Solved AOMEI Backupper (Free Standard Edition) Review

fmw · Dec 18, 2021

Has anybody used the AOMEI partition assistant to clone a hard drive to SSD?

OldMainframeGuy · Dec 18, 2021

barman58 said:
I consider Macrium reflect to be more of an imager than a backup, Aomei backupper, (pro, at least), feels to me more like the systems that I have been using for decades. I have both available and use them differently. If I need an image I use macrium and for my multiple scheduled backups I use Aomei,

Now, as far as I know the both options will do the same thing, but for me the above differentiation is what "feels Right" to me

There is one process that Aomei Backupper pro will do that I'm not sure other easily available options can. This is one I use for my photography...

When travelling with my camera,( plus all the other gear), for more than a day or so I will carry my laptop and an external NVMe drive containing my full live lightroom catalogue, images are added to this catalogue when back at the hotel at the end of each day, and some will be edited to some extent.

Aomei has an option that will automatically synchronise the data on the NVMe when connected too either the laptop or my main workstation. What this means is I can have the same catalogue live and identical on the two systems just by plugging the NVMe into either system. At 10Gb/s speeds this is done quite quickly too

Not sure what you mean by "more of an imager than a backup". The commercial version of Macrium allows you to back up individual directories; admittedly the free version does not offer that option - only image backups.

One thing I do like about Macrium, and I don't know if the Backupper has this feature, is that you can mount a Macrium backup file (image or directory backup) as a read-only file system with Explorer and drag individual files or directories out of it if you need to do a quick restore.

What I don't like about Macrium is the UI; it's unintuitive; I always have to hunt around for settings and switches, and being an "old mainframe guy", I'm used to working with unintuitive things.

Rob

TheMystic · Dec 18, 2021

barman58 said:
At 10Gb/s speeds this is done quite quickly too

Which device do you use?

TheMystic · Dec 18, 2021

fmw said:
Has anybody used the AOMEI partition assistant to clone a hard drive to SSD?

Yes. It is a great program that successfully clones disks. What about it?

barman58 · Dec 18, 2021

TheMystic said:
Which device do you use?

It's a WD NVMe Drive 1TB in an Alloy case - It is USB-C at 10GB (it's actually TB3 Compatible which I only have on the laptop at the moment )

It's a pocketable setup and is quite robust too

TheMystic · Dec 18, 2021

barman58 said:
It's a WD NVMe Drive 1TB in an Alloy case - It is USB-C at 10GB (it's actually TB3 Compatible which I only have on the laptop at the moment )

It's a pocketable setup and is quite robust too

Please share the link to the enclosure you use. Thanks.

barman58 · Dec 18, 2021

@OldMainframeGuy

The Aomei version I have, The pro, has all the options for backup and the restore options including a single file if that's what's needed.

I still do some consultancy work for old clients and any business usually demand that any of the backups I make incorporating their data is done with "Pro level software" - In reality it's not essential technically but the "Pro Label" keeps the customer happy :wink:

fmw · Dec 18, 2021

TheMystic said:
Yes. It is a great program that successfully clones disks. What about it?

Just looking for a recommendation. i have to clone a hard drive to an m2 SSD. Sounds like it should do the trick.

barman58 · Dec 18, 2021

TheMystic said:
Please share the link to the enclosure you use. Thanks.

SSK Aluminum M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure Adapter, USB 3.1/3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) to NVME PCI-E M-Key Solid State Drive External Enclosure Support UASP Trim (Fits only NVMe PCIe 2242/2260/2280 SSD): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

SSK Aluminum M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure Adapter, USB 3.1/3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) to NVME PCI-E M-Key Solid State Drive External Enclosure Support UASP Trim (Fits only NVMe PCIe 2242/2260/2280 SSD): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

www.amazon.co.uk

TheMystic · Dec 18, 2021

barman58 said:
SSK Aluminum M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure Adapter, USB 3.1/3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) to NVME PCI-E M-Key Solid State Drive External Enclosure Support UASP Trim (Fits only NVMe PCIe 2242/2260/2280 SSD): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

SSK Aluminum M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure Adapter, USB 3.1/3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) to NVME PCI-E M-Key Solid State Drive External Enclosure Support UASP Trim (Fits only NVMe PCIe 2242/2260/2280 SSD): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

www.amazon.co.uk

That's USB 3.2 Gen2. Still not Thunderbolt 3 which supports 40 GBPS. I'm still looking for a case that supports Thunderbolt 3.

barman58 · Dec 18, 2021

TheMystic said:
That's USB 3.2 Gen2. Still not Thunderbolt 3 which supports 40 GBPS. I'm still looking for a case that supports Thunderbolt 3.

It's misleading Looking on Amazon a lot of the NVMe cases mention Thunderbolt 3 when only stating 10GB/s throughput, they do show certified cases such as

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TREBLEET-HDD%E3%82%A8%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A3%E3%83%BC-Hard-Drive-Enclosures/dp/B07N67P39W/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=thunderbolt+3+case&qid=1639845429&s=computers&sr=1-7

but with the certification sending the price through the roof

SIW2 · Dec 18, 2021

fmw said:
Has anybody used the AOMEI partition assistant to clone a hard drive to SSD?

Yes. Worked fine when I did it.

TheMystic · Dec 18, 2021

barman58 said:
It's misleading Looking on Amazon a lot of the NVMe cases mention Thunderbolt 3 when only stating 10GB/s throughput, they do show certified cases such as

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TREBLEET-HDD%E3%82%A8%E3%83%B3%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A3%E3%83%BC-Hard-Drive-Enclosures/dp/B07N67P39W/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=thunderbolt+3+case&qid=1639845429&s=computers&sr=1-7

but with the certification sending the price through the roof

Exactly. They use that TB3 term just to bump up the price. Just because the TB port supports the device doesn't mean there is support the other way around. But most people fall for it and that's how companies cash on it.

barman58 · Dec 18, 2021

Whilst I agree with your comments about selling by deception, most of those cases I checked, those that mentioned TB3 and those that did Not were at a price that I would expect for a 10Gb case, as soon as you got to those actually were certified for TB3 the price went up almost 10 times - Whether this is due to the actual cost to produce or maybe because the TB3 protocol is used mostly on high end Apple devices, where the users have been conditioned to pay higher prices for "Apple Compatibility" is not sure.

Where it's possible to make and sell a device to support 10Gb/s and sell it for $x it should be possible to make and sell a device to run four times as fast, to sell for four times the cost rather than ten times

jonnied12 · Dec 18, 2021

GrayOldman1 said:
I will tell you my problem with Macrium Reflect. It works fine if I save the file to a hard drive in my computer. I can restore the file. NOW here is the problem. I have a NAS and I store backups on it. It works fine for saving the backup BUT can not retrieve it. For some unknown reason it drops the Nic driver. Now I have an open ticket on it. Tech tried to fix my problem and after 90 minutes he gave up. Only way to get the file is use copy and paste with windows. Macrium Reflect is fine if you only want one copy of the back up. BUT for me more places to save that copy is better. AOMIE Backupper does the job for me. It sees all my devices and works great with my NAS. saving and retrieving the file.

I use Macrium to back up to my Qnap NAS every day. I also back up my NAS to an external hard drive (actually two different hard drives) weekly.
If I ever need to restore my system, I just grab one of the hard drives and plug it into my computer to restore from.

Wynona · Dec 18, 2021

cereberus said:
AOEMI is fine but not as flexible as Macrium Reflect. Personally, I found it is too basic but I have no reason to diss it. In the end, the most important thing is that all users should learn the importance of backing up (data as a minimum, but OS/programs is strongly recommended).

I have extensively tested most of the main FREE tools, and only recommend three for beginners.

1) Macrium Reflect - most flexible, major plus is image backups can be opened as a virtual machine.
2) Easeus Todo Backup - solid and reliable but rather slow (speed is less important than reliability)
3) AOMEI Backupper - reliable, easy for beginners, reliable but limited features.

A close fourth was VEEAM but this is more geared to commercial use.

I omit Acronis as it does not have a freely available free version (other than those bundled with a drive purchase).

There are lots of other as well, and I had varying experiences. The worst was Windows own inbuilt tool.

In the end, use whichever tool suits your needs. The most crucial point is that you should test the restore function whichever you choose but problem is how without screwing up current installation if things go wrong?

A method I use is:

1) create a virtual hard drive stored on a second drive (you can use a separate partition if you only have one drive)

2) make image backup with whichever tool you are testing.

3) Mount VHD, and restore image to the VHD

4) create boot entry for vhd

5) boot pc, and select VHD - if it boots ok, you know image was solid.

6) optional - delete vhd to save space and/or remove boot entry using msconfig.

A variation of above is to restore image in a virtual machine.

Of course, when it comes to backups, paranoia is healthy, and some users like to install two tools, in case one fails.

Personally, Macrium Reflect has never let me down but I still make a backup now and then using the inbuilt Windows FFU tool. This is not the old Windows 7 tool, but is actually quite new. It is fast as well. I prefer this as it does not require me to do a separate installation.

I tend not to pay much creedance to users who say I had a bad experience with tool ABCD, as in most cases it comes down to human error, or something was wrong with PC in first place.

The classic one is VSS not working, and people recommend doing backup from WinPE which is fine BUT all means if you restore the image, you restore it with VSS still not working. In the end, using WinPE is a workaround rather than solving the root issue.

The crucial point is to test the tools and use the one you are happy with.

Well said, @cereberus!

Wynona · Dec 18, 2021

jonnied12 said:
I use Macrium to back up to my Qnap NAS every day. I also back up my NAS to an external hard drive (actually two different hard drives) weekly.
If I ever need to restore my system, I just grab one of the hard drives and plug it into my computer to restore from.

Yep, that's what I do.

Dch48 · Dec 18, 2021

1) Macrium Reflect - most flexible, major plus is image backups can be opened as a virtual machine.

The image backups of AOMEI free can also be opened as a virtual disk and individual files can be recovered from them. I have done it a few times.

Wynona · Dec 18, 2021

I just went to the Aomei site and they're having a sale. The initial upgrade from free that usually costs $49.95 is on sale for $29.95.

Upgrade AOMEI Backupper Standard to Professional Edition

Here we provide an exclusive discount to upgrade to AOMEI Backupper full version to unlock more advanced features. Save the special discount and get the complete PC backup software.

www.diskpart.com

barman58 · Dec 18, 2021

One other thing that I will commend about Aomei With the Pro version on my systems I have a had a couple of total system failures on the PC hardware which of course took out the licencing, which on many software packages would be classed as end of life for the system and thus void the licence, on all occasions they reset the licence within an hour or so of my contacting them without any problems at all

Edit

This also applied to their Partition manager software on the same machines where the licence was also affected