A very big thank you to everyone who replied! I'm reading and making separate notes to reply where needed..... Appreciate all the advice so far!
Still have questions, will post soon (its COLD here)...fingers moving slowly! (I'd talk to type but my teeth chattering too much!)
Hi Oscer1, and Lady Fitzgerald:
You both mentioned Macrium Reflect Backup and Hard Disk Imaging for Windows 7, Vista, XP and Server 2003/2008-- I came across that one in my searches... looked promising but the few rating sites had unusually low numbers of users (12 or 25) (usually 4 or 5 stars for each user total so excellent ratings) but I was worried that having so few users for this, and all reviewed it great but if all reviews are great, why so few users reviewing compared to 100's for other companies? Not complaining there... just wondering... Its a UK company I found out from your link (thanks!)
And 30 day free trial (but no prices listed, so does anyone know what am I getting trapped into for cost---Laptop is a relative's computer (more about that later in other posts), so not my wallet that will get hit for this....
There are several. They all work fine. None is perfect, to say it never fails is a huge exaggeration. However, problems are extremely rare and more often due to difficulties on the source/destination drive.
I have been doing this for a very long time. I started the whole macrium thing way back on the Vista Forums.
That is not to say it is the best for you.
I use Aomei Backupper mostly now, it is fast and has an excellent GUI. I have never had any problem with it. It is also small and unintrusive.
Another possibility is Easeus. Works fine, but it is huge with a couple of hefty services running - reminds me of Acronis.
Paragon is worth looking at also. It has some unusual features, which may appeal.
You can take a look at some of the free versions first.
Hi XP VM User.
I also use Macrium Reflect Backup and it just plain works.
I don't know where you are looking at reviews at but these are my thoughts and the reviews I went by.
1.Lady Fitzgerald the backup Queen of the century.
2. Whs who has forgot more about computer than I will ever know.
Another real plus is the tutorials on this forum that can guide one through every step of the way. If one stumbles with the tutorials; we are open 24/7/365 if help is needed.
ignatzatsonic wrote: LOL I do agree with Lady Fitzgerald, whs: BUT (and its a big one with me) But read below:::
My years of experience doing backups ( and on my XP system not listed here--- I have had RAID 0 (I hear you Lady Fitzgerald, Quoted: Backup, backup, backup! And RAID is NOT a backup! and I will respond to that phrase later on), and other backup systems to backups as I never wanted to lose stuff, but let me describe the scenario that I personally frequently (!) found myself in.
While using Norton Ghost (various versions, so depending upon the version what broke or went wrong would be different), I'd get in a situation, where at 8 pm at night, after running all day in background, doing an incremental backup, it says backup failed! Now I have two choices:
According to the ones who say phone help is "overrated" no good, I can always go "online" to get help.....but what if that computer tells me its "Jammed" can't go online as too many operations running for the RAM memory to handle, too many page handles open, [yes I've got a whole book of error messages I've saved over the years from trying other systems other than Norton, which is why I kept coming back to Norton products even when other people didn't like it...]
So let me ask you, with the computer "jammed up" in a constant saving mode listing it as failed, HDD light spinning on and on solid, and I'm stupid afraid to "pull the plug" and crash the computer just to get it to reset so I can go "online" for help.... what do I do (pretend I don't have any other computers at home at 8 pm....)
Leave it running all night? Until I can go to get a library/friend? computer to post my message to the forum help site?
Then go back every hour? or two? to check on my message??? (I'm serious here..... its happened for various reasons (i.e. blackout etc) but all long stories)....
I don't want to excessively run the HDD while its in an endless loop stuck there and I found out sometimes (to my horror) that if I forcibly stop the copying process mid-stream---it damages the copy already made (to which the incremental storage was being added) so I have to begin that huge copying process all over again! Again using up the poor HDD (and my not having money growing on trees... to just run and replace HDD's or fans every time they break down---I know how, but I don't trust myself to actually DO the replacement so it costs money and have to lose the computer time as well to take it to a repair shop....
ALL this is happily and very easily fixed!
How you ask?
By a simple 8:00 pm phone call, and about 10 min wait time, and without showing them the screen, I just verbally describe in a few minutes (faster than I can type!) its overload page handles error messages, failed save process error messages or anything else, and without their coming into the computer remotely, I get instant service by an expert who knows their program and exactly what went wrong and guides me through the steps (I can press buttons if I can read to them what the screen says)---and VOILA! (yes happy face) The computer is fixed, they can go in remotely, reset the Norton Ghost, pick up where it left off (they have the command codes and all fixes for the registry if needed! No fumbling around trying to Reg Edit myself to get rid of pieces of programs left hanging from the process...
I'm sorry, but to me that is worth its weight in gold...
(I complained to Symantec about the bad reviews, but they had no comment for me to make me feel better about trying SSR with 24/7 phone support).
(That said, I understand completly what Lady Fitzgerald suggested about having TWO backup systems.....I never did as I always was told by Norton especially NOT to do that,, but if I don't have Norton running the show I guess its ok to have two (I was also warned never to have two Anti-Virus systems as they clash wth each other (I learned it the hard way)..... even if one has features the other does not! I have to make those hard choices....
So for all those wondering why do I want phone help option, when there are so many other Free Forums and places to go under the backup software's own web page, you don't get the idea. That concept is that while I carefully read what others say... I carefully follow the instructions, but when my screen shot DOES NOT EQUAL what the poster or Forum said it should.... then what do I do? I'm stuck in middle of a process! [guess I should make this a separate question here one day] computer is buzzing along and I'm again running outside to find another working computer connected to the Internet in order to write back to the Forum hoping that someone in the world is awake (I operate my computers on/off 24/7 even if others don't') and reading the Forum and would have the time and energy to reply back to me with what do I do when the screen shot does not say what it should say (and of course since I'm not at home with the faulty computer, how do I go back and forth running home to read the screen, then running back to the outside computer to enter the data and post it in Forum, etc, in order to solve the problem!
Thanks for reading all of this, I'll post some of these now so I can get replies, and check out the Macrium Reflect Backup and Hard Disk Imaging for Windows 7, as one backup, but I should still have someplace I can call instantly to get help, so where else can I go for a backup program?
Depends how you look at it. To say that it never fails, meaning for everyone, could be a huge exaggeration. However, for those of us here on Seven Forums who use it frequently, saying it never fails is reasonable. In my case, I have never had it fail to restore an image. I had an image fail to verify only one time (out of a couple years of making at least one image a week); I just immediately made another one and it verified. One of the beauties of Macrium Reflect is being able verify an image after making them instead of waiting until you need it only to have it fail to restore.
I think you worry too much. And here is the free Macrium version (left column) that I use since 5 years. never had a problem. That's why I made the tutorial. Trust me, it's a very good program. When I was teaching it in my computer club, we must have made 100 recoveries - none ever failed.
Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download
Thanks SIW2 for your reply
and thanks to Layback Bear great response as usual (I remember you from my earlier problem(s)... and despite your comments below your avatar "3 brain cells" you have much more than I do especially where computers are concerned so that places the other two you mentioned even higher up the scale then....
I was busy typing so I did not see your reply until I posted mine... Layback Bear, so when you say
please see my post above about phone support, I'd be interested in what you think of that....
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