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Free versions -- Now IMO virtually USELESS
Hi there
seems corporations are really getting STINGY these days
The Free versions of backup utilities seem to be getting more and more hobbled with each release.
EASUS is now so rediculuous that it doesn't even create a bootable version to restore an image -- so what USE is that to anybody --you might just as well use the Windows 7 built in utility bad though it is. -- A decent backup program should ALWAYS have the facility to create a bootable rescue media otherwise it's just NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE.
Paragon Free now no longer lets you re-size the partition on restore -- you have to fiddle around with a separate partition manager and it won't let you boot into the system recovery partition either if you have one.
I know people want to make you buy FULL VERSION programs -- but offering very hobbled restrictive free products IMO doesn't do the companies any good -- especially for IMPORTANT things like backups etc where you want to be 100% sure that your data and OS is SAFE. A MUCH MUCH better business model is to offer a 30 day Free trial which means you can exhaustively test the software and see if it meets your needs.
CLONEZILLA (Linux alternative) still works fine as a free product but I'm not really sure if relying on open source software is a sensible strategy to adopt for a really important part of your system and data. Don't get me wrong - I'm a HUGE believer in open source but sometimes it's not the best choice and Clonezilla is a bit geekish to use so I'd say out for the average user who usually has a problem in understanding why they need backup at all until the lose all the ITunes Music. !!.
Any of you thinking of using these free backup programs --check CAREFULLY what features they have and whether its what you need -- as you'll soon see that in most cases unless you have very simple requirements they aren't much better than the basic Windows backup (which has improved in W8 BTW).
Cheers
jimbo
Last edited by jimbo45; 25 Nov 2012 at 08:19.