My wife's main PC is an old WinXP Pro SP3 (x86) desktop which she loves. Years ago, I installed a backup program from CMS Products. I faithfully used it weekly to backup the system to an external FireWire Seagate drive. Until last week, I never had a need to do a full restore using the CMS Rescue CD. When I did, it failed miserably. There were no error messages during the restore, but when I booted the restored PC, there were many, many more things wrong than there were before the restore.
Bottom line, I'm looking for a new system backup/imaging program to replace the CMS piece-o-junk.
I've read mixed reviews on Acronis True Image and Norton Ghost. Users seem to either love them or hate them. Some have never tried to do a restore. Others have tried to do a restore and had there own variety of problems.
I'm looking for recommendations from you guys since I trust your opinions... especially those who have actually done a full restore either successfully or unsuccessfully.
I would prefer to continue using the external FireWire Seagate drive for my backups/images so I would need a program that supports that interface for a restore. Under Windows, it is seen as a normal drive letter in My Computer. It does also have a USB2 interface, but I would have find (or buy) that cable with the right connector ends.
Thanks in advance for any comments!
p.s. - I've spent the last 2 days scratch loading it and I'm still not completely done.
The one and only disk imaging software I've used extensively is Macrium Reflect (Free Edition), which has never once failed me and has saved me a handful of times, plus it creates the backups very fast. There's of course other freeware imaging software too such as DriveImage XML, etc.
I first used Acronis, but when I did an update it was using me
By which I mean that it took control of where I could hold backups and prevented me from re-configuring as I wished.
I now use Macrium Reflect and it has never let me down.
I do recommend that whatever you use, you should NOT restore your system until you have first (at least as a once off) used your Boot Rescue CD etc to :-
verify/validate the image backup.( do not wait for the restoration to delete your system and then discover the CD lacks drivers for USB3 port or FireWire to the external files ) and also
restore the image a a non-essential "test" partition on your internal disk to prove you have a compatible driver.
A significant number of Acronis users have in the past suffered from blind faith - they made their backups and wrongly assumed that restoration could not go wrong ... go wrong ... go wrong ... go wrong
Hope that helps, and take note of the many mentions in those threads of "Verifying" any Image after creation and before restoration, and the importance of testing the Rescue CD.
And yet another Macrium Reflect convert (free version) some 18 months ago; I took the advice of Andavari, the best thing I have ever done.
As Alan_B states make sure you check/verify your backup image/files and then test your Boot Rescue CD disk so you know for sure that when the ship hits the sand you can restore all back to normal.
Personally I have Macrium perform a weekly backup, my backup file size is 76.2gig and normally only takes 26 minutes. (I also have created TWO RESCUE DISKS - just in case)
You can also configure daily, weekly or monthly checks for Macrium Reflect software updates.
Thanks guys. I've been doing some reading about Macrium to get familiar with it. I'm trying to decide if I want to go with the free version or the Standard version to get the incremental and differential capability.
Alan's comment got me thinking. Since I can't find any documentation that states FireWire support, I might try the free version, burn the rescue CD and try booting it to verify that it sees the FIreWire port & connected HDD. Unfortunately, the internal HDD is only one partition so I don't have a "test" partition. Maybe I should create one with GParted.
I'll let you know how I make out. I don't want to have to scratch load this system - again - anytime soon. It takes too long to get it set up the way it was.
OK, installed the free version & did my 1st backup.
Went to create the Rescue CD and... the WAIK download is 1.7GB!?! I've got a 25MB internet connection and it's too slow for this hugh file. Guess I'll just let the PC run tonight after I go to bed.
Acronis here for win xp. TrueImage version 11 and Disk Director version 10.
These versions work well on my old favorite win xp computer but do not work on this newer, dual boot one (win 7 + win xp). I think thats because of the UEFI type BIOS and the GPT formatted original HDD.
The one thing Acronis did that was worth the price (I got it for about ten dollars) was to clone a win xp hard drive.
OK, installed the free version & did my 1st backup.
Went to create the Rescue CD and... the WAIK download is 1.7GB!?! I've got a 25MB internet connection and it's too slow for this hugh file. Guess I'll just let the PC run tonight after I go to bed.
I assume your first backup was to your Firewire drive which proves compatibility.
That almost guarantees the WinPE Rescue will work - but you still need to test it.
You do not need the 1.7 GB download for the Linux Boot Rescue, and it is possible that this also will work on FireWire.
WinPE rescue has benefits over Linux.
I especially appreciate that when a Windows Security update trashed Windows,
I was able to use WinPE to create an image backup of my trashed Windows before I restored normality from the previous backup.
Once Windows was working it took perhaps 1 minute total to mount the image of "broken C:\" and compare with "working C:\"
and then copy from "broken C:\" the last versions of my documents and other work that had been in progress until destruction.
N.B. I use Portable BestSync from Risefly for partition / folder / file comparisons.
Sorry, but this smells of a paid ad placement campaign, or direct advertising. Furthermore, the cost of the above software is 49.95. I suggest Piriform mods delete the above msg. as it reads like spam.
Finally, one of my personal rules when conducting backup operations is to go with proven, tested, and trusted stuff. Use something people have had experience with. Use something where bugs are known and characterized and workarounds have been developed. Use something members right here have had direct experience with.
Do not mistake this attitude as being stingy or closed-minded. I'm all for new software and everything. But if you must use new backup software, use it on a non-critical system where you can reformat and re-install without hassle or downtime.
I know little-to-nothing of the above software, and I'm willing to bet everyone here doesn't either.
(Mod edit: For clarification these comments refer to a deleted spam post, and not to other forum members or software mentioned in this thread.)
Sorry, but this smells of a paid ad placement campaign, or direct advertising. Furthermore, the cost of the above software is 49.95. I suggest Piriform mods delete the above msg. as it reads like spam.
Finally, one of my personal rules when conducting backup operations is to go with proven, tested, and trusted. Use something people have had experience with. Use something where bugs are known and characterized and workarounds have been developed. Use something members right here have had direct experience with.
Do not mistake this attitude as being stingy or closed-minded. I'm all for new software and everything. But if you must use new backup software, use it on a non-critical system where you can reformat and re-install without hassle or downtime.
I know little-to-nothing of the above software, and I'm willing to bet everyone here doesn't either.
I've deleted the post and banned the user.
He posted the same earlier this morning using a different identity.
After a little trouble burning the Rescue disk (WinPE), I was able to boot it and verify the image I had made to the FireWire external HDD. Macrium's internal burning program didn't write anything to the CD. I ended up telling it to create an iso image and I used another burning program to burn that iso to CD - I made 2. I also saved the iso image as a file on another external HDD... just in case I need to burn another Rescue disk.
Is the only way to verify the image by booting the Rescue CD? I looked for the verify option while setting up the image creation, but didn't find it. Am I missing something? It seems like a lot of steps:
1. Create the image from WinXP (~40 minutes in my case)
2. Shut down WinXP & boot the Macrium Rescue CD to verify the image
3. Reboot WinXP
This morning I'm going to try creating a "test" partion with Gparted, put some data in it and actually try an image and then restore to see what happens.
For those of you flying with WesternDigital or Seagate, check and see if your drive mfg. is offering free Acronis. This would be the lite version, missing things like incremental & differential. But fully featured otherwise. You must also have WD or S drive someplace in the system, because it's branded to work with that hardware only.
You can also make a rescue disk with one or two clicks. It's Linux based and handles a number of drive interfaces. From there you can boot and conduct your backup. I'm still old school and prefer offline imaging as opposed to "live" or "VSS" style. But the latter two seem to work fine.
Is the only way to verify the image by booting the Rescue CD? I looked for the verify option while setting up the image creation, but didn't find it.
Macrium doesn't have built in Rescue CD verification after burning the disc. What you did via the ISO image you could then have your burning software verify the disc after burning, I know ImgBurn can do this since it's what I use, you'd just need to tick the Verify box during the burn. There's many CD/DVD burning software that can't verify after burning ISO image files.
And yes you'd need to boot the Rescue CD even after say ImgBurn verified all files were written correctly to it, reason being you need to know now if the Rescue CD will actually boot your computer without any hiccups well before you'd need to ever use it.