Acronis True Image 2011. Too many features. The best of all for me is the backup on cd/dvd and make it bootable. In a case that you cannot even boot , you can boot from dvd and restore all your data/O.S from there.
i use goodsync goodsync well rather one-button backup system i prefer manual backup, back up which files i want only for system / OS... i prefer fresh install rather than using backup because window7 install is fast enough (like 30mins or so) just few mins slower than reverting backup
Plus acronis is free with Seagate and WDC hard disks (using this version since Nov 2010). It may sound stupid and I know it will but to restore, I use 2 methods (one in windows and one in boot environment): 1. windows: right click image with acronis and then recover 2. dos/boot: format the c: with boot cd of partition wizard, then boot with acronis boot cd and recover. I know that acronis in 1 does the same thing as the long drawn method in 2 which is delete/format the C: and then recover. Which is to say that everything old in c: is wiped out and replaced with that in the restored image. Is doing 2 stupid, time consuming, and totally unnecessary. Please can you clarify so that I can stop this long drawn method and just use acronis in windows to recover (process 1).
@ acyuta, absolutly no need to format c: first, just boot from acronis recovery cd and restore your image everything on c: partition is deleted its not as if it just copies files over.
Thanks for the reassurance (deletion vs copying files over). That is when boot CD is the only option to recover (unbootable state). This also implies that in normal windows 7 environment, just right clicking on an acronis image and selecting recover will achieve the same (first delete/format c: and everything in it and then recover). I prefer to do this which is obviously quicker (5-7 mins for entire process from decision to recover to getting recovered windows desktop) than booting from partition wizard and then acronis cd (8-12 mins plus the hassle of seeing partition wizard's linux loading). Of course, I now rely on partition wizard boot cd for all partition based operations (can be much more precise with exact size). Only problem may be the display drivers which sometimes cause a restart if I do more than 2 operations at a time in partition wizard boot cd. One more small problem: a few days back, I installed windows again, but by an accident or whatever, there were 2 active partitions which I did not know at the time. Windows 7 installed on the desired partition, booted, showed desktop as usual. Applied some updates and then restarted. At that time, I got ntldr message, and press ctl+alt+del. Did that and the same error, which is basically an unbootable system. Then booted with partition wizard cd, and that showed me 2 active partitions. Made the 2nd partition inactive, booted and still the same result. Then with partition boot cd, formatted and deleted the previous active partition and still the same error. Presumed that some boot files were loaded on the 2nd partition. Had to reinstall windows 7 again (fortunately had not activated by then with my key). Is there a fail-safe repair option for this (like booting from windows install dvd and clicking repair making sure beforehand that there is only 1 active partition).
@ Acyuta, I always name my partitions so you cannot make that mistake. And also when Installing windows 7 I use advanced section to remove extended partition so I don't have that small 200mb system partition.
Thanks. As to the 200/100mb sys. reserved partition, the tutorial on mydigitallife proved helpful and I have not been making that since July 2010. Just C: As to the first part, I think my question (or any remaining doubts) has now been answered by you. What I want before recovery is a format of target destination (c and acronis (or for that matter all backup programs) should be doing that before recovery either from windows 7 or from boot cd. Normally I always place the disk containing windows 7 in such a way on the case that BIOS detects it as first disk. Then both windows 7 and acronis show it first and automatically select it to back up or recover. But still a check is necessary or one may land up with an unbootable system. Even that is not a problem, as a format/deletion and boot CD takes care of that (never had this problem of backing up or recovering a wrong partition).