Giving up Acronis in favour of FREE AOMEI

davehc · 08 Feb 2015

I also disable three service (services.msc) I don't know if it is necessary, but.... just in case!

IownAmoneyPit · 08 Feb 2015

I too can vouch for AOMEI Backupper and have been using it for about 9 months it is now one of 3 backup programs I use. Also keep an eye out for any promotions or giveaways as I was able to get a free AOMEI Backupper Pro key by E Mail a while back with the only limitation being of not able to upgrade to newer versions.

whs · 08 Feb 2015

I used the AOMEI backupper and the OneKey programs. There are problems with both of them.

1. The backupper did not work correctly on one of my 32bit systems
2. Imaging a partition that was encrypted at a previous time but is now decrypted does not work
3. OneKey does not write a BCD for recovery if the bootmgr is on C rather than in the system partition.

I have corresponded several times with the AOMEI developers but the feedback is meager. At least they answer (saying nothing). The Macrium people don't even talk to you.

Still I will continue to use free Macrium - AOMEI is work in progress. Macrium has proven for years to be reliable and has saved my bacon several times. Yes there is a problem with the VSS service if you had a prior installation of another imaging program. But that is because the VSS provider has changed. You can easily check that with this command:

vssadmin list providers

If the Provider Type is not System, then you have a problem. But that can be fixed.

VSS fails due to modification by 3rd party software (Backup, Clone Disk, VSS)

There is also a fix if your VSS .dlls are corrupted. That you can check with:

vssadmin list writers

COMPUTIAC · 08 Feb 2015

What are you referring to by OneKey programs ?

whs · 08 Feb 2015

COMPUTIAC said:

What are you referring to by OneKey programs ?

Google AOMEI OneKey

Alternative to Lenovo one key recovery: AOMEI OneKey Recovery - Help

besb · 09 Feb 2015

davehc said:

It takes me about ten minutes to undo all those minute screws on a laptop, my image is usually done by then.

Hi , I am primarily talking about my desktops: Just press F12 on boot and choose the cloned drive on external esata port. (say additional 5 secs).
I tried on my laptop (2 screws on hard-drive compartment, 2 securing disk) took about 6 minutes.
Image restore took 27 minutes.

badrobot · 13 Feb 2015

There's an on-going giveaway for AOMEI Backupper Pro (2 days left from today 13 Feb). Grab it while it's available. Just remember to use a secondary email.

https://topwaresale.com/product/aome...onal-giveaway/

Cheers!

Seagasm · 22 Feb 2015

I have downloaded the 2.5 beta version for a look. I was hoping the Win10 backup program would make 3rd party programs unnecessary but let's see.

whs · 22 Feb 2015

Seagasm said:

I have downloaded the 2.5 beta version for a look. I was hoping the Win10 backup program would make 3rd party programs unnecessary but let's see.

They are unnecessary. Just use this command to make an image:

wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:X: -include:C: -AllCritical -quiet

X id the device where you want to store the image. Use your volume letter.

Then for the recovery use your installation or recovery disk that you can burn from the recovery partition. You boot with that and drill down this chain:

· Language setting
· Troubleshoot
· Advanced Options
· System Image Recovery

Make sure the device on which you have stored the image(s) is attached at this point. Then the system will find the image(s) automatically.

Dude · 26 Feb 2015

I just tested AOMEI Backupper. Created a backup image, then did a restore. I am impressed, it was very fast and worked flawlessly. This is now my new method for my system image and recovery.