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#21
There is really no need for a paid imaging program. Between free Macrium, free AOMEI Backupper, Windows imaging and Wbadmin imaging you have all the bells and whistles you may need.
I have used all of those and they all work. With the Windows options you don't want to muck around with the images (move or rename them). The advantage of those is that you do not need a separate recovery medium and they are very simple to use.
Paid for Macrium got me incrementals, file backup and disk management.
Been looking at aomei Backupper and EaseUS ToDo as well. Very comprehensive features for the price (free!).
But have learned to trust Macrium over the years.
The only thing is, one needs to remember to use it before Windows patches, driver updates, major software changes, and "trying" something out in the registry or else->.
Fair comment. You should always use the programs you trust. But I always make full images. I do not trust the incrementals. They can be too easily corrupted and are difficult to manage.
In my little systems where the C partition is 20GB max, I use Wbadmin. That is a simple command and I can recover with the Windows recovery environment (press Shift and do a Restart). No recovery disc needed nor do I have to install a program in my skimpy C partition..