Drive Backup 9.0 Express

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/

 

Wow! Its free! Might be one to test, although I'm guessing it doesn't have much in the way of features.

 

Hi

It seems really interesting! Thanks for the heads up!

 

WOW !
I am a big fan of Paragon Drive Backup, and in fact I just downloaded the trial version of Backup Personal 9.0 for use on my second computer.

This free version is very tempting. But I still feel the need to have at least one occasional backup on DVD, and the Recovery disk.

Still, it seems like this free version will be a competition killer.

 

I gave it a quick whirl. Quite good for a freebie. I created an image in Windows and then restored it via the recovery CD I made (from within the program.) The restoration went fine with no issues. (BTW, when the program is installed, you must register with Paragon to be able to enter the free software key. Without the key, you cannot install it. Also, it's only legal for personal use.)

It's not the fastest (ShadowProtect is almost twice as fast on the same PC) but for free, I'm not compaining. (I'd much rather use this than free DriveImage XML if for no other reason than you don't need another program (BartPE) to make the recovery disc.) The recovery CD also allows you to create an image outside of Windows. So you could install it, create the recovery CD and then uninstall if you wanted to (and still be able to make and restore images.)

All in all, a winner for the money!

 

A follow-up...

I ran DBE on another PC, a new Dell Vostro laptop. DBE again ran fine (The image and restore were ran from the recovery CD only... not installed.) One difference though. This laptop has a MediaDirect partition for playback of media without fully booting into Windows (MediaDirect appears to run from a version of Windows.)

Anyway, DBE appears to do a full computer OS analysis of some kind because as part of the restore process, it modified the boot.ini file to include the MediaDirect partition as a possible boot choice. This was not a big deal and doesn't hurt anything but when the boot screen was different, I was thrown for a second until I checked out the boot.ini file to see what had changed.

So, as I noted before, this appears to be a good app for users looking for an imaging program but not willing (or able) to spend anything for one...

 

Thank you guest

 

Ah! My most longest and reliable commercial image program company is pulled a complimentary rabbit out of the hat. And Free?

It begs to wonder what this latest marketing release is really leading up to if at anything? No matter, PARAGON is always been a trustworthy group for me and very support responsive. Just like to see this issue-free and from the years i been with them, i've experienced little issues with anything they offer.

EASTER

 

I tried it and found out I couldn't burn the image to a DVD so I uninstalled it.

Alan

 

Hi

I tried DriveBackup 9 Express along with Drive XML 2.0.

I found that DriveBackup Express took 30 minutes on a 10.5gb image whereas DriveImage took 19 minutes on similar compression settings. (WinXPSP3)

I found the interface on DriveImage better than DriveBackup and there are more options like being able to explore images in DriveImage.

By contrast the wizard in DriveBackup is superb in producing the Recovery CD, which worked OK. There was one problem however which I am not sure whether it is related to the recovery CD or not.

When I made the above noted image I did it from the CD, try as I might I could not make one image of 10.5 gb. It split up the image into 4 sub images (presumably for DVD). In the Backup settings there is an option to UNTICK "Split File!

Despite three attempts this did NOT work.

So what do I think?

Of the two, DriveImage is by far the better product on ease of of use and choice of options and speed. But you have to produce your own Recovery CD (BartPE) There are very clear instructions on how to do this. I did it and found it easy. Just a little time consuming.

DriveBackup wins hands down on the recovery CD stakes. It is as I said very simple and quick to produce one. I am concerned about the inabilty to produce a single image as opposed to a Split Image.

Overall DriveImage for me is a much better product with one serious limitation.

DriveBackup is far from outstanding in a heavily competitive field of free alternatives.

I would be interested in knowing if anyone else has tried DriveBackup Express and had the same problem in creating a single large image?

Terry

 

Thanks guest for this information!

 

Thanks for info! I just created an image of my pc... so far it works fine.

 

enjoy it