Drive imaging software for Win 8?

I

Impulse

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Anyone test any image backup tools for Win 8 yet? How's it working out for you?

I've been using Symantec's Ghost a long long time and even stuck with it when they stripped functionality (most of which was restored in latter versions), it was just very very reliable and Arconis never gave me the same impression... However the latest version won't even activate on Windows 8, there's apparently no plan to patch it, and no ETA on the next version.

So I'm leaning towards Arconis basically out of familiarity... They're saying the newest version is fully compatible with Win 8 but I'm wondering if that's the reality. Anyone using anything else? I've heard about Macrium and Paragon... This is probably the one thing I really don't mind paying any amount for (well, and AnyDVD), as long as it's well supported and reliable.

I know Win 8 has those refresh/reset options but they're not nearly flexible enough for me (and Windows 7's image backup tool was always picky about drive sizes etc, Ghost could resize partitions on the fly very well).
 
I can speak for the newest version but I have 2012 with the plus pack. I switched off symantec years ago due to issues. For the most part I've been happy with acronis and their universal restore does work well. I can't speak for windows 8 support though in 2013. I've only messed with windows 8 in vms.
 
Yeah i cant find a good one. Just using the built in one and i only have control over the scheduling.
 
EASEUS latest versions support Windows 8 and Server 2012, have used them both extensively in the last few days. There was a time when I liked Acronis but by comparison to EASEUS its become somewhat bloaty. EASEUS continues to impress, really like how far theyve come and how fast they are to update.

Edit: Its also got scheduling which is extremely versatile -- full/differential/incremental, and its not limited to image-based backups, you can schedule file based backups of important documents/photos/etc just like traditional backup software. The best all-in-one solution for the price, IMHO.

http://www.todo-backup.com/home/home-backup.htm
 
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odditory said:
EASEUS latest versions support Windows 8 and Server 2012, have used them both extensively in the last few days. There was a time when I liked Acronis but EASEUS continues to impress, really like how far theyve come and how fast they are to update.

http://www.todo-backup.com/home/home-backup.htm
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I couldn't agree more. I was literally going to post the exact same thing. I also gave up on Acronis several years ago and won't go back.

I'm testing EASEUS right now on Win 8. So far, so good. Still have to test doing a restore though. Check back.
 
Oh, you can type "windows 7" and you can make a system image in windows just like you could in windows 7. I HAVE tested that feature and it works just fine using a boot disc to restore.
 
What made you guys switch from Arconis to EASUS? Just curious, and thanks for the suggestions.
 
Impulse said:
What made you guys switch from Arconis to EASUS? Just curious, and thanks for the suggestions.
Click to expand...

Yea and how well does its universal restore(in the higher end versions) work?

Edit: I ask because acronis works well and is able to restore images to different hardware where a full sysprep wouldn't allow the image to boot(talking about xp there).
 
Impulse said:
Anyone test any image backup tools for Win 8 yet? How's it working out for you?

I've been using Symantec's Ghost a long long time and even stuck with it when they stripped functionality (most of which was restored in latter versions), it was just very very reliable and Arconis never gave me the same impression... However the latest version won't even activate on Windows 8, there's apparently no plan to patch it, and no ETA on the next version.

So I'm leaning towards Arconis basically out of familiarity... They're saying the newest version is fully compatible with Win 8 but I'm wondering if that's the reality. Anyone using anything else? I've heard about Macrium and Paragon... This is probably the one thing I really don't mind paying any amount for (well, and AnyDVD), as long as it's well supported and reliable.

I know Win 8 has those refresh/reset options but they're not nearly flexible enough for me (and Windows 7's image backup tool was always picky about drive sizes etc, Ghost could resize partitions on the fly very well).
Click to expand...

Wilders forum has more on this. If you're spending money then you're into storage craft shadow protect and macrium reflect. Sp is the better imager but reflect has some convenient features like the ability to install its boot environment right to the hard drive, and it also has the beat hardware independent restore in my experience

Both are a level ahead of the rest. Terabyte imager is good but a smaller player
 
I went ahead and upgraded my Acronis to the 2013 version so I could run backups of my Windows 8 installs. No problems so far. Their forums say that the 2012 version may eventually get an update for Windows 8 compatibility but I needed something I could use now.
 
As an IT Pro I had deployed Acronis's True Image product throughout our company. Back in the version 9 days they had a good product but they have utterly failed us now to the point I'm looking for another vendor to handle our drive imaging.

Based on some feedback here I'm giving EaseUs a try. So far their workstation product works as advertised. Its network functions are doggedly slow ( we backup to a NAS ) but still work. So as for having a working business class product already puts them ahead of Acronis.

In the end though its Acronis's unbelievably horrible support that has pushed me to fire them. I've not tried EaseUs's support yet but as it can not be any worse than Acronis's I don't feel that i've anything to loose in making a switch.

Update: EaseUS does not have a US presence so they are not a viable solution for our company. Back to the drawing board. :/

Update: Found a company called Paragon Software that I will be testing. They have a win 8 drive image solution that looks comparable feature wise to most others out there.
 
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Impulse said:
Like I said, not very flexible as far as scheduling, keeping multiple images, deleting old ones, restoring while resizing, etc.
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I use imageX
A little powerscripting takes care of everything you mentioned plus more.
 
Just a heads up, I just cloned my Win 8 laptop HD to an SSD using TI 11. It didn't work. Fortunately the repair function on the Win 8 DVD did once I drilled down to it. It might have something to do with the ckloned drive being an SSD, I dunno
 
A lot of the stuff I've read on Acronis TI's latest versions has been scaring me away, probably gonna give EaseUS a shot.
 
Impulse said:
A lot of the stuff I've read on Acronis TI's latest versions has been scaring me away, probably gonna give EaseUS a shot.
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I have had enough experience with Disk Director Home 11 to
1. rely on the main product to do the jobs I need it to, with partition creation/resizing/moving, etc
2. Warn everyone in the strongest possible way possible to run, not walk, away from the Operating System Selector. This is a multi-boot product, and it barely, barely works. Once I lost an entire disk partition full of photos and music due to an error with OSS. Fortunately I was able to recover that partition. But the website is full of complaints. And the worst part is that some of these complaints were 2-3 years old, but they were not fixed. Bah.
 
Yeah, stuff along those lines plus the terrible uninstall routine etc. Rather not even try it after those complaints. Generally I don't take random negative reviews very seriously (specially on Amazon/Newegg), but there's a lot of very specific info out there about True Image's issues and flaws.
 
Well I'm still using the DOS version of Nortons Ghost v11.5 It creates perfect images of my W8 disk and restores them without a hitch.

It's small, quick and easy the only drawback is that it doesn't do incremental backups but I do that via a .bat file every day (I have a task setup in task scheduler) and once a fortnight i create a new complete disk image. works great for me.

cheers
 
digitalink2008 said:
As an IT Pro I had deployed Acronis's True Image product throughout our company. Back in the version 9 days they had a good product but they have utterly failed us now to the point I'm looking for another vendor to handle our drive imaging.

Based on some feedback here I'm giving EaseUs a try. So far their workstation product works as advertised. Its network functions are doggedly slow ( we backup to a NAS ) but still work. So as for having a working business class product already puts them ahead of Acronis.

In the end though its Acronis's unbelievably horrible support that has pushed me to fire them. I've not tried EaseUs's support yet but as it can not be any worse than Acronis's I don't feel that i've anything to loose in making a switch.

Update: EaseUS does not have a US presence so they are not a viable solution for our company. Back to the drawing board. :/

Update: Found a company called Paragon Software that I will be testing. They have a win 8 drive image solution that looks comparable feature wise to most others out there.
Click to expand...

Stop wasting your life and go back to read what I said about the right choices
 
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