder to make Aomei made image bootable on usb drive,apparently Aomei expect you to switch to legacy/non-uefi boot to use their win PE image) to backup win 8 uefi gpt system.i used partition backup & backup the C drive.i then restored it & process completed successfully but on next restart win 8 automatic repair kicked in & after it finished everything was back to normal.i thought maybe this is due to only taking backup of C partition so next time i took partition backup of C+efi+system/oem in a single backup file & then restored all of them but then got the windows couldn't load/system device missing error.even the win 8 built-in system image,which i made on other partition/D drive earlier,failed to restore giving error that a disk critical for restore is excluded from restore process.since it was a fresh install i chose to format & re-install again but this time even win 8 setup gave error saying C partition can not be used.i ended up deleting every partition before D & then creating a new partition which finally allowed win 8 setup to proceed & made the usual 2 partitions(efi & system,both empty though after install) & C drive.

    P.S.all this was done by using only Aomei boot cd/usb & nothing was done using installed program.that's the way i prefer it.

    in short if you can live with win 8 automatic repair running every time after restoring C drive & willing to switch to legacy boot for restore or modify the Aomei win PE image(just a matter of copy pasting a file from win 8 iso) when using win PE based boot image(cd/usb) then it is a good choice.
     
  17. Masterblaster

    Masterblaster Registered Member

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    What's wrong with WinPE?
    I have Windows 8.1. When I created the USB recovery media Macrium Reflect, I was asked which of 3 versions of WinPE I wanted (I didn't know what WinPE was at the time). Of course, the last one I picked was 5.0 (the only one that worked with W8.1).
    With AOMEI Backupper, it was basically automatic and worked the first time.
     
  18. rdsu

    rdsu Registered Member

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    Unfortunatly I can I set AOMEI Backupper 2.0 Free to make a Full backup every month, and then set Incremental every weekend...

    You can only do this with the Pro version...

    Don't know why the Incremental and Diferential backups are useful in the Free version...
     
  19. ams963

    ams963 Registered Member

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    I'm using both of the Aomei free products. They're so easy to use. I've created a bootable WinPE usb drive with backupper. And it was so fast to create. It works great. The backup is fast and a restore is yet to be failed. The partition manager is also very easy to use. I can merge and resize the partitions so easily.
    Overall I'm really liking Aomei products.:)
     
  20. rdsu

    rdsu Registered Member

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    With a workaround, we can use this if we set the Windows Scheduler every month to delete the Full backup, before the AOMEI scheduler, and then program will create a new Full backup instead of a Incremental backup... Not bad...
     
  21. JohnBurns

    JohnBurns Registered Member

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    I seem to be having problems with Aoemi Backupper Scheduler on one of my desktop pc's. I have 2 pc's both running Windows 8.1 x64 with basically the same programs installed. When I set up Aoemi Backup Scheduler, it works fine on one pc, but on the other, no Task Scheduler entry is entered and consequently no Scheduled Backup is made. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Aomei BackUpper, changing schedules, etc. with no success. Does anyone using this program have any suggestions how I can make the scheduler work properly? Aoemi BackUpper on both are Version 2.0.2, Appreciate any help. Have posted on Aomei Forums with no success.
     
  22. treehouse786

    treehouse786 Registered Member

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  23. ArchiveX

    ArchiveX Registered Member

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  24. treehouse786

    treehouse786 Registered Member

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    Added system clone and system migration. [free edition need to unlock]

    Added history for backup saved path and task name setting.

    Support for restoring system to a smaller partition.

    Support for exploring backup images on the NAS/network.

    Fixed issue: case-sensitive password of command line backup.

    Fixed bug: display incorrect version number after upgrade.

    Improved software registration.

    Stability enhancements and other bug fixes.
     
  25. andylau

    andylau Registered Member

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    Support for restoring system to a smaller partition.


    Quite good:D
     
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