Best FREE Easy To use Backup & Recovery suggestions please.

gwc28 · Mar 13, 2024

Recently reluctantly updated from Win10 Home To Win 11 Home.
Previously used builtin Backup & Recovery but now having to use a 3rd party free Bck & Rec.
Question. Which is the easiest to use free Bck & Rec program to install Please.

Ghot · Mar 13, 2024

Hello @gwc28 and welcome to ElevenForum.

AOMEI Backupper Standard... is probably the easiest.

Macrium Reflect, AOMEI Backupper and Hasleo Backup Suite - GUIDES

How to use backup software... 1. When everything is working perfectly... make a full Windows backup. 2. Then, if something breaks... restore from the latest backup. 3. Then... try "whatever you were doing" a different way. If it still breaks Windows, then... go to step #2. 4. Repeat...

www.elevenforum.com

Poll on Backup software

A poll to see which imaging programs people use. You can select up to three options (eg some people use more than one program or use a regular imaging program plus a cloud based one).

www.elevenforum.com

IF you decide on Macrium Reflect, I recommend the "One time purchase", as opposed to the annual plan.

cereberus · Mar 13, 2024

Hasleo Backup is one of the best of the free versions. It scores over the other free versions with its (Rapid) Delta Restore function.

neves · Mar 13, 2024

My vote goes to Easy disk cloning and imaging | Rescuezilla (Clonezilla GUI) - it's open source and you don't have to worry about it - becoming paid and leaving you stuck with an outdated version. Since it's a front-end for Clonezilla, a top tier cloning backup/cloning software - but rather advanced and a bit complicated for most basic users. And that's where Rescuezilla comes to the rescue - by offering a simplistic beginner friendly GUI using Clonezilla at its core. Since you install & run it from a bootable USB stick - there's less chances for any complications (as sometimes happens with a Windows back-up tool). Here's a step by step guide:

Kees · Mar 13, 2024

@neves
That's useful information for me as well! I did not know that version existed...
I am using Clonezilla already a long time, having all my images of different systems in Clonezilla format.
Although I am rather familiar with the use of Clonezilla, it still is a program rather difficult to use.
I can manage very well, but one has to take care not to do one 'movement' wrong, because then a full restart often is necessary..
In a short time I will certainly look what Rescuezilla has to offer me, compared to Clonezilla!
So thanks a lot!

gwc28 · Mar 13, 2024

I appreciate all your reply's. I believe Macrium will soon becoming to end of life support.

Paragon recently installed which appears to work well but takes some time to load.

Seem funny that Microsoft advice is not to use their built in Bck & Rec.

An Operating System should be a small tight program to enable other software to install.
Microsoft in their wisdom have made Win11 a large full working bloated software which keeps getting things added.

Well done with this nice informative forum !!! gwc28

Kees · Mar 13, 2024

Already burnt Rescuezilla to a USB, using Rufus.
And made an image of the system partition, a check if the backup was ok and made some steps to restore that partition, but did not finish it.

This is roughly what I wrote in a notepad text file for myself:

It is very useful in itself, especially for saving images.
But it's actually too easy, too little control what you click where.
The chance to backup a wrong partition is larger than what i am used to in Clonezilla.
Moreover, you have to check the image separately, it cannot be entered in one go.
The default size of the parts of the images cannot be changed, but is the same size as clonezilla 2.6.7, which is fine for me.
There are no configurable options, only the way of compression is optional.

Restoring involves more risk, because the partition table of the whole drive is completely overwritten to the situation during the backup.
It is not possible to restore the image without overwriting the partition table (I did not manage to do so).
This means that a trick like I did when reorganizing the main SSD, where I only restored the Windows partition after reorganizing the sizes of the other partitions in the drive, is not possible. That is very difficult, you really have to pay close attention to whether its is possible to overwrite the partition table of the drive or not! The risk exists my other partitions on that drive (where my documents and installation files are stored), will become unusable. In Clonezilla it is possible just to overwrite the system partition itself, as long as it stays exactly the same size. But it does not matter if other partitions have been moved or resized since the image was taken.

That's why I'll stick with the (more difficult to use) Clonezilla I am used to.

But I certainly would recommand Rescuezilla to people not familiar with Clonezilla as easy backup and restore program for complete images of system drives / partitions. As long as you are aware that the partitioning of the drive (always) needs to stay the same, even if you would install another drive in case the original drive has failed.

Edit: in the meantime an answer of the OP was written, out of which appears he's intending to use Paragon (which I do not know).
So my 'report' of the test has become rather off-topic. For which I apologize to @gwc28 and won't continue here in possible discussions about Rescuezilla.

cereberus · Mar 13, 2024

Kees said:
Already burnt Rescuezilla to a USB, using Rufus.
And made an image of the system partition, a check if the backup was ok and made some steps to restore that partition, but did not finish it.

This is roughly what I wrote in a notepad text file for myself:

It is very useful in itself, especially for saving images.
But it's actually too easy, too little control what you click where.
The chance to backup a wrong partition is larger than what i am used to in Clonezilla.
Moreover, you have to check the image separately, it cannot be entered in one go.
The default size of the parts of the images cannot be changed, but is the same size as clonezilla 2.6.7, which is fine for me.
There are no configurable options, only the way of compression is optional.

Restoring involves more risk, because the partition table of the whole drive is completely overwritten to the situation during the backup.
It is not possible to restore the image without overwriting the partition table (I did not manage to do so).
This means that a trick like I did when reorganizing the main SSD, where I only restored the Windows partition after reorganizing the sizes of the other partitions in the drive, is not possible. That is very difficult, you really have to pay close attention to whether its is possible to overwrite the partition table of the drive or not! The risk exists my other partitions on that drive (where my documents and installation files are stored), will become unusable. In Clonezilla it is possible just to overwrite the system partition itself, as long as it stays exactly the same size. But it does not matter if other partitions have been moved or resized since the image was taken.

That's why I'll stick with the (more difficult to use) Clonezilla I am used to.

But I certainly would recommand Rescuezilla to people not familiar with Clonezilla as easy backup and restore program for complete images of system drives / partitions. As long as you are aware that the partitioning of the drive (always) needs to stay the same, even if you would install another drive in case the original drive has failed.

Edit: in the meantime an answer of the OP was written, out of which appears he's intending to use Paragon (which I do not know).
So my 'report' of the test has become rather off-topic. For which I apologize to @gwc28 and won't continue here in possible discussions about Rescuezilla.

Paragon is outdated. So is Clonezilla.
I have had poor experiences with them both.

Top 3 free apps other than the legendary Macrium Reflect

1. Hasleo Backup Suite (top because of Delta Restore capability.

2. Aoemi Backupper

3. Easeus Todo Backup

then Veeam probably 4th.

Rest are also rans.

Kees · Mar 13, 2024

cereberus said:
Paragon is outdated. So is Clonezilla.

I have another experience. All I want to do with Clonezilla, I can do with it, without any problems.
That program never failed on me!

But you have your opinion, I have mine.

That's all I would like to argue because I would not like to bend the topic into a discussion direction the OP (perhaps) does not like.

cereberus · Mar 13, 2024

Kees said:
I have another experience. All I want to do with Clonezilla, I can do with it, without any problems.
That program never failed on me!

But you have your opinion, I have mine.

That's all I would like to argue because I would not like to bend the topic in a discussion direction the OP does (perhaps) not like.

In the end, this forum overwhelmingly agrees the free version of Macrium Reflect is the best tool but it will not be supported much longer.

Having said that, many still use V7 quite happily (even V6). There is no reason to think V8 will ever fail to work reliably in the next few years.

My guess is it will be fine whilst NTFS remains the primary Windows format.

I cannot discount possibility of a Windows update breaking it though (it has happened on an Insider version a couple of years ago).

Having said that if a serious bug stopped the free version working, my bet is Paramount will issue an update anyway just to keep a good reputation.

Froggie · Mar 13, 2024

cereberus said:
In the end, this forum overwhelmingly agrees the free version of Macrium Reflect is the best tool but it will not be supported much longer.

Having said that, many still use V7 quite happily (even V6). There is no reason to think V8 will ever fail to work reliably in the next few years.

My guess is it will be fine whilst NTFS remains the primary Windows format.

I cannot discount possibility of a Windows update breaking it though (it has happened on an Insider version a couple of years ago).

Having said that if a serious bug stopped the free version working, my bet is Paramount will issue an update anyway just to keep a good reputation.

They did that with v6 long after it was out of support.

neves · Mar 13, 2024

Kees said:
@neves
That's useful information for me as well! I did not know that version existed...
I am using Clonezilla already a long time, having all my images of different systems in Clonezilla format.
Although I am rather familiar with the use of Clonezilla, it still is a program rather difficult to use.
I can manage very well, but one has to take care not to do one 'movement' wrong, because then a full restart often is necessary..
In a short time I will certainly look what Rescuezilla has to offer me, compared to Clonezilla!
So thanks a lot!

It's backward compatible with Clonezilla too (you can use Rescuezilla to recover Clonezilla image files). Rescuezila was released around 5 years ago - so it's fairly new compared too Clonezilla (17 year old - tho, constantly maintained/updated - last version is from 2024 and still free and open source). Suppsodly a fork from Redo Backup - tho, activly mantained. Found it only around 2 years ago - while seeing it in top of the charts - for free (open source too) back-up/Cloning apps. Clonezilla - takes more steeps to achieve the same thing (the devs seem to care about only features and optiziations - not aware if they ever changed something about the GUI).

You're welcome.

cereberus · Mar 14, 2024

For those of you who do not know what (Rapid) Delta Restore is, I shall explain.

Normally when you do a restore with free versions, EVERYTHING is restored and it can take quite a while depending on size of restore, type of drive etc.

Delta Restore is like an incremental backup but in reverse i.e. the pc compares the changes since last backup and only processes the CHANGES.

Anybody who has used the paid version of Macrium Reflect will tell you this is a great feature as a Rapid Delta Restore can take as low as a minute.

This feature (even on another tool (Caspian) has always been considered as a premium feature.

Hasleo Backup Suite is the first free to include Delta Restore and I have tested it and it is really fast.

To me this feature alone sets Hasleo Backup Suite a head and shoulders above all free versions.

HBS"s interface is virtually the same as AOMEI Backupper.

The tool has quite an active help forum with the developers actively participating.

I am not aware of any free versions of any tool that have a formal support system - even Macrium Reflect paid versions only give one year of support (lease versions may be different).

However, the very active HBS forum is a plus for sure.

Of course, backup tools are not mutually exclusive.

For many a good strategy is to routinely use their preferred tool but periodically also do a backup as insurance in case preferred tool fails.

So I strongly suggest people test HBS and they will be impressed with its general backup speeds and its restore speeds, especially with Delta Restore.

In fact, it is faster (on my tests) than even the paid version of Macrium Reflect (which is significantly faster than the free version of Macrium Reflect).

Frankly all the other free tools are being left behind.

I strongly suggest people give HBS, even if only to use it as insurance as I do i.e. do not put all your eggs in one basket!

Steve C · Mar 14, 2024

I suggest you try Macrium Reflect free then buy a one time licence if you like it if only to receive ongoing updates.
Download Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - MajorGeeks