Alternative to Macrium and Aomei Backupper - Free editions

SIW2 · Jul 15, 2022

The evorim UI is a bit weird. Trying to restore individual files from the image is not intuitive.

Apart from that seems to work well enough - quick , decent compression.

Unfortunately as is often the case with imaging programs, I dont see any way to do exclusions from the image and it is a format which cant be handled by anything else as far as I can tell.

It appears to be using wimlib which might explain the speed, but it is not a .wim. Seems to use dokan for mounting as a virtual disk.

Dokan - User mode file system library for windows with FUSE Wrapper

dokan-dev.github.io

I prefer backing up to a .wim using wimlib which has a lot of advantages , though perhaps not something yer average user would do.

SIW2 · Jul 15, 2022

Little test. Same source and target. Using the lowest compression each program allows

Hasleo

4m 9secs

Image size 28,669,698

Macrium Reflect v8

4m 24 seconds

Image size 27,519,382

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aomei Backupper

It doesnt show the time on the gui but it is in the logfile which coincides with my stopwatch

2m 49 seconds

Image size 28,069,343

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

And the winner is :
AdvancedBackup

2 minutes. That is probably reasonably accurate, I was watching the clock but I forgot to start the stopwatch. It might not have included checking the source and target and just shows the bakup time, but it is still about as quick as Aomei and a noticeably smaller image.

Image size 21,370,640

cereberus · Jul 15, 2022

jimbo45 said:
I'm beginning to think that some of these backup things are getting a bit "Last Century" rather like older Anti Virus type of programs.

Backups should always be taken - but if you switch to using entirely vhdx files for your windows installations (whether in a VM or as a real machine) just saving the vhdx files doesn't need any special backup software whatsoever -- and even mounting an image which was good in MACRIUM can be done by simply diskpart-> select vdisk->attach vdisk->list vol ->assign letter=xx. Just save with file explorer !!! and xmit to a NAS for extra backup.

I have 100% nothing against Macrium or whatever -- great company - but as times and methodology changes then why stick to the ways that it was done 20 years ago,

Still though whatever you use ==>PLEASE always have sufficient backup -- and test it from time to time.

Cheers
jimbo

VHDX files are great but they do attract a performance overhead (around 5-8% on my device) as they do not directly interface with disk storage but indirectly.

Also a vhdx is not so easy to restore if main OS drive has failed. It is easy to attach one to an existing native host bcd - less easy for most when setting up from scratch.

William654 · Jul 15, 2022

SIW2 said:
And the winner is :
AdvancedBackup

2 minutes. That is probably reasonably accurate, I was watching the clock but I forgot to start the stopwatch. It might not have included checking the source and target and just shows the bakup time, but it is still about as quick as Aomei and a noticeably smaller image.
Image size 21,370,640

View attachment 34036

Did you see these settings:

Did you use them ? . Aomei hangup my PC twice while backupping the system, it did not does that before though.

SIW2 · Jul 15, 2022

yes, I saw them. I left it at the defaults for my litle test.

It doesnt offer those two blue checkboxes on my humble pc.

Badger · Jul 15, 2022

Earlier today I tested Advanced Backup here. I was impressed by the backup speed but experienced problems here using the USB restore that the program made. Once it restored the backup the restore didn't boot even though I had checked the option to make the disk bootable. Bottom line, basic functionality didn't work here.

William654 · Jul 15, 2022

Badger said:
Earlier today I tested Advanced Backup here. I was impressed by the backup speed but experienced problems here using the USB restore that the program made. Once it restored the backup the restore didn't boot even though I had checked the option to make the disk bootable. Bottom line, basic functionality didn't work here.

any error messages ? check bios boot order ? I dont have another PC to test.

SIW2 · Jul 15, 2022

Badger said:
Earlier today I tested Advanced Backup here. I was impressed by the backup speed but experienced problems here using the USB restore that the program made. Once it restored the backup the restore didn't boot even though I had checked the option to make the disk bootable. Bottom line, basic functionality didn't work here.

What did you include in the image? a single partition ? a selection of partitions? the entire disk?

It doesn't appear to have a "system backup" button, it expects the user to select what they need/want

Badger · Jul 15, 2022

I backed up my entire system disk which includes 4 partitions. I do a lot of crash and burn testing here on occasion so I'm backed up well with other utils etc... :)

SIW2 · Jul 15, 2022

Just tested restore . Worked fine.

Selected the esp and the windows partition on that old wd mechanical disk to image. I doubt beginners would know what is what in that selection displayed below.

This is what is being restored

the "make bootable" was already ticked

No problems.

It did a good job.

Superfly · Jul 15, 2022

SIW2 said:
Just tested restore . Worked fine.

Nice! Thanx for the info.

SIW2 · Jul 15, 2022

I am not sure I would recommend it for granny. There isnt a "system backup" thing, so you have to make your own selection. The "make bootable" would confuse granny, and it isn't the most intuitive UI.

I quite like the Evorim Advanced Backup so far, but Aomei is still the easiest for the average punter.

Superfly · Jul 15, 2022

SIW2 said:
I am not sure I would recommend it for granny. There isnt a "system backup" thing, so you have to make your own selection. The "make bootable" would confuse granny, and it isn't the most intuitive UI.

I quite like the Evorim Advanced Backup so far, but Aomei is still the easiest for the average punter.

OK, You have always been a Aomei fan AFAIK anyway...so...

SIW2 · Jul 15, 2022

My preferred method is baccking up to a .wim using wimlib. It is not for everybody.

Quite nice Evorim has the restore to different hardware function . Not an independent module unfortunately, but it is something not often found in free versions.

That is assuming it works in the free version. Maybe it doesnt and you need to stump up for it. I should have ticked it during the restore to see if just went ahead , or if it would prompt to buy the pro version.

Badger · Jul 15, 2022

Curious, I just did the whole procedure over again and this time it worked fine. It turned out to be user error although they should correct the issue. When using the USB recovery procedure it will list the disk to recover and if you put a checkmark in the box to the left of the disk definition, I assumed it would include all partitions just like it does during the backup process, but it doesn't. You have to down arrow to open the disk and it will list all the partitions and then you have to individually check them off. This is not the way the backup choosing of a disk works. During the backup process when you check the box to the left of the disk definition it will include all the partitions of the drive, or you can expand it and choose which partitions to include. That was my gotcha. lol

Superfly · Jul 15, 2022

SIW2 said:
My preferred method is baccking up to a .wim using wimlib. It is not for everybody.

I agree.. if I can get a conceptual design maybe I can dev an app using the WimLib port.

SIW2 · Jul 15, 2022

Yes, it is nice to append each new backup because there is no duplication and is simple to delete earlier ones from the wim. The config file means a lot of pointless stuff can be excluded.

I just use wimlib-imagex.exe from a batch file. The --snapshot option can be used if imaging the running os.

wimlib capture and append

SIW2 · Jul 16, 2022

From my limited testing, Evorim Advanced Backup looks like a good option for people who have some idea of what they are doing.

The Evorim UI is not very easy, so Aomei is easier for many people.

As ever, horses for courses.

Evorim is a Good find by William654

Cromax · Jul 16, 2022

Is there any way to backup system disk without using third party software or old win 7 backup..

SIW2 · Jul 16, 2022

wbadmin start backup . creates an image in the vhdx format stored on the backuptarget you specify

example:

the enable backup command allows you to set a daily schedule. It was added fairly recently, it is in win11, not sure if win10 has the scheduling

wbadmin start backup

Reference article for the wbadmin start backup command, which creates a backup using specified parameters.

docs.microsoft.com

One way to restore the image is to use wbadmin start recovery. Obviously recovery has to be done from outside your windows installation , from booted winre or boot.wim The wbadmin recovery commands are a bit fiddly for beginners. However because the format is vhdx, there are other ways to access and/or restore from it.

wbadmin start recovery

Reference article for the wbadmin start recovery command, which runs a recovery operation based on the parameters that you specify.

docs.microsoft.com

you can get help by typing wbadmin /? at an admin cmd prompt

wbamin.exe in win11 is bigger than earlier versions.

Alternative to Macrium and Aomei Backupper - Free editions

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computers

Well-known member

My Computer

Well-known member

My Computers