Best Imaging Software Suggestions

JamesJ

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I just had a bad experience with Active@ Disk image and have sent them a support ticket.
I'm wondering what good imaging software I can use.
How is the Windows 7 File Recovery that comes with Windows 8.
When trying to restore an image yesterday I booted to Active@ boot disk and after only a few minutes I got the following error:
"Failed to write (number of bytes) to disk at T1048576. Error=0"
Now unless I get a reply soon form them I will go with other imaging software.

James
 
So you haven't tried the Windows 7 File Recovery?
Can I create a boot disk with Macrium Free??

James
 
I use a combination of windows7 file recovery and windows8 file history. The windows 8 tool is really just a version control system and can't be considered as backup. The bizarrely named Windows 7 file recovery is a true backup facility.

I use it to make regular scheduled system images so I can always restore my C drive. I also use it to make a daily file backup of my data drive (I always have had see rate system and data drives or partitions). I have also used Acronis in the past and trialled it again recently but I think there is no real need for a third party solution as the built in facility works so well.
I used it routinely in Windows 7 and continue to to do I restored an image only the other day.
 
So you haven't tried the Windows 7 File Recovery?
Can I create a boot disk with Macrium Free??

James
Yes, but it's a long process and that's why I use an already made from WHS and put it in a USB stick to boot from.
And no, I haven't tried any backup software from either W7 or W8.
I like the fact that using the 3rd party software, I get one single image and I can mount it to selectively restore any file using explorer with drag & drop, or do a complete restore.
 
I installed Reflex and downloaded ADKSetup. That was over an hour ago and it's still installing.
I'm getting a bit frustrated here.
 
How darn long does it take for ADKSetup to install??!! It's been installing for over a half an hour.
It took me less time to install Windows 8 today.
 
I couldn't take this any more. I ended the task and I'll uninstall Reflex. I have software to install and things to do.
I installed Reflex I believe nearly 2 hours ago and it still wasn't done installing the utility.
I'll find another.
 
So you haven't tried the Windows 7 File Recovery?
Can I create a boot disk with Macrium Free??

James

Windows 7 file recovery works great and is very simple to set up.

I never have any problems using those images.

You don't even need a boot disk for recovery, but it gives the option to create one. The Windows 8 CD with it's advanced recovery options works fine and takes you straight to the images on your back up drives.
 
I have used Windows System Imaging since Windows 7 first came out and now with Windows 8. It works well most of the time, but on occasion I have had an image that I can't restore for one reason or another. That is why I also use Macrium Reflect as a backup imaging program, which I run from a bootable WinPE disk. I have never had an image made with Macrium fail to restore.
 
Like topgundcp, I encountered the shell freeze problem in Acronis True Image 2013. But that problem has now been fixed (a replacement for a proxy file is needed) and a new version update is due out any day now.

I've had enormous trouble with just about every version of Acronis imagining software. It is hard to install and harder to clean up.
It can crash your system and leave it unbootable. Getting Acronis support for help may also crash your system and leave it unbootable.

But eventually, I've managed to find a way to get versions to work and they work very well indeed. I can back up and verify my system drive in about 15-20 minutes. A full recovery takes at most 15 minutes. It's great if you can get it to work.
 
Like topgundcp, I encountered the shell freeze problem in Acronis True Image 2013. But that problem has now been fixed (a replacement for a proxy file is needed) and a new version update is due out any day now.

I've had enormous trouble with just about every version of Acronis imagining software. It is hard to install and harder to clean up.
It can crash your system and leave it unbootable. Getting Acronis support for help may also crash your system and leave it unbootable.

But eventually, I've managed to find a way to get versions to work and they work very well indeed. I can back up and verify my system drive in about 15-20 minutes. A full recovery takes at most 15 minutes. It's great if you can get it to work.
I was also an Acronis user for number of years and yes it did a decent job but most of the times I only use it offline ie. to boot the PC from CD or USB stick to do backup/restore, in order to browse the image to selectively restore files, I needed to install Acronis, then had problem with the Shell Extension.
Since Macrium Reflect is free, I thought that I tried it and I am completely surprised how well it does the job ie. fast, nice interface, light weight compared to Acronis, allows me to do online backup by taking a snapshot, allows me to selectively restore files by mounting the image as a virtual disk and best of all it took less than 7 minutes to do a 42GB backup of my C Drive and same amount of time to restore. So over all rating, Macrium is No. 1 on my list.
 
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Ever since I had a problem with Acronis True Image and Vista, which Acronis failed to solve. I have been using Paragon Hard Disc Manager. It has never failed me through Vista to Windows 8.
 
I have been using Paragon for a while.

It is the best if you are looking for a paid solution with all the extra functions.

Macrium seems to work fine for most - the free version is well liked.

Aomei backuper is a new free one - I am very impressed with it.

Easeus do a free one as well - it is large and intrusive, many swear by it.

There are several to choose from.
 
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