backup software

[dryfly]

I've used the free version of Macrium Reflect for years and it does everything and more than what I need. The company is dropping support for the free version in early 2024. I'm not sure if this just means no upgrades, but I would think downloads will no longer be available. I'm looking for suggestions on what might be a good replacement, preferably free.

I've looked at AOMEI Backupper and would be interested in any opinions.

 

[TonyR]

Personally, I will pay $70 for the new version of Macrium Reflect because the free version has never failed cloning customer's drives and I've done 8 this past year. That feature alone has saved me a lot of time and my customers a lot of money.

I have a 2 slot USB 3.0 external drive dock and it clones 1 drive to the other very well, no errors, even reduces partition(s) to allow cloning a 1TB drive to a 500GB drive for example.

I don't use the backup function so I can't attest to its performance and value but for me, Macrium Reflect 8 will be worth the $70 to me and what I use it for.....YMMV.

 

[dryfly]

Yeah, I may buy it as well. If my application was for business I'd definitely stay with it, but for the way I use it a free version would be nice.

Although they won't be supporting the program, I assume it can still be used but won't be available for download.

 

[Mast3r0fN0n3]

What Tony said + 1

 

[bobct1]

Veeam --> Free Windows Backup Solution for PCs and Endpoints

If you have a Synology - Active Backup is free with certain models. Easy full system restore - boot to USB, point to backup, and restore.

Arq Backup - $50, but worth a look --> Cloud backup for Mac and Windows : Arq

 

[tigerwillow1]

I use 7zip for everything but occasional system images. I would assume that the current macrium you have will continue to work for at least a few more years. The little script below uses 7zip to back up a data drive to a zip file on a backup drive, putting it in a designated directory with the date in the filename. When it comes time to browse the backup or retrieve anything, I find 7zip a lot faster and easier than any commercial backup software I've tried. I use a different script to backup just critical data files to a flash drive, with password and encryption on that one.

ECHO
ECHO Backup d: to f:\d_backups
ECHO
REM usage: back_d_to_f
set DAY=%date:~4,2%-%date:~7,2%-%date:~10,4%
c:\"program files"\7-zip\7z a -r f:\d_backup\d_backup_%DAY%.zip d:\*
ECHO
ECHO Backup complete

(An example backup file name is d_backup_05-03-2021.zip)

 

[newfoundlandplucky]

Sorry, don't post often but lurk a bunch. Thought you may like another option: Acronis True Image.

Macrium Reflect looks perfect. Must have features, in my deployment, are:

1. Create images of running Windows OS,
2. Bare metal restore to dissimilar hardware,
3. File and folder level backup and recovery of local disk and SMB shares,
4. File explorer of backup images,
5. Incremental and full backups using defined schedule.

Been using Acronis True Image Home /w 3 bundled licenses (flat fee paid 10 years ago). Acronis has allowed maintenance updates during this time but I voluntarily stopped a few years ago, my choice, when they integrated cloud features. Have done about a dozen bare metal restores over the network, flash, and USB.

Have not lost any irreplaceable files in over 20 years but have had to use all of the restore options listed above. Pictures, Tax, and e-mail archives (spanning 20 years). Didn't see it listed but being able to test a bare metal backup in ProxMox every once in a while will let you know the backups are sane and functional.

 

[dryfly]

Sorry, don't post often but lurk a bunch. Thought you may like another option: Acronis True Image.

Macrium Reflect looks perfect. Must have features, in my deployment, are:

1. Create images of running Windows OS,
2. Bare metal restore to dissimilar hardware,
3. File and folder level backup and recovery of local disk and SMB shares,
4. File explorer of backup images,
5. Incremental and full backups using defined schedule.

Been using Acronis True Image Home /w 3 bundled licenses (flat fee paid 10 years ago). Acronis has allowed maintenance updates during this time but I voluntarily stopped a few years ago, my choice, when they integrated cloud features. Have done about a dozen bare metal restores over the network, flash, and USB.

Have not lost any irreplaceable files in over 20 years but have had to use all of the restore options listed above. Pictures, Tax, and e-mail archives (spanning 20 years). Didn't see it listed but being able to test a bare metal backup in ProxMox every once in a while will let you know the backups are sane and functional.

Years ago I used Acronis True Image and it worked fine. Good software. I can't see any advantage of it over Macrium and it is more expensive. But it boils down to which one you are the most familiar with using and feel comfortable with.

 

[dryfly]

I use 7zip for everything but occasional system images. I would assume that the current macrium you have will continue to work for at least a few more years. The little script below uses 7zip to back up a data drive to a zip file on a backup drive, putting it in a designated directory with the date in the filename. When it comes time to browse the backup or retrieve anything, I find 7zip a lot faster and easier than any commercial backup software I've tried. I use a different script to backup just critical data files to a flash drive, with password and encryption on that one.

ECHO
ECHO Backup d: to f:\d_backups
ECHO
REM usage: back_d_to_f
set DAY=%date:~4,2%-%date:~7,2%-%date:~10,4%
c:\"program files"\7-zip\7z a -r f:\d_backup\d_backup_%DAY%.zip d:\*
ECHO
ECHO Backup complete

(An example backup file name is d_backup_05-03-2021.zip)

Help me out here. I've never used script files before. Where is the text inserted and what activates it? It doesn't appear the script runs automatically but is kinda like a macro.

And yes, I'm hoping Macrium will still work for a few more years. There well be no security updates but I would think word will get out if security becomes an issue. biggest problem is it will not be available to download were you to get a new computer.

 

[tigerwillow1]

Years ago I used Acronis True Image and it worked fine.

Same with me, years ago. I have the same beef with all of the commercial backup utilities I've used. They start out as nice and simple: Tell them to run a backup, and they create a backup. Then over time, the utilities creep into "bigger and better", and go to running automatically, making decisions for you, automatic updates, phoning home, etc. They go from simple things under your control to beasts where you don't have a clue what they're doing. This is why I switched from Acronis to Macrium, and Macrium has gone down the same path. When they're new, they sell on the basis of usefulness. After they get market penetration, the name recognition and checklist of features that most people don't need becomes the sales pitch.

For me. part of the backup process is at least spot-checking the backup. Back in the days of bernoullis and tapes as the backup media, I several times caught the backup as being blank or corrupted even though the software happily said it was correct. You don't know you have a good backup until you actually restore something, and you need Acronis to run to restore from your Acronis backup, Macrium to restore from your Macrium backup, etc.

 

[tigerwillow1]

Help me out here. I've never used script files before. Where is the text inserted and what activates it? It doesn't appear the script runs automatically but is kinda like a macro.

This is a command/shell/DOS box script. I run it manually. It's not for somebody who wants automatic and/or scheduled backups.

ECHO
ECHO Backup d: to f:\d_backups
ECHO
REM usage: back_d_to_f
set DAY=%date:~4,2%-%date:~7,2%-%date:~10,4%
c:\"program files"\7-zip\7z a -r f:\d_backup\d_backup_%DAY%.zip d:\*
ECHO
ECHO Backup complete

The ECHO lines are just to display messages on the console for status. The REM (remark) line is just a comment. The actual script is only 2 lines:

set DAY=%date:~4,2%-%date:~7,2%-%date:~10,4%
c:\"program files"\7-zip\7z a -r f:\d_backup\d_backup_%DAY%.zip d:\*

The first line sets a shell variable called DAY to the current system date. All of the gobbledygook is to format it as mm-dd-yyyy format.
The second line is the 7zip command, which is admittedly cryptic.

c:\"program files"\7-zip\7z is the location of the 7zip executable
the "a" argument tells it to add files to a directory
the "-r" is for recurse, i.e. include all subdirectories
f:\d_backup\d_backup_%DAY%.zip is the destination zip file location and name, with the formatted date part of the filename
d:\* is the source location, in this case the entire d: drive

Any utility that creates zip files can be used. I happen to like 7zip the best. The resulting backup can be read on any machine or OS that supports zip files. When I travel with my Linux laptop, I take a 7zip backup from the windows system to have all of that data easily available.

 

[newfoundlandplucky]

This is why I switched from Acronis to Macrium, and Macrium has gone down the same path.

Darn.

Very interested in what dryfly eventually chooses.

 

[dryfly]

Darn.

Very interested in what dryfly eventually chooses.

Yeah, I am too!!

For right now I'm going to stay with Macrium Free until I see what's going to happen. If I spend money, I'll probably go back with Macrium as I'm familiar with how it works and trust it. Before I do that I may try a couple of the other free ones, but you never really never know how good they are until the times comes when you have to rely on them.

Since I manually backup my important data files several ways, the imaging is not the end all thing for me. If I were running a business I wouldn't think twice about buying the best utility I could find.

 

[Flintstone61]

I have tried AOMEI just for my own research and it worked but the free version is blocked from the good features.....but it's been several years......I'm using free and paid Macrium on several PC's........using paid versions on my stuff....because anytime i move my Daily use pc to "new hardware", it makes it worth every penny.
I had Macrium version 5 running on a Restaurant POS for 5 years in a nightly clone, at 4am. until they recently close last month....

 

[dryfly]

I have tried AOMEI just for my own research and it worked but the free version is blocked from the good features.....but it's been several years......I'm using free and paid Macrium on several PC's........using paid versions on my stuff....because anytime i move my Daily use pc to "new hardware", it makes it worth every penny.
I had Macrium version 5 running on a Restaurant POS for 5 years in a nightly clone, at 4am. until they recently close last month....

AOMEI is what is was looking at. All I need is partition backups, and hopefully the ability to do them automatically. Of course, Macrium would generate Win PE install disk so you could quickly re-install C: drive, but I never had to use it. I'd like something that the paid version offered and that's the ability to backup just certain files.

 

[gwminor48]

If memory serves me correctly, which at my age is questionable, it seems that a couple of Windows updates broke something in Macrium which had to be fixed in a Macrium update. I've used the free version of Macrium for a long time and I would be ok with no more updates as long as Windows doesn't do anything to screw things up. Maybe I am not remembering things correctly, did Windows updates mess with your free Macrium a few years ago?

 

[dryfly]

If memory serves me correctly, which at my age is questionable, it seems that a couple of Windows updates broke something in Macrium which had to be fixed in a Macrium update. I've used the free version of Macrium for a long time and I would be ok with no more updates as long as Windows doesn't do anything to screw things up. Maybe I am not remembering things correctly, did Windows updates mess with your free Macrium a few years ago?

No, I don't remember that. I've had pretty frequent Macrium updates, and constant Windows updates and I can't say I've ever had a problem. But, sooner or later one of the two will cause problems.

What's interesting is I've discovered Western Digital offers Acronis basic edition free if you are running a WD drive on your computer. I hooked up an external drive, installed it, and it will do everything I need. Actually the UI is easier than free Macrium, and it allows imaging of individual files. Even if Macrium Free still runs I may make the switch.

 

[gwminor48]

No, I don't remember that. I've had pretty frequent Macrium updates, and constant Windows updates and I can't say I've ever had a problem. But, sooner or later one of the two will cause problems.

What's interesting is I've discovered Western Digital offers Acronis basic edition free if you are running a WD drive on your computer. I hooked up an external drive, installed it, and it will do everything I need. Actually the UI is easier than free Macrium, and it allows imaging of individual files. Even if Macrium Free still runs I may make the switch.

Thanks, interesting, I use WD's My Book external drives for backup so I'll check out their software you mentioned.

 

[newfoundlandplucky]

Since I manually backup my important data files several ways, the imaging is not the end all thing for me. If I were running a business I wouldn't think twice about buying the best utility I could find.

Currently evaluating AOMEI and Macrium . For some reason chose to start with AOMEI. Great user interface.

I paid for a license and then found that, by re-installing their licensed program, the restore process required a license key. Doh. Lots of workarounds but this restore behavior is not good.

Took your advice and now backup important files using AOMEI sync to fileserver and then encrypted and zipped to backblaze-b2 for off-site storage ($1 per month). Much better than using proprietary file format. Good suggestion. Thanks.

 

[Nick70068]

On one computer I still use Acronis (single license) but on my other computers, I use AOMEI and it has never failed me yet.