backup options other than Macrium?

For anybody interested, O&O do permanent license giveaways for time to time. Not sure what version is on giveaway atm.
Special offer on the latest version 18:
diskimage pro £12.60 ($17.48) single or £17.50 ($24.48) for 5 pack

Badger said:

Those still looking for a free straight forward backup util should have a look at Hasleo Backup Suite.

Hasleo provides Windows Backup & Clone, Data Recovery, Windows To Go Creator, and more.

Hasleo Software provides Windows Backup & Clone, Data Recovery, Windows To Go Creator, BitLocker solution and other software to help you enrich your digital life.

www.hasleo.com

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@Badger. Thanks for mentioning Hasleo. I'm pretty new to disk imaging, and chose Hasleo because it has a small footprint, it's not overly intrusive, making itself run at startup, auto-scheduling tasks, low RAM in Services. It lacks a lot of options, but backups are very quick - oh; and it's free! That said, I haven't yet had to use it for a restore, and was concerned due to lack of mention here.

safron said:

@Badger. Thanks for mentioning Hasleo. I'm pretty new to disk imaging, and chose Hasleo because it has a small footprint, it's not overly intrusive, making itself run at startup, auto-scheduling tasks, low RAM in Services. It lacks a lot of options, but backups are very quick - oh; and it's free! That said, I haven't yet had to use it for a restore, and was concerned due to lack of mention here.

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I tested it a few weeks back by doing two full backups of my system C:/ drive and then restored both of those backups without issue here.

@zack ibraham: please add MiniTool's ShadowMaker to your list in post #120. It comes in both free and paid versions, and is worth checking out.
HTH,
--Ed--

Thanks to all the posters, given me some ideas. Every time I try a win 11 backup, windows tells me backup did not complete and files were not copied. So now I am going to clean my (failed) backups on their own drive and try a one or two of those previous mentioned starting with Hasleo. (Now running .....)

there is also a free version of Casper ( trial reverts to free functions after 30 days ) makes vhd images which is very useful


I liked much about evorim when I looked at it but the trial version has limitations and I cba buying it to do a full assessment.

Hasleo - successful backup

yes, Hasleo seems ok - tested it a while ago

SIW2 said:

there is also a free version of Casper ( trial reverts to free functions after 30 days ) makes vhd images which is very useful

Casper Drive Copy Product Comparison | Future Systems Solutions

I liked much about evorim when I looked at it but the trial version has limitations and I cba buying it to do a full assessment.

Advanced Backup

Advanced Backup

www.evorim.com

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Worked well, backup/restore. Caught on the hop a bit with the virtual drives still showing in file explorer. No boot menu option but that's a minor detail.

SIW2 said:

there is also a free version of Casper ( trial reverts to free functions after 30 days ) makes vhd images which is very useful

Casper Drive Copy Product Comparison | Future Systems Solutions

I liked much about evorim when I looked at it but the trial version has limitations and I cba buying it to do a full assessment.

Advanced Backup

Advanced Backup

www.evorim.com

Click to expand...

I just tried Casper again and downloaded trial version.

I have 5 partitions on my primary drive

EFI, MSR, C drive, Recovery Drive, D drive (data)

I image backup the 1st four partitions (with Macrium Reflect), and backup D drive by other tools - this is to keep my image backups lean and mean (quicker too).

I was unimpressed with the image backup creation feature

I could either backup all the partitions or ONLY one partition. I could not find a way to backup multiple partitions.

Worse still, it did not show the MSR partition. I know this is useless really but other tool have realigned my partitions on a restore as the MSR gets removed.

I have been on a mission to find an alternative tool to Macrium Reflect that allows me to image 1st four partitions only and restore all four at the same time!

Most will allow to to backup 4 partitions only (Casper will not do that even) but will only allow you to restore one at a time!

Only Macrium Reflect allows me to do that!

I have tried Casper, Hasleo, Paragon, Aomei, Easeus so far - none of them do what I want.

My next stop is Veeam.

Goldengirl52 said:

Here is System Information:

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If you're still watching the thread then consider upgrading the BIOS: F.16 > F.18

cereberus said:

I just tried Casper again and downloaded trial version.

I have 5 partitions on my primary drive

EFI, MSR, C drive, Recovery Drive, D drive (data)

I image backup the 1st four partitions (with Macrium Reflect), and backup D drive by other tools - this is to keep my image backups lean and mean (quicker too).

I was unimpressed with the image backup creation feature

I could either backup all the partitions or ONLY one partition. I could not find a way to backup multiple partitions.

Worse still, it did not show the MSR partition. I know this is useless really but other tool have realigned my partitions on a restore as the MSR gets removed.

I have been on a mission to find an alternative tool to Macrium Reflect that allows me to image 1st four partitions only and restore all four at the same time!

Most will allow to to backup 4 partitions only (Casper will not do that even) but will only allow you to restore one at a time!

Only Macrium Reflect allows me to do that!

I have tried Casper, Hasleo, Paragon, Aomei, Easeus so far - none of them do what I want.

My next stop is Veeam.

Click to expand...

Well I tried Veeam and I could backup EFI, C drive and Recovery Drive only but no option to include MSR like other tools.

However, on restore, it did leave the existing MSR in place and the recovered partitions remained aligned with original partitions, and my D drive was left alone.

So far, this seems to be the closest to my needs. I can live without the MSR partition being backed up. I guess if I had to restore to a blank drive, I would end up with no MSR partition but if I really wanted, I could sort that out later.

Until I find another alternative that fully meets my needs, I am considering that I might use this as an alternative backup (just in case Reflect does ever fail on me). I would only use this occasionally on an "as needs" basis though, accepting I might have to redo some Windows updates if I ever needed to use this.

Only minor issue with free version, you can only have one backup job definition. This would make it pretty useless if this was to be my main tool unless I paid for upgrade. However, as I will always do same backup as a "backup to Reflect", I can live with it.

Update: I am still using Hasleo but find every so often I have to reinstall it as it had stopped working.

So happy with the free version, I will buy Family pack. Plus Too Old To Change

KWEB said:

So happy with the free version, I will buy Family pack. Plus Too Old To Change

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free version of what?

My take on this may not be for everyone. For my entire puting life(40 odd years), I have NEVER believed in paying for any software when there were good free alternatives available. Until recently I had purchased only ONE thing, a tiny app which I gave $4.99 for many years ago and am still using. However, recently I purchased my first 2 real pieces of software, MS Office 2021 only because I got is super cheap, and Macrium, replacing the free version I've used for years. I have used it to image no less than 200 different machines belonging to other people and for imaging my own systems hundreds of times. It has never failed me once. I'm sure other freebies work, too, but when I truly believe in something, I stick with it. It's a small price to pay. For some things, it's just not worth cutting corners in today's computing world.