I know that I need to put $DISK in filename. You could restore all partitions from CMD, automate the process...
Acronis True Image is good for backing up, when you try to restore on a UEFI/GPT disk it's a nightmare and never works! That's why I switched to Macrium Reflect Pro which works perfectly with UEFI/GPT disks and the pro version allows you to add a boot entry so on startup, you get an option whether you want to boot to Windows normally or boot to the Macrium Reflect Recovery mode. After adding the boot option, I remove it from startup via the advanced boot menu in Windows. When I need to restore, I simply enable it from the boot menu and reboot then enter the Macrium Reflect Recovery mode if you don't want to pay for the Pro version, the free version works exactly the same only difference it cannot add the start up boot menu so when you want to restore you have to boot from the Macrium Reflect Rescue CD but it works 100% fine
it's not only me man, I have a friend in the Netherlands with the exact same problems. Also, I read a lot on forums of the same issues while restoring. no offense meant bear in mind, Acronis True Image was the tool I always used for years only until the release of these new UEFI motherboards and GPT partitioned disks did I start to have problems. Yes I did install the add-on package which enables GPT support, yes it did work for backup perfectly. When I restore, it never completes or something goes wrong. PS: I don't need to boot off a CD to restore using Macrium Reflect, that's why I bought the Pro version which allows you to add Macrium Reflect as a boot option for when you need to restore. the only reason I mentioned the free is some people wouldn't wanna pay for it you know
Realized some weird behavior when backing up or restoring new laptops (not sure whether to call it bug or feature ... ). Never faced that kind on Desktop Systems so far. Seems like ian82 and others are confronted with the same behavior . BTW: Found no real advantage so far in using that 'Secure Boot' feature.
I will dig up the problems I mentioned from their forums to prove to you bro. I WISH I can use Acronis again! it's speed and image size are like half of Macrium's, But like u said, at the end of the day, we need something reliable not only fast! Acronis has serverd me for years and every company I work at I see they use it! it has proven to be the best. only recently did this change another thing is, it has become like a yearly subscription, true they don't force you to upgrade, but unlike Macrium, you need to pay each year to get the latest version, with Macrium I believe it's buy it once only and you can upgrade to future versions (correct me if Im wrong)
How does IFW work, when I click imagew.exe it read the key from imagew.ini but if I click imagew64.exe it wants me to type the key and then it stores it in registry or something.
I launched from Windows, and there was a empty string value at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Licenses" but the weird thing is that I never entered key in imagew64.exe, I just closed it and launched imagew.exe and then re opened imagew64.exe and it used the key from imagew.ini or something because it did not ask me for a key again Btw... I installed VMware, will test Imaging software in there and make comparasion.
Ok I did some tests in VMware. Did backup and restore of Windows 8.1 "C:\" which is 9.41 GB. Used latest versions of all software and medium compression settings. Time is in minutes. Software Backup Time Restore Time Image Size Notes Acronis Backup Advanced 01:06 02:47 4.87 GB Make sure to unselect MBR during restore. Restore stops at 95% for a while (which can make you think that it is stuck) and then asks you to reboot to finish the process. Requires Windows ADK. Lazesoft Recovery Suite 3.5.1 01:06 01:11 5.52 GB Image For Windows 2.88 02:08 01:14 5.01 GB O&O Disk Image 8.0.78 01:31 01:35 5.85 Macrium 02:02 02:01 5.21 GB Drive Snaphot 00:54 00:59 4.78 GB Creates one file for each parition. It splits larger files by default, change the size in options to prevent that. Symantec System Recovery 00:56 02:16 5.51 GB Creates one image file for each partition. Paragon 01:20 03:53 5.67 GB Creates a folder full of files and not one image file. Active Disk Image 01:00 01:39 5.30 GB Uses WinPE 3.1 and creates non UEFI bootable USB. You need to copy "C:\Program Files\LSoft Technologies\Active@ Disk Image" to a USB stick and run it from your own Windows PE. CloneZilla 01:48 02:13 4.26 GB Created a folder full of files. Not to be used by newbies that knows nothing about linux. AOMEI did not want to work properly so I'm skipping this one for now. Drive Snapshot is the winner
Dear Atari800XL, Thanks for the reply. .. Regarding Drive Snapshot, yes it appears we can restore multiple partition at once AND keep the partition layout/structure. It's great news indeed! I have not used Drive Snapshot extensively, since I only identified its vast improvement since v1.43. I will keep using it for a while and once I am familiar with it then I'll post something regarding Drive Snapshot. But for now, I truly believe Drive Snapshot will shine in its category. Regarding Acroins Backup and Recovery 11.5, I did not use it much. It use a different image file format from .tib, and it drops some files on the root of each drive when you backup/restore. I don't like it so I stick with Acronis True Image Home version.