Acronis vs Paragon backup software.

Mark Phelps · 18 Jan 2011

Don't know about the BartPE version of Macrium. Tried to create it and it failed. So, never got a chance to use it.

But I have used the WinPE version and it works flawlessly. Even has an option to install to the drive so you don't need an actual CD to do the restore.

MR also has an option known as Redeploy which they claims works in much the same manner as the Paragon Adaptive Restore option. IT costs $20 and I was going to use it when I migrated from one PC to another, but when I stuck the old drive in the new machine and rebooted, Win7 detected all the new hardware and sorted out the drivers itself! The only driver I had to install myself was the AMD video driver. So, I can't tell you if Redeploy works as I never actually had to use it.

WartHog · 18 Jan 2011

Sorry for the no value added post in this thread, but I wanted to subscribe so I can read it later and I'm on Tapatalk and don't know how to subscribe in this program. Now I am. :)

zapp22 · 18 Jan 2011

Wo.... Glad I read some more fine print: Someone tell me if I have this right. There are several threads on this forum touting Macrium Free and paygo. I read them, and only in one of them https://www.sevenforums.com/performan...restore-2.html does it seem that the right questions are asked and answered.

If they are correct, and if my understanding of the English is correct, Macrium is NOT the same animal as Paragon. Paragon can take a saved image of WINDOWS SEVEN, "restore" it to a brand new Hard Drive of whatever size, and your system will boot, run, ACTIVATE, VALIDATE, etc ..... That is NOT the case with Macrium Free. Correcto ???? Glad I stopped my experiment when some things in Macrium clued me to dig a little more

whs · 18 Jan 2011

zapp22 said:

Wo.... Glad I read some more fine print: Someone tell me if I have this right. There are several threads on this forum touting Macrium Free and paygo. I read them, and only in one of them https://www.sevenforums.com/performan...restore-2.html does it seem that the right questions are asked and answered.

If they are correct, and if my understanding of the English is correct, Macrium is NOT the same animal as Paragon. Paragon can take a saved image of WINDOWS SEVEN, "restore" it to a brand new Hard Drive of whatever size, and your system will boot, run, ACTIVATE, VALIDATE, etc ..... That is NOT the case with Macrium Free. Correcto ???? Glad I stopped my experiment when some things in Macrium clued me to dig a little more

You are correct. Macrium cannot resize the image and dump it into a smaller partition. The target partition must be of equal or larger size than the originating partition. Paragon can resize - Macrium pro Btw. too. But who wants to spend money.

The safest way to move a system from one disk to another is this Pargon program: (works for HDDs too) Paragon Migrate OS to SSD - Overview

zapp22 · 18 Jan 2011

But irrespective of mismatched HDD sizes, Macrium Free apparently doesn't get it right... doesn't actually write a bootable and activatable system partition [Windows 7] so you have an exact copy of your prior setup. Good for backing up miscellaneous files and such, but not bootable/activated etc.
I'm like the Federal Government... i don't downsize, I only grow and consume the host

. Bigger drive.

I'll check out that paragon link, but I betcha their bootable media won't run on my sys. At least Macrium got THAT right!

whs said:

zapp22 said:

Wo.... Glad I read some more fine print: Someone tell me if I have this right. There are several threads on this forum touting Macrium Free and paygo. I read them, and only in one of them https://www.sevenforums.com/performan...restore-2.html does it seem that the right questions are asked and answered.

If they are correct, and if my understanding of the English is correct, Macrium is NOT the same animal as Paragon. Paragon can take a saved image of WINDOWS SEVEN, "restore" it to a brand new Hard Drive of whatever size, and your system will boot, run, ACTIVATE, VALIDATE, etc ..... That is NOT the case with Macrium Free. Correcto ???? Glad I stopped my experiment when some things in Macrium clued me to dig a little more

You are correct. Macrium cannot resize the image and dump it into a smaller partition. The target partition must be of equal or larger size than the originating partition. Paragon can resize - Macrium pro Btw. too. But who wants to spend money.

The safest way to move a system from one disk to another is this Pargon program: (works for HDDs too) Paragon Migrate OS to SSD - Overview

whs · 18 Jan 2011

I have used the Paragon program I linked. It worked flawlessly, including the little active boot partition. For SSDs, it also does the alignment.

With free Macrium, you have to do all that by hand. Have done that too, but it is more work because you are now dealing with 2 partitions.

The Win7 imaging is said to deal with the boot partition automatically. But the whole thing is such a dog that I would not bet my system on it. For starters it wrecked 2 of my best DVDs.

Btw: many people "downsize" these days - at least for the OS because they install SSDs. So that is a pretty common problem.

SIW2 · 18 Jan 2011

Save yourself a lot of time and make a pe3 disc with Paragon and macrium on it.

mjf · 18 Jan 2011

With Windows imaging you can rename the image folder and move it into separate folders (just don't cross partition boundaries). You can do a restore using the system repair boot disk with renamed and moved WindowsImageBackup folders see:
System Image Recovery

With Macrium as well as the linux rescue CD/USB, which has always worked for me, you can use the Hiren's Boot CD (v13). Hiren's gives a similar capability to the Bartpe disk since it uses a mini XP option. There is no need to make your own pe disk.

Using Macrium free or paid Macrium "RoboRestore" enables you to restore to a disk that is smaller than the original. RoboRestore uses Windows RoboCopy.
Macrium Reflect - Blogs and News

WartHog · 19 Jan 2011

Good info and lots of good experiences shared. I really appreciate everyone's input. I'm learning alot. :)

I do have a noob question though. When you all talk about BartPE and PE discs exactly what do you mean?

SIW2 · 19 Jan 2011

A recovery disc contains a mini operating system. Typically you would boot it up from a dvd or flash drive, and it loads into memory.

From there you can run various applications - to install, or repair the operating system on your Hard Drive, or perform various operations that are best done outside of your windows installation - or in this case, to restore an image you made earlier.

There are many types of mini operating systems you could use for this- linux, dos, one based on XP ( pe or pe1 ), Vista based (pe2) or Windows 7 based (pe3).

PE means pre-installation environment ( a mini o/s from where you run the installation).

RE means recovery environment ( from where you run repair/recovery apps.)

The environment is the mini o/s and is essentially the same for PE or RE.

Simply PE is often used to describe any of the above windows environments.

Building a simple pe disc is not very hard if you start with either the boot.wim (included on the 7 install dvd ), or winre.wim ( on your HD in the hideen folder ), or the boot.wim from the 7 recovery disc you run off from within windows.

If you are prepared to put a lot of effort in - you can get something like this: