Best drive image software?

[Motort]

Great info, spamme0. I'll need to read this over a few times to digest it.
So, you're essentially saying forget creating a backup image and just back
up the stuff you need, right? Would that be easier or more difficult for (1)
me of decent, but not deep, PC knowledge and (2) my college children who
certainly won't put much time into making backups. (All four of us run clean
computers, though, with good protection against viruses, malware, etc.)

To answer your question, my overall goal is to have apps, files, etc. saved
somewhere in case of a computer HD malfunction, and be able to easily turn
the failed PC back to the state it was after installing/repairing a new HD
or other component.

Thanks for the reply. Joe

Have you looked at this Acronis forum?:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=65
I purchased this software about 3months ago. Finally got the
guts to use it yesterday. Cloned my entire 80gb drive onto a 120gb
drive and it worked perfectly!! Took a half hour. You would not
believe the sweat and stress I went through needlessly. It went so
simply and smoothly I felt like crying.
Installed the program onto computer,but, then did the deed using
the install disk. (It is a boot disk). HTH.

 

[Ken Blake]

I'm not sure whether that's what he meant, but if so, I strenuously disagree
with him. It's poor to present it a general strategy that everyone should
follow. That strategy is appropriate for some people, but not others. If you
have plain vanilla installations of everything, it may be fine for you, but
if you've unvested substantial effort into configuring Windows and your
applications the way *you* like them, not backing up *everything* is a poor
plan that will cost you a lot of time and effort if your drive crashes.

You might like to read the article on backup strategy I recently wrote:
"Back Up Your Computer Regularly and Reliably" at
http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=314

 

[Guest]

Great info, spamme0. I'll need to read this over a few times to digest it.
So, you're essentially saying forget creating a backup image and just back
up the stuff you need, right?

NO, that is NOT what I'm saying.
Data files should be backed up, any time they change, onto a medium that
is physically
separable from the computer. You don't want to lose your term paper.
I'd even suggest two thumb drives with alternating backup. If you've never
copied the old file over the new file, you're not trying hard enough ;-)

Everything should be "backed up". But there are different degrees.
Partition imaging is an important PART of a backup strategy.

Most computers come with one BIG disk and ONE BIG (user) partition.
And the supplied OS usually doesn't even include a means to
back up your system.

Computer vendors want it simple...for THEM!!! They don't want you
calling about partitions and backups and such.
If your system crashes...
wait for it...
"reinstall windows".
And, for a fee, they'll sell you a recovery
disk that puts it back the way it was when you bought it. What about
your data and programs? Not their responsibility. Couldn't be simpler.


In their zeal to keep a tight grip on your pocketbook, M$ has made
it unnecessarily complicated to recover from a corrupted system.
Remember the days of 3.1 when you could boot a floppy, copy the
files, hit reset and your system was back running?

You work around these issues by splitting your hard drive into
two partitions. You put the M$ stuff that's hard to install/configure
on the C partition. You put the BIG easily reconfigured stuff on D.
MSDN, Streets&Trips, mp3 files, video files are my examples of huge data
sets that can
be trivially recovered. Some come from the program reinstallation.
Others you back up only once. Your music collection does not need to
be imaged...just copied somewhere else one time.
Where you put the rest of the stuff is a size/complexity issue you have
to decide.

Imaging the C drive works around many of the M$ roadblocks.
Splitting the drive in two makes that feasible to do on a regular basis.
You can image C to D with a few mouse clicks and a nap to kill 20
minutes. Don't forget to copy the image files off computer.
If it's not EASY, you won't do it.

This is easy to set up on a new system. If you have a 500GB hard drive
full of stuff, it's gonna be more difficult to repartition/reinstall
stuff. Most people are gonna be too lazy to do it. They'll also be
too lazy to image 300GB of stuff. They're gonna be too cheap to
buy a huge external drive. Sooner or later, they'll be here
in a panic asking how to recover their crashed system.

I don't have any hard evidence, because I became disillusioned early in
the process...
I used the backup tools supplied with vista ultimate. Then I restored the
backup to a blank drive. Not everything was restored. You can make a
security argument for not restoring another user's data, but I want
the option to configure MY system to restore EVERYTHING. I gave up
without further investigation.

Partition imaging when booted from the imaging CD removes the M$ bias
and returns control to ME. If you backup your system while windows
is running, you're at the mercy of M$ and whatever decision they made
in the latest automatic update.



Each of my computers has with it a DVD with copies of hardware drivers,
add-on porgrams, passwords etc. required to reinstall everything.
Because of size or intentional M$ roadblocks, it's often necessary
to have separate backup CD/DVD's of all the M$ stuff.

Are we having fun yet?

Would that be easier or more difficult for (1)

 

[Richie Hardwick]

I see that Anna has been lurking waiting for yet another drive backup
thread so she can go on, and on, and on, and on.... about Casper.

The disk-cloning program we strongly recommend is the Casper 5 program.
[snip]

But we feel the Casper program is superior for most PC users.

[snip of way too much stuff saying why]

I TOTALLY disagree - and I am a daily user of BOTH.

Casper makes clones from within Windows, and it can make incremental
clones, saving a lot of time for those who make frequent clones. I
love that and it's the main reason I bought it. But MOST PC users are
not interested in cloning - much less frequent cloning - and they only
want backups of their entire drives or just their data.

They might also like to browse those backups from within Windows and
be able to restore a single file, a directory, a group of files or
whatever they might need when restoring an entire disk isn't called
for.

Casper can't do that.

I use Casper to ONLY clone my system drive on my desktop machine to
another internal drive that is second in the boot order. I use ATI
for everything else, including imaging that same system drive to an
external drive. I've needed to use ATI for minor restoration many a
time, but I have yet to profit from Casper's clone of my system drive.

ATI is by far the more flexible of the two and does everything MOST PC
users need it to do.

It should be the first choice for MOST PC users. Casper serves a very
specialized need and does it well. For those like myself who also do
frequent cloning it's a great ADDITIONA to ATI.

Richie Hardwick

 

[Anna]

I see that Anna has been lurking waiting for yet another drive backup
thread so she can go on, and on, and on, and on.... about Casper.

The disk-cloning program we strongly recommend is the Casper 5 program.
[snip]

But we feel the Casper program is superior for most PC users.

[snip of way too much stuff saying why]

I TOTALLY disagree - and I am a daily user of BOTH.

Casper makes clones from within Windows, and it can make incremental
clones, saving a lot of time for those who make frequent clones. I
love that and it's the main reason I bought it. But MOST PC users are
not interested in cloning - much less frequent cloning - and they only
want backups of their entire drives or just their data.

They might also like to browse those backups from within Windows and
be able to restore a single file, a directory, a group of files or
whatever they might need when restoring an entire disk isn't called
for.

Casper can't do that.

I use Casper to ONLY clone my system drive on my desktop machine to
another internal drive that is second in the boot order. I use ATI
for everything else, including imaging that same system drive to an
external drive. I've needed to use ATI for minor restoration many a
time, but I have yet to profit from Casper's clone of my system drive.

ATI is by far the more flexible of the two and does everything MOST PC
users need it to do.

It should be the first choice for MOST PC users. Casper serves a very
specialized need and does it well. For those like myself who also do
frequent cloning it's a great ADDITIONA to ATI.
Richie Hardwick

Richie (& others who may be interested in this subject)...
First of all let me say - as I believe I've stated in virtually every post
of mine referring to my choice of the Casper 5 disk-cloning program in
comparison with other disk-cloning programs - that users of the Acronis True
Image program (as well as other disk-cloning disk-imaging programs) may find
the ATI or whatever other backup type program they're working with perfectly
suitable for their needs and see no reason to change. I've *always*
encouraged users to experiment with different types of comprehensive backup
programs especially when trial versions are available to determine for
themselves which one best serves their objectives.

But I find some of Richie's comments puzzling, such as, "But MOST PC users
are not interested in cloning - much less frequent cloning - and they only
want backups of their entire drives or just their data." But isn't that
precisely what the Casper program *does*, i.e., creates a precise copy of
the user's HDD so that the resultant clone on the recipient HDD, be it a USB
or SATA or Firewire external HDD or perhaps another internal HDD, serves as
a comprehensive backup of one's system? Comprehensive in the sense that the
operating system, all programs & applications, all personal data - in short
*everything* that's on the user's day-to-day working HDD has been copied to
the "destination" HDD? What better backup system can one have?

And, as I have repeatedly stated (apparently to Richie's chagrin), Casper
creates this "clone" simply and speedily. As an example, just before posting
this article I used the Casper 5 program to clone the contents of one of my
HDDs containing about 32 GB of data. I had previously cloned those contents
four days ago. During the four days that elapsed naturally a number of
changes were made to the system - more or less the typical changes most
users would be making to their systems. Files & programs were added,
deleted, or modified in some way, etc. It took me (or more precisely took
the Casper program) just about two (2) minutes to complete the latest
disk-cloning operation. Two minutes. This is the result of Casper's ability
to create "incremental clones" that Ritchie refers to in his post - what
Casper refers to as its "SmartClone" technology.

And what would the user have at this point? Exactly. A precise copy of his
or her day-to-day HDD. A copy whose entire contents can be immediately
accessed (including individual files and directories) and is potentially
bootable. Again, what better backup system can one have?

Over the 15 years or so that I've been associated with the PC industry and
dealt with thousands of PC users it's become abundantly clear to me that one
of the first priorities most PC users should confront is establishing &
maintaining a *comprehensive* backup strategy. One that allows the user to
restore his or her system easily & quickly when their system fails because
of a defective HDD or the system has become unbootable & dysfunctional
because of data corruption from malware, unwise configurations, or other
causes. All one has to do is to peruse this and similar newsgroups dealing
with users' problems. Samples follow...
"Helllllp! My hard drive apparently died. How do I get my data back?", or,
"I just installed SP3 and now my computer doesn't even boot", or,
"I made that registry change XYZ suggested and now I'm getting weird
messages from Windows", or,
"I installed the latest update from Microsoft and now my anti-spyware
program has been trashed", or,
"I installed that new Super-Duper Anti-Malware program and now all I get a
black screen", or,
"All of a sudden I'm getting that dreaded BSOD. How can I save my precious
photos?", or...

The list goes on & on, does it not? Does an hour, a day, a week pass where
we don't see these and similar pleas for help?

In so many cases the problem would have been a non-problem had the user made
a precise copy of his or her functional system *prior* to installing a
major program on their machine or making some major configuration change in
their otherwise perfectly-working system. This can be relatively easily
achieved through the use of a disk-cloning program such as the Casper 5
program which we prefer. So that in the event of a catastrophe - minor or
major - the system can be easily restored to its previous functional state.
And since the Casper 5 program carries out its disk-to-disk cloning work in
a very speedy fashion the user is encouraged to use the program on a
frequent basis knowing that the expenditure of time in carrying out the
disk-cloning (backup) operation will be relatively slight and the result
will be the maintenance of a reasonably up-to-date system. I reiterate that
both the backup & restore operations (since both involve the same
disk-cloning process) are simple & quick.

So let me end as I've started. Experiment as best you can with different
types of backup programs. Determine for yourself what best meets your needs.
Since trial versions of these programs are frequently available, avail
yourself of the opportunity to use them. Should you be interested a trial
version of the Casper 5 program (slightly crippled) is available from
http://www.fssdev.com
Anna

 

[Richie Hardwick]

"Anna" - who never wrote in 25 words or less what could be written in

First of all let me say...

[snip of about 100 lines or more of the same]

Thanks Anna.

To recap my position: I use both ATA and Casper on a daily basis, and
I say that ATI is the best choice for most PC users.

You only use Casper and you push it as if your life - or your
financial security - depends on it.

I am a big believer in free enterprise, so I hope you get a lot of
commissions on the sale of Casper.

TTFN

Richie Hardwick

 

[ju.c]

Casper is crap, stay away!

'Acronis True Image' is the best, no contest.

"Anna" - who never wrote in 25 words or less what could be written in

First of all let me say...

[snip of about 100 lines or more of the same]

Thanks Anna.

To recap my position: I use both ATA and Casper on a daily basis, and
I say that ATI is the best choice for most PC users.

You only use Casper and you push it as if your life - or your
financial security - depends on it.

I am a big believer in free enterprise, so I hope you get a lot of
commissions on the sale of Casper.

TTFN

Richie Hardwick

 

[Anthony Buckland]

Casper is crap, stay away!

'Acronis True Image' is the best, no contest.
...

I definitely agree, but a small caveat: a perpetual
theme on the Acronis fora is that any version x, just
released, has annoying bugs and that various posters
agree that the company has a reputation for doing
their beta testing by selling version x and waiting for
problems to arise. So for something as vital as
backup, I tend to stay a version behind the latest one
for actual potential partition recovery, while acquiring
the latest one for careful testing.

 

[Twayne]

Casper is crap, stay away!

'Acronis True Image' is the best, no contest.

Beware the artist who only paints with one color and indicates doing so
is a requirement rather than an opinion, especially when it is not
backed up with reasonable supporting data.

"Anna" - who never wrote in 25 words or less what could be written

First of all let me say...

[snip of about 100 lines or more of the same]

Thanks Anna.

To recap my position: I use both ATA and Casper on a daily basis, and
I say that ATI is the best choice for most PC users.

You only use Casper and you push it as if your life - or your
financial security - depends on it.

I am a big believer in free enterprise, so I hope you get a lot of
commissions on the sale of Casper.

TTFN

Richie Hardwick

 

[Richie Hardwick]

I definitely agree, but a small caveat: a perpetual
theme on the Acronis fora is that any version x, just
released, has annoying bugs and that various posters
agree that the company has a reputation for doing
their beta testing by selling version x and waiting for
problems to arise. So for something as vital as
backup, I tend to stay a version behind the latest one
for actual potential partition recovery, while acquiring
the latest one for careful testing.

I've been using ATI since version 8.0 with only one extremely minor
problem with a new version that required me to use the bootable CD to
make a clone rather than set the clone and let XP do it on a reboot
(it would immediately say the clone was complete - when it hadn't even
started).

I got a command line workaround from ATI 48 hours after posting a
message to support and haven't had a problem since.

Richie Hardwick