Need to find a decent backup, restore and cloning software

FishMan001 · Thursday at 10:31 AM

I use EaseUS ToDo Backup, and have done for years. It's cheap, easy to use, and does all you want.

yastil · Thursday at 10:40 AM

So many people, so many opinions. Based on my experience with backup software and on the expertise, helpfulness, and responsiveness of their support—HASLEO is the only choice. I have nothing more to add.

SIW2 · Thursday at 11:24 AM

AOMEI has made their backup feature with a filing system that is only available if one buys their rotten software.

I dont understand what you mean.

Ozei · Thursday at 11:47 AM

ICIT2LOL said:
I have downloaded Hasleo and will download Macrium from Major Geeks as they apparently are still offering the free version.......

I had Macrium Reflect 8 Free version and, although it would backup and restore ok , it suddenly stopped being able to explore images that I'd already made.

When that happens, the only solution is to buy Macrium Reflect X - which is what I've done recently. They do a 3yr single-machine licence for 77.90GBP / 107.98USD.

See - Macrium X

Outstanding software - I've been using it for years and it has never failed. Version X is very fast,

Quandary · Thursday at 1:27 PM

ICIT2LOL said:
I have downloaded Hasleo

As you start to explore Hasleo Backup Suite review this site Articles & Tutorials for all the things that you might want to do.

ICIT2LOL · Thursday at 4:47 PM

SIW2 said:
I dont understand what you mean.

Well if one tries to open the files on the backup you get to Tools/Explore (the image) of the dated backup and it flips up a window that says it is only available if you get the premium version of AOMEI. Even trying the trial version of the premium software, it prompts the same message, unlike the suggestion that I try that way around to get the files to open up.
So no matter what you try they are just not going to let one get at one's data in any backup that has been made using their software.
I actually contacted them about this nonsense, and they just about brushed me off with an apology and went on to say that the backup could be accessed with their premium version so they were just about as useful as boobs on a frog.
As I said, the filing format (.adi) is something that is totally tied to AOMEI's method of doing a backup and having access to the content
What gets up my nose is that this state of affairs is not made clear when and i one uses their software and I blithely ignorant of the fact - used it for years and now am stuck with four different drives with backups for my machines, and I am going to have to redo the backups with a software that allows me to see what I am saving in the situation I find my stupid self in now.

DennisG · Thursday at 5:08 PM

siliconbeaver said:
besides those fancy copies, I still use ghost11.5, an MS-DOS software since the time. can boot/run from a 4MB USB drive.

it works pretty well for both OS partition and data partition except ESP sector (100 MB). it also works for whole disk backup or image.

It’s available at

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

archive.org

Symantec Ghost 11.5.1.2266

Ghost works for me too. I use it for OS backup and Robocopy for backing up my data.

ICIT2LOL · Thursday at 6:57 PM

Ozei said:
I had Macrium Reflect 8 Free version and, although it would backup and restore ok , it suddenly stopped being able to explore images that I'd already made.

When that happens, the only solution is to buy Macrium Reflect X - which is what I've done recently. They do a 3yr single-machine licence for 77.90GBP / 107.98USD.

See - Macrium X

Outstanding software - I've been using it for years and it has never failed. Version X is very fast,

Ok mate that s about AUD220 and for me a tad too expensive or els I might have thougth about it. Still have not got my new machine yet so have time to look around. I am just really disappointed that I used that software for those years, thinking I was doing the right thing, and all along it was just a fantasy to all intents and purposes.
Seems to me now we are faced with so many of the products we use now are becoming monetised and also needing subscriptions to use them. For a good example like BMW actually stating that the heated seat function in their cars would become a subscription-based feature after a year of ownership, and that is like so many other products so wrong on so many points.
I fear that the whole world has become demonised by greed and also the fact that AI is taking over things that should not be.

KevTech · Thursday at 7:12 PM

Ozei said:
When that happens, the only solution is to buy Macrium Reflect X

Not the only solution as you can change to Hasleo which is free.

Ozei · Thursday at 7:20 PM

ICIT2LOL said:
Ok mate that s about AUD220 and for me a tad too expensive .......

It's 173.87 AUD for a 3 year licence - or 64.41 AUD for a 1 year.

See the currency changer at the bottom of the page here.

Ozei · Thursday at 7:33 PM

KevTech said:
Not the only solution as you can change to Hasleo which is free.

Yes, it's free but it can't browse the content of an existing Macrium image file - which was the point I was making in post 24.

i.e. anyone who needs to read the content of Reflect 8 free edition images only has one option and that's Reflect X.

KevTech · Thursday at 7:48 PM

Ozei said:
i.e. anyone who needs to read the content of Reflect 8 free edition images only has one option and that's Reflect X.

You can boot the Macrium 8 rescue media and explore the image then copy files/folders off the image to whatever drive you want to.

No need to mount the image from within Windows.

Ghot · Thursday at 7:59 PM

ICIT2LOL said:
So has anyone got any suggestions fr a software for backup, cloning etc

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

KevTech · Thursday at 8:20 PM

Seeing how Macrium is getting greedy.

If Macrium Reflect X is too expensive, what will you switch to?

If Macrium Reflect X is too expensive, what will you switch to? You may select up to two and you can change your vote later. The system only allows ten choices, so please don't complain if your favourite is not listed! I've tried to pick the ten best-known solutions. I think many will just...

www.elevenforum.com

Stigg · Thursday at 8:35 PM

There are plenty of existing threads about various system image backup applications.

Have a read through them, then make a choice and try one. If you are comfortable with it and trust it after using it for awhile, then keep it. If not, try another one.

Bree · Thursday at 9:10 PM

ICIT2LOL said:
Ok mate that s about AUD220 and for me a tad too expensive or els I might have thougth about it.

You can change the currency to your own at the top of the page:
Macrium Reflect Home | The complete backup solution for personal use.

Macrium have a Summer Sale at the moment, 1 computer for 3 years is currently A$173.38 (20% off - normally A$216.73)
There's usually a bigger discount come Black Friday.

SIW2 · Thursday at 9:55 PM

Well if one tries to open the files on the backup you get to Tools/Explore (the image) of the dated backup and it flips up a window that says it is only available if you get the premium version of AOMEI.

That is mounting the image. Not available in the current free ( standard ) version.

It is available in the free version I linked in post #7 which was provided by Mr. Mei himself

Need to find a decent backup, restore and cloning software

OK last week I wrecked my Asus Vivobook by stupidly messing around trying to loosen up some RAM, as it was suggested that a slowing machine could be made a little faster by doing that. To cut a very long story short (and a few hours chatting to AI) , I or it ended up with a Code 0xc0000225 and...

www.elevenforum.com

Here it is again

free version 6.9.1

glasskuter · Thursday at 11:18 PM

Ozei said:
anyone who needs to read the content of Reflect 8 free edition images only has one option and that's Reflect X.

Wrong. There's a number of ways to extract files from an image using Macrium 8 while running Windows 11.

1. One can still mount an image by running Macrium in a Windows 7 VM or Windows 10 22h2 VM (or physical machine if you have one). I very rarely have need to mount an image myself but the VM works for me. Recovery media for Macrium 8.0 or 8.1 will still work in Windows 11 to create or restore an image but you might have to disable secure boot in uefi bios to boot from it. You can always re-enable secure boot when you're done.

2. I've not tried this one but the web says files can be extracted from an image using the Macrium boot disk and it stands to reason that it's true. Boot from recovery media. Browse and mount the image as a virtual drive to extract specific files without interference from Windows 11's Code Integrity policies.

3. I haven't tried this either but it's reported that one can turn off memory integrity in Windows 11 to be able to mount an image from the Macrium app as we have always done.

Open the Windows Start Menu and search for Core Isolation.
Click on the result to open your Device Security settings.
Toggle Memory Integrity to Off.
Restart your computer.
Note: You may want to turn this back on after retrieving your files for security reasons.

4. I do not recommend this but If you frequently need to mount images and accept the minor security trade-off, you can tell Windows to stop enforcing its driver blocklist using the registry:

Press Win + R, type regedit, and hit Enter.
Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CI\Config
Right-click the blank space on the right, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
Name it exactly: VulnerableDriverBlocklistEnable
Double-click it and ensure its value data is set to 0.
Restart your computer for the changes to apply

Just pointing out that there ARE ways.

SIW2 · Thursday at 11:20 PM

I've not tried this one but the web says files can be extracted from an image using the Macrium boot disk and it stands to reason that it's true. Boot from recovery media.

Mounting does not work in recent macrium v8 boot media. psmounterex is blocked

@glasskuter

anyone who needs to read the content of Reflect 8 free edition images only has one option and that's Reflect X.

That is true, unless you still have older boot media lying around.

dalchina · Friday at 12:28 AM

ICIT2LOL said:
Well if one tries to open the files on the backup you get to Tools/Explore (the image) of the dated backup and it flips up a window that says it is only available if you get the premium version of AOMEI. Even trying the trial version of the premium software, it prompts the same message, unlike the suggestion that I try that way around to get the files to open up.
So no matter what you try they are just not going to let one get at one's data in any backup that has been made using their software.
I actually contacted them about this nonsense, and they just about brushed me off with an apology and went on to say that the backup could be accessed with their premium version so they were just about as useful as boobs on a frog.
As I said, the filing format (.adi) is something that is totally tied to AOMEI's method of doing a backup and having access to the content
What gets up my nose is that this state of affairs is not made clear when and i one uses their software and I blithely ignorant of the fact - used it for years and now am stuck with four different drives with backups for my machines, and I am going to have to redo the backups with a software that allows me to see what I am saving in the situation I find my stupid self in now.

Happening to have a copy of the free version, I tried a quick file backup of a small folder to an external USB disk.
I can confirm that I can easily access that and see the files in the backup with the free version.

I'm not going to spend time creating an image with it though, sorry.

Need to find a decent backup, restore and cloning software

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