Best Imaging Software Suggestions

[JamesJ]

I installed Reflex and downloaded ADKSetup. That was over an hour ago and it's still installing.
I'm getting a bit frustrated here.

I've already told you about this, that's why I downloaded the rescue disk from here:
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=475A0A48CA6D4035&id=475A0A48CA6D4035!1812

I downloaded the ISO from your link. Do I need an ISO burner to create the boot disk? Is this procedure seperate form creating a rescue disk from within Macrium??

James

 

[whs]

Hi James,

If you want to burn my .iso, use ImgBurn: Download ImgBurn 2.5.7.0 - FileHippo.com. That will create the WinPE rescue disc.

 

[JamesJ]

So after I burn the .iso I don't need to create a boot disk form within Macrium?

 

[JamesJ]

I got it now. I burned the .iso to the disk and booted to it.

Thanks much for the assistance,
James

 

[whs]

You are welcome.

 

[Mustang]

This is weird. I first used Norton Ghost with Win98 and XP. But it stopped working when SATA came out. So changed to NTI Drive Backup. This failed when Vista came out, so changed to Acronis. And I've been using Acronis ever since with no problemo. I've never had a failed image if it fully completed it ... but have had failures due to inability to read data from disc, or write to destination source. But this was not due to fault in Acronis.

But now Acronis 2012 won't load on W8, so I've either got to upgrade by buying Acronis 2013, or swap to Macrium. The problem is I have umpteen Acronis images for backups I've done when reloading other persons' PCs. And about 15 backups of my own systems, which means I'm going to have to mix-match.

It is true that Acronis 2012 can create/restore images for W8 using the recovery CD on boot up to load full Acroins image on RAM. But this does not do validation of image. Although I can truthfully say I've never had an image that didn't validate; and once validated, run OK.

Hmmmmmmm?

 

[franka]

I had exactly the same problem with Acronis True Image 2010 and Vista. Forget exactly what the problem was but it was a conflict with my anti-virus programme-Nod 32 from Eset. I was in talks with Acronis for a couple of months about it. In the end they admitted defeat and supplied me with a free copy of True Image 2011, which worked okay.

By then I had lost confidence in Acronis and I migrated to Paragon Hard Drive Manager which has never let me down.

 

[whs]

This is weird. I first used Norton Ghost with Win98 and XP. But it stopped working when SATA came out. So changed to NTI Drive Backup. This failed when Vista came out, so changed to Acronis. And I've been using Acronis ever since with no problemo. I've never had a failed image if it fully completed it ... but have had failures due to inability to read data from disc, or write to destination source. But this was not due to fault in Acronis.

But now Acronis 2012 won't load on W8, so I've either got to upgrade by buying Acronis 2013, or swap to Macrium. The problem is I have umpteen Acronis images for backups I've done when reloading other persons' PCs. And about 15 backups of my own systems, which means I'm going to have to mix-match.

It is true that Acronis 2012 can create/restore images for W8 using the recovery CD on boot up to load full Acroins image on RAM. But this does not do validation of image. Although I can truthfully say I've never had an image that didn't validate; and once validated, run OK.

Hmmmmmmm?

If you have old images that you cannot restore, you can always mount the VHD of the image and use another imaging program to image the mounted VHD. I have saved a few defunct Windows 7 images that way. System Image - Recover a Broken Windows 7 System Image - Windows 7 Forums

 

[Mustang]

If you have old images that you cannot restore, you can always mount the VHD of the image and use another imaging program to image the mounted VHD. I have saved a few defunct Windows 7 images that way. System Image - Recover a Broken Windows 7 System Image - Windows 7 Forums

Wow! Thank you very much WHS for that information. Brilliant!

Cheers M.

 

[Mustang]

I installed Macrium latest version and downloaded the ISO file, (1.67GB), for rescue disc and burnt an ISO DVD using Imgburn, but when I restarted the PC it would not boot off the iso rescue DVD. I could see the green light on the burner flashing as it read it, but then it just booted straight into Windows 7 which I'm testing it on.

Any suggestions?

 

[whs]

Well 2 possibilities:

1. You may have overlooked the "Press any key" on the top left of the screen when it tried to boot from the CD
2. You can download a WinPE .iso from my skydrive and try that. The download takes only a few minutes. I know that this works and many others have already successfully used it.

 

[Mustang]

Hi WHS,

No I didn't miss the "press any key". I tried booting it four times and from two PCs and got no messge at all. Just a flashing cursor on the screen till it booted to Windows.

I downloaded the Macrium ISO rescue file from the link you just posted and burned it as ISO on CD. And it's only a fraction of the size of the original one I downloaded, which was 1.67GB, and needed a DVD to burn, to as opposed to a CD. And all good, it works fine. So thanks very much for your help.

The only negative is that it took nearly an hour to restore the image to the hard drive. Whereas Acronis restores it in about 12 minutes. Without any personal files or music loaded, my OS occupies about 22GB.

Even so, good to have a backup system that works properly on W8.

Cheers M :thumb:

 

[topgundcp]

I downloaded the Macrium ISO rescue file from the link you just posted and burned it as ISO on CD. And it's only a fraction of the size of the original one I downloaded, which was 1.67GB, and needed a DVD to burn, to as opposed to a CD. And all good, it works fine. So thanks very much for your help.

With the copy that you downloaded from WHS, the size is 175MB. If you have an extra USB stick about 512MB, you can also create a bootable USB for it using Windows7-USB-DVD-Download-Tool, it'll boot up faster and smoother plus you don't waste another CD when you want to create an upgrade version.

The only negative is that it took nearly an hour to restore the image to the hard drive. Whereas Acronis restores it in about 12 minutes. Without any personal files or music loaded, my OS occupies about 22GB.

Macrium will create the image with the same amount of time if not less than Acronis, my C Drive is now 49GB and it took 7.5 minutes to do a complete backup and took 8.25 minutes to restore so I don't know why yours took nearly an hour ??? Did you go to the Advanced option and select "Intelligent Sector copy" instead of "Complete copy of the partition" ???

 

[whs]

Hi WHS,

No I didn't miss the "press any key". I tried booting it four times and from two PCs and got no messge at all. Just a flashing cursor on the screen till it booted to Windows.

I downloaded the Macrium ISO rescue file from the link you just posted and burned it as ISO on CD. And it's only a fraction of the size of the original one I downloaded, which was 1.67GB, and needed a DVD to burn, to as opposed to a CD. And all good, it works fine. So thanks very much for your help.

The only negative is that it took nearly an hour to restore the image to the hard drive. Whereas Acronis restores it in about 12 minutes. Without any personal files or music loaded, my OS occupies about 22GB.

Even so, good to have a backup system that works properly on W8.

Cheers M :thumb:

You apparently made a mistake in the production of the WinPE when you did it yourself. The 1.7GB file is NOT the recovery tool but a Microsoft program called WAIK that is used to produce the WinPE.

And a restore of 1 hour with such a small system I have never seen either. Mine usually takes 20 minutes and it is a lot bigger because I also have a virtual machine in my OS. I wonder what the problem is. Maybe you checked the verification. That would double the time.

 

[Mustang]

Thanks guys. It's a mysery to me too. Creating the image only took 3 or 4 minutes. So don't understand why restoring would take so long? I left the existing OS in place and it wrote over it. Would this make a difference? Do you need a clean HD with no partitions?

When I first opened the program on the top left of Window I clicked:

Create bootable rescues media --> Rescue environment type: Windows PE --> Next --> Warning comes up: This feature may require a download of over 1GB --> Continue --> Download WAIK with two options dotted: Download from Microsoft + Install the component required for the Macrium Reflect rescue disc.

When it had finished downloading there was an ISO file of 1.67GB. And it also started installing the donwloaded software. I stopped it installing as I thought the ISO file was the rescue disk. If I had let it finish installing would it have then produced a new small rescue ISO?

So why does it produce an ISO file if it only needs to load the 1.67GB onto your computer? It offers the option to delete the ISO file after installation. I'm sorry but I'm confused? Why do I need an extra 1.67GB on my PC to get a 170MB rescue disk?

When I created the image I did go to advanced options and it already had dotted "Intelligent sector copy (Recommended)". And this created quickly with no drama.

I have the image stored on a Corsair SATA3 SSD storage drive separate to the HD for the OS. Does it have any problems reading from SSD SATA3 drives?

 

[whs]

Do you need a clean HD with no partitions?

No, you don't.

If I had let it finish installing would it have then produced a new small rescue ISO?

Yes, you were too eager to get it done.

Why do I need an extra 1.67GB on my PC to get a 170MB rescue disk?

I agree with you. But WAIK is the vehicle they use to produce the WinPE. You can uninstall it. I kept it because it is handy if one day they come with a new Macrium version where you have to make a new WinPE.

Does it have any problems reading from SSD SATA3 drives?

It should not. I use Sata3 SSDs.

 

[Mustang]

Thanks WHS. I think I'll start all over again from scratch, but wonder whether to keep the rescue CD I made from the site you had a link to in your other post; or get the WAIK and get it from that? I re-ran the restore of the image and it was a bit of a worry how long it took to load the rescue disk ... about 4 - 5 minutes.

Is there an option to set the read/write rate for restoration of the image? I looked but coulnd't find one.

Cheers M

 

[whs]

The restore CD you downloaded from my site should be fine. You can also use it to make an image - not only recover. I don't think you can speed up the R/W.

 

[Mustang]

I tried Macrium on my backup machine with W8 on DH67CL board and i5-2400 CPU, 8GB RAM, onboard graphics and SATA3 SSD HD.

The recovery disk took about 2 minutes to load, and the restore of my OS took just over 10 minutes.

The OS with all 3rd party programs loaded but no personal data, music, videos, etc, is 27GB. That's quite acceptable from my point of view.

Thansk whs for the heads up on this program. :thumb:

 

[tseax]

I've used Acronis True Image for years and am glad of it. Before that, Norton Ghost (those were the days). The build of ATI 2013 I'm using presently (with no issues) is 5551. It appears to be the latest at this moment.