Trial EaseUS ToDo 3.5 versus Acronis True Image Home 2011

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I downloaded the new EaseUS ToDo v3.5 (free version) to use it and compare it to my present Imaging app, Acronis True Image Home 2011. Here are my personal observations on my personal laptop.

Acronis TIH 2011: I am able to create an Image, including validating the Image in about 20 to 25 minutes. This Image lets me choose to include both my Win 7 partition and my Win 8 DP partition. I can create an Image that includes one, two or all three of my partitions very easily. I can restore either of my OSes from this one Image, although they have to be restored one partition at a time. I could just as easily added my D Drive (Data partition) into the Image and added a few minutes to the creation (I don’t have really large data requirements) YMMV.

Acronis is not free, but can be found very reasonably priced. I have never been let down when I need to restore my PC.

EaseUS ToDo v3.5 free: When I choose the System Backup from the main menu, I get no choice on which partitions to Image. The created Image will only include the OS that is presently active. The creation took approx. 15 minutes without validation. I had to validate the Image separately, it is not an option during the creation. This took another approx. 7 minutes. Now remember, this only included one partition, in this case my Win 7 partition. I would have to install the app and run it from within Win 8 DP to create an Image of that partition.

Honestly this seems very clunky to me. In comparing the free versus paid edition I do not see this either.

I do not see any advantage to EaseUS ToDo 3.5 free over Acronis TIH 2011 and in fact have noticed several diaadvantages in my short test. I guess what I have to say is goo-bye EaseUS To Do 3.5 free.

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Thanks Ted;
You give up a lot of time testing and I know we all appreciate it.

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You are very welcome Jag

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Ted,

Seems the app does allow you to choose which partitions to backup if you choose Disk and partition backup from the Home page, according to the manual available here.

Actually when I use Acronis I never choose Backup My System, I choose Backup My Disks, which actually gives you the same screen (just found that out). So I think your impression of EaseUS may lie on a different perspective, compared to Acronis TI, of what a System backup should do. What matters, I’d say, is that it seems you can backup while choosing partitions, with EaseUS too.

My assessment is only from reading the manual, though.

Regards

Rui

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According to the manual too, when using Full Disk and Partition Backup, you can also check the Check backup image integrity after backup option, to automatically check the image file after finishing.

Probably this Full Disk and Partition Backup is the most featured of the existing backup options, and probably the one to be used most frequently, as it allows other things, like specifying rules to delete previous image files.

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Rui,

I did a little further testing and I see the Disk and Partition Backup option. it is somewhat small and I did miss it initially:

29292-EaseUSDiskandPartitionBackup29293-EaseUSDiskandPartitionBackup2

This is comparable to Acronis Disk and Partition Backup:

29291-Acronis-versus-EaseUS1

The System Backup seen above in EaseUs ToDo gives this screen:

29294-EaseUSSystemBackup

This is what I initially used in my comparison. This does not act exactly the same as Acronis in that if I choose Disk Mode in Acronis it does Image my entire HD, not just the active partition. When I used the System Backup in EaseUS ToDo it would only Image the active partition.

These 2 apps seem very similar. I will post further results as I perform more testing. I want to give EaseUs ToDo a fair assessment.

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I am quite interested in this test, Ted. I am even downloading the thing and doing an image, cause I was thinking about trying it, too. I guess I will just wait for your results with increased interest :).

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During the trial of EaseUS ToDo v3.5 When I attempted the Disk and Partition Backup. During the Image, it froze at 10.1 minutes completed. I had to do a cold restart to thaw my PC. Everything was frozen. Power switch to restart. I then restored my Win 7 from my latest Acronis Image and started over by reinstalling EaseUS ToDo 3.5. The initial Image attempt was done using medium compression. This time I left compression at the default setting and started over. (In both attempts I was attempting to Image my Win 7 and Win 8 DP partitions in one image as this is how I have been Imaging using Acronis, trying to compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges so to speak) This attempt also froze my system at 10 minutes completed and required the same cold restart using the power switch.

Perhaps there is some setup in my system that is conflicting, but I created the Acronis Image, which I have restored from twice today just before starting these tests. Acronis works very well for me as evidenced by the fact I’m typing this reply. EaseUS ToDo 3.5 just froze. I also tried the Files backup and it froze. The only Image that worked was the system Image which I have already discussed. I have to say, I do not have much positive to say about EaseUS ToDo 3.5 at this time. I do use EaseUS Partition Magic and have had great success with it, but am very disappointed with EaseUS ToDo 3.5.

Jag, I am off today and did not have anything else to do (no pun intended here) and since I have been thinking of trying EaseUS ToDo, I figured this was as good of time as any to try it. In my case it did not work as expected. YMMV. Again thanks for your previous thanks.

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During the trial of EaseUS ToDo v3.5 When I attempted the Disk and Partition Backup. During the Image, it froze at 10.1 minutes completed. I had to do a cold restart to thaw my PC. Everything was frozen. Power switch to restart. I then restored my Win 7 from my latest Acronis Image and started over by reinstalling EaseUS ToDo 3.5. The initial Image attempt was done using medium compression. This time I left compression at the default setting and started over. (In both attempts I was attempting to Image my Win 7 and Win 8 DP partitions in one image as this is how I have been Imaging using Acronis, trying to compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges so to speak) This attempt also froze my system at 10 minutes completed and required the same cold restart using the power switch.

Perhaps there is some setup in my system that is conflicting, but I created the Acronis Image, which I have restored from twice today just before starting these tests. Acronis works very well for me as evidenced by the fact I’m typing this reply. EaseUS ToDo 3.5 just froze. I also tried the Files backup and it froze. The only Image that worked was the system Image which I have already discussed. I have to say, I do not have much positive to say about EaseUS ToDo 3.5 at this time. I do use EaseUS Partition Magic and have had great success with it, but am very disappointed with EaseUS ToDo 3.5.

Jag, I am off today and did not have anything else to do (no pun intended here) and since I have been thinking of trying EaseUS ToDo, I figured this was as good of time as any to try it. In my case it did not work as expected. YMMV. Again thanks for your previous thanks.

This is a disappointing result. I believe 3.5 came out a few days ago, so maybe it still has some issues. I may give Todo Backup a go later and see how it goes with my system.

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I am wondering if this may be an apple and oranges comparison, as you are comparing a Free version(which usually is a lite version) against a paid for program. I would suggest the results would be more valid if you were comparing the paid for version of Easeus against Acronis

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I am wondering if this may be an apple and oranges comparison, as you are comparing a Free version(which usually is a lite version) against a paid for program. I would suggest the results would be more valid if you were comparing the paid for version of Easeus against Acronis

I disagree with your assessement. If you look at the features list, EaseUS Todo Backup even has features that only paid add-ons to Acronis TI offer.

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When I looked at the comparisons of the free versus paid versions, I did not see anything that would have accounted for what I was seeing. And the freezing was the “straw that broke the camels back”. My link above (in post #1) shows the comparisson page. Quite honestly I’m not about to pay for an app who’s free version flat out freezes my system just to see if it will work better than the app I already use very effectively. I am very happy with Acronis. It works effectively for me. No one app will work for everyone. I know of one individual that Acronis flat out did not work for him and last I knew he was using Macrium Reflect.

I guess the point is find an Imaging app that does what you need it to do, and USE IT! I am certainly glad I created an Image using Acronis before I started playing with EaseUS ToDo 3.5.

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I also was a little disappointed. EaseUS ToDo has gotten a lot of press recently in these forums and most has been very positive. Perhaps it is a problem with the new version 3.5. I never tried an earlier version. I however do not feel my time today was wasted at all. This is what I do when I have the time, “play” with changes and different apps on my PC. However I would never think of doing this “playing” without an up to date Image to fall back on.

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I have free version 3.0 works great, no need to upgrade to 3.5 for me. I sometimes follow the rule it aint broke do not fix it. I also Use the paid for version of Macrium Reflect Pro. I also scheduled full backups using the the native Windows 7 backup on a daily basis. I manually use Macrium and Easeus 3.0 doing full backups with each on weekly basis. I keep 3 weeks worth of the most recent backups and delete the anything older than 3 weeks

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Ted,
This freezing of your system using Todo 3.5 is MOST unusual – perhaps related to the Win 8 installation?? (tho I can’t for the life of me see why). Suggest you leave a post on the Todo forum: http://forum.easeus.com/viewforum.php?f=14 – they’ll probably want to see some of your files WHICH SHOULD BE ZIPPED BEFORE UPLOADING. I’ve only used v.3.5 once, but so far, so good…

The previous posters were right on about “System Backup” – it’s a no-questions-asked backup, with no options. Just use Disk & Partition Backup (selecting all partitions, if you wish, or only the System & System Reserved partitions).

ADDENDUM: I’ve just reviewed your attached pictures – I hope that D: (your “save to” destination) is on a different physical disk from C:

Zig

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If you have thought of ‘upgrading’ to Acronis True Image 2012 then I strongly suggest you first look at the Acronis forum. There are many unresolved and serious issues traversed there and I, for one, am about to return to Acronis 2011. Note also that the support only lasts for 30 days – beyond that you pay and the trouble shooters are more trouble than they are worth!

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Hi you guys who seem to have a lot of time.

I did some partition backups using norton partition manager, an old norton ghost, paragon, Acronis etc.

My applications were
– cloning to an ssd – paragong and acronis
– upgrading to a new harddisk – Acronis and ghost were OK
– Backing up my OS partitions now and then to a secondary harddisk (macrium and Acronis)
– cloning a system where the harddisk was showing signs of end of life (finally I use clonezilla, but I had to use special parameters to
avoid clonezilla installing a grub bootloader, very very very annoying)
– Installing a Hackintosh, and migrating the new partition to a multiboot environment where EasyBCD permitted booting into the Hackintosh
(Acronis cloned the partition OK)

I allways used free tools or versions because, ideally I suppose you need a licence pre computer and because all tools seemed to hava a limitation.

Since I have a job at daytime and kids at spare time I’d like to find the single application where
– You can do what you want booting from a cd and cloning from one hd to another
– you wont have the boot partition overwritten with grub
– the image creation or clone wont crash because of some windows process messing you up (if you’re working from inside windows)
– The tool will understant some new or exotic file systems (lake macintosh or linux)
– And the tool will do partitionning as well as cloning
– You won’t have to pay a licence for every harddisk

Impossible ?

If it’s imposibble, I guess I’ll continue having to spend two days trying different solutions every time!!!!

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Hello new to the lounge so please bear with this old codger lol!!

Yeah tried this app out after that complicated Acronis and the not so complicated Macrium which was I thought a tad bitty and returned a few backup failed pop ups. So EaseUS was such a simple and easy clone and quick too.:rolleyes:

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Hello new to the lounge so please bear with this old codger lol!!

Yeah tried this app out after that complicated Acronis and the not so complicated Macrium which was I thought a tad bitty and returned a few backup failed pop ups. So EaseUS was such a simple and easy clone and quick too.:rolleyes:

Whatever works for you. At least you actually do those backups. That’s what counts.

-- rc primak

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Thanks Bob Has to be simple for me I don’t like those long drawn out processes I am too impetuous I know but having it done yesterday is nice eh??:rolleyes:

Should not be that way really as I have managed to wreck my XP tester this pm by trying to do things too fast, and I have been so good just recently lol!!

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I loved Acronis. I used it for many years and found it to be everything you described it to be until I upgraded about a month ago. The install didn’t work. Tech Support couldn’t figure out how and basically told me to generate a number of reports for them to review. The process was horrible. To try and get it to work they took off my old version and when that didn’t work, they basically left me ‘high and dry’. Their tech support guys weren’t that knowledgeable.

If Todo is remotely similar in quality and (being free), I’d say that is the product of choice.

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Hello R yeah my friend it is the bee’s knees are far as I am concerned but the only small handicap is that it will only clone from small to larger and not the other way round. Shame really for such a good app.
I did contact the company to see if the paid for version would do that but they were a little ambiguous but I think perhaps the paid for (not expensive but only one app per machine) does go vice versa. However they were so pleasant which was a nice surprise. They have some other good apps in there too that I am thinking of getting on as well.:rolleyes:.

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Zig, That was just a screen shot before I selected where to place the Image. My actual destination is my E Drive (Seagate ext USB HD). Sorry for the confusion.

Even if the freezing was caued by my Win 8 DP partition it is disappointing because my Acronis app handles this partition arrangement very effectively. At this point I am not really interested in finding out why the freezing took place. I reinstalled EaseUS ToDo 3 separate times without any change in the operation. This happened on 2 different imaging options (Files and Partitions) At this time, this is enough for me, sorry. I feel that I have no more time to “play” with this app at this time. Perhaps at another time.

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My actual destination is my E Drive (Seagate ext USB HD).

Ted,
Is it USB 3.0?? Todo doesn’t yet play nice with all USB 3.0 drivers.

Zig

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Ted, Is it USB 3.0?? Todo doesn’t yet play nice with all USB 3.0 drivers. Zig

I’m wondering if Acronis plays well with USB3 yet. Macrium will allow me to create an image but will not find disk when try to restore. but think this a windows problem as neither does windows image find disk at boot when restoring.

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Nope, USB 2.0. Like I said, I spent quite a bit of time playing today. I might get back to this eventually but there are many other things I want to play with so I believe my time is better spent elsewhere at this moment. Thanks for the suggestions.

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Yes, any time you are using something new it’s a good idea to have an Image to recover from. This is the biggest reason I create new Images before playing with these new apps. This way my restoration will put me exactly where I started before my “playing”.

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Thanks goes out to you and all that take the time trying out apps for us to use.

Thank You!

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Ted (et al.),

Apparently the Bootable CDs (both WinPE & Linux) for EaseUS Todo Free Backup v.3.5 choke on dual-boot systems.

Zig

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Nice to know. I never got to the point to trial the restoration since the Image never fully created.

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I use Acronis, but with USB2 so do not know about USB3, sorry.

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It could be a BIG mistake to backup up the whole HDD in one image, rather one per partition.

With Acronis only one bit needs to be corrupted in an entire image backup file and it refuses to restore ANY partitions.

With Macrium each partition is independently checksummed so the other partitions can be restored,
and there is a registry hack to disregard the checksum error if you are desperate enough.

I do not know how Easeus ToDo reacts to one bit error in a multi-partition backup.

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I could indeed Image each partition separately, but have not found the need to do so to date. Since most changes take place in my Win 7 partition, I do not have the need to partition the Win 8 DP very often, I just add it to the Image because I have developed the habit of doing so. If I have an Image that for whatever reason does not work, I have many other Images (slightly older) that I can use.

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Have used Acronis for several years, never been 100% satisfied, but until ToDo it was best of the bunch. Now sorry to say I use Ease ToDo V3 with, to date, complete reliability. And making Backups to a USB3 mounted external HD 3Tb in an ICY BOX Caddie! Or any other spare SATA HD of which I have several.
Reading this topic I think I’ll give the 3.5 update a miss for now.
Incidentally my OS is Win 7 64-bit. But as the oft said words say,”Your mileage may vary!”

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Ted, have you tried TeraByte Unlimited’s Image for Windows (IFW)? It is a low cost program that will image a Windows OS drive from within Windows while the user continues to do other work. It handles this through Phylock, which locks open files. I close out all apps and the run IFW as an administrator. I select my C:Win7OS partition, choose validate and destination, and run it. It checks for open files and locks them before starting the imaging. When that happens, I run Word or whatever and keep working with no apparent slowdown. It also comes with Image for DOS/Linux, a USB or CD-based version for imaging/restoring from bootup. Another important feature is TeraView, that lets me double-click on an image, see an explorer-like directory tree, and extract one or more files without restoring the whole image. There are also options for different levels of compression and aligning partitions on 2048. The following hyperlink offers trial versions of all their products. Some are very techie but very powerful if one is willing to learn.

I appreciate your insights and help – always on target.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/index.htm

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I downloaded the new EaseUS ToDo v3.5 (free version) to use it and compare it to my present Imaging app, Acronis True Image Home 2011. Here are my personal observations on my personal laptop.

Acronis TIH 2011: I am able to create an Image, including validating the Image in about 20 to 25 minutes. This Image lets me choose to include both my Win 7 partition and my Win 8 DP partition. I can create an Image that includes one, two or all three of my partitions very easily. I can restore either of my OSes from this one Image, although they have to be restored one partition at a time. I could just as easily added my D Drive (Data partition) into the Image and added a few minutes to the creation (I don’t have really large data requirements) YMMV.

Acronis is not free, but can be found very reasonably priced. I have never been let down when I need to restore my PC.

EaseUS ToDo v3.5 free: When I choose the System Backup from the main menu, I get no choice on which partitions to Image. The created Image will only include the OS that is presently active. The creation took approx. 15 minutes without validation. I had to validate the Image separately, it is not an option during the creation. This took another approx. 7 minutes. Now remember, this only included one partition, in this case my Win 7 partition. I would have to install the app and run it from within Win 8 DP to create an Image of that partition.

Honestly this seems very clunky to me. In comparing the free versus paid edition I do not see this either.

I do not see any advantage to EaseUS ToDo 3.5 free over Acronis TIH 2011 and in fact have noticed several diaadvantages in my short test. I guess what I have to say is goo-bye EaseUS To Do 3.5 free.

WOW! That’s really different than my experience with v3.0. I can select the Whole hard drive OR any of the partitions including the linux partitions. Plus with the free edition you can create a WinPE 3.0 rescue disk that allows full functionality of backup or restore. I also have Acronis TIH 2011, but probably won’t be upgrading it in favor of EaseUS. This is not from the system backup menu. You need to select the backup TAB and then select the drive and partition menue.

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Not trying to muddy the waters or anything here, but does Easus allow you to mount the backup image as a virtual drive and access the files within it? I only ask as I am an Acronis (2010 – works fine for me!) user and my most recent requirement was to restore my Thunderbird prefs.js after it decided to self-destruct which saved me a LOT of grief having to reinstall and then re-link all my accounts.

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Not trying to muddy the waters or anything here, but does Easus allow you to mount the backup image as a virtual drive and access the files within it? I only ask as I am an Acronis (2010 – works fine for me!) user and my most recent requirement was to restore my Thunderbird prefs.js after it decided to self-destruct which saved me a LOT of grief having to reinstall and then re-link all my accounts.

It does: http://www.todo-backup.com/products/features/mount-backup-image-file.htm

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How does Acronis True Image Home 2011 compare to Shadowprotect (it is made by storage craft)?

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You might want to try Paragon Backup & Recovery also; like Macrium Reflect they offer a free version. From an ease of use perspective I think I prefer Paragon, but I’m not very familiar with it yet.

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To attempt to answer several questions (Sorry if I miss one)

Zelken and Steve: I have never tried ToDo v3, only v3.5. These experiences were for the latest version only. Also, as I stated in a latter post I did find the area to Image the entire disk including both partitions, but it never suceeded.

Jim, David and Paul: I have never used Shadowprotect or Paragon or TeraByte so I am unable to provide input on these fine products. Perhaps others have and can chime in here to add to the discussion.

Please do not consider this as hijacking my original thread. I am interested in all these, just do not have the time right now to check all them. However, you might want to start your own thread only to get better exposure. Some people will not read down through this whole thread to see the posts on the new products discussed. For this reason new threads discussing these 3 fine apps might be in order if anyone has the time or inclination to discuss them. Perhaps as I find time I will do so, but there is no guarantee when this will take place if left to me.

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I do not know of any single tool that will do partitioning and cloning/imaging. The built in Win 7 tools come close. Win 7 does have a sort of partitioning tool (Disk Manager) and a backup tool (Backup and Restore) I consider both somewhat plain janes of the more robust 3rd party apps, but they do work, sort of.

Partitioning: I use both Partition Wizardfree and EaseUS Partition Magicfree. Both do excellent jobs for all partitioning chores I have had to do. I presently have both installed on my PC.

Imaging: I use Acronis True Image Home 2010 and 2011 (not free). I am very pleased with this app and although I try others (as evidenced by this thread) I have not changed to another. Many do talk about the other 3 apps mentioned here. YMMV.

If someone knows of an app that will do both, especially if it is free, please let us know as I would be willing to try that app.

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Paragon offers a suite which does disk management (partitioning) and image backups with a File Explorer for the archives, all in one paid product. Acronis uses two products, Disk Director and True Image. Shadow Protect seems to specialize in backup and recovery tools. The free tools in this thread are backup and recovery tools only. Linux has G-Parted and other partitioning tools which can complement any backup and recovery tools nicely.

-- rc primak

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Welcome to the lounge as a first time poster. :cheers:

Glad it worked for you. If it ain’t broke don’t fixit.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Yep, I also liked easeus todo and have it on my laptop. I have true image home on my desktop and trust it because it’s been used for restore and know it worked. But thats just me and it’s only my opinion 🙂

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Well I am impressed cloned an old Maxtor for an old Dell Optiplex GX240 40GB to Maxtor 60GB in 27 minutes and after the machine recognising the new hardware booted in double quick time. Plus it is so much quieter now woo – hoo!!:cool:

So it is EaseUS on all my three machines now so easy and simple. Am beginning to think that a 3.0 USB external would be jsut as simple to cone each time and not just backup??

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Yeah now I’ve replaced the old drive with the new it boots but hangs at the blue Dell screen for ages then goes a black screen that runs a white running bar across it then into a black screen that tells me to hit F1 to try reboot – which it does but it’s awfully long winded. But it’s quick once up and running.

Have checked the BIOS setup and it’s set to the hard drive first then optical then floopy which I disabled – perhaps I shouldn’t have done that.

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Yeah now I’ve replaced the old drive with the new it boots but hangs at the blue Dell screen for ages then goes a black screen that runs a white running bar across it then into a black screen that tells me to hit F1 to try reboot – which it does but it’s awfully long winded. But it’s quick once up and running.

Have checked the BIOS setup and it’s set to the hard drive first then optical then floopy which I disabled – perhaps I shouldn’t have done that.

Boot order should not matter and should not make a difference. I would suspect an issue with the cloning. Maybe try another tool. Macrium has been used successfully by many Loungers.

Am beginning to think that a 3.0 USB external would be jsut as simple to cone each time and not just backup??

Not sure what you mean by this. Can you please clarify?

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Yeha I meant clone an external 3.0 USB hard drive instead an internally placed drive or running the Windows back up / restore > system image feature to the external which more often than not does not do a complete “copy” – pop ups telling me this.

Now as for the boot by sheer luck it has been resolved as I enabled the floppy drive as an option and set it last behind the HDD > optical > floppy and away it went. Not only a tad faster than the original drive but hardly audible ( old one was clicking like mad).

Also I have tried Acronis which I found really quite complicated and Macrium was easy to use but I still had the pop up ‘ it didn’t do the system image or clone properly or completely. I do remember the cloning stopping for certain files that had to be skipped before one could go on with the process.

Anyway thanks to everyone’s input I do appreciate your time and infinite patience – I am learning to be patient with these things whereas in the past I would have been in panic mode!:rolleyes:

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Randy Guy (or is that R&D Guy??),

Welcome to the (current) world of Acronis.

Zig

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Hi Zig …. Yes it is R&D Guy, but for most websites I had to write it that way to get the User ID.

So far, I like the way Todo is working. My strategy is to also use Allway Sync to do the everyday stuff. I will use Todo when I add programs. For now, if it crashes I can do a reinstall quickly and know that all of my data is current.

Randy Guy (or is that R&D Guy??),

Welcome to the (current) world of Acronis.

Zig

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