think ive narrowed it to macrium reflect or image for windows

I was just told that there will be a new version of the PE recovery disc available in a few days which will allow the user to create backup images.

 

That is not a true statement. There is a tutorial on how do this here.

 

Any idea on Macrium's upgrade policy? I don't see an "upgrade" pricing on the purchase page. Does she release a new version every year and charge an upgrade fee for that, like Acronis?

 

Hi, hope this helps.
http://support.macrium.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1015&SearchTerms=upgrade,policy

 

There is something quite unique with IFW/IFL that decided me to acquire a license a few years ago :

It burns directly DVD, either from Windows in hot backup mode, or in the bootable environment. And you can mix DVD and HDD backups like this : you create a full image on a set on DVD, then perform differential backups on HDD. Each time, your set of DVD is re-read, so if the process terminates OK, you are also sure that your DVD are not corrupt. Other combinations are also possible.

You may as well chose to save image files on a HDD, then burn them on a set of bootable DVD, with another TerabyteUnlimited tool BINGBurn.

Overall, it's rock solid, even if sometimes a new release introduces a few bugs, they are ususally quickly corrected.

 

Thanks.

How long has Macrium taken from version 1 to 4? I'm wary of vendors which release new versions every so often, while at the same time refuse or forget to the fix the bugs of the elder versions.

Cheers.

 

While I can't answer your question relating to their release schedule, I can tell you that Macrium Reflect is a reliable backup software. I have had zero problems since I first used the program, and I've done quite a lot of backup and restore processes. The support is also not bad; they respond within 24 hours in most cases.

 

As someone who's switched from TrueImage to Reflect, I'd have to say that Macrium is not the sort of vendor you're worried about. They appear to work steadily at defect removal and small improvements. What's more, they ship updated versions of the rescue environments. You can wrangle such an update from Acronis only by sweet-talking the Keeper of the Code and sacrificing a goat.

 

doesnt the macrium program itself create the restore disc though??

 

Yes, it allows you to create a recovery disk (BartPE, Linux, or WinPE (paid only)).

 

Thanks, I gave the free version a try and so far, like it alot, to the point that I've already un-installed True Image.

I especially like its simpler interface, speed, and the fact that it uses the built-in scheduler and VSS (rather than re-inventing the wheel BUT doing it poorly).

The (relative) open approach of using XML definition and HTML logs are also nice.

Considering to upgrade to the paid version to get incremental/differential, and encryption.

Image for Windows looks nice as well, but it uses PHYLock instead of VSS (maybe it's better, maybe not, no idea...), and I don't have the juice to try out every one of them. It seems to be a better choice for dual-booting users through, for it has stronger Linux support (and the license covers the Linux version too).

Cheers.