Macrium Reflect vs. EaseUS Todo Backup Home

Hi folks
Whether one takes backups or not I suppose really depends on what you do with your computers and if you have several where do you store your actual running workloads.

I'm 100% not bothered at all about virus infections etc etc so I don't worry about "Contaminated Machines" - but I have a fair bit of legacy software which one can't get install disks, serial numbers, activation services, old hardware drivers etc. That sort of stuff does IMO need backing up.

For instance some software has now gone subscription - e.g Adobe photoshop and the like -- I'm still using Photoshop CS13 which handles all my needs perfectly. Not sure where I could get that from with activation if I lost a VM its running on. I'm also using a Mini Disc pro recorder (no enforced DRM on pro models - only on domestic ones) and some Vinyl record cutting hardware and software which still only works on XP - so a VM - doesn't need the Internet for that. Also an HP engineering blueprint plotter etc -- all perfectly good hardware working fine. I also try out various windows builds - usually on vhdx files so I can copy those if there's problems and restore and apply fixes as and when. Saves a lot of re-installing if doing quite a bit of testing.

It really does depend on what you want to do -- also if installing rubbish software that I can't easily remove then a restore back to the state before the install only takes minutes these days and is far better IMO than messing about with registry cleaners etc.

The real answer to this question is to decide what tasks you want to accomplish and THEN look at the various options - price, availability, reliability, ease of use etc etc.

I don't think you'd buy a Ferrari for use on dusty rutted dirt roads in Namibia for example or a large modern agricultural tractor for running about on freeways and in congested town centres.

Cheers
jimbo

I used EaseUS Todo Backup Home to create an ISO file and copied it onto a USB stick. I have successfully booted my PC from it in UEFI mode.

Paul Black said:

[1] Do you mean that you created an ISO of your running OS?
[2] Did you the Boot the ISO in PE?
[3] Do you mean you created a FULL System Image of the running OS and then Restored it?

The 539-MB "EmergencyDisk.iso" file contains EaseUS Todo Backup rather than the running OS.
I copied the ISO file onto my Ventoy USB stick and booted my PC from the file.
I did not create an image of the running OS.

I just found that EaseUS is owned by a Chinese company, which I have never heard of before.

Is EaseUS from China?

z3r010 said:

@John035 I generally don't use backup software on my home PC as I have nothing worth keeping and a good wipe every now and again keeps me from hoarding crap.

So I've been playing around with Todo and some of the features are lacking any sort of explanation of what they do - Tools\create emergency disk and Tools\Enable PreOS have absolutely no explanation of what they are going to do and this isn't very user-friendly for the average user, the PreOS option is pretty bad as you click on the menu option and it starts doing it without explaining what it is or asking if you really want to do it.

TBH overall I think everything in the tools menu could do with some instructions/info of what you are going to do or can do with the option, this would make it much more user-friendly for the average and novice use.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. That's one of the most important aspects. As if it can't be understood, the tool can be made better use. Will record this and report.

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jimbo45 said:

Hi folks
Whether one takes backups or not I suppose really depends on what you do with your computers and if you have several where do you store your actual running workloads.

I'm 100% not bothered at all about virus infections etc etc so I don't worry about "Contaminated Machines" - but I have a fair bit of legacy software which one can't get install disks, serial numbers, activation services, old hardware drivers etc. That sort of stuff does IMO need backing up.

For instance some software has now gone subscription - e.g Adobe photoshop and the like -- I'm still using Photoshop CS13 which handles all my needs perfectly. Not sure where I could get that from with activation if I lost a VM its running on. I'm also using a Mini Disc pro recorder (no enforced DRM on pro models - only on domestic ones) and some Vinyl record cutting hardware and software which still only works on XP - so a VM - doesn't need the Internet for that. Also an HP engineering blueprint plotter etc -- all perfectly good hardware working fine. I also try out various windows builds - usually on vhdx files so I can copy those if there's problems and restore and apply fixes as and when. Saves a lot of re-installing if doing quite a bit of testing.

It really does depend on what you want to do -- also if installing rubbish software that I can't easily remove then a restore back to the state before the install only takes minutes these days and is far better IMO than messing about with registry cleaners etc.

The real answer to this question is to decide what tasks you want to accomplish and THEN look at the various options - price, availability, reliability, ease of use etc etc.

I don't think you'd buy a Ferrari for use on dusty rutted dirt roads in Namibia for example or a large modern agricultural tractor for running about on freeways and in congested town centres.

Cheers
jimbo

That can't be more ture. And It will be better if I state why I do this survey.
I'm actually from EaseUS Software. And we are looking around what can we do to improve EaseUS Todo Backup Software.

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cereberus said:

I rather agree - with Macrium Reflect, there is extensive online help (although there are a lot of experienced users here who know 95+% of what is online, and they can usually help beginners, coupled with tutorials).

The Easeus site does not have much in the way of online help, it has vague descriptions plus screenshots.

I guess we are going to have to create some videos or tutorials, now we have many users?

Tools\create emergency disk and Tools\Enable PreOS are fairly self explanatory for Macrium Reflect Users but for beginners, I can see they would be possibly overwhelmed (not saying that applies to you LOL).

The problem is the gui is geared for minimum number of clicks to do a full backup or restore, but advanced features are really hard to work out. To do incrementals is buried in the scheduling section.

To be fair, Macrium Reflect is not the simplest GUI for beginners, but is great for experts. I always felt Reflect should have an "Easy Mode" screen to get beginners started.

For different reasons, I have had to revert to an earlier version of Windows without Easeus installed (not due to Easeus). Even though I had a more recent backup using Easeus, that backup had an issue with windows (too complicated to explain here but ultimately PEBCAK caused it, and I was a bit lazy in my backup regime).

So now, I am probably the first member who has to get the key reactivated, but I am not sure I will bother as I have the boot usb stick and can create my on Pre-OS.

I kind of wonder how long this gui has been out, and I stress members should test it thoroughly - a good way is to restore to virtual hard drives (making a native boot entry), or inside a vm.

Alternatively test it on another pc, that you do not mind wiping if things go pearshaped.

Another alternative is of course to backup drive with (say) Macrium Reflect or Aomei Backupper first.

Got you! The pursuit of being simple and easy to operate acually bring some issues, especially when the backup software is not only a backup tool. Macruim did a great job in explaining and help tutorial.