Does This Exist?

Hello All,

I've been reading threads in this forum for the last several days and learned quite a bit from the learned members here. Almost every time I think I've found the perfect piece of software I read a couple of posts that disillusion me. What I'm looking for is imaging software that can do the following:

1. Work flawlessly with Windows 7 64 bit without the need for lengthy scripting or command line interface

2. Backup and where necessary align SSDs as aside from my NAS, that's all that I use.

3. Provide a backup solution both to and from the new NAS I plan to purchase which will have 5-6 two terrabyte drives in either RAID 5 or 6.

Most of my images will be complete images so while nice, incremental and other variants aren't really necessary. I'm not looking for freeware and am certainly willing to pay whatever it costs to faciliatate my needs.

I am a DBA for a large Oracle based enterprise health system with around 3,000 users and I can't afford to lose any data.

I have been a long term Acronis user since it first came on the scene and had good luck with it up until the most recent revisions.

I certainly appreciate in advance any help that you may be able to offer me!

Thanks!

 

No one?

 

I too have been using Acronis TI since v10 and then got terribly burnt by v2012. I tested different alternatives and ended up buying Macrium Reflect Pro. I've used Macrium to restore complete system images a few times (mix of standard HD and SSD) and it worked flawlessly every time. I don't really fully trust an imaging/backup software until I need to restore and Macrium delivered. What's more, I find their support to be very responsive and they're quick to issue fixes for even the smallest thing reported.

 

isn't Macrium extremely slow?

 

Not for me. Looking at my last log file, the differential took 18mins to complete for a 1.7GB differential. It's done at 4am while I'm still sleeping so I don't notice it. My PC wakes up just for that backup then shuts down right after. I have another backup done at noon, but it's done in the background so I don't have to care.

Yep, differential backup twice a day with a scheduled VBScript to delete any differentials older than 2 weeks.

 

Unfortunately (of course) no piece of software works flawlessly every time on every possible system configuration. Some folks will love program A but hate B while others love B and hate A.

I would suggest that you take all comments with a grain of salt and try the programs that seem to be favoured by a large number of individuals. This of course does not guarantee your satisfaction with a particular program but the odds that you will, will be leaning in your favour.

 

Thanks, bgoodman4 I'm quite sure that is excellent advise. As a matter of fact I tested the trial version of Macrium 5 Pro (per MarcP's suggestion) most of the weekend. There's one issue that if I can somehow correct will make it as close to perfect as I need. When making the WinPE disk the program recognizes and says it copies the Asmedia USB 3.0 drivers my system uses.

The software then imaged the 45 GB test files I was using in just over 8 mins. This would be from an SSD drive to a USB 3.0 external drive. The I go to restore the image using WinPE and I am forced to plug the external drive in a USB 2.0 slot as it is not recognized when plugged in to the USB 3.0.

I would certainly appreciate anyone's help with this.

 

Have a look at this: http://kb.macrium.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50094.aspx

And this: http://support.macrium.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3743

Or ask them on their forums. They are typically quite responsive.

 

Thanks so much MarcP! That second solution you sent may well be the solution for this issue. I will test it tonight when I get home from work.

 

MarcP ... Thought I'd let you know that I took your advice and purchased Macrium 5 Pro. Thanks to another member of this forum I was able to get all of the USB 3.0 issues sorted out and I'm extremely happy! Thanks for your help!

 

Glad that you got it working! Here's my recent success story.

I upgraded my laptop earlier this week with an SSD drive. The new SSD was half the size of the old HHD (256GB vs. 500 GB), but my total data size was much smaller than that. Macrium restored and adjusted the partition size automatically so the backup fit on the SSD. It all worked!

You won't regret your purchase.

 

USB 3.0 requires a partial chipset driver for it. Now that is not a storage driver so will not auto detect. Manually add that USB 3.0 driver.. the USB 3.0 also has an application that runs also for it. So you have to have the driver to use USB 3.0.

Macrium is the first imaging software I found that I can image just windows and user folder for a small recovery image for recovering from most incidental crashes. No other software I have tried allows easily replacing these folders.