Comparing 20 Drive Imaging S/W

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Webscout
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Comparing 20 Drive Imaging S/W

Post by Webscout » Wed Mar 04, 2015 7:35 am

Comparing 20 Drive Imaging Software Backup/Restore Speed and Image Size
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 https://www.raymond.cc/blog/10-commercial-disk-imaging-software-features-and-backuprestore-speed-comparison/
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Below...a C/P from GAOTD

There are two types of backups – back up your files and documents, or back up the whole system. Some people do the former, while not many do the latter. It is quite scary how ‘fragile’ computers still are – a Windows Update can render your machine unbootable, while clicking on the wrong website can bring your PC to its knees while it loads toolbars, malware and other nasties.
Anyone who’s reinstalled an operating system from scratch knows of the sleepless nights ahead … finding printer drivers, installing a plethora of applications, finding registration keys, past email addresses, browser history, setting up preferences… it can take a while … which is where a system backup comes in. Take a snapshot of your system and if anything happens, simply go back to that image.
System image software has been around for a while. The ‘king’ used to be Norton Ghost. It was simple, small and worked well. It was a commercial product though … you had to *pay* for it. GASP! It even came with a printed manual – thats how old it was. No PDFs back then. Nowadays, everyone tries to find the free software.
Michael commented above about System Restore. That doesn’t take a system image – it only takes a ‘snapshot’ of certain system files. In the event of a non-booting PC, it can sometimes not be enough to recover you. Also, you can’t (easily…) copy these system restore images off for preservation purposes (when you’ve freshly installed an operating system, its a good idea to take an image there and then to give yourself a baseline to go back to). Never rely on System Restore alone.
Its worth looking into AOMEI Backupper. This can backup your system while Windows is running to local disks and network storage. Its quite a polished piece of software.
Looking at Eassos System Restore, the first issue was making a ‘remark’ for the backup. Only 240 characters is limiting, and while you’re typing, you have no indication of how many characters you’ve used, and how many you have left. The system attempts to split the main partition if you only have one partition. I cannot express how dangerous this is. While its good in practice, so many things can go wrong. Its like taking your washing machine to pieces before looking at how to put it all back together again.
Backup options are numerous, but also confusing. h**p://i.imgur.com/vfUiMEv.png Other software gives a more ‘wizard’ approach.
The program can only backup to local drives – not network ones. This has drawbacks if you’re backing up a laptop for example, which has limited disk space.
In summary, disk imaging software is the single most important software to install once you've got your operating system up and running. It can save you hours or days of work later. You don’t need commercial software, and after using Aomei Backupper (which is always free) you’ll appreciate the extra features that software offers over this giveaway (Eassos System Restore 1.2.3).
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