Help with selecting a backup software

ignatzatsonic said:

There is some chance (1 in 10??) that the recovery disk you make with Macrium will not actually boot your PC.

So--be sure to confirm that the disk is bootable. Boot from it and proceed several steps into the restoration process. Make sure you can locate the image file you want to restore, as well as the partition/drive to which you intend to restore.

If your recovery disk will not boot, the alternative is to use an another method of burning the disk, often called "compatibility" mode. Look for menu choices. Or you could make a "WinPE" recovery disk, but that is somewhat complicated. I'd use the standard Linux-based recovery disk if possible. If you cannot boot from the recovery disk, you cannot restore.

It's not complicated to make the WinPE recovery disk. There is a wizard but it does involve a 1.7GB download of the WAIK.

The Macrium Version 5.0 tutorial that I just created a couple of days ago does not show the recovery procedure because I have no capture tools when those CDs or DVDs are running. And also because the version 5.0 options (Linux version or WinPe version) are much easier to handel than the Version 4.2 Linux.

I recommend you burn the WinPe DVD because it is easier to use (same interface as Macrium) and allows you to recover individual partitions. With the Linux version you can only recover whole disks. Just be aware that the burning of the WinPe version takes about 90 minutes because it will download the WAIK, a 1.7GB MS program which does the application installation. But all of that is automatic and no big deal.

See the picture