Hasleo Backup Suite

Stigg said:

An interesting forum post by the Hasleo Software Forums administrator.

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Interesting indeed. I already said this before. The main reason why it's free for the home users with their standalone PC is to drawn attention to their company and their HBS product. They have also a professional version who is capable of much more. That is more meant for small businesses or users with higher demands and that version is not free of course. It's some kind of marketing strategy. All this costs money. If they with HBS have to step over to a lifetime license I will do that. (if the price is reasonable) They have already proven that they have a great product for the home user. In mean time it's free and it delivers. No 30-days trail or a crippled version that is only capable of backup up a drive smaller than 250Gb. (e.a.) At the same time they are drawing users of other (paid) products to their solution. Also a marketing strategy. In the mean time I am very glad that HBS is still a free product. That can change in the future.

Things can be strange. I have several products that I bought with a lifetime license. An investor came aboard and changed the rules: no more lifetime license; You have to pay the same amount for the product each year. A breach of contract! At that moment I stopped using their products and searched for an alternative.

The problem the user addresses was also a problem that I had. Implementing the fix is not enough. I my case I had to delete some Hasleo files (with the help of a Hasleo user on that forum) that was made during the time I were sitting on a build that had this problem. Long story short. There was a quicker way; deinstall and install the HBS product again repeat the action (ED) and a new WinPE was build with the fixed WinRE environment. Problem solved. It can also be the solution if other products has similar problems. The HBS has one drawback. When using the ED function for the first time it make use of the current WinRE environment. If you want to make a new ED it's still uses the old WinPE data that was generated 1 month, 1 year ago. There is no option to say; "forget that old WinPE, make a new one based on the current WinRE environment"....

Stigg said:

An interesting forum post by the Hasleo Software Forums administrator.

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I would definitely pay donations or Patrion. I love free, but I also understand that people have families and progress cost money.
Just look at DNS0.eu, it failed, because of the lack of funding, it was replaced by the government funded/controlled DNS4EU.

Hasleo Backup Suite Version 5.5.2.0 Released

Version 5.5.2.0 Change Log (October 27, 2025)

• Added support for intelligent sector-mode backup/cloning of exFAT and ReFS file systems.
• Improved performance of the file backup feature.
• Deduplication has been added to file backup.
• Added support for PXE network boot.
• Added the delta clone feature.
• Various other bug fixes and feature improvements.

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NOTE: Starting with this release, there are now four editions. Free, Professional, Server and Enterprise. Scroll down to the bottom of the homepage for the editions comparison chart, including prices.
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...and with this new release, additional restrictions have been added to the FREE version. Follow @Stigg suggestion above to compare the new versions.

Froggie said:

...and with this new release, additional restrictions have been added to the FREE version. Follow @Stigg suggestion above to compare the new versions.

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Happy to pay for pro to contribute. Also happy if there was a coupon somewhere for a slight discount?

Lifetime free upgrades.

Froggie said:

...and with this new release, additional restrictions have been added to the FREE version. Follow @Stigg suggestion above to compare the new versions.

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Do you know what functionality has been removed from the new Free version?

If you don't need/use anything with an X, all should be fine.

It's AU$92.00 in Australia (with the discount)
Our dollar is worth something... apparently.

antspants said:

It's AU$92.00 in Australia (with the discount)
Our dollar is worth something... apparently.

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Did you find a discount code?

Stigg said:

Did you find a discount code?

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Nope, it's already discounted. But as it has the option to enter a coupon code, I hoped there would be one. Regardless, worth the money even at full price. As long as they stick to their statement for unlimited upgrades, because that generally fails/gets reversed at some point, as history has shown...

$40 off the price is nice, not complaining.

Stigg said:

Do you know what functionality has been removed from the new Free version?

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SIW2 said:

View attachment 150719
View attachment 150721

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I can see by the comparison chart what functionality is in the current free version. But was that the same functionality prior to the company releasing paid versions? Have they removed anything?

simple pe

Stigg said:

I can see by the comparison chart what functionality is in the current free version. But was that the same functionality prior to the company releasing paid versions? Have they removed anything?

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As far as I can tell, they have not downgraded the free version from the original as too often happens upon paid versions being introduced by other tools.

The key differentiator between other free tools like AOMEI is Delta Restore, and that has been retained.

I doubt the average user will use most of the other new features but Delta Clone or Restore to a USB drive could be useful but I personally do not think it is worth buying a premium licence just for those.

I would add a note of caution buying a licence just yet. All the new features are new, and I do not know if they have undergone some form of extensive Beta testing (@Froggie - do you know?).

If you go for it, just bear in mind the new features will not have had as extensive "in the wild" testing by the public as other free features.

I am assuming that from now on, the free version has all the Pro features but you can only access them by buying a licence?

cereberus said:

As far as I can tell, they have not downgraded the free version from the original as too often happens upon paid versions being introduced by other tools.

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That's the question I was asking.

Stigg said:

That's the question I was asking.

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According to the change log 4 new features has been added with v5.5.2.0 in comparison with the previous version; v.5.4.2.5.

Version 5.5.2.0 (10/27/2025)

• Added support for intelligent sector-mode backup/cloning of exFAT and ReFS file systems
• Improved performance of the file backup feature
• Deduplication has been added to file backup
• Added support for PXE network boot
• Added the delta clone feature
• Various other bug fixes and feature improvements

As for me; I don't use these features so in that sense nothing has changed.

As for changing (option: Restore/Clone an MBR disk to GPT, or vice versa) MBR to GTP or vice versa: other partition software can do that as well. (better suited for the job)

The difference between Master Boot Record (MBR) and GUID Partition Table (GPT) lies more in what kind of size of disks you are using. GPT is basically a table (64-bit instead of MBR 32-bit) on disk which tell where the files are with some info. It can handle more that 4 partitions (MBR max=4) up to 128 partitions and is capable of going beyond the MBR disk barrier of 2Gb (max=9,4Zb) It has also a backup partition table and supports UEFI. So MBR and GPT lies more inside the partition domain than inside the backup domain.

Froggie said:

...and with this new release, additional restrictions have been added to the FREE version.

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Not an unexpected development. It's nice to see lifetime licences rather than a subscription model.

Now there are 'paid for' versions, does this also mean the time bomb has been removed from Free? Presumably it was there to ensure everyone was on the latest version during development.

Froggie said:

When the Time Bomb is reached and you try and start the application... the message says you must update your version in order to continue, then the application EXITs out.

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