Author Topic: Free backup software  (Read 14319 times)

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Dch48

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Re: Free backup software
« Reply #15 on: December 29, 2013, 06:09:50 AM »
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.
I would think any one of the programs given here would do that.

Hard_ROCKER

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Re: Free backup software
« Reply #16 on: December 29, 2013, 12:22:11 PM »
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

Always worked well for me as well. When i was trying out imaging apps, i would always create a system image with the built-in Windows tool before i went about messing with other imaging apps, just in case. Saved my butt a few times.  ;D

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.

Sorry to hear that about AOMEI, i see you already posted about this problem on their website. Hopefully their support will be able to help you sort out the issue.

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)

Are you using Macrium or IFW ? I am a huge fan of IFW myself, quite possibly the best imaging app i've ever used.  ;D

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.
I would think any one of the programs given here would do that.

Correct, only thing you would probably need to do is re-arrange/convert your partitions back into NTFS since Linux uses a different filesystem.

timcan

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Re: Free backup software
« Reply #17 on: December 29, 2013, 02:43:52 PM »






Are you using Macrium or IFW ? I am a huge fan of IFW myself, quite possibly the best imaging app i've ever used.  ;D





Hi, I was referring to Macrium (trying to stay on topic of free backup)  :). I do actually have a paid license for it.

I do use Terabytes IFW as my main imaging program.It has never failed me in any way. I also use Ghost,another reliable imager.

Offline DavidR

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Re: Free backup software
« Reply #18 on: December 29, 2013, 02:53:42 PM »
Are you using Macrium or IFW ? I am a huge fan of IFW myself, quite possibly the best imaging app i've ever used.  ;D

Hi, I was referring to Macrium (trying to stay on topic of free backup)  :). I do actually have a paid license for it.

I do use Terabytes IFW as my main imaging program.It has never failed me in any way. I also use Ghost,another reliable imager.

Interesting I'm still using the Father-in-law of Ghost, Drive Image (on my XP Pro system) by PowerQuest (bought out by Norton) and that is still doing excellent service. Whilst this was a paid version I have more than got my monies worth out of it.
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Offline bob3160

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Re: Free backup software
« Reply #19 on: December 29, 2013, 03:58:16 PM »
The Windows backup available since Windows Vista and still available in Windows 8.1
has always been a reliable program for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llb2gKKoFiI&feature=share&list=PL76sUFOv9TgIbNr47LAgTHaWlywLbG6wc&index=68
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Dch48

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Re: Free backup software
« Reply #20 on: December 29, 2013, 08:03:26 PM »
Yes , Bob, the one in Windows 7 and 8 does work but is very slow at creating and restoring images and there are reports all over the web of images not being able to restore at all. The one in Vista is not nearly as good.

Dch48

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Re: Free backup software
« Reply #21 on: December 29, 2013, 08:16:56 PM »
Okay, I have found that the WinPE disk created with AOMEI does boot and work in my older Win 8.1 machine. I don't even have AOMEI installed on that one and was able to do a system backup just from the boot disk. It actually boots into a slimmed down version of Windows 7. I also found that my Ultimate Boot CD will not boot or even be recognized in this machine but works fine in the other one. Every other bootable disc I own works in this one. I suspect it may be the brand of CD, Memorex, that is causing the problem. Maybe my drive doesn't like them (even though the Linux based boot disc and my Win7 repair disc are on Memorex CD's and work fine) . I ordered some Verbatim ones and will try them.

HP laptops have a history of problems with Memorex discs but previously, I only had issues with their DVD+RW ones. The CD's have never given problems before.

Offline bob3160

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Re: Free backup software
« Reply #22 on: December 30, 2013, 12:15:35 AM »
Yes , Bob, the one in Windows 7 and 8 does work but is very slow at creating and restoring images and there are reports all over the web of images not being able to restore at all. The one in Vista is not nearly as good.
My advice is from personal experience. Not from what I've read on the net.... :)
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Dch48

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Re: Free backup software
« Reply #23 on: January 03, 2014, 09:47:09 PM »
Okay, I remade the WinPE disk on a Verbatim disk instead of Memorex and it works perfectly. I also added in my USB 3.0 drivers and my external HDD is now recognized by the boot disk. I have consequently switched all 3 Windows computers over to AOMEI from EaseUS and I like it better. I would say however, that if AOMEI provides a WinPE boot disk, it should include USB 3.0 drivers since the technology isn't exactly new. Finding the .inf files for the 2 drivers needed was not that easy. Luckily my machine is an HP which saves all default drivers in a folder called SWSETUP. You just need to find the right package (and the names can be misleading) after determining what the name of the actual driver file is.

Hard_ROCKER

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Re: Free backup software
« Reply #24 on: January 04, 2014, 12:09:15 PM »
Okay, I remade the WinPE disk on a Verbatim disk instead of Memorex and it works perfectly. I also added in my USB 3.0 drivers and my external HDD is now recognized by the boot disk. I have consequently switched all 3 Windows computers over to AOMEI from EaseUS and I like it better. I would say however, that if AOMEI provides a WinPE boot disk, it should include USB 3.0 drivers since the technology isn't exactly new. Finding the .inf files for the 2 drivers needed was not that easy. Luckily my machine is an HP which saves all default drivers in a folder called SWSETUP. You just need to find the right package (and the names can be misleading) after determining what the name of the actual driver file is.

Well that is certainly encouraging news. Have you tried to do a restore yet ?

Dch48

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Re: Free backup software
« Reply #25 on: January 05, 2014, 02:45:36 AM »
Okay, I remade the WinPE disk on a Verbatim disk instead of Memorex and it works perfectly. I also added in my USB 3.0 drivers and my external HDD is now recognized by the boot disk. I have consequently switched all 3 Windows computers over to AOMEI from EaseUS and I like it better. I would say however, that if AOMEI provides a WinPE boot disk, it should include USB 3.0 drivers since the technology isn't exactly new. Finding the .inf files for the 2 drivers needed was not that easy. Luckily my machine is an HP which saves all default drivers in a folder called SWSETUP. You just need to find the right package (and the names can be misleading) after determining what the name of the actual driver file is.

Well that is certainly encouraging news. Have you tried to do a restore yet ?
Here's what I did today. I booted this Win 7 machine with the PE disk and did a restore of my 8.1 backup from the external HDD it was made on to another one. I then attempted to boot the machine from the HDD with the restored image and---it worked. Windows 8.1 booted and after a short period of initializing the hardware on this machine which is different from the machine the backup was done from, Windows 8.1 worked perfectly with all the programs and files from the 8.1 system present and working.  I think that proves that AOMEI does a very good job.

The only thing was that 8.1 was not showing as activated. I'm sure that was because it was running on a different machine than the one it was licensed to and would be fine on that machine. I'm confident now that if I ever have to restore an image on any one of the 3 machines here, one with Win7 Home Premium 64 bit, one with Vista Home Basic 32 bit, and the other with 8.1 Pro 32 bit, that it will work as it's supposed to. It's a good program in my opinion.

Hard_ROCKER

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Re: Free backup software
« Reply #26 on: January 06, 2014, 08:56:18 PM »
That is good to hear, glad i mentioned the program. :)

A bit off- topic but wanted to share this with you guys:

Softpedia Giveaway – Unlimited Licenses for AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Softpedia-Giveaway-Unlimited-Licenses-for-AOMEI-Partition-Assistant-Pro-413433.shtml

timcan

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Re: Free backup software
« Reply #27 on: January 07, 2014, 12:32:39 AM »
That is good to hear, glad i mentioned the program. :)

A bit off- topic but wanted to share this with you guys:

Softpedia Giveaway – Unlimited Licenses for AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Softpedia-Giveaway-Unlimited-Licenses-for-AOMEI-Partition-Assistant-Pro-413433.shtml

Hi, thanks for sharing.  :)
I've always used gparted for my partitioning needs. Aomei may be a keeper.Doesn't appear to be any background processes running or start up entries in msconfig. The PE disk created and boots just fine. Thanks

Hard_ROCKER

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Re: Free backup software
« Reply #28 on: January 07, 2014, 12:12:41 PM »
You're welcome. :)

Offline Cast

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Re: Free backup software
« Reply #29 on: February 17, 2014, 06:48:47 AM »
I know this thread is a bit old but I wanted to thank everyone here for their comments as I too found this thread useful.

I have been doing backups but with the default windows one and I have been wondering about other alternatives out there.