@beagle1957 - I found a UFD that I could run the test I asked for above. My speculation was that you were using a UFD that was "Windows To Go" compatible. These UFDs are not seen as "portable" drives, they are seen as a "Local disk" (basically an internally connected disk) under Windows 10. With one of these plugged into my System, the Hasleo Rescue Media creator DOES NOT FIND a UFD and instead offers an ISO only solution... this is very different that what your System is doing. If you have continued interest in the product (not bad so far on my end), I would CONTACT HASLEO SUPPORT and have them look at the issue to see if they can figure out what's unique about your System (Optane memory maybe, an M2 disk in the mix, etc... there are many weird System configurations out there)
DANGER, Will Robinson... DANGER, DANGER! -------------------------------------------------------------- While testing, just discovered a coupla issues (bugs)... one for Hasleo, one for REFLECT (my primary imaging tool being used to backup this testing). While REFLECT images my RECOVERY partition at 420mB, Hasleo images it at 424.71mB (no idea why their should be a difference). As a result, a Hasleo RESTORE puts the 424.71 back on the disk with the general System RESTORE being successful. Upon then restoring basically the same REFLECT image, the result is that REFLECT restores its 420mB partition into the existing Hasleo Recovery partition and the result is a 424.71mB RECOVERY partition after the restoration with the restore being successful as far as the System goes. The problem is... following the REFLECT restoration, the Definition file used to create the image (defining a 420mB RECOVERY partition) is now different than the actual disk layout. As a result, REFLECT has unChecked the RECOVERY partition in its definition file. As a result, if you try any other operation (DIFF or INC) against that disk layout using the unChecked Definition file, REFLECT will fail that attempt which results in a FULL image of the modified definition file. I believe REFLECT has a bug... it should not be modifying that definition file, it should leave it alone and fail the attempt at INCing or DIFFing that definition file, due to the fact that the new disk layout is not the same as the original, then do a FULL image as would be expected for a disk geometry change. There are 2-issues here... the REFLECT issue described above and the fact that Hasleo imaged a 420mB (used) partition as a 424.71mB (used) partition (hmmmm... maybe its a REFLECT issue instead??...<naaaah> it's been around for 16-yrs ). The other partitions involved with a Hasleo System backup were not affected (EFI, MSR & OS), they were the same as the REFLECT image. Be careful with your testing, at least with using Macrium REFLECT as your backup testing protection tool. I will report the REFLECT "anomaly" experienced above to the Macrium Devs and I guess I could question Hasleo SUPPORT about the RECOVERY partition size anomaly.
...and I'm back with another caution (probably more serious than the original... testing over for today) On the System backup mentioned above, there was a single DATA partition on the disk with the System partitions... of course it was not selected for backup. Following the mis-sized RECOVERY partition above, when restored, I believe the larger partition was partially restored into that DATA partition, making that DATA partition disappear <Yikes!!>. I was able to recover that DATA partition using a partition discovery tool in Minitool's Partition Wizard... all is well (it contained one of my important VMs). The takeaway here is that you should protect the entire disk you are messing with, not just the part being messed with.
Hello @ Rollback Frog Just read your posts 26, 27 & 28 and whilst not very knowledgeable in the way that you are, your comments are alarming. I use Macrium Reflect Free for basic Backup and Restore tasks for a Desktop PC with an M2 SSD. MR has served me well over the years but the announcement that the Free version is being discontinued at the end of 2023 has left me looking for an alternative. To this end I have been trying out Hasleo Backup and superficially quite like it. I was about to try a restore after several successful backups, but then I read your last three posts. I should add that the Win 10 OS residing on my system is a restore from a Macrium image. My questions to you are:- 1) Given your comments above should I defer from using Hasleo Backup until there is a bit more clarity? 2) If there is an issue with Macrium would the same problem you describe apply to using other imaging freeware ie Aomei Thank you for your help Terry
@TheRollbackFrog, thank you for your analysis on this thread. I double checked and the USB flash drive I used was not Windows2Go compatible. The UFD was reformatted before each attempt to create an Emergency Disk. Per your suggestion, I will contact Hasleo to report my issue and will post back here if I hear back from them. In the meantime, I have moved on to testing AOMEI and Paragon Backup & Recovery Community Edition. In both programs, creation of a WinPE recovery UFD works without a hitch using the same drive I tried with Hasleo.
Hasleo Backup Suite 3.0.1 Released (December 1, 2022) Website Changelogs - Changelog for 3.0.1 not available - Download https://www.easyuefi.com/backup-software/downloads/Hasleo_Backup_Suite_Free.exe (or via: Softpedia)
Hi @TerryWood - I'm not sure just yet what my issues are all about, but as mentioned above... REFLECT can still be used as a software prophylactic while testing, you just need to image the entire disk with REFLECT prior to testing with Hasleo. That way you have a complete disk to go back to. I was doing a System backup test with Hasleo and my System disk had more than just the System partitions on it. As a result, the Hasleo restore only put some of the partitions back (the ones needed for the System) and left my DATA partitions there. It was during the partial restore that the failure occurred on the restoration of the RECOVERY partition. In your case, a Hasleo restore may work just fine and you won't need that REFLECT image... but at least you'll have it, if Hasleo burps. Knowing what I now know from above, I would continue testing (with my FULL REFLECT disk image backup)... especially since there's now a new version available (v3.0.1).
Just finished some more testing (and learned a lot )... Hasleo has a few modes of imaging... System Mode & Partition Mode. "System Mode" will image all partitions needed for returning the System to a BOOTable condition (EFI, MSR, Recovery & OS), "Partition Mode" will allow you to select which partitions will be imaged. Upon Rescue Recovery, there are also two image recovery modes available... "Disk" & "Partition" (here's where the caution comes in). If you select any backup (System Disk or Partition) for recovery, in "Disk" mode all the partitions in that image will be restored and any other partition(s) on your target disk other than the ones in the image will be GONE (unallocated... that's why I lost my DATA partition in yesterday's test, not because of the possible partition resizing that probably didn't really happen). It will give you an out before it commits to the restoration (destruction?). So if you restore either a System Disk or Partition backup in "System Mode" during recovery, any other partition on your target recovery disk WILL BE LOST (result=unallocated). If you restore in "Partition Mode" (either a System Disk or Partition backup), Hasleo will allow the selection of only one (not multiple) partition in any image for restoration without affecting existing partitions on your target device. It's a bit of a PITA if you're trying to do what I did yesterday because I would have to do four individual partition restores to keep from blowing away any other partitions on that target disk. Just be careful with this if you test on a LIVE System and have that backup disk image available if needed. Hasleo needs some tweaks from the Devs but seems to be going in the right direction... especially for FREE requirements within that user base.
Hi @ TheRollBackFrog Very interesting! So are you saying that this is a problem with the way Hasleo has been developed or is it specifically related to using it with Macrium Reflect? Would your same reservations apply (about Hasleo) if we took Macrium Reflect out of the equation and substituted Aomei Backupper or Easeus Todo Backup? Thanks Terry
At the moment it looks like the current status of Hasleo is being a bit restrictive, Macrium doesn't seem to be part of the issue. You just need to understand the restrictions currently available in Hasleo. If you image an entire disk, all should be well between the two applications. If you restore a Hasleo disk image that doesn't contain all that disk's partitions, the result will be a geometry change in that disk when the process is complete. If you just restore SINGLE partitions with Hasleo, it should also not affect your current disk geometry at all... you just can't do more than 1-partition at a time.
+1 The more we can learn about these newcomers the better. It sounds like they're not so far off in pulling things fully together soon.
@TerryWood - well hidden but I found it. Instead of using their general Contact web form, here's their Backup Suite Product Forum when you can register and post your issues... they seem to respond in a reasonable time.
It is unfortunate that at the bottom of that page two of the links (contact us and Hasleo Software Homepage) lead to Account Suspended pages.
The above is IN ERROR, mainly due to a feature I was not aware of. The above does not happen unless you are trying to return a System (or Partition) Backup to a disk that is not its original source (makes some sense). During the process, an option (selected by DEFAULT) is offered called "Restore to original location." If this is selected, the System Backup (multiple partitions) will be returned to its original disk without affecting other resident partitions. My bad for the above problem description. As a result of the above, the only basic features missing from the app is the ability to select partitions for restoration in the Partition Mode... it only allows one at the moment (requiring multiple restore operations). So in System Mode restorations, it's all partitions only, and in Partition Mode it's only a single partition at a time. It's getting better the more I play (and get things right )...
Hi @ TheRollbackFrog Thanks very much for the clarification in post 41. What a relief. I am minded to do a restore now. Will feed back my progress. Terry
Just keep that backup non-Hasleo disk image... just in case (all is pretty well at the moment if you're careful). It's quite fast when imaging due to the fact that it uses all processor cores & threads during the imaging phase. If you choose a higher compression option above MEDIUM (about the same as Macrium Reflect MEDIUM), it will most likely saturate your processor at 100% (it did my AMD 8-proc/16-thread at about 4.5ghz ). The restoration process is slower most likely due to the fact that it doesn't use all cores/threads.
@beagle1957 - see this POST from the Devs concerning a possible solution to your problem... lemme know if there are any changes in your issues.
I tried I have a dual boot set up and when trying to do a System backup, it only wanted to back up EFI, MSR and Os, not the recovery, so i went with Disk/Partition backup instead to back up all the 4 and save on E:. When restoring, it did not want to restore all of them to the disc saying, they existed on the same disc as the backup image. So i choosed only to restore C:. When that was done, i rebooted but then the Pc booted to W11 instead of W10 which was the Os i had backed up and restored. W11 worked but i could not see W10 anywhere except than in the Explorer. Any other boot display and possibility to boot to W10 was gone. But it is a fast program, fast in backing up and fast in doing the actual restores, even though getting into the restore environment with a boot menu and choosing the backup takes it`s time.
3.0.1 has allowed me to create an Emergency Disk via creating an .ISO and burning it to the USB flash drive using Rufus. It now identifies the flash drive I want to use, but still throws up errors when I try to directly create the ED on the UFD. I have the patch version but Bitdefender is quarantining it as potential malware, so I need to disable BD first. In any case, I have been able to successfully create backups with Hasleo and restore them using the Emergency Rescue UFD.. This could very well be the go-to replacement for Macrium Reflect Free. Am VERY impressed with Hasleo support so far - quite responsive for a free program - as well as your efforts, @TheRollbackFrog!!!
Great post @beagle1957 and vital info of the good results so far. The thing that really crimps here is an AV flagging a backup/restore program. Probably not the only one either. It's almost like some AV's have gotten to the point where their ingenious protection programs grope n grab at anything in the dark. And more often disrupting perfectly safe programs such as Backup Applications that need to not be impeded or obstructed.
To be fair @EASTER his experience may be due to a special version of the installer @beagle1957 was given by the Devs to run to possibly address an issue he was having with Rescue Media creation. We'll see when they formally release that particular test version of the software. ...and Bitdefender is one of the WORST when it comes to these types of issues.
Yeah it likely is a one-off ordeal and yet it comes to mind even with another program protection like OSArmor which needed user adjusting due to a Macrium update not long ago. Of course the developer quickly enough fixed the false positive. It's the nature of some protection programs to do as intended so it's probably safer for them (and time saving) to make back ups offline and disconnect those applications. No AV here but Windows Defender so it's never any issue as can be with those other brand names. Funny thing though, any time i run a backup even on a "Live" system i usually disengage "any" potential security apps that can be obstructions to a clean decent smooth and orderly backup. Not being the paranoid type. Such as that group who runs backups and regular "Live" incrementals on an ongoing basis.
