Cold-Imaging Competition

Hi zfactor,

As I have no access to SP, Macrium, or any others which I did not test, I (for one) would be very interested as to how well others 'measure-up' (in Cold-Imaging) to those I tested.

Aaron

 

Aaron,

I think I was going to at least test SP under your trials...I haven't gotten around to it yet. If I can I will snap an image tonight...hopefully!

 

Thanks napoleon, but that would only be of interest to me if you 'cold-tested' SP against AIP under identical conditions.

Aaron

 

i will do this test this week for you.

 

It now allows you to resize a partition to something smaller than the original during a restore?

 

That is correct... it's called compacting or something like that.

 

valnar,

See... https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1905205&postcount=37

 

im still going to run some tests but i think im giving up on aip after a few bad restores

 

zfactor,

That's the worst news anyone can hear about a backup program. My limited experience with AIP is 1 bad restore (v3.0.0) and 1 good restore (v3.0.3), but even that record leaves me suspicious.

At this point I wouldn't even bother testing it any further...

Aaron

 

ive done a dozen for testing and 3 were bad so far imo not good when ones like ifw and active@ are rock solid

 

You can add DS to the 'rock-solid' group (several dozen restores and never a bad one)!

Aaron

 

It sounds like you have to plan ahead though and compact it, right? I know Acronis doesn't have this issue.

 

I'm not sure it's a "plan ahead" issue at all... just an imaging option. Use the option all the time and you should have the same ACRONIS capability...

 

I just tried it. It doesn't work as seamlessly.

 

I wasn't aware of this in IFW...I want to check it out. IFL has had this ability for a while (maybe forever?) and I've done it successfully many times (restoring to smaller partitions).

 

napoleon1815,

See this re smaller partitions...

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=1906748#post1906748

Post #48

 

An update to my earlier posts about Active@ Disc Image and difficulties I had restoring individual partitions after doing a whole disc backup image...

It was my problem, not ADI. You can restore individual partitions from whole disc images. After spending several hours and performing multiple restorations (including individual partitions, individual partitions with the MBR and whole disc), they all went fine and were bootable.

I have used several imaging programs and am not new to these kinds of apps. The "issues" I had with ADI are the result of my not clearly understanding how individual partition restorations are to be setup.

After my extensive testing, I can definitely recommend using Active@ Disc Image. Beyond that, if you spring for the Active@ Boot Disc package like I did, it is an exceptional value (due to all the bundled apps.)

I apologize for the misinformation and hope this didn't cause any issues for anyone.

 

dont worry about it https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1905789&postcount=99

 

sorry for the delay with testing im away and have had no internet access or cell reception here i will get this done but it may be a week from now when i get back. we are in the mountains and have nothing here lol.. i feel lost

 

@Aaron, I hope you don't mind me posting test results of three product's boot disks here.

1. ShadowProtect v4.1.0 - Paid

2. Paragon 2011 B&R Advanced (free) v10.0.15.12802 - Free

3. Clonezilla v1.2.8.46, amdx64 - Free

These are all backup tests only. All defaults are used with default normal compression.

Source partition (separate internal drive): Win7x64, 94.54GB used space: 64.6GB remaining: 29.9GB

Target partition (separate internal drive): 394GB, ntfs

======================================================================

ShadowProtect

Time: 15:15

Image size: 35.2 GB

Paragon B&R

Time: 39:49

Image size: 39.48GB

Clonezilla

Time: 32:49

Image size: 31.9GB

=========================================================

As far as time goes, SP is the clear winner here, with Paragon B&R the slowest.

Clonezilla produces the smallest image size, with Paragon B&R the largest.

Overall winner I'd say is SP, although it is a paid product while the other two are free. BTW, I can vouch for solid backup/restore reliability on both SP and Clonezilla, having used them both extensively, while Paragon I've tested backups/restores only a couple times, but both were successful results.

 

im back home now and will be testing this week..

 

Nice...SP is definitely one of the fastest imagers out there for me anyway. Thanks for running those numbers.

 

Some of my recent results:

Cold image of Windows 7 x64 installation (no data), SATA 2 to USB 3.0.

Shadow Protect (4.1.5): 3:42 min to create, 1:55 min to verify, 9.36 GB image.

Paragon HDM 2011 Suite (13624 version): 5:09 min to create, 2:40 to verify, 9.93 GB image.

 

you should add the restore times as well.

restore times are always much longer than to create the image in the first place.

i've seen imaging app that were really fast at creating an image but so slow to restore that you don't want to use them much afterward.

 

I think that EaseUS falls into the category. It took twice as long to restore although my system disk is only around 6 Gb so it is not a great annoyance, on the other hand Active@ Image seems to be the same time to restore as to create ignoring of course the time taken to load the boot o/s etc.