looking for a new back-up program

[neojapsz]

looking to replace my powerquest drive image v5 backup software with something newer and easy to use, any suggestions, looked at acronis true image but that gets some poor reviews from users on sites like download.com and amazon.

main use is backing up my OS and data, and if i have a hard drive failure been able to use the backup to put onto a new hard drive.

[wonderwrench]

Here is a free one I've heard good things about but never tried myself.
Though you cant restore the partition you are booted from.
They do have a plugin for BartPE so you can easily get around this problem.
Data Recovery Software - File System Utilities

I use True Image 9 BartPE plugin my self.

[Bofinn]

Acronis True Image...

[ctal]

If by "easier to use" you mean being able to image your os partition with a program that is running on that os, I wouldn't do that. Programs like Acronis can supposedly do that, and perhaps it will usually work, but for something so important I would not want to count on it.

I've been using Drive Image 6 (aka 2002) for a long time, either on a BartPE cd or on floppies, and I know that if I have to restore an image it will work. While Acronis is much more convenient, and works well for many people, the last time I looked places like Wilders Security Forums - Powered by vBulletin are replete with stories of people who found out when it was too late that their image was worthless.

It could be that a reason for the conflicting user experiences with True Image is that it is Linux-based (i.e., the recovery cd is), which might mean that its hardware compatibility is not as universal as it could be.

You may also want to check out the programs offered by TeraByte Unlimited :: Boot Manager :: Partition Manager :: Drive Image :: Disk Copy :: Drive Wipe :: Hard Drive Utilities. I use their boot manager program, BootItNG, on one of my systems (which is multibooted). It includes an imaging function which works very nicely. They also offer an imaging program that runs within Windows, which I have but have not used.

Regards,
-- Al

[wonderwrench]

Originally Posted by ctal

If by "easier to use" you mean being able to image your os partition with a program that is running on that os, I wouldn't do that. Programs like Acronis can supposedly do that, and perhaps it will usually work, but for something so important I would not want to count on it.

I've been using Drive Image 6 (aka 2002) for a long time, either on a BartPE cd or on floppies, and I know that if I have to restore an image it will work. While Acronis is much more convenient, and works well for many people, the last time I looked places like Wilders Security Forums - Powered by vBulletin are replete with stories of people who found out when it was too late that their image was worthless.

It could be that a reason for the conflicting user experiences with True Image is that it is Linux-based (i.e., the recovery cd is), which might mean that its hardware compatibility is not as universal as it could be.

You may also want to check out the programs offered by TeraByte Unlimited :: Boot Manager :: Partition Manager :: Drive Image :: Disk Copy :: Drive Wipe :: Hard Drive Utilities. I use their boot manager program, BootItNG, on one of my systems (which is multibooted). It includes an imaging function which works very nicely. They also offer an imaging program that runs within Windows, which I have but have not used.

Regards,
-- Al

One thing to keep in mind True image has a huge user base and forums are always going to show people having problems. If they were not having problems they would not be posting in the first place.

I think you are correct on the Linux base causing some problems on certain hardware. I have seen this my self. Using TI bartPE plugin gets around this problem in most cases. The only remaining trouble is if XP sp2 and or BartPE do not have the needed drivers for your hardware you can still have problems. Sure you can add the drivers to Bart but I never know what drivers I'll need on the next system I work on.

Some examples I have seen. On the rig in my sig TI9 boot disk does not see my drives or network card. If I use a BartPE disk with TI9 plugin I can't backup or restore to DVD do to the lack of drivers for the Marvell IDE controller. Its so slow it would take hours. This is really not a problem because DVD backups are a pain and not as reliable as backing up to a hard drive anyway.

I just worked on a newer Dell desktop and BartPE could not see the usb ports so I could not image to a external USB drive. It did have NIC drivers so I did the backup across my network.

Now I would guess any imaging program you do not run from your installed OS could have problems on certain hardware do to the lack of drivers. So one would need to make sure the Imaging software can backup and restore on their system.

I have done backups from within XP using TI9 many times and always had successful restores from a boot disk. So it can work but mileage my vary.
Like I said you have to prove the backup program you have works on your system.

BTW I use UBCD4WIN version of BartPE as it is more up to date, has better driver support. The built in plugin update feature is very nice also. The only down side is longer boot times compared to BartPE.

[traveler]

I'm still using Ghost 2003. It's perfect for backing up the operating system partition.

Once in a while I have to swap drivers on the Ghost Boot Floppy disk. But that's no big deal.

My philosophy is - Never run an imaging program from a hard drive.

Sone day I'll try True Image.

[ctal]

Good info for all to have, Wonderwrench. Thanks!

-- Al

[ctal]

Wow! Something I'm not familiar with called ShadowProtect just got quite a rave at PC Magazine:

Drive-Imaging: Beyond Backup - ShadowProtect Desktop 3.1 - Reviews by PC Magazine

Note in particular the following sentence:

"The software uses a reduced version of Vista (the Vista Pre-boot Environment, or Vista PE) for its bootable disc, which means that the emergency CD can access every kind of drive Vista can. This makes for much smoother operations than the Linux-based emergency CD used by True Image Home, which was confused by my complex system."

Regards,
-- Al

[ctal]

Aha! I looked at the website for the makers of ShadowProtect, Data backup software, online server backup, disaster recovery software, drive image backup, bare metal restore solutions by StorageCraft. It looks like they were founded in 2003, and a lot of their key people are former Powerquest employees! Powerquest created Drive Image, and also Partition Magic.

Regards,
-- Al

[ctal]

I looked over the documentation on ShadowProtect Desktop pretty thoroughly. Looks like a great product except for two very important things:

1. It apparently can't image an ext2/ext3 (Linux) partition (just FAT, FAT32, and NTFS partitions).

2. Cost. It is about $80 for one computer, and requires on-line activation. Prices for volume licensing for multiple computers aren't specified, but if you have several it will obviously be considerable.

Regards,
-- Al