Need advice on which backup program to use

Hi everyone! I'm hoping to get some help and clarification here. I have been reading about backup programs and I'm really dizzy from it since I don't understand a lot of it. It doesn't have to be FREE. I just want a good, dependable program, and something that doesn't require me to be a computer guru to run.

Vista Home Premium SP2, 32-bit / 320GB hard drive / 2GB RAM (but I have purchased 2GB more to install) / Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6320 @ 1.86 GHz

I want something where I can back up the entire hard disk to an IOMEGA 320GB external USB hard drive. I would have to use a boot CD to recover.

In reading, I think I've come to understand that a complete backup of the hard drive and an image/clone are two different things. Could someone clarifiy this in simple terms and advise which would be better, or if having both would be good?

I've done a lot of reading about Paragon and Casper. At one point I checked out Macrium also. Now in this forum I've read some posts about EASEUS ToDo. I was leaning toward Casper.

I wish I understood more, but I'm trying and I hope someone in this forum can help me out.

By the way, I will not use Acronis. I had a very bad experience with that program/company/forum that has forever soured me.

 

A clone is literally that - an exact copy on a second disk, sector by sector, byte by byte, of an ENTIRE hard disk. Nothing else can be stored on the clone. A clone can be useful if you get a hard disk failure as it can be physically installed in place of the failed disk and off you go, though to be useful the clone needs to be pretty recent.

A disk or partition image is a file which holds all the information necessary to recreate that disk or partition on either the same drive or on a different drive, so unlike a clone it has to be held on a different drive or different partition from the one it would be restored to. An image is a far more useful tool than a clone, as it is quick and simple to update it with what are called incremental backups - small files which just record differences from the last backup.

That's a real pity, as Acronis True Image is imo the best drive/partition program available and I have used nearly all of them. I think you should think about giving it another chance.

 

Me either... very not user friendly.

 

You didn't comment on any of the other programs I mentioned; Paragon, Easeus ToDo, Casper, Macrium.

With Acronis (2010) I was backing up to my external and thought everything was hunky dory. Every time I did a backup I verified it. I had a problem; I put in the bootable CD I had made and right in front of me was the option to select to recover. Only I couldn't select anything. I went to the forum and I posted, and I went back and I begged someone to help me. I wrote to Acronis. I got NADA. I waited and messed around myself, everything I could think of doing, for about 5 days; I went ahead and did a Dell Factory Restore.

Then ... I finally started getting some responses from the forum. It was all about some deal that was a known issue, but Acronis had never made me aware of it in any way so that I could check it out. Something about seeing if the rescue CD would reboot into a Linux environment. And then something about downloading an ISO file. I didn't pay enough attention at the time because it was already too late.

In searching for a software program I have come across Acronis many times and have run into some real bad reviews about the 2011. I'm willing to listen to anything more you have to say about it. But I still wish someone would comment about the other programs listed. Casper really got high reviews on Cnet, and in other places I checked.

 

I'm not going to comment on all of the other programs. I have used all of them and still consider ATI the best. System imaging is a highly complex business because of the vast array of hardware configurations out there and I assure you there isn't a single imaging program that will never fail in any configuration. Whichever you choose to use you have to test it on your configuration before you need it in anger, which you simply did not do.

You wanted to know about clones and images and I've done my best to explain that to you. Which of the numerous backup programs you now choose to use is entirely up to you, but do test it before assuming it's doing the job.

 

Oh yes it does!

 

I appreciate all your answers so far, but I'd still like to get some input on Casper and Paragon, especially.

 

The Easeus ToDo Backup Home Free edition Boot CD does not have any options other than Disk and Partition Recovery, but that's all that is needed.

Using the Browse button to locate the backup image worked OK.
Drives, partitions and image files were all available.

I tried ReDo Backup & Recovery, which is live CD Only.

The Browse feature to select a target for the backup image did not work too well.
It showed Only the first partition on my second hard drive, which is a 4GB Fat32 partition for the paging file
- obviously not suitable for an entire drive backup image.

 

Don't know if Earthling has, but I have. Building the boot CD went just fine.
The only things grayed out are when you boot from the Linux CD - all you get is Disk and Partition Recovery.

 

Years ago I had a older version of Ghost. I had to create a boot disk for it. I have version 12.0 now. Ghost was bought by Symantec and I don't think they made many changes to it.

What I wanted at the time I did it. Was to make a backup to another hard drive to recover C drive. All the programs and up-dates with my files and pics. 2 drives on the same ribbon. Set the jumpers as master and slave.

As I'm older than dirt. My 1st stab at computing. A used computer I bought was a tape cloned Ghost at a computer show. Didn't get any disks with it. What did I know back in Win 95? Figured this out later. Most restore factory disks use ither Ghost or Acronis. 40 min later your back up and running and not the days of re-loading programs and up-dates that I got tired of.

The Ghost program I use does incremental backups on files, ect. Important to create a boot disk on install and to remember what drive letter had the restore.

Long and short. I've probbaly blew up my computer around 8-10X on learing on what not to do thru the years. Had to do a complete re-install. One hick-up I learned. Get a pop up the shared files not being used can be deleted. Wanna do? Lol. Not a good thing if you chose yup! Lenthy post but do a search on how it works on comparing to the other newer programs.

 

Because Acronis is one licence per machine I actually use Easeus free on my wife's PC and I have the rescue CD right here. For basic backup and recovery Easeus works well and is all we need for her machine, but I use many of the additional features of Acronis on my system. It's also a lot faster.

I can understand the OP's frustration with Acronis. When ATI 11 (that's v11, not 2011) first came out it couldn't see my eSATA drive at all and as that is where I keep my backups that was a bit of a problem, especially as the previous version, ATI 10 didn't have that issue. It took Acronis about three months on my support ticket to come up with a build that fixed the problem, and all subsequent builds up to the current 2011 have worked perfectly. Hardware was changing fast around that time and the OP was probably one of the many on the Acronis forum who were having issues with ATI because of it.

 

Without wishing to needlessly broaden the OP's request, I think that you should also have a look at Images for Dos [IforDos] which I use.

IforDos runs principally from a boot CD, very spartan interface, will copy / reinstate the whole of the file system on a sector by sector approach. I also believes/uses information supplied by the bios.

Will also copy images to external USB HD if required. Images can be viewed from within windows via the TDI viewer.

Not free but very solid. Personally, I tried Acronis and could not get the hang of it and nor could I get it to run from a boot cd with installing the prog first (but that is probably just me).

There is a free 30 day trial. Worth a look.

Good Luck

 

DavidGP, thank you for this well explained answer. There is one thing I want to mention and that is that I never meant to indicate that I am interested in only FREE programs. I'm happy to pay for a program. I just want to make sure it will do what I want, and that there will be help available to show me and teach me how to use it. Actually, in Paragon I'm looking at their suite.

The only thing I fear is ... Will this program be too complicated for me to figure out? I don't understand many of the things talked about, so I guess the idea is to get one that has everything so I don't end up with one that won't do what I want. I'm hoping there will be someone behind whichever program I choose who will help me understand and do what I need to do.

What I want a backup to do is completely restore my computer to operational all the way around. Will a backup take care of drivers and all that? After Acronis when I had to do the factory image reinstall, I don't know how many hours I spent looking for program keys, installing programs, etc. I'd sure like to not have to go through that again.

Additionally, my computer is running great. It will be 5 years old in July but be that as it may, I love this computer setup I have. So I'd like to have a program where someone could take the backup I have on my external and copy it to a NEW hard drive.

Back to Acronis ... I was using Acronis TrueImage Home 10. So the problems Earthling was referring to probably to not apply to me but are a whole different set of problems. Whereas it would appear that Acronis worked with him for three months and did finally solve his problem, I never heard from them at all.

 

I think I would like a program where I could do both a full image backup and also clone. But I don't understand all about the difference.