Is EaseUS ToDoBackup Free going away to be paid for only?

[pparks1]

Noticed on their website, that you cannot hardly discover the link to the "Free" version of the software anymore.

For the time being, if you hit their website, and type "Free" in the search box at the top you can still find this link, which has the copy of the software still available for download;
Best free backup software. Hard drive backup and recovery, image and clone freeware - EaseUS Todo Backup Free

 

[Maguscreed]

They've stopped offering 'support' for the free version.
So far as I know they don't intend to start charging for the 'home version' though.

...and as for making the free version hard to find.
Well they are in business to make money you know.

 

[pparks1]

I can understand not offering support for the free product. This can be a very common practice with free software.

Being in business to make money..I get that. But they didn't used to hide this software and make it so hard to find. I've pretty much gotten to the point where I don't recommend this software to others as they aren't able to find it unless I give them a very explicit link. There are other free alternatives which do a suitable job.

 

[Maguscreed]

Well I might be a bit harder on them about it in some circumstances, but this isn't a huge multinational or even something large enough to be considered corporate. It's a relatively small company that is probably trying to stay alive in the current market conditions.

I think this is more a move of desperation than one of morally ambiguous misdirection.

 

[jimbo45]

Well I might be a bit harder on them about it in some circumstances, but this isn't a huge multinational or even something large enough to be considered corporate. It's a relatively small company that is probably trying to stay alive in the current market conditions.

I think this is more a move of desperation than one of morally ambiguous misdirection.

Well they are going the right way to go bust.

I can't say it's "Morally ambiguous" -- we could question the whole ethics of people wanting to "Make Money" which is not a simple topic by any manner at all.

They have their product lines and are free to distribute them in any way they so choose -- but having released a Free version -- I do agree with the premise that they should not HIDE the link any more -- they can easily say that as from dd/mm/yyyy we will no longer be supporting our Free product and it won't be shown on our home page but will still be available from the archive.

Incidentally several companies seem to be doing this now.

For instance Alcohol 52% Free edition needs hunting down ( this is a Virtual DVD / CD mounter). W8 users note that this facility is now built in to the OS from Explorer -- right mouse click mounts an ISO image.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Maguscreed]

W8 users note that this facility is now built in to the OS from Explorer -- right mouse click mounts an ISO image.

Cheers
jimbo

I foresee this feature being weighed down by copy protection and other drm measures which will likely make it only partially functional in the final release.

 

[pparks1]

Companies are free to do things however they see fit. We as consumers can choose whether to consider supporting them or not. Personally, I use Acronis, but for those who don't want a paid for solution, EaseUs is often what I recommend as it has more features than Macrium.

 

[Maguscreed]

Companies are free to do things however they see fit. We as consumers can choose whether to consider supporting them or not. Personally, I use Acronis, but for those who don't want a paid for solution, EaseUs is often what I recommend as it has more features than Macrium.

 

[IownAmoneyPit]

I posted the quote below about a month and a half ago when I was going too update Easus Todo Free and I also noticed then like pparks1 that the free version was hard to find but just assumed that it was my poor searching skills and also I discovered that the newer versions of Easus Todo Free no longer had the ability to create a WinPE disk.

I can confirm Easus Todo Free (Version 4.0.0.5, March 16th 2012) no longer has the ability to create a Win PE disk.

If you still have the older version installed and the same version of installer saved (up to 4.0.0.4) then you can keep the ability to create a WinPE disk.

 

[Brds7t7]

They've also removed differential backups from the latest free version. I always preferred this over incremental backups. You have to pay for the workstation version now to get differential backups.

 

[SIW2]

I stopped using the free Easeus Todo backup.

Nowhere near as good as it udsed to be.

They still do a fine free partition manager - and the Data recov wiz is very good.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I used EaseUS for a year or so, but gave it up.

No major complaint, but I did notice that my EaseUS directory was over 290 MB, compared to 48 for Macrium.

 

[Brds7t7]

I used EaseUS for a year or so, but gave it up.

No major complaint, but I did notice that my EaseUS directory was over 290 MB, compared to 48 for Macrium.

Yes I noticed it was quite bloated for a free product. Had 5 or 6 services running in the background if I remember correctly.

Apart from the image mounting service which can be set to manual, Macrium doesn't need any services to run.

 

[4wd]

Had 5 or 6 services running in the background if I remember correctly

2 services, which can be set to manual. And around 175 mb diskspace for todo bu 4.0. Must say it's been very good for my use over the years.

 

[Brds7t7]

They may have trimmed it down with later versions as I haven't had it installed lately but the version I had there was always more than 2 processes running in the background.
Seemed like a decent program but just didn't work well with my pc. Caused a couple of blue screens which I hadn't had before and haven't had since I uninstalled it.

 

[SIW2]

The previous Todo free included winpe builder.

In the Easeus folder there was a directory called winpe or something similar - that contained all the files that were used to make pe disc - that is why it was large.

Without that , it is now about 175mb .

It was a very good freebie - it used to have more functions than other freebies.

They have now taken a lot of the features out of the free version.

 

[pparks1]

^ Of course, it's not absolutely necessary to run the latest versions of the product with the features removed. As long as the older version works with your OS and does what you need, why upgrade?

 

[Tinkerdog]

Any place to download the older versions that had WinPE and the other missing features?

 

[SanityKills]

Before the free version started disintegrating the user interface seemed to be going the way of Acronis True Image where it starts getting confusing in regards to what is exactly getting backed up. I realize the "yellow" partition is what is getting backed up but it would have been better to get textual confirmation since data on these partitions can be so important.

I guess I'll just go back to the Windows 7 imaging utility and resize the reserve partition to 1GB next time I reformat to see if that glitch goes away.

Disk imaging utilities must be extremely hard to get right since companies seem to start out with the right idea then end up overcomplicating both the product and the pricing.