Free disk image software

[Goshute]

Started poking around looking for free imaging software, and found this review, along with these products:

http://dottech.org/featured/11628" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (from 2009)

Macrium Reflect http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Paragon Backup and restore http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Imaging XML http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Seagate Discwizard Suite http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/suppor ... discwizard" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Roadkil Imaging http://www.roadkil.net/program.php/P12/Disk%20Image" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Any comments on these, especially Macrium, which seems to have good speed?

[wasbit]

I'm currently using Macrium Reflect.

My 25GB C:\ partition using 17GB, compacts down to a 6.38GB image at the default compression on a separate internal drive & takes about 10 minutes.

Proof of the pudding is in the eating. IIRC the bootable CD option was quick & easy but I can't remember exactly how quick.

[Hey Jude]

I too am a happy camper with Macrium Reflect. I was surprised how easy and simple the bootable CD was to create. I spent alot of time trying DriveImage XML but couldn't actually get the bootable CD created. I know that the image took forever to create, and when another forum suggested Macrium, I tried it and have since used it to create back-ups on my daughter's and have told friends about it. One friend went so far as to take screen shots of each step to prove to another "friend" that Macrium delivers what is promised. I wish I had learned about it before I wasted so much time using other software. That's just my 2¢ .

[Bigaldoc]

I too am a happy camper with Macrium Reflect.

From what I see on their site, it looks like you have to buy the paid version in order to be able to do incremental or differential backups. Did I read it right?

For someone like me, that's an important feature since I do a full image once a week and incrementals every night. I guess if you wanted to backup every night you could do a full image and not worry about incrementals or differentials.

What say ye users?

[Hey Jude]

From what I see on their site, it looks like you have to buy the paid version in order to be able to do incremental or differential backups. Did I read it right?

Yes, you are correct, however, I make a full image once weekly using Macrium. I don't change much on a daily basis, but when I make any major changes, I go ahead and create a new system image (Macrium) which really doesn't take that much time. I also use the backup in Win 7 and that updates files and folders which have changed since my last backup (so incrementals are covered here). I feel I am covered. I like knowing I have the Linux-based bootable CD for Macrium, and I have my original Win 7 DVD should I need it for my Win 7 backup.

[Argus]

Any comments on these, especially Macrium, which seems to have good speed?

I'm using Macrium Reflect with the BartPE CD; seems to work all OK. I'm sure it could be possible to tinker a bit and get a bootable USB, but at the moment I don't need or want that.

Since I have only used it for a shorter time with a quite new setup I can't say much about speed in the long term, but so far I'm very impressed.

As I said this is on a new setup (WinXP), so my numbers are around half those mentioned by wasbit; 6-7 GB and 3 minutes, or around, (in fact between 2:30 and 2:45, that's quick!) on the system partition; compacted to around 50 % of original size. Then I have a data partition; but since that one also includes some larger files already compressed (music, video etc.) the overall compression ratio isn't as good as for the system partition. There is a setting for compression, but that didn't do much in the above case, and I didn't expect it. But it is quite difficult, as usual, to compare speed and size, since it depends on the hardware and the data. But it is quick in my book. There is a "slider" for setting the priority, when doing the backup; the above numbers was with the setting at highest priority, thus the quickest backup. I see that they mention CPU/RAM load; well, if one can't wait for 5-10 minutes, then perhaps one should schedule the whole thing. I can't say anything about restore speed, yet.

Easeus Todo, at the time ver. 2.0, complained about ZA, the firewall, so that one wasn't even tested before final setup.

Since they mentioned and compared compression, I'll add a small screen shot showing a system partition image, FWIW. That said, some mentioned in the comments that the compression was indeed better than shown in the table, some had other opinions. As I said, different data can probably give different results; also, this is an "old" review, so later builds can behave differently; but you know all this, of course.

2011-02-23_A.png

[Argus]

Any comments on these, especially Macrium, which seems to have good speed?

I just did a restore of the system partition. It went very quick! And so far everything seems to be working all OK.

In fact the preparations took a lot longer than the actual restore process, since I cleaned and defragged for some minutes, and then created some new backups, verified them, and also did some other backups not using Macrium.

In BartPE I did some preliminary checks, as I had done before, and then ran the Restore, in this case I set it to verify before restoring, even if I had done that within Windows just some minutes earlier, and that part took some 1.5-2 minutes.

The actual restore was clocked at an astonishing 2 minutes 53 seconds! I had also selected a disk check at first start, post restore, and that ran without problems; and continued with a restart which finally presented the login dialogue. Did some preliminary checks; then turned off the PC (since it isn’t over until a cold boot is done, in my mind). And here I am; less than a hour later after I started creating backups. The only odd thing, so far, is in the System log (Event Viewer); a missing 6006 (graceful shut down of EventLog et al), when I turned off the PC before booting from the CD, but it was OK. And that isn't much.

I understand that the experience can be quite different, depending on many things; backup size, hardware, restore software environment etc. In my case above, it's a small, fully patched WinXP, that hasn't been running for years, nor has been fully installed with all software yet. So, a 7 GB system, 3.75 GB image, took less than 3 minutes to restore, and so far no problems; as I said earlier, I'm impressed.