Anyone use Casper cloning software by fssdev?

I have used Casper for more than 10 y, and it did the job (basically scheduled automatic back-ups of my data drive to an external HD) until 6 months ago. Since then, Casper 10 or 11 does not work properly any longer for me. I have tried it all, updated to the new versions (11.xxx), contacting support, nothing helped. The software does not seem to be able to update the backup version of my data drive any longer whether in "SmartClone" or just Standard mode. It takes for ever, like up to 3 days, including a ridiculous amount of time for the task titled "verifying drive D", then the actual copying takes days, even when only a few files were changed since the last copy. And the task is often interrupted with various errors or even sometime an alert saying that the program stopped because it could not find a valid licence, when the licence number actually appears in the program GUI very own "File" tab. Support asked for a config file after I initiated a ticket 10 days ago but I am still waiting for their suggestion to help solve the issue.

SoFine409 said:

That terrible. It sounds like Acronis especially the lack of support. Do yourself a big favor and try Macrium Reflect Free. If you like it you can buy the paid version. The Free version comes with a 30 trial if the full version.

Will do. Thx for the suggestion!

Another problem with Casper is that AFAIK, it offers no protection against ransomware attack by watching what process is trying to access the image. Even worst: it offers the option to prepare the external drive for disconnection once the copy is over, but that actually does not work; I can NEVER eject the drive properly once the copy is over, even when Quick disconnect is opted for under Windows param. On the last occurrence, after physically disconnecting the USB drive, the partition that was the target of the previous clone task became unreadable, so I had to reformat it and start the whole copy process again.

Similarly, the email alert announcing a successful backup has been completed is never actually sent by Casper despite the option being selected.

SoFine409 said:

I’ve been using Macrium for several years and it’s never failed to successfully restore an image. I do a lot of experimenting so I restore images routinely, never a failure. You can create a VM from any image using iVBoot included with the paid version. That’s very handy. It’s a good product with excellent support.

I just tried Macrium. I don't like it, because, unless I am mistaken, it stands between the back-up (images) it creates in a proprietary format and the user. Casper just updates a clone that is directly accessible with Windows explorer. Much easier to use.

I also found out why Casper was misbehaving since recently: I had installed Kapersky in an effort to protect myself against ransomware. But this software interferes too closely with other applications that have deep system administrative access (like Casper) in an attempt to foil any trojan attack. I removed it (not so easy), and Casper functions normally again to my satisfaction. I wish Casper had an antiransomware watching function to protect at least the clone it creates though.

pbr said:

I just tried Macrium. I don't like it, because, unless I am mistaken, it stands between the back-up (images) it creates in a proprietary format and the user. Casper just updates a clone that is directly accessible with Windows explorer. Much easier to use.

I also found out why Casper was misbehaving since recently: I had installed Kapersky in an effort to protect myself against ransomware. But this software interferes too closely with other applications that have deep system administrative access (like Casper) in an attempt to foil any trojan attack. I removed it (not so easy), and Casper functions normally again to my satisfaction. I wish Casper had an antiransomware watching function to protect at least the clone it creates though.

Well done for figuring that out.

Casper is my daily cloning app (scheduled once/day). Works fine. Can actually boot from that USB clone (which is rare for other apps). Only "issue" is that the app's info screen about this clone shows that the task has "never" been done; this is a programming error about which I informed them multiple times and, in spite of receiving my screenshots proving the issue exists, they've done nothing to fix it. Okay...well, as long as it continues to actually -do- the job, I can cut them some slack.

I came from using a Mac for many years and we had Carbon Copy Cloner which does essentially the same thing as Casper.

Tried EaseUs software but it never worked. Macrium's Reflect was okay but the clone wasn't bootable. That might not bother most folks as long as there's a documented method for recovery (and one has created the bootable rescue disk as instructed).

For my "files and folders" backups (non-bootable data disks), I use SyncBackSE's Mirror function. One may create a "group" of tasks which SyncBackSE will execute sequentially; I like that.

No issue with Malwarebytes, as well.