Comparing Free backup software

[Anderson2]

Having just suffered a hard drive crash I thought to report my experience for the benefit of others and solicit suggestions. My OS is Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit and I had 2 Free backup software products installed on my PC: Paragon Backup and Restore 10.2 and Macrium Reflect Free edition.

Paragon's backups take much much longer (by a multiple) than Macrium. More importantly the Rescue disk created by the Paragon Free version did not work correctly for me. In its "normal mode" it just loaded and then went nowhere. It did work in its "safe mode" option but was unbelievably slow. Using the Rescue disk in safe mode, the disk scanning took forever (minutes) and the only way to know it was still working was that the mouse froze, limiting my options to waiting or a hard reboot. Everything else took forever including selecting the archive to restore and the restore itself (several times Macrium's restore time).

Macrium's reflect was much faster for me. Its rescue disk worked flawlessly and booted right up. Similarly the archive selection and restore was much faster though I could only restore one partition at a time rather than set it to restore the entire disk image I had created. On the con side, the rescue disk I created from it only had a restore capability. It could not be used to backup and thus it was not possible to create a "bare metal" (without being in Windows) backup and restore of a hd. Paragon had that capability but its slowness - maybe because I was forced to use its "safe mode" - made it unbelievably tedious.

The question that occurred to me was the following: Was Macrium so much faster because it skipped important steps or was it just more efficient? Conversely, was Paragon's slowness merely inefficiency or did Paragon just check more things and thus was more secure? I do not know.

Bottom line: Paragon's bare metal capability was a plus but it slowness made it barely useful for me because one was never sure if the software had stalled or just needed forever to get to the next screen.

My experience with the Free versions only. Would like to hear more knowledgeable opinions.

 

[malch]

I'm using the same Paragon free product here.

I originally made 2 recovery disks and they both boot up fine (normal mode).

Performance seems pretty decent. I normally use "Best" compression which adds a very considerable overhead. Nevertheless, performance seems to be pretty consistent with that I would expect from the underlying hardware. I don't have any reason to feel that the Paragon program is inherently slow or inefficient.

I'm guessing that the recovery disk doesn't like some aspect of your hardware. A missing or bad driver perhaps? Or some other motherboard/BIOS interoperability issue?

I have seen some other reports of problems with the recovery disk. One common/suggested solution is to build a BartPE disk with the Paragon tools integrated with it. That will use standard Windows drivers plus any that you specifically integrate into the recovery disk. However, that's not a 2 minute job. If you want to go that route you'll also need the BartPE plugin:

http://ftp.paragon.eu.com/support/DB10/PSG_BartPE.zip

Caveat: although I have made some BartPE disks, I have not personally made one with the Paragon plugin.

Hope this helps.

 

[si8mon]

Having just suffered a hard drive crash I thought to report my experience for the benefit of others and solicit suggestions. My OS is Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit and I had 2 Free backup software products installed on my PC: Paragon Backup and Restore 10.2 and Macrium Reflect Free edition.

Paragon's backups take much much longer (by a multiple) than Macrium. More importantly the Rescue disk created by the Paragon Free version did not work correctly for me. In its "normal mode" it just loaded and then went nowhere. It did work in its "safe mode" option but was unbelievably slow. Using the Rescue disk in safe mode, the disk scanning took forever (minutes) and the only way to know it was still working was that the mouse froze, limiting my options to waiting or a hard reboot. Everything else took forever including selecting the archive to restore and the restore itself (several times Macrium's restore time).

Macrium's reflect was much faster for me. Its rescue disk worked flawlessly and booted right up. Similarly the archive selection and restore was much faster though I could only restore one partition at a time rather than set it to restore the entire disk image I had created. On the con side, the rescue disk I created from it only had a restore capability. It could not be used to backup and thus it was not possible to create a "bare metal" (without being in Windows) backup and restore of a hd. Paragon had that capability but its slowness - maybe because I was forced to use its "safe mode" - made it unbelievably tedious.

The question that occurred to me was the following: Was Macrium so much faster because it skipped important steps or was it just more efficient? Conversely, was Paragon's slowness merely inefficiency or did Paragon just check more things and thus was more secure? I do not know.

Bottom line: Paragon's bare metal capability was a plus but it slowness made it barely useful for me because one was never sure if the software had stalled or just needed forever to get to the next screen.

My experience with the Free versions only. Would like to hear more knowledgeable opinions.

Very interesting post. I'm using Macrium reflect and it seems that it worked quite well for you (apart from the fact that it can only restore one partition at a time and I all ready knew Macrium free couldn't do that).

 

[karlsnooks]

My favorite free backup and restore program, which is free and included with Windows 7 is Control Panel | Backup and Restore or simply
WIN key |type Backup | Enter key


To learn more: WIN + F1 key combo | type Backup and Restore | Enter key

For the first time Microsoft got backup and restore right. Backup and Restore in Windows 7 works very well. For a couple of weeks, I was at least daily, performing a full backup (known as system image backup) and full restore.

 

[Anderson2]

from the OP: Some additional thoughts in comparing the 2.

Paragon Backup free gives you the option of doing differential backups. Reflect free does not. That feature may be important to some. The flaky rescue disk remains however an important factor since rescue is what backups are really all about and it is when your hd crashes that you really need them.

Macrium Free gives you the option of creating either a Linux or a BartPE rescue disk. I did not need to create the BartPE rescue disk because the Macrium Linux rescue disk worked flawlessly. Paragon Free only creates a Linux rescue disk which did not work correctly for me. Its website support does provide instructions to make your own BartPE but I found the instructions complicated and hard to follow, so I did not.

Paragon's paid version is $49.95
Macrium's paid version is $39.99

 

[madmansam]

I have been using Paragon 9 for longtime I had no troubles with it whatsoever (yet).. it saved my bacon many times I made 3 copies of the recovery disk plus I created a capsul as well ... I have a partition with windows and programs and that's the one matter to me as I have seperate copies of my files on a web storage and an external 1.5TB HD.

 

[Dinesh]

My favorite free backup and restore program, which is free and included with Windows 7 is Control Panel | Backup and Restore or simply
WIN key |type Backup | Enter key


To learn more: WIN + F1 key combo | type Backup and Restore | Enter key

For the first time Microsoft got backup and restore right. Backup and Restore in Windows 7 works very well. For a couple of weeks, I was at least daily, performing a full backup (known as system image backup) and full restore.

I too use windows backup & restore.

 

[malch]

I tried the Windows 7 backup/restore software. I didn't like the fact that it wouldn't allow me to specify where the backup would be placed. It gave me a choice of drive -- but not a choice of where to place the backup on the drive. That was irritating.

Anyway, then I made a second backup and it warned me that it "might" replace/overwrite the first. I checked the help and it said I could save up to 10 backup images on a local (non-network) partition. So I proceeded with the backup and darn me if it didn't replace the first backup. As far as I'm concerned that was the end of Windows backup.

This thread has prompted me to make a BartPE disk with Paragon integrated onto it (just in case of future issues with the Unix boot disk). It wasn't too hard to make an image. I'll be testing it shortly. [Edit: it works!]

 

[Anderson2]

This thread has prompted me to make a BartPE disk with Paragon integrated onto it (just in case of future issues with the Unix boot disk). It wasn't too hard to make an image. I'll be testing it shortly. [Edit: it works!]

Can you share how you made a BartPE disk with Paragon integrated onto it. I would like to do that too but found the instructions on Paragon's website confusing. Could you share how you did it with someone who has never done it? Or better still share your iso file since both BartPE and Paragon Free are freeware?

Thank you.

 

[HMonk]

If your machine includes either a Seagate or WD HDD, you can go to their respective sites and DL a free version of Acronis that will permit image backups. It has some features disabled (e.g., cannot select individual files/directories or accomplish incremental/differential backups) but if a partition/disk image is all you require, the HDD-specific version of Acronis works very well.

Monk

 

[karlsnooks]

I tried the Windows 7 backup/restore software. I didn't like the fact that it wouldn't allow me to specify where the backup would be placed. It gave me a choice of drive -- but not a choice of where to place the backup on the drive. That was irritating.

Anyway, then I made a second backup and it warned me that it "might" replace/overwrite the first. I checked the help and it said I could save up to 10 backup images on a local (non-network) partition. So I proceeded with the backup and darn me if it didn't replace the first backup. As far as I'm concerned that was the end of Windows backup.

This thread has prompted me to make a BartPE disk with Paragon integrated onto it (just in case of future issues with the Unix boot disk). It wasn't too hard to make an image. I'll be testing it shortly. [Edit: it works!]

Malch,
I agree that the "might" message is misleading. What they really are saying is that when the backup drive is full, then the new backup will overwrite the oldest backup.

I've always got multiple-backups on my external backup drive. True is that my backup drive is of sufficient size to hold multiple-backups.

 

[malch]

Can you share how you made a BartPE disk with Paragon integrated onto it. I would like to do that too but found the instructions on Paragon's website confusing. Could you share how you did it with someone who has never done it? Or better still share your iso file since both BartPE and Paragon Free are freeware?

I don't think my ISO will really help you. It has a ton of other software and is highly customized for my system (my specific drivers, network settings, etc).

I would start by making a basic BartPE disk with your drivers. You will need a Windows XP CD (preferably with SP3) and then grab PEBuilder and follow the guides here:

Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD

You may need to add some critical drivers. I added drivers for SATA (not on the XP disks by default) as well as my specific video and network adapters.

Once you have created a working BartPE disk, you can start adding other software tools and customizing for your preferences. I've added my favorite editor, file manager, Firefox, and a whole bunch of other tools. Even pre-configured my TCP/IP settings.

Adding the Paragon plugin was relatively painless. I just downloaded this:

http://ftp.paragon.eu.com/support/DB10/PSG_BartPE.zip

and followed the instructions in DB9x.htm. They were written for version 9 but they work with the current 10.2 Paragon software.

In short, in the BartPE\plugin\ folder you create a DB9x folder and and place the stuff from the ZIP referenced above into it. Then you have to copy the contents of your Paragon installation folder into BartPE\plugin\DB9x\files\ folder. After that, you need to add a couple of DLL's copied from your Windows\system32\ folder.

Then run PEBuilder to create a new ISO.

It took me a day or two to make my first BartPE disk; that was mainly caused by some issues with my original Dell XP disk (undoing some special Dell registry permissions). I spent another day or two customizing it with a bunch of my favorite tools and preconfiguring them for my preferences. Making a BartPE disk for your system is not a trivial job.

However, adding the Paragon plugin took well under an hour and didn't involve anything more complicated than copying the Paragon files to the correct folders per the instructions in DB9x.htm.

 

[malch]

I agree that the "might" message is misleading. What they really are saying is that when the backup drive is full, then the new backup will overwrite the oldest backup.

I've always got multiple-backups on my external backup drive. True is that my backup drive is of sufficient size to hold multiple-backups.

Nope, my system disk was way less than 20GB at this point (right after a clean install). My backup disk had more than 600GB of free space. But it flatout replaced the old backup with the new. I was very pissed -- I really wanted to keep that image for future use.

The Paragon software I'm now using is far more sensible. It allows me to specify exactly where the backup should go, what it should be called and even allows me to add a description. Not exactly rocket science. But MS chose to do it in some strange way that has proven (to my satisfaction) to be a disaster.

I don't doubt that it can work differently under different circumstances. But this kind of inconsistent/unpredictable behavior is completely unacceptable in my book. Unfortunately, it seems to be something of a MS hallmark.

 

[Anderson2]

Thank you.

I have a Seagate in the laptop and a WD for external backup. So I am covered. Wonder if Acronis will let you upgrade to its full software at an upgrade price.

 

[HMonk]

Acronis "Discount"

@Anderson2: When you first launch Seagate's Discwizard, there is a dialog that pops up which, as I recall, has a link to order Acronis at a $29 price. That link does not appear in the WD version.

Monk

 

[whs]

I have to agree with the OP - Macrium is the easiest and fastest imaging program I have used. Long time ago I was given a free key for Paragon and I used it a few times. I did not really like it although I was impressed by the speed with which the differentials were created. At that time I was using Norton Ghost. It does the job but it took me about 6 months to understand all the odds and ends - it is not intuitive and not fast either. With Win7 I use free Macrium and I have made more than 20 recoveries (for real and for test and demo in my classes) and it has always worked. I use the Linux recovery disk.
For those that are interested I have made a Macrium Video Tutorial that shows the whole imaging and recovery cycle. There is also a link to a "related post" that I posted on the Vista Forum which gives a quick overview.

 

[Anderson2]

@Anderson2: When you first launch Seagate's Discwizard, there is a dialog that pops up which, as I recall, has a link to order Acronis at a $29 price. That link does not appear in the WD version.

Monk

Thank you very much HMonk. I have downloaded both. Could not install them yet because I have the trial version of the full Acronis installed to try it out and the WD and SG versions would not install over a more recent version. After I finish trying the full Acronis version I will uninstall it and see what the differences are with the WD and SG versions and may go ahead and purchase it the SG upgrade way.

For those that are interested I have made a Macrium Video Tutorial that shows the whole imaging and recovery cycle. There is also a link to a "related post" that I posted on the Vista Forum which gives a quick overview.

Thank you whs. Did you find a way to do a full "bare metal" backup using the Free Macrium version's rescue disk? On the Paragon forum they say that Paragon will warn you if the source (bad clusters) of your backup is bad, while Macrium may not. Any experience there?

How would you compare Macrium and Acronis?

Which brings up another question. With Acronis True Image and the paid version of Macrium costing about the same, would Acronis (more established) not be the better choice? Any experience with both? I heard acronis is faster still but have not really tested it yet.

 

[whs]

With the free Macrium I image partitions. As to my knowledge you cannot do bare metal - maybe with the pro version that I have never used.
A long time ago I have tried Acronis. But in thoise days I was sold on Nortion Ghost and did not really persue it. I think Macrium is the fastest of all. I image my system partition and my data partition together. That takes 12 ninutes for a 26GB image. That is from an SSD to an internal disk. To an external disk it is a little slower - about 20 minutes.
I have chosen Macrium because it is easy to use and very reliable. Also because I teach it for the 650 members of my computer club who are on average not very advanced. They need something simple that they can deal with. Ghost or Acronis would probably stunn them.

 

[Stelly]

On the Paragon forum they say that Paragon will warn you if the source (bad clusters) of your backup is bad, while Macrium may not. Any experience there?

Hi,

Macrium Reflect will always inform you if it cannot backup a HDD, but Reflect will check the Bad Cluster Table to ensure that it misses any clusters that Windows has marked as not to use and miss them clusters out, I'm not sure if Paragon does this and just says there are bad clusters on the disk so do not try imaging it?

Stelly

 

[RobCr]

Win7 Pro Imaged with Free Seagate DiscWizard, and then Restored to a different drive.

I tried the latest DiscWizard, and had minor errors, so did not use it.
Not sure what my older version is, but I downloaded it from Seagate in May 2009. THAT WAs THE ONE I used below.

I made an image of the full drive MBR + Win7 partition + a data partition(no OS)
That is, I just ticked the box to image the whole drive.
(This was NOT a Sector by Sector image)
It took about 15 minutes to create, and the same to verify.
I then removed the drive, and put another drive into the PC.
I used Partition Magic to Delete the partitions that were previously on the new drive (Possibly I did not even have to do that ?).
I then booted with the 2009 Segate DiscWizard CD, and Restored the MBR + Win7 + Data partitions mentioned above.
That took 10 minutes, and I then booted into Win7

Hope this will assist others.