Free Disk Image Program from Easeus.

"TODO" is the new free program from Easeus.

It offers drive/partition imaging, cloning, and the ability to mount images and restore individual files/folders as needed.

I tested it on Windows 7x64.

It imaged a 25gb o/s partition in about 20 mins and the image size was around 9gb.

Mounting the image and extracting files was successful.

I have not ( yet) tried to restore the image.



Free Backup software for system backup & restore, disk or partition backup & restore in Windows - EASEUS Todo Backup

Macrium Reflect Free offers drive/partition imaging, scheduling, and the ability to mount images and restore individual files/folders as needed.

It is certainly faster than TODO - and compression is slightly better. It does not have a cloning function, but does provide scheduling.

I have restored numerous images successfully with the Macrium on x64 o/s.



Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

The Macrium Reflect program took about 50minutes to backup an entire 465gb available 500gb drive seeing about 85gb of space used on a spare drive. That included all types of updates and other files stored in custom folders on the drive besides the Vista installation itself when first looked at.

Up until recently the now free for home use version was simply a shareware to try out until Macrium decided on making the free edition available. It's an excellent program and best yet "free of charge" there!

Todo did a great job. It appears to be slow in the above example- that was because there was little space on the target partition.

Macrium is faster - but it runs the cpu at a higher level.

Ouch! That's one thing people won't want to hear for that! The one thing Reflect offers however that may not be seen with "ToDo" is a few Linux recovery options seen with that one. How about "ToDo"?

Macrium doesn't run the cpu at a very high level - just higher than TODO - that is if you set the Macrium priority slider to the highest level.

In other words, Macrium highest priority level is higher than the similar setting for TODO.

Paragon imaging products also run at a quite moderate priority level.

On my system , the highest cpu usage by some margin is from the Acronis products, yet they are still not as fast as Macrium.

This is what TODO does:

*** System Requirements ***

The OS (operating system) for EASEUS Todo Backup 1.0 requires Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2000/2003/2008. 32 and 64 bit supported. To run EASEUS Todo Backup, the user must have the administrator privilege.


*** Supported File Systems/Storage Media/Capacity ***

FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS supported

IDE, SATA, SCSI, USB removable disk, and Firewire disk are all supported

1.5 TB supported


*** Main Functions ***

Backup
Restore
Clone disk
Mount
Unmount
Check image file.



For Macrium :

• Create a disk image whilst running Windows using Microsoft Volume Shadow copy Service (VSS).
• Image to Network, USB, FireWire drives and DVD.
• Built in scheduler.
• 32 bit and native 64 bit versions.
• Industry leading compression levels and speed.
• Linux based Rescue CD with Network access and full GUI. Only 6.5MB in size!
• Built in CD/DVD packet writing engine. Supports packet writing to DVD DL media with Windows Vista. Also works on Windows 7.
• HTML log files.
• Mount and unmount images
• Restore a partition to a different type. e.g. a logical partition can be restored as a bootable primary partition
• Resize the restored partition. A hard disk upgrade can easily be performed by increasing the partition to fill the new disk.
• Track 0 (The Master Boot Record) is saved with all backups.

Drives Supported

• IDE
• SATA
• SCSI
• USB
• IEEE 1394 (FireWire)

Filesystems supported

• NTFS (All versions)
• FAT16
• FAT32
• Ext2/3FS

The part I take notice of right off with Reflect is the ability to take a logical partition and see that made bootable. The other thing even more important for someone restoring an image to new larger capacity drive especially if the original fails would be the option to resize to fill. But that's also a larger program with the comparison seen there.

TODO does all that:

With all of these I recommend booting the Restore CD and going into the restore program. Usually by then you can tell if the recovery system really supports your HD setup. I'm too lazy to build my own systems so I've been purchasing HP Pavilion PCs the last 4 machines or so. I use Paragon Drive Backup 9.0 Personal on my HP AMD dual core. It works fine. I got the Express 64 bit version for my new HP Phenom quad core. What an unpleasant surprise when I went to restore!! I have to use "compatibility mode" since this machine has AMD "raid ready" 750 GB Sata drive. A restore that would normally take about 45 minutes took 9 hours.

I tried Macrium free version. The Linux restore CD did not support the "fake raid." However the 4.2 paid version the Linux CD did work(and since the time trial is fully enabled I got to actually do a backup and restore before paying to be sure it worked.) Also it gave me a choice to download either a 32 bit or 64 bit WinPE recovery set. I learned how to load the "fake raid" driver and put the WinPE on a USB key drive as well as on a recovery CD.

Many of these imaging programs work well if you don't have a hw compatibility problem. I would suggest with the Paragon products, not to download the "trial" versions since they are really only demos. Try to get a giveaway or Express version so that you can go into the restore program and make sure it can see your HD(the demos don't let you create the actual recovery CD.)

A good resource for making little utilities like Boot Manager on a USB(like say your Windows boot manager gets hosed but otherwise things are ok.. sort of like how you could boot a Linux HD install from a floppy in the old days) and other means of making bootable tools, is this site: Boot Land

Also Macrium has a good forum on their site.
So does Paragon, but Macrium is a bit more straight-forward since they don't have a dozen products that are pretty much variations on the same theme(disk partition create, image, copy, resize etc..)

I've heard some good reports on Paragon while that's still a retail software from the start there. The two being compare here however offer free versions for home use which works for those on tight budgets rather then the additional expense.

Macrium was another retail product from the start until only lately releasing a free for home user version there rather then the usual shareware demo. I'm glad to hear they have a good support base.

Paragon comes out with "Express" and "Special Edition" versions but they tend to disappear. I guess they do a lot of magazine promotion free versions. I'd like to see them get consistent. If they had an Express version of most utilities that did the basic job without some bells and whistles that would be good. I think what I like the least is the demo download. Even if they limit the functionality to a week they should let you try it out to eliminate hardware compatibility issues when you decide to purchase.

I sort of already know the thing will be menu based point and click easy to use. I don't need a demo to prove it to me. What I want to know is will the restore go onto my HD correctly and in good time?

The restoration using the system image creation option in Windows 7 Ultimate went on while being started in Windows. A restoration from one of these programs would likely be pretty the same where you start it once a basic clean install is on in order to install the program in case you replace a drive where all this would be necessary.

Or if the present installation is toast but you can start up the program select to restore the backup from a separate location where everything was safe from preplanning like a separate partition or drive. Often even a dvd image is created for later restoration when you lack the drive space provided those are not too large while each would prompt for a new blank disk once one was full with a burn to disk option.

Before I can run ToDo to see well that will work out I first have to restore the backup previously made with the Reflect program there to see full restoration to the drive. From there I can then create an entirely new backup image once the restored Windows is in known working order again for an actual first hand comparison.

When proceeding to run the restoration you actually leave Windows itself where the restoration utility portion then starts unpacking the files found missing you would expect to see on any clean install as well as replacing any found missing on a present installation without touching anything still found intact.

This is what you would see if the program properly detects all files present and doesn't simply start overwriting existing files when using the restoration during a repair operation. The files found needed are then recopied onto the drive from the image or backup location as they are unpacked.

It's kind of like having two identical folders with one having 10 files while the second has 20 with 10 the same. When copying the entire folder to the first folder's location you can stop any of the 10 from being overwritten while the other 10 are added in. The prompt to overwrite the entire folder allows you to deny that seeing only the 10 copied. The restoration process works in a similar method.

I'm talking more about disaster recovery. Say your system is attacked by malware and won't boot. If the rescue CD doesn't have the driver for your HD then the fun begins. The only way to know for sure is to boot the rescue CD and go into the restore program. For instance on Paragon Drive Backup 8.5 and 9.0 if you boot the rescue CD and go into the Restore program, if it doesn't like your hardware, the video will go bonkers and you will have to cycle the power. The "compatibility mode" option may bail you out, but as I say, a 45 minute restore is then likely to take 9 hours as it did on my system.

Likewise with Macrium Reflect, if you boot the restore CD you should be able to see your HD from the file browser thingy. If you can't the restore ain't gonna' work from there!! All I'm saying is go through the motions as if you had an unbootable system to see if your disaster recovery system will work in a disaster. Don't just do the backup and hope it works.

Cloning a drive with both drives in perfect working order is another issue altogether.

Definitely test out the product first , as Miles says.

At least there are several to choose from.

If you are running the Home Basic, Home Premium, or Business editions of Vista creating a full backup to a separate partition or drive even is always the advised method if not burned to disk. You can nuke any malware infested drive and use the restoration process once a fast clean install of Windows is on simply to start the program selected unless booting from a separate disk already burned with the restoration tool available there.

Since those editions lacked the system image option seen in the Ultimate editions for Vista and will lack for the 7 Home Premium many will be going with for the upgrade finding out which one is best suited now for your own needs will be the best move. Here I'll simply be using the Reflect to restore an existing backup of a clean Vista Home Premium installation once another clean basic install goes onto the same drive now seeing another temp install of 7 there for trying out the system image option in 7.

After using them a bit more, Macrium Reflect still comes out on top for me.

I took a shot of the Max cpu (22%) and Ram usage ( 40mb) by reflect with priority set to the highest level:



Very efficient , especial considering the terrific speed.

Well that's certainly good news for those on the sister forum(sevenforums) who saw that among the list of free programs! It still would be good knowing how well the new ToDo program works for those that will end up going with that one instead for various reasons including being another free program at the same time they come across on their own. :D