Yeah, I really like the interface. I made the emergency disk and tested it up the point of actually restoring. I also use the Win7 backup so hopefully between the two I can recover if need be.


Dave T2

I use the free version and make a backup every night. I like the fact it can be run from the command line. I've restored my operating system countless times and I've never had any problems. In the past I've used Acronis and StorageCraft's ShadowProtect and this is the best I've used. The only real niggle is that comments are limited to 150 characters or so.

Kit

Kit,

Thanks, that is good to hear. I am usng the Free version as well since I just need whole backups or a clone.

Dave T2

I don't like incremental backups. I use Macrium to back up my system drive for data I use FreefileSync. I have two backup images that I delete and recreate every other day (Daily Odd and Daily Even). Before any major change to the system I delete and remake a third system backup called Current. My computer copies these three images to a separate hard drive during its closedown routine so that I mitigate the risks of a hard drive failure. It only takes 4-5 minutes to make a system image because it has no data on it.

I'm thinking of buying the Professional Version as a way to say thank you though the activation proceedure seems so off-putting I wouldn't use it. The activation issues was the reason I switched away from StorageCraft.

I've been using Retrospect for years - big fan of incremental backups.

Done correctly, you can have months and more worth of complete backup snapshots available at once. You can get at file that existed two months ago if you need to, or you can restore your entire system to exactly as it was at that time. Differential backups are fast - data de-duplication keeps your backup drive a reasonable size.

Although it's not a well known system, Retrospect Professional also come with 5 remote client licenses - you can backup the whole house whether it's Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X.

Ah, Retrospect. Used it for a couple of years before switching to Acronis9, now Acronis10. Really weird user interface, but worked great, and the incremental backups were significantly smaller than the incrementals done by Acronis.

For years some backup software was great for pulling out individual files from a backup, while other software was great for bare metal restores. I think Acronis was one of the first that did both things well, though now probably all of them do.

I've used Acronis since version 8 and found it easy to use. However, the one time I really needed it, the backup was corrupt even though I verified it after creation. Use Macrium Reflect (free) now with no problems.

Kent