EaseUS ToDo Backup is Do-It-Yourself Disc Imaging. Only For Accomplished Geeks.

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Yesterday, while I was deciding whether it was Microsoft’s supposedly innocuous monthly update or Bitdefender that was making one of my machines glacially slow, I considered the idea that I might restore the entire system disc from EaseUS ToDo Backup 13.5 (it eventually turned out that removing and reinstalling Bitdefender solved the problems. One baby brownie point for Microflabby).

I had purchased a ‘lifetime license’ of EaseUS ToDo Backup 13.x only a year ago (December 2020), as a back-up to my several, redundant back-up strategies. It took around three months of back-and-forth e-mails with EaseUS to get their software to perform without incident, and to shut itself down. That was the opposite of inspiring my confidence in them.

Around two weeks ago, I asked EaseUS for a download link to their long-promoted 13.5 version:  I’d been running 13.0, and they have just released 14.x, so I figured I’d want to have a copy of the most recent 13.x version. EaseUS first gave me the wrong 13.x download link with the wrong version of the software. When I pointed this out they gave me the right download link and I installed 13.5.

Then came yesterday’s unexpected machine freezes, in which software launches and use would take 2 to 7 minutes, if they would work at all.

In this troubleshooting process I asked EaseUS if they have a URL to a simple, step-by-step disc image recovery process. They don’t. Here’s the e-mail exchange with them, below ~

From me: “Please reply with a link to the instructions to recover the system drive and all its contents using the latest disc image. Thank you.”

From EaseUS: “Thank you for your reply.

Sorry, there is no instruction link for the old version at the moment.

In your case, please click on Browse to Recover option and choose one full backup file at the target drive, then tick the disk to recover to.”

From me: “Old version”? This was purchased around a year ago. And it took months of back-and-forth e-mail fiddling with (your) support for me to trust that the software would actually do its job. I posted about that on Ask Woody.

How completely underwhelming that EaseUs cannot be bothered to publish its documentation for a do-it-yourself product. I’m happy I paid a reduced cost for a ‘lifetime license’ with sometimes inadequate or nonexistent documentation.

EaseUs has sold me a do-it-yourself disc imaging software without support documentation. Documented support for a fully-developed product is what I want.”

 

 

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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How to restore image with EaseUS ToDo Backup

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Mr. Austin

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Merci, Alex5723. EaseUS didn’t know that page was on their own site.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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I too paid for a ‘life time’ version of ToDo, but I paid for V1. However, with each and every increment I have had a hassle with the license key, “This license has already been used” is the usual response when I try to update. This is followed by several to-from e-mails in which something (a lot) gets lost in translation. I do eventually get a link to a new key, but updating has never worked once without hassle.

Maybe I’d have had less trouble if I’d spent the intervening years learning Mandarin?

Rhino

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Mr. Austin

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Thanks, Rhino,

An e-mail from EaseUS in the same vein as your post has arrived. Color me surprised:

“Dear Mike,

Sorry for the inconvenience caused by our software.

You have purchased Todo Backup Home lifetime upgrade version, the latest version is 2022, please reinstall the trial version in this link and try your license code again:

https://www.easeus-down.com/temp/TB_Home_2022.exe

How to use the latest version 2022 correctly, you can have a look of the Online Help in this link:

https://www.easeus.com/support/todo-backup/index.html

Have a happy New Year.

———————-

Sincerely

Alex

EaseUS Support Center
EaseUS YouTube Channel
★Product video tutorial, user guide, and FAQ are all included.”

So, now I gotta figure out whether I *want* to change the software. Because it now seems to be working OK, and I’m uninterested in perpetual software changes for the sake of change. I.e., if it ain’t broke, why would I want to try and fix it? 😉

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Your problems with EaseUS bckup system is typical.  I bought a license and have finally gotten rid of the system altogether.  When you need the backups system the most it fails and you are unaware of this.  They are so paranoid about maintaining their licensing that just about anything crashes the system and I have done this more than several times through board changes, reimaging etc.  Not once has the system ever come out of this without an error.  They have sent me programs to manually recover but it never fully worked always stopping at some point saying there is some corruption to work through.  That goodness I never encoded or compressed my backups or it would have been disaster.  If you just want a reliable backup program, there are lots out there.  EaseUS tries to do everything and everything poorly when it counts the most.

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What do you use instead? Have you tested a restore with this product?
(Please try to be a bit less negative in your comments in a year old thread.)

cheers, Paul

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Hi Paul,

You didn’t ask me, but since I started this thread I’ll answer it from experience. I’ve used three different backup softwares on this PC Magazine list. Acronis became regularly problematic. Carbonite was OK. IDrive works fairly well, and they have always had decent support.

Just a few weeks ago, the Windows OS of a machine I manage broke completely. One of the two backup solutions they were using was EaseUS ToDo. Recovery of the machine’s OS was all but impossible because the EaseUS recovery software was itself broken. And since Acronis’s brand new licensing and glacial support made reinstalling its 2021 version a proposition involving multiple e-mails over two weeks. So I opted out of that.

So because of these things I just wiped my friend’s OS and we started over. He’d also an old Seagate 8TB backup drive for archiving. An unexpected benefit of the system’s OS crash was that we discovered was that the Seagate drive was disconnecting during normal system processes. Backup software would fail when trying to write to the Seagate drive. When I replaced it with a new SanDisk SSD, Windows became much snappier in its responses.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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geekdom

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Perfect storm. A backup that isn’t reliable isn’t a backup.

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender

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Mr. Austin, bbearren

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geekdom wrote:

Perfect storm. A backup that isn’t reliable isn’t a backup.

The only proof that your backup/imaging software works as advertised is to actually restore a backup/image.  I do this quite often, and I have never had a failure or any unexpected consequences.  The image gets restored and that’s it.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Mr. Austin wrote:

IDrive works fairly well, and they have always had decent support.

PS since that post:  IDrive’s feature of Entire Machine Backup to a local drive failed abysmally. A case was opened about this with IDrive this past Sunday night. Logs and a folder they requested were submitted. After almost two days there has been no substantive response from IDrive. Of course that makes me mistrust their backup software.

I’ve started testing R-Drive for local image backups on that machine.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Some possible backup software suggestions:
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/macrium-free-being-discontinued/#post-2501360

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender

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Mr. Austin

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Thank you. I’d been through that list before. For my needs I want timely support if I make a mistake.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Mr. Austin wrote:

I’ve started testing R-Drive for local image backups on that machine.

R-Drive has now run successfully twice in my testing of it. Both drive images finished in around 5 hours time. Now, I’d like to test a restore.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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To test a restore I boot to the recovery USB, run the backup software, mount the image and restore a file to a different location. This tests all the components without actually rewriting the entire disk.
You may not feel this is a sufficient test, but I’ve never had an issue recovering machines after this test.

5 hours is a very long time for a backup. I generally see less than 30 minutes for a Windows drive without much data. Is your backup destination slow?

cheers, Paul

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Cybertooth, Mr. Austin

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When this particular computer was put into service it was thought best to have only one drive containing both user data and the OS. In noodling this through about length of time for a daily OS image backup – the only way I imagine to reduce the system drive daily imaging time would be to offload all of the user data files now on the system drive to a separate drive.

That way the system image might be accomplished in a reasonable time. But that strategy also means that two drives must be backed-up by different but compatible means. The user data would have to be stored separately, backed-up separately, and restored separately to bare metal if needed.

Maybe the periodic unreliabilities of the Windows OS needs this approach.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Mr. A,

I have all my machines setup so that the OS and Data are separated on different Drives. However, this does not necessarily mead different devices. It is easy enough to partition a single drive into multiple partitions and set drive letters as your desire, in my case C: for OS & Programs and G: (a hold over from my working days) for data. So my 2 desktops actually have separate physical drives and my laptop has a single SSD partitioned into multiple drives. With a program like Macrium Reflect it is easy enough to take images of the drives separately or both at once if you so desire.

FYI: moving our Data Folders to a different drive is simple and doesn’t require any special software as the capability is built into Windows and has been for a very long time. It’s merely selecting the folders (Documents, Pictures, Videos, etc.) and selecting the Location Tab after selecting Properties. Easy peasy, just be careful of the destination you choose to place the folders in.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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bbearren, Mr. Austin

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This being the first time I’ve thought of this because you mentioned it, I also found this at the AOMEI site. 

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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In the picture attached to this post is shown the system drive, designated C. There are 3 different units showing, System Reserved, Dreamcaster, and Primary Partition. It is my understanding these 3 units are defined as partitions (but I don’t know the correct name).

Which *exact* C drive partition(s) must resized to contain ONLY the bootable Windows OS drive for daily use? That same partition(s) will later be scheduled for regular imaging. Thank you.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Mr. Austin wrote:

the only way I imagine to reduce the system drive daily imaging time would be to offload all of the user data files now on the system drive to a separate drive.

Not at all.  Just use some partitioning software to make room.  An OS image for me takes just over 5 minutes, and a complete restore of that image takes less than 3 minutes.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Paul T wrote:

5 hours is a very long time for a backup. I generally see less than 30 minutes for a Windows drive without much data. Is your backup destination slow?

I like your testing idea. I might do that because although the backup image must be perfectly made and could be a first-resort idea, if it failed during restoring it the data on the drive are still backed up in four additional, separate ways.

The backup destination and source drive are both pretty fast SSDs. There are just lots of data on the source drive, 557 GB. The original backup destination was the Seagate 8 TB external drive which choked and failed because it was a ~5,900 RPM spinner using USB 3, and it was long, long ago, when Seagate actually made reliable drives.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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RetiredGeek wrote:

With a program like Macrium Reflect it is easy enough to take images of the drives separately or both at once if you so desire.

Merci buckets.

Because I often go for the easy approach of having different devices, that hadn’t occurred to me.

So if/when your OS unexpectedly goes permanently and beyond recovery to the Heavenly Electron Factory, do you then do an image restore of only the OS partition, while the data partition on the same device remains untouched?

And the more I think about this, wouldn’t it be possible to have two separate SSDs, both with identical partitions? One SSD as the source drive. The other SSD as the destination drive.

And then, for example, a daily OS partition backup could be scheduled separately from a daily documents partition backup, right?

I’ve been testing R-Drive Image from a PC World recommendation. R-Drive Image is performing quite well in its imaging. They also have live telephone tech support.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Mr. Austin wrote:

And the more I think about this, wouldn’t it be possible to have two separate SSDs, both with identical partitions? One SSD as the source drive. The other SSD as the destination drive. And then, for example, a daily OS partition backup could be scheduled separately from a daily documents partition backup, right?

I just now postulated these questions to R-Drive tech support:

“One of my computers has an internal 2TB, source SSD for which I want to schedule backups to an external 2TB, destination SSD. The idea there is if the internal OS or drive(s) get broken, I can use the external SSD for bare-metal recovery.

The source SSD’s Windows OS and my user documents are on the same partition. Using R-Drive Image can I:

1.) Separate the Windows OS partition from the documents partition, and then schedule daily OS partition images to the external, destination SSD, and

2.) Schedule separate, maybe weekly, document partition backups to the external SSD?

3.) In the event that either of the internal SSD partitions fail (or both do) can I do efficient disaster recoveries onto the internal SSD, and can I select either the document partition for recovery, or only the OS partition?

And when I do those things which version of R-Drive Image would you suggest, and why?

Thank you.”

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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None of the software tested by PC World seems to have a free version and are not on our list of backup software. I wonder what their selection criteria is?

I tend to steer clear of SSDs for backup because they require regular power on to retain data – HDDs don’t.
I would regularly check the data on the external disks – try my Powershell script.

If you have loads of data stored on your disk it is worth having a Windows partition and a data partition. Then a Windows backup can be done via partition backups, excluding the data partition and you can backup your data using Incremental / Differential file backup.

I backup my data daily and Windows at least monthly. I see no need to backup Windows more often, but I don’t want to have to re-enter more than a days data if something goes pear shaped.

cheers, Paul

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Mr. Austin

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Thank you. I’d not thought about backing up the separate partitions until RetiredGeek mentioned it. Can you point me to a reliable source or three on the need to power on SSDs so that they retain their data? For the SSDs I’ve been using I’ve never once seen or heard that claim. Merci.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Paul T wrote:

I tend to steer clear of SSDs for backup because they require regular power on to retain data – HDDs don’t.

“Newer models of SSD claim to be able to retain data for as long as 50 years without power, that said the average consensus is somewhere between 5 to 10 years based on consumer data. HDDs can hold the data itself for a lot longer without degradation but typically their mechanical parts fail first, usually within 8 to 10 years.”

I personally can attest to a year.  On the other hand, I routinely use the drive dock on my NAS weekly to copy my drive images to HDD’s stored offline.  Using SSD’s would work equally well, it’s just that I already had the extra HDD’s.

 

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Mr. Austin, Alex5723

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Paul T wrote:

I tend to steer clear of SSDs for backup because they require regular power on to retain data

I use portable SSD drives for moving data which I use about once 2-3 months and it retains its data.

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Mr. Austin

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Retaining backup data is something I want to be sure about, so checking the data is just good practice, even on an HDD.

cheers, Paul

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Mr. Austin

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I keep several versions of all data. Some in cloud services. Some on local drives. So if one or even a few get broken, I’ve always got a working backup. But with my backups I use each backup software publisher’s own software to verify the backups. I’m not a DIY scripting kind of guy.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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bbearren wrote:

I routinely use the drive dock on my NAS weekly to copy my drive images to HDD’s stored offline.  Using SSD’s would work equally well, it’s just that I already had the extra HDD’s.

That’s making me consider using an NAS with a combination of spinning and SS drives. I’d rotate the spinners into an off-site secured location.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Mr. Austin wrote:

There are 3 different units showing

These are 3 separate disks.
The first 2 have 3 partitions each.
The last disk is an external disk with 1 partition.

To backup your system you should image the second disk – with C. This is small enough that it won’t take long – it seems to be about 600GB. Do this monthly.

Then perform a file backup on your data from C and D. Also include %appdata% in the backup to collect config data, bookmarks, mail data etc. Do this as often as you want – mine is done daily.

If you don’t want to do the backup that often you could set up a scheduled backup of the C data to D daily to protect against C failure, then backup D as often as you can manage.

cheers, Paul

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1. Thank you Paul… but my specific question/confusion is how to know exactly how to resize *only* the partitions on only the (C) system drive so — that one partition contains only the bootable OS and anything else it needs to function happily and smoothly. How do I do that, please?
2. All *documents* such as pictures, videos, PDFs, word processing files, spreadsheets – will be removed from the original source OS partition, and instead moved to storage on a separate partition on the same physical device (C), but now seen and used by the computer as a separate drive. The documents will be on the same physical device.
3. And after the OS and its boot partitions are correctly segmented on the source drive, I will then begin sending regular image backups to a 2nd physical drive device (E), which will contain its own separate images as a backup for the OS and its boot partitions, and also separate, regular image backups of the new documents drive partitioned on (C).

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Mr. Austin wrote:

All *documents* such as pictures, videos, PDFs, word processing files, spreadsheets – will be removed from the original source OS partition, and instead moved to storage on a separate partition on the same physical device (C), but now seen and used by the computer as a separate drive. The documents will be on the same physical device.

Don’t move original documents, pictures, music, videos.. system folders.
Just Copy the data to new location (mine are on D: drive).

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How come? I don’t understand. The purposes in doing this are to (1.) Shrink the Windows OS and its other boot partitions to minimum sizes, and (2.) Move all documents to a new, different partition on the local drive after I shrink it.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Mr. Austin wrote:

Move all documents to a new, different partition on the local drive after I shrink it.

Windows update may fail or even erase all data after system folders were moved.
Keep the original folders (empty) in place. Create new once on another partition/drive and copy the data.

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Mr. Austin

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OK, I get it. Thank you.

And that sounds exactly like an unexpected Windows glitch would behave. Especially because of the perniciously unwanted OneDrive system. That was never a problem on the first OS install 5 years ago on this machine. But when the OS had to be wiped OneDrive keeps putting itself in the way.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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