Back-Up software.......which is problem free and better?

bugmeso · 01 Nov 2013

For many years I have used Ghost, even before Norton bought the original people out. I made a disk that just used Ghost and would boot very easily. Now I use more that 1 H/D and it has become hard to tell which H/D is what because Ghost only shows the H/D OEM GB and a Drive# (number) which can not be relied on 100% of the time. I have looked a few others but I can't see how a program can do a good back up with in the program you are trying to back up..............(if you know what I mean).

Lady Fitzgerald · 01 Nov 2013

I also used to use Ghost and never had problems with it; it just got too old and I was too cheap to upgrade. I now use Macrium Reflect which has an excellent free version (ironically, I now use a paid version but I had no problems with the freebie). One of our own here at Win 7 Forums has written an excellent tutorial on how to use it.

I personally use imaging to backup my boot drive and cloning to backup my data drives. Most people prefer to use imaging for both. A lot of people here use Macrium Reflect so, if you ever have problems using it, there is plenty of help available.

Mark Phelps · 04 Nov 2013

I used Ghost for years and then, when I really needed to do a restore, it failed on me. Same is true of Acronis True Image.

I switched over to using Macrium Reflect, never had any problems with that (done numerous migrations and restores), and liked it well enough to purchase the Pro version. The free version does image backups and restores.

whs · 04 Nov 2013

I can only confirm what was already said. I used Ghost during the whole time I had Vista. It served me well. With Windows7 I switched to free Macrium and never looked back.

Macrium is a lot easier to use than Ghost and it has proven to be 100% reliable. Have a look at my tutorial that LF has linked and you will see.

Lady Fitzgerald · 04 Nov 2013

Nothing is ever going to be completely trouble free and reliable but Reflect comes about as close as one can get. And, if you use the free version, the price can't be beat.

truckinguy · 04 Nov 2013

Lady Fitzgerald said:

Nothing is ever going to be completely trouble free and reliable but Reflect comes about as close as one can get. And, if you use the free, version, the price can't be beat.

You are so right. I paid $50 for Paragon Home and Recovery 2012 and it is so hard to use and doesn't do the job without errors.

I tried Macrium Free and it works great. Easy to use and works wonders. What a waste of money on Paragon.
I used Pargon OS to SSD and that worked well.

whs · 04 Nov 2013

I used Pargon OS to SSD and that worked well

I think that is their best product. I used it several times without any problems. But I also had problems with their imaging program. When it came out, I got a free license because they had asked me to test it. It did not excite me.

bugmeso · 04 Nov 2013

I have not responded to any of the posts........as of yet. Still reading a lot about back up programs. BUT at this point I can see that I will give Macrium Reflect a try (the free version first). It's just like many others, I am old school and have a hard time believing a software can work within the O/S to back up a H/D. To boot to DOS and then mirror one H/D to another was always the way. Change is hard

But thank you all for the input.

Lady Fitzgerald · 04 Nov 2013

Keep in mind that imaging programs work from within RAM after being loaded from the drive, then read what is on the drive being imaged.

truckinguy · 04 Nov 2013

bugmeso said:

I have not responded to any of the posts........as of yet. Still reading a lot about back up programs. BUT at this point I can see that I will give Macrium Reflect a try (the free version first). It's just like many others, I am old school and have a hard time believing a software can work within the O/S to back up a H/D. To boot to DOS and then mirror one H/D to another was always the way. Change is hard

But thank you all for the input.

It does work well. Nice to be able to back up or copy disk while still using the pc. I have copied my C drive many times to an external drive and as back up and then reinstalled the copy to the C drive because of going to SSD then HDD then back to SSD. Don't ask me about all that ..It'll take too long to tell. It' involves getting a replacement PC from Dell for one they couldn't fix for me so I had to migrate the OS to the new PC. I was lucky. All I had to do was have the new pc with my old hard drive look into the HDD that came with my new exchange. The two units were similar but different models. But Maricum does a perfect copy. Not sure about Back up but Copying the partitions to an external HDD then back into another one? perfect. Believe it. I'm typing now on the result of many clones/copies using Macrium. I just made a Copy today for backup in a old HDD I have. I use a SSD as my C drive and have a HDD for storage in Dells media bay. I copy the storage drive to a external HDD too in case of emergancy. Love Macrium. I wish I gave them the $50 instead of Paragon.