hi guys I just want some honest opinons from you guys. After some research, I found the following 3 backup solutions :
1.macrium
2.ease us backup
3.Aomei
All are free? so which one?
my requiremement is to be able to restore individual files in emergency ?
In my opinion I am a Macrium convert....
For years I have used Memeo Instant Back up which has served me well and got me out of trouble a few time, including moving to a new notebook... The plus points for Instant back up were that it works in the background and once you connect the external drive it automatically updates... Downside was it slowed the notebook boot up a little and if you did have a disater you had to reinstall everything manually first then copy files from the back up...
In my opinion although Macrium is not automatic as Instant back up it has made me more secure by setting a schedule to run every day I just connect my external drive and 10 mins later I am all done... plus if you do need to restore your PC you just do it from a complete image... so what my notebook looks like now, in a few clicks will be back to normal, much easier..and quicker.. it is very easy to set up and use..
The support via email support ticket and there forum is fantastic, I asked quite a few questions, some sounding stupid to me but they have all been answered and helped me out...
I have used it for a couple of weeks now and would not change, the security it gives is excellent.
I have tried all three, it is the only way of finding out. Each has it's problems and oddities like non-working Rescue Boot disc/USB key or something. You only find out by using them on a particular system.
"my requiremement is to be able to restore individual files in emergency ?"
I use Windows 10 File History for that, mine has been working for 3 years thru Windows 8.1 and 10. Scheduled for 12 hours which roughly gives daily version backups.
I use Macrium for a whole HDD image of all partitions, roughly monthly. Current problem is the Rescue disk not setting the right screen resolution so it's easier to use an old version.
Deciding between AOMEI or Macrium...basic Backup - Windows 10 Forums
e.g.
I find Macrium easy to use for backing up all relevant Windows partitions. When I fist came to Win 10, Aomei couldn't cope with that- I'm sure it's moved on since then.
Aomei offers both incremental and differential in its free version, whereas Macrium (free) only offers differential backups.
Aomei has (had?) some more obscure bugs, but a much clearer simpler GUI.
Disk imaging is primarily to secure whole disks and partitions or sets of such. Thus it can secure your whole OS against disk failure, theft, encryption...
You can extract individual files from mounted disk images.
This forum did a poll a while back, and by far the majority use Macrium Reflect - over 67% iirc. It has been around a long time, is very reliable and flexible. I did extensive testing a couple of years ago and Macrium was the only tool that reliably backed up 32bit uefi devices.
Easeus is slow and not really developed in recent years.
AEOMI is ok but not in same league as Macrium Reflect.
Go with Macrium Reflect - some great tutorials in tutorial section. It is the only tool that has tutorials because regulars know it is a Rolls Royce compared with other products.
Ignore fact free version only does differential rather than incremental backups. For a domestic users, you will barely notice any impact in terms of storage.
Macrium for me too and I have tried all three. Don't worry about not being able to do incrementals they are not recommended anyway because a single bad incremental can wreck the entire chain of backups. Differentials are safer as there is only two files involved.
Aomei is my second choice.
Hi there
For me there's a difference between DATA backup and the O/S backup.
For the O/S I always image the HDD / SSD or partitions the OS is on -- it's the easiest and safest way. Keep the OS and data separate so if you restore the OS you don't lose the data on that HDD.
For that job I use MACRIUM and run the job daily / nightly or when I need to --for example if installing new hardware / complex software. You can always "Mount" the image so if you need a file on the "C" drive again just copy from the image -- if your O/S partition is small enough just backup the whole thing daily etc - don't bother with incrementals / differentials - keep say 5 copies so you can go back a few days if the latest backup contains say a virus etc.
For DATA it's a different choice - especially if you have data such as multi-media files on large size HDD's.
This data doesn't need to be backed up in it's entirety every time - especially large multi-media files -- DVD/ Blu RAY rips, music rips / files, movies etc. In spite of streaming services readily available there's still a lot of this stuff I like to keep --especially obscure music which aren't easy to obtain on most streaming services -- and also I keep a load of classic TV series as well - these are available on demand only for a limited time so having them on HDD is a much better idea.
so for this it's a ONE TIME create a copy
then run incremental backups daily / as when required.
perhaps a month later run a NEW copy backup - depending on how much your data changes. You might not need to do a COMPLETE backup for a few months if you regularly do the incremental backups
(for Incremental - you can do differential ones if you prefer).
For that purpose there's only one real sensible tool - and that's on a Linux machine called rsync ---- there's a GUI called GRSYNC too --- as is usual on Linux all totally free.
Since all my data is stored / backed up on to my NAS server it's easy to run an automated nightly backup job (use crontab on Linux).
What rsync / grsync does is copy to the device data that's changed, data that doesn't exist on the device --i.e new data, or versions newer than stored versions etc etc --there's a ton of options that I'm afraid no Windows product comes anything near replicating.
If anybody has NAS servers running linux this is IMO the best way to backup DATA sensibly while of course using things like Macrium for backing up the Windows O/S on your desk/laptops.
Grsync and rsync run on all common Linux distros and if you want to save to NTFS (i.e Windows file system formatted HDD's) then Linux can read/write to those too -- ensure package ntfs-3g is installed on your distro --it usually is on most but CENTOS for example you have to install it. For sheer speed though I'd leave the external backcup HDD's as say EXT4 file format as it will write MUCH FASTER !!!!.
The 4TB small portable self powered USB's are excellent for large data backup files and very reliable.
For those interested in rsync and grsync - this link give plenty of info.
OPByte: Grsync rsync GUI interface frontend for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X
Cheers
jimbo
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