Apparently it's got a small but very dedicated following, as I have been finding out the more I get to know about it.Patrice Brousseau wrote:I use this one since around ten years without a hitch. I bought once and all the updates were free...codec_spurt wrote:I just came across this, and it's not free, but it is cheap and it looks interesting.
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-windows.htm
You can backup inside Win7 x64 or outside from another partition (boot), from a floppy or from a CD.
I use it also to backup my Bootcamp partition on my MBP.
Patrice
This is the best imaging/cloning/backup software I have ever used. Bar none. I've used Acronis, Macrium Reflect, Paragon, EaseUS Todo, DriveImageXML, Drive Snapshot, plus a few others that escape me now.
But then again, I'm no expert. So why not check out what other people are saying about it:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/ ... me.278397/
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/ ... ws.362725/
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/ ... ad.305838/
First off, it's not free. It costs about £23 or $39 for Image for Windows
https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-windows.htm
This includes Image for Dos and Image for Linux as well. And you have a license to use it on up to 3 computers as I understand it.
I am going to buy the bundled version of it though with Bootit BareMetal which is a Boot Manager and Partitioning Tool and usually costs about the same.
https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-bare-metal.htm
But you can get them both for about $50 or a bit less than £30, plus you get TBOSDT Pro thrown in for free as well, which costs about $15 or £9 if you buy it by itself. So the bundle is less than half the price of the included tools. More than worth it.
TBOSDT Pro contains a set of powerful utilities that, among other things, will help you deploy Windows to completely different hardware.
In use this program is very fast. There are scores of options to choose from but if you just want to select the defaults like I have done then you won't have any problems.
If you just want a program for backing up your windows then you would probably be better off saving the money and just downloading Macrium Reflect for free:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-fr ... tion_Guide
But if you need to back up any linux stuff whether that be partitions on your physical hard disk or on usb sticks or even SD cards, then this program is more than worth the money. I don't know of anything that does what this does with such ease and flexibility. You can back up your linux boot disks (including usb and SD) from directly within windows and you don't even have to stop working because it uses the shadow volume services to keep on using your system.
But the best part is the fact that it sees EVERYTHING. Stuff that just isn't there in windows suddenly becomes visible. And when you have made your backup image, you have 2 included programs to view and mount it, again, all within windows. So if you, like me, downloaded some stuff to a usb stick that contained a linux distro like Mint, you don't have to shut down the computer, boot up a slow usb drive and go to all the trouble of finding it and saving it and then restarting the system again. You just mount the image and extract the files from within windows.
This program has so many ingenious features I don't know where to begin. One of the ones that has me the most excited is this:
Hardware Independent Restore - Restore Windows to completely different hardware and then use the TeraByte OSD Tool Suite to install the drivers required to support the new hardware.
I am really hoping that this will help me in my search for the holy grail in virtualisation, which is to turn all those old True Image (or whatever) backups into a working Virtual Machine which can be accessed from within Windows 7. The older programs don't support creating a .vhd file so you have to go the long way round. Newer versions of Acronis do however support it but that is no good to me.
http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showth ... irtual-Box
Apart from this I am hoping it will ease my transition to putting in a SSD into my laptop. I will move the main HD to a caddy in the DVD bay and place the SSD where it used to be. If I need DVD, I can swap out the drives or use an external one (which I have) via usb. No big deal.
Another great feature is being able to create bootable DVD or CDs from your image. It will make the first one bootable and split the rest of the volume across how ever many it takes. It supports Blu-Ray as well so this becomes more practical.
I have already created a Linux boot cd and tested it and it works perfectly and finds the backup. There are some nice included utilities on the disk also.
The best thing though has to be getting BareMetal with the bundle which looks like the best way to manage and set up a multi-boot system with Windows 7 and two different Linux distros on it. But that's another story.
Like I said though, if all you want is to back up your windows computer then download the free Macrium Reflect, that's another great program that has really come a long way to maturity now. But if you work with Linux and want to multi-boot without faffing around with Grub, no contest...
it is FREE! 
