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 Post Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 4:28 pm 
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Okay Acadia here we go with the backup stuff.

First a bit of background. Back in the 2004 time frame I realized the need, but was terrified at the thought of a restore, it is does wipe the system first. So I imaged with 4 programs none of which I ever restored. Then with a new system I stuck my toe in.

I eventually hooked up with Nate B at Storagecraft and started beta testing with them. Most of the testers were corporate clients and wouldn't test restores so that became my territory. It had some interesting moments. But over the course of 5 years, 3 raid 0 machines, and then newer machines, I probably did over 1000 restores. Never a failure with the release versions. Since then I've branched out, and was one of a couple of people on Wilders who put the new Macrium v6 thru it's prerelease paces.

So what do I look for in an imaging program. No. 1 Reliablity. One failure is unacceptable. No. 2 Speed. There can be a huge difference between speeds. No. 3 Ease of use, at least relatively speaking. No. 4 The software needs to allow mounting an image as a virtual drive letter.

How do I test a new imaging program. Install obviously, and then try an create a recovery CD. Amazingly there are a couple of programs I've never succeed. Another issue is how difficult it is. If successful, I then boot to it, to be sure it works. At this point, I take an image, and then restore it. Caveat!! When I look at the restore destination, I need to be able to see partition labels, and they need to be unique to each disk. If all that is there are disk numbers I wouldn't trust a restore and the program is discarded. Going on, it should restore, no disk errors and put the system back properly. At this point if I am still serious and on a 30day trial I go into a test phase.

Test phase is taking 3 images a day and doing 3 restores. Time consuming yes, but then I have a good level of confidence. If you work during the day, I'd still try and do as many as you can.

Lastly is the stress test. Don't do this if it's your first imaging program. What I do is start a restore, and after a few minutes, hit the power reset. This will leave you with a trashed unbootable system. The imaging program should be able to recover. If it can't bye bye. (Restore with another program)

IMPORTANT POINT. There is another reason for all the testing. If something happens where you really need to restore. I can guarantee, it won't be at a convenient time, and you will be stressed. This is not the time to learn you imaging software. This is the time you need to almost be able to do it in your sleep.

Okay. Now for some the programs I own, and find can be used successfully.

Macrium Reflect v6 Home

It is the speed demon of restore and incremental images. Also I've not had a single failure doing some ridiculous testing. Not the hardest, but not the easiest to set up. But if you are setting it up for some one feature can't be beat. You can put an icon on the desktop for someone and all they have to do is plug a drive in if they don't have an extra internal. Double click the icon and come back in a couple of minutes. Can't beat it. My recommendation

Shadowprotect. Old reliable, no longer the fastest and probably the most expense, but for some uses it can't be beat.

Image for Windows. Extremely reliable, speed pretty good. Just not for beginners in any way shape or form.

Drive Snapshot. Good price, easy on the imaging side, but not at all on the restore side. Reliable, but again not for beginners.

AOMEI. It's awkward due to translation from Chinese to English. But it isn't a bad program. I never had a failure with it. Just is slow on all counts.

One last point. Why is the mount feature so important. It's comforting to know an image is good before trying a restore. The classic way is verify, but unfortunately Ive found that you can successfully verify an image and it won't restore successfully. Whereas what I do is mount an image and play a video from the virtual image. I've never had a restore fail when that was successful.

Fire away with questions. If there is another imaging program you are interested in let me know. Be glad to test it. and finally if anyone needs any help with any of this, I'd be glad to help.

Pete


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 Post Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 6:11 pm 
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This is getting to be too much for the General Computing forum. I'm going to move it over to Advanced.

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