AOEMI is fine but not as flexible as Macrium Reflect. Personally, I found it is too basic but I have no reason to diss it. In the end, the most important thing is that all users should learn the importance of backing up (data as a minimum, but OS/programs is strongly recommended).
I have extensively tested most of the main FREE tools, and only recommend three for beginners.
1) Macrium Reflect - most flexible, major plus is image backups can be opened as a virtual machine.
2) Easeus Todo Backup - solid and reliable but rather slow (speed is less important than reliability)
3) AOMEI Backupper - reliable, easy for beginners, reliable but limited features.
A close fourth was VEEAM but this is more geared to commercial use.
I omit Acronis as it does not have a freely available free version (other than those bundled with a drive purchase).
There are lots of other as well, and I had varying experiences. The worst was Windows own inbuilt tool.
In the end, use whichever tool suits your needs. The most crucial point is that you should test the restore function whichever you choose but problem is how without screwing up current installation if things go wrong?
A method I use is:
1) create a virtual hard drive stored on a second drive (you can use a separate partition if you only have one drive)
2) make image backup with whichever tool you are testing.
3) Mount VHD, and restore image to the VHD
4) create boot entry for vhd
5) boot pc, and select VHD - if it boots ok, you know image was solid.
6) optional - delete vhd to save space and/or remove boot entry using msconfig.
A variation of above is to restore image in a virtual machine.
Of course, when it comes to backups, paranoia is healthy, and some users like to install two tools, in case one fails.
Personally, Macrium Reflect has never let me down but I still make a backup now and then using the inbuilt Windows FFU tool. This is not the old Windows 7 tool, but is actually quite new. It is fast as well. I prefer this as it does not require me to do a separate installation.
I tend not to pay much creedance to users who say I had a bad experience with tool ABCD, as in most cases it comes down to human error, or something was wrong with PC in first place.
The classic one is VSS not working, and people recommend doing backup from WinPE which is fine BUT all means if you restore the image, you restore it with VSS still not working. In the end, using WinPE is a workaround rather than solving the root issue.
The crucial point is to test the tools and use the one you are happy with.
