Hi. Where can I find a comparison about Acronis True Image 2014, Macrium Reflect 5.2 and Paragon Harddisk Manager 14 ? Or can someone help me to choose which one is the best ? Until now I´m using Acronis True Image, but the program has to much processes running, and I use the program only to create Backups, and maybe restore. Nothing else. Any help would be appreciated.
I still use acronis but only use it via bootable rescue media cd I install it once make bootabe recover cd and unninstall it.
I stopped using Acronis a few years ago because it seemed that my backups were never compatible with new versions of the software... I don't know why but yeah, they never worked. I've recently used it again but don't really like the new version... personal preference I guess.. Used the Paragon software .. both Backup & Recovery and the hard disk manager.. good software too... you won't really go wrong using either one if they have the features you want.. Never used Macrium so can't comment. If you want less processes running then Paragon is the way to go... if you want more backup options then Acronis is probably the way to go.. I'm actually deciding for myself which I want to use now with a new backup.. I'm leaning towards Paragon myself just for the reasons I outlined above regarding Acronis..
backup/restore yes you can use/ddl the recovery boot cd only if you want, without installation the software but if you want custom bootcd then you must install the app take a look to Acronis Backup and Recovery 11.5 (is better than true image) if you need the bootcd just PM
I prefer Acronis, but I also have Paragon HDM 12. Neither has failed for me, but I don't use any of the bells & whistles stuff, just full image backup/restore and drive clone. Follow urie's advice and make a boot CD. (Also USB flash is available). Backups are like voting - do them early & often.
Yep, installing Acronis is very invasive and a PITA to remove, as the uninstall won't wipe all the processes and drivers. It needs to run a special cleaner afterwards with no guarantee for success. Every time i need a new rescue image, i only install in a VM .
Bootable disk is better for backup and restore. New version of Acronis True Image Home (2012,2013) is more innovative. Macrium is also good. No experience about paragon.
Over the years I have used them all but for me Macrium Reflect has the right feel and it is free for non professional use
I use backup and restore images in a lot of different computers, used acronis for a long time, until I realized that is one of the worst and unreliable software to do this kind of job. You hardly can get any success restoring a image created in a different version. If a image was 1 bit corrupted you can't restore at all. Acronis takes ages to launch a version compatible with new windows versions, at least it happen from xp > vista > windows 7. I give up before windows 8 launch, therefore don't know how bad or good is it now. Create a backup is only half of the job, if you haven't a reliable image that you can restore then your backup is a useless waste of time, effort, electricity and storage space. I've lost account how many times Acronis fail on me, with different versions in different computers and totally different scenarios. Only used Macrium free edition, fast and reliable, until now not a single fail, the paid version seems as good as Paragon, if no better. Paragon seems pretty good, reliable, pro version support scripts, handy with task scheduler. Also paragon adaptive restore works better than Acronis counterpart. If you ask me between Acronis and Paragon which one have more features and is easer to use, I would say without hesitation, Acronis is the one. But if you ask which one does the job, I would say for sure everything else but Acronis. There are others backup solutions linux based that can be used with a live USB or a small recovery partition like clonezilla, partclone, redo backup, not as fancy and colorful as these windows counterpart, but highlight reliable. Clonezilla is the only backup solution that I know that can do a image backup of a damaged hard disk. If you have a HD with bad sectors or smart errors, Clonezilla can salvage almost all data without a fuzz. If someone know a backup software that can do something like this let me know.
backing up is ok, try RESTORING back an image which was made and is going to be restored on a GPT disk and watch how it fails to restore properly
Urie, maybe I'm just out of luck, maybe you don't use acronis in so different scenarios like me. I use do backups/restore over network, bare metal restore over PXE, full image restore from differential backups, bare metal restore to dissimilar hardware, etc... Is when I need most a software that works under any circumstances that Acronis fail on me. I never saw Acronis fail to do a backup. Is to restore backups that it let you down. I always checked backup integrity before backup and after restore, no errors at all, but when i tried to restore it doesn't work. A friend of mine have similar problems with acronis, image ok, pass integrity checks, hardware ok, no HD S.M.A.R.T. errors, but image fail to restore. As i said, I don't use acronis anymore, maybe it just happened with old versions. Did you guys have any experience, good or bad with easeus todo backup? I'm really impressed with easeus interface, simple and intuitive, didn't have the opportunity to use it enough, so far no problems at all. Don't want to start a flame war, but I'm very interested to listen your opinions.
Don't want to start a flame war, but I'm very interested to listen your opinions.[/QUOTE] You should use whatever has worked for you. I use Acronis free for WD harddrives 2011 edition and it has never failed me. Much better than the paid version if simple full size backup/restore (not incremental/differential) is what you want. Paragon has also always worked for me but I do not use it much because I do not have a legit key for it. Why pay for it when Acronis free works for me even it is 2011 edition (works on 7, 8, 8.1).
i just started using macrium reflect (free) because of this thread.. had never heard of it before so gave it a try... decent program for basic needs.. i'll modify my previous opinion on paragon software.. i didn't really have any issues with backup & recovery but before going to macrium i tried using paragon hard disk manager as my backup software so i'd have an all in one type of thing working for me with the drive management stuff and backup in the same program......... let me tell you........ that was painful. the backup wasn't an issue, but restoring with hard disk manager was a nightmare. it was incredibly slow (after 8 hours i stopped it ) and it plain sucked. hard disk manager fails for backup/recovery in my opinion.
It appears you have not used Acronis for a long time. It support UEFI Secure boot/GPT since version 2013. I use version 2014 now (its boot USB for cold backup/restore) since it came out on two of my computers with UEFI/GPT and secure boot, backup/restore many times and never a problem. The best part of Acronis is its speed and compression and reliability. Acronis is the most widely tested imaging app out there. Two major HDD manufacturers: Seagate and WD are providing free OEM versions of Acronis to their customers, and there is a reason for that. I don't use installed Acronis in Windows but its boot cd/usb is great.