Free backup software

[Dch48]

I respect the opinions of the people here even though I don't always follow them so I have a question. I have never done system images before because I never had a HDD big enough to hold them. I recently bought a 500gb Toshiba USB 3.0 drive and it works great. I have done a few images with the free version of EaseUS Todo backup and it seems to work fine. I had narrowed down my choices to that one or the free Macrium Reflect. I do not want to use the built in Windows utility because I have read that the restoration from it's backups don't always work well.

Which one do you feel is the better option, EaseUS or Macrium? They both get good reviews.

[Eddy]

You don't need a hd to create a image of the system (main drive).
You can also use cd(rw)'s/dvd(rw)'s and (although you need a lot of them) even floppies and such.
With image software it depends on the compression you choose.
But you will need about 20% (or less) of the amount of data on the media that you choose to put the image on.

[Dch48]

You don't need a hd to create a image of the system (main drive).
You can also use cd(rw)'s/dvd(rw)'s and (although you need a lot of them) even floppies and such.
With image software it depends on the compression you choose.
But you will need about 20% (or less) of the amount of data on the media that you choose to put the image on.

I know that but that would go too slow. EaseUS does a full backup of 170GB in 32 minutes. That's pretty fast. That's using a 3.0 port. Using 2.0, my other computer takes the same amount of time to back up 21GB.

I've read a lot of reviews and they all said EaseUS and Macrium were good. Hopefully I will never have to use an image but you never know. I also don't care about automatic backups. I just want to do them manually whenever I feel like it.

[timcan]

Hi, here is my opinion. 
I would choose Macrium simply because you can build a WinPE 3 or a WinPE4 restore disk. WinPE4 has usb 3.0 support by default.
According to this: http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software-features.htm the Easeus restore disk is Linux based.I don't know
if it supports usb 3.0 or not.
As with any imaging software you should test the restore disk to make sure it "sees" your hard disks before the need for it arises.
Hope this helps.

[schmidthouse]

You don't need a hd to create a image of the system (main drive).
You can also use cd(rw)'s/dvd(rw)'s and (although you need a lot of them) even floppies and such.
With image software it depends on the compression you choose.
But you will need about 20% (or less) of the amount of data on the media that you choose to put the image on.

I know that but that would go too slow. EaseUS does a full backup of 170GB in 32 minutes. That's pretty fast. That's using a 3.0 port. Using 2.0, my other computer takes the same amount of time to back up 21GB.

I've read a lot of reviews and they all said EaseUS and Macrium were good. Hopefully I will never have to use an image but you never know. I also don't care about automatic backups. I just want to do them manually whenever I feel like it.

That is basically how I approach my Backup needs. I can't speak for your first choice but I do use Macrium (Standard) along with a 500GB Ext HD such as your approach.
I also run real time back with the WD software along with Situational Disk Images using Macrium.

[DavidR]

I think one of the biggest things about this type of software is how it goes about restoring an image.

Invariably they will probably need a boot device (CD/DVD/USB) which runs the restore side of the backup software on boot. Once run essentially you point it at where the backup images are located and which you want to restore.

[schmidthouse]

+1 David
And you have been condoning a Back up Strategy since forever.
I'm a newby to it...

[SpeedyPC]

@Dch48 I've used Macrium Reflect Free and in come with Windows PE v3.0 for W7 & PE v4.0 is for W8 & 8.1, and you can backup straight to your second HD or SSD or even straight to your USB backup drive using Windows PE. You can restore your image using Windows PE straight from your second HD or SSD or even straight to your USB backup drive without any issue or problems, however you must keep your drivers update before you create a Windows PE rescued disk otherwise it will not pickup or recognised your hardware and your USB device.

I've been using Macrium Reflect Free for nearly 2 years and I will never change or to look back to another image software, another great image software called Image for Windows from TeraByte which is not free and I've read great review and feedback that Image for Windows is very very good.

[Dch48]

The emergency disk for EaseUS indeed is Linux based but I tested it and it does indeed recognize the external HDD and show the backups for all 3 computers I have backed up. One uses USB 3 and the other 2 only have 2.0 ports. I think I will stick with it since most reviewers rate it as faster and better than Macrium.

[Hard_ROCKER]

The emergency disk for EaseUS indeed is Linux based but I tested it and it does indeed recognize the external HDD and show the backups for all 3 computers I have backed up. One uses USB 3 and the other 2 only have 2.0 ports. I think I will stick with it since most reviewers rate it as faster and better than Macrium.

The nice thing about the free version of EaseUS is that it supports incremental images, the lack of this feature on Macrium free was always a put off for me. If the linux recovery disk works fine for you(works over here) then EaseUS is the better choice. I recommend you try a restore from the recovery enviroment first before fully deciding though.

That being said though, there is another free solution out there that is rapidly gaining in popularity. This one supports incremental/differential backups, scheduling and has an option to create WinPE recovery media. I haven't used it personally but i guess it's worth to check out, it's called AOMEI Backupper:   http://www.backup-utility.com/free-backup-software.html

[CraigB]

I've never had an issue using Windows image, it's always worked great for me on all the win7/8 systems I look after but Tech did post a link to a nice one for Win8 if I did happen to want one https://www.slimwareutilities.com/recimg_manager.php

[Rohugh]

............. That being said though, there is another free solution out there that is rapidly gaining in popularity. This one supports incremental/differential backups, scheduling and has an option to create WinPE recovery media. I haven't used it personally but i guess it's worth to check out, it's called AOMEI Backupper:   http://www.backup-utility.com/free-backup-software.html

That is one that I use,  although never had to call on it to do a restore.  Nice clean,  easy to follow interface,  reasonably fast and (so far) "Does what it says on the box". 

[Dch48]

I tried AOMEI and it is fast and has a lot of options. Most of which however, I would never use. I'm not interested in incremental or scheduled backups. I'm also having a problem with it.  I tried to create a WinPE boot disk. It says that my system does support this function and it should work. The first time, I created the ISO file and then burned it to a CD with ImgBurn. ImgBurn said the process had completed successfully so I tried booting from the disc. During bootup, my computer hesitated a few seconds and then booted straight into Win7 from the hard drive. Trying to explore the CD, it shows as being empty. I tried again but this time burning the disc directly with AOMEI. It also said it had completed successfully but the same thing happens. The disk does not boot and shows as empty. If I have to add drivers, I have no idea which ones to even look for. If I have to install any toolkits or such, that's a no-go for me. I'll stick with EaseUS and it's Linux based disk.

I also tried the Linux Disc from AOMEI. I tried creating a Linux disc. It burned and does boot. However, it does not find the external HDD that the backup was created on so that is useless to me as well.

UPDATE: The Linux disc does find the HDD and the backup file but only if the HDD is connected to a USB 2.0 port. It will not find it when connected via USB 3.0. The EaseUS Linux disc does find it when connected either way.

[timcan]

I tried Easeus briefly, it's restore disk can not recognize my verbatim 500 GB usb hard drive. I'm glad it works for most people.
The Macrium  WinPE  works on any pc I've tried it on.(All different hardware)

[Arnold72]

Sorry to be slightly off topic here but....ive used AOMEI backupper and created the bootable cd and imaged my windows 7 computer a dozen times.
Lets say i ditched windows 7 altogether from the hard drive and installed a linux distro.If at some time i wanted to use windows 7 again would AOMEI restore one of my images back on to my HDD again.?

Thanks.