Acronis TrueImage alternatives

[neufuse Veteran]

Does anyone have a good alternative to Acronis TrueImage? I haven't upgraded mine since 2018 and it looks like now it's yet another Backup as a service company with no perpetual backup software license... 

 

The only think I use anymore is the USB ability to backup and restore, I don't even have the software installed on my personal system anymore, just use the recovery media USB to do the backup/restores..

 

anything out there right now that is compatible with the latest NTFS revisions, I'm not sure TI 2018 was even fully comparable with the NTFS spec at the time (hence why I was looking at a newer version)?

 

What do you guys use for just making an image and restoring it? I do not want to use the windows backup tool, I absolutely hate the thing, it's slow, quirky and just annoying

[i_was_here]

I haven't used it myself but I read great thinks about Macrium Reflect:

 

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

 

Also I have not used Clonezilla for images but for cloning disks it worked well for me. If you want a nicer GUI for it, try Rescuezilla:

 

https://rescuezilla.com/

[adrynalyne]

I use Macrium Reflect. 

[Newinko]

Another vote for Macrium Reflect. The latest version supports recent NTFS modifications & it's also Bitlocker-aware.

[cork1958]

Another vote for Macrium Reflect

[Grinch]

I work at an MSP and we switched from Paragon to Acronis and finally settled on Macrium Reflect (Workstation). Anytime I've ever had an issue with it has always been due to the drive itself. Solid product.

[neufuse Veteran]

So I'm trying to try out Reflect but this happens making rescue media... I've tried multiple USB sticks now even opened up a few brand new 16GB SanDisk ones and same error every time... even on two other desktops..... This is off to a great start

 

Logs

 

Open handle to physical drive: \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2
Read drive geometry
Check for active FAT32 partition in removable media
No active FAT partitions found
Check track zero writeable
Failed to write track zero to disk (5): Access is denied.
Write check failed, checking for file system at start of disk
Track zero is read only for selected disk
Track zero is not writable

and yes, I am running it as an administrator

Edited October 24, 2022 by neufuse

[cork1958]

Amazing how that kind of stuff seems to happen when first trying a new program, isn't it? Haven't ever seen that before. Dumb thing to ask, but the little lock button isn't in lock position of drives, are they? If they even have that feature.

[neufuse Veteran]

On 24/10/2022 at 13:54, cork1958 said:

Amazing how that kind of stuff seems to happen when first trying a new program, isn't it? Haven't ever seen that before. Dumb thing to ask, but the little lock button isn't in lock position of drives, are they? If they even have that feature.

these sticks don't have read only switches

and I got it to work, reinstalled windows on a system and installed the software, got a USB recovery media to create fine... not sure what is on the other systems that is stopping it, turned off all AV / Threat protection products also trying to get it to work nothing... but clean win 11 install and bingo

[Dan~]

Veeam and it’s free  

[Gerowen]

I've been using Clonezilla for ages.  There's a fork of it that adds a GUI of sorts, though the regular release is simple enough to use since it's menu driven.

[CloudEngineer]

Veeam is what i use at home

[ShadeOfBlue]

On 24/10/2022 at 12:39, neufuse said:

So I'm trying to try out Reflect but this happens making rescue media...

I've never had the rescue media builder work without formatting the drive first. The instructions are hardly Macrium specific, but try out the steps under "Error Code 2" at the Macrium kowledgebase. You may be getting error code 1 for a similar reason.

[inactive]

Clonezilla

while it's not as 'easy' to use as others already mentioned, Clonezilla is rock solid and runs from bootable media as you don't install anything to use it, which I like.

[rocky01]

Macrium Reflect is good  and superior to Acronis since it does it's thing without you having to hover, however if you Bitlocker, consider decrypting before you image your main drive. On my PC that has SecureBoot I got messages on bios screen asking for Bitlocker key -- at every boot. Huh? Also, in this bios level hangup, messages kept referencing my router connected to ethernet even though ethernet was removed from boot sequence in bios settings.  Kept saying to myself: don't you worry about my ethernet. Hands off. Macrium DOES have a write up about playing nice with BitLocker, but at that point, was too annoyed. So suggest you decrypt your Bitlocker main drive prior to Macrium backup.

[adrynalyne]

On 25/10/2022 at 04:27, rocky01 said:

Macrium Reflect is good  and superior to Acronis since it does it's thing without you having to hover, however if you Bitlocker, consider decrypting before you image your main drive. On my PC that has SecureBoot I got messages on bios screen asking for Bitlocker key -- at every boot. Huh? Also, in this bios level hangup, messages kept referencing my router connected to ethernet even though ethernet was removed from boot sequence in bios settings.  Kept saying to myself: don't you worry about my ethernet. Hands off. Macrium DOES have a write up about playing nice with BitLocker, but at that point, was too annoyed. So suggest you decrypt your Bitlocker main drive prior to Macrium backup.

Macrium is Bitlocker aware. You shouldn’t have to turn it off to make a backup. 

[PaulATMOS]

Macrium has always worked well for me.

Acronis now has Cyber Protect as it’s home backup solution. 

[LaP]

Personally i'm using AOMEI Backupper

[rocky01]

On 25/10/2022 at 09:03, adrynalyne said:

Macrium is Bitlocker aware. You shouldn’t have to turn it off to make a backup. 

Agreed, yes, but there is a snag in there somewhere with my machine. Others may trip over it as well. I've printed out the Macrium help page that addresses Bitlocker but for now I'm punting past it.

[jamester64]

Macrium Reflect

When trying to create rescue media I use the create .iso option and then I used Rufus to write to usb drive