@bigFlow in my head to head tests, it was faster from start to finish for me, which saved time when i needed to cover multiple machines. I have had a few failures with Acronis in the past, never had ant with Macrium. in a a critical Environment I personally would put my money on Macrium. Like all solutions though it is often down to user preference. I would suggest you do a side by side comparison yourself and see what results you get then make an informed choice.

 

What types of failures are we talking about? Not being able to get access to my files though the backup containers were tested okay would obviously be a no go. However if we're talking about not being able to make a bootable drive out of my containers or a backup exiting with an error after hours - I understand this would be a critical failure to you but I personally could live with the chance of that happening.

 

Not to hijack the thread, but in case anyone finds it and wonders the same for question for mac, Carbon Copy Cloner in conjunction with time machine is the way to go.

 

@bigFlow I actually Suffered two Major Issues with Acronis. A Catastrohpic failure of a backup that tested okay, and when it was needed it failed, cost client serious downtime issues. Also had issue with a backup erroring out in middle of process, although I do suspect that was somewhat hardware related. Don't get me wrong Acronis was my choice for many years, just lost confidence when it cost me money, and have not had any issues with Macrium since. So I stuck with it. If your interested give them both a side by side comparison and see which one performs best under your specs. can't hurt and they can run together.

 

Mac carbon copy cloner, best part you can boot using that clone drive as well. ie incremental backup.
macrium reflect for PC, hellz yeah.

 

Last edited: Mar 3, 2016

I know I'm going to sound like a party pooper and contradict everyone, but... how much software and plugins are we talking about? I have had mixed experiences with cloning computers and what I do now (and I'm about to do it again) is I simply make a list of everything I have. I save my presets in a backup drive and I do it from scratch. It sounds like a pain in the ass, AND IT IS! but I learnt the hard way that it is always better to start a clean slate. it usually takes me a couple of days once I have all the operating system, updates, basic software installed. But after that it's a breeze.

Though, if you go with the clone way, I would second Ned and go with Reflect.

Anyway... good luck mate!

 

Alright, thank you for clearing things up The only problem with a side by side comparison is the lack of free space (and the lack of money for new free space...), but I'm gonna test it if I can.

 

SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner is much better than TimeMachine.
Why?
Easy, you can actually BOOT from the clone, even via USB.

 

I have also had issues with Acronis it would crash during the clone phase.. I'll try out Ned's idea with reflect and let you know if it's successful.. It has been nagging me for a long time to clone my pcs because of the obscene amount of time spent on them.

 

Clonezilla

 

DON'T take his advice. Sometimes time machine won't fully back up projects or random smaller things in different places. I know because it's happened to me and there was nothing in the settings that has a "don't back up important little files that are crucial" button. I lost some dope project files because the .als for ableton wasn't backed. Use Carbon Copy for mac.

 

In other words you can use a Clonezilla Live stable release [Debian based] bootable USB/DVD/CD to backup whatever you need to backup regardless of the OS.

Also, I have bad experiences with programs, especially Windows ones, as opposed to live CD/USBs. It's easier for a program to make a backup while using an "external OS" than with the OS you work with usually.

 

Last edited: Mar 3, 2016

I don't use Mac but re:PC... no love for Symantec Ghost? A ghost boot CD, or better yet, I have it one my thumbdrive which boots to Yumi bootloader. I've used Ghost for a couple decades. Super quick, easy, no BS.

 

CCC all the way... Nothing better or more reliable plus it backs up the recovery partition too...

 

A quick question.

Can I run Clonezilla from a 16GB USB stick, and send the cloned HDD image to a 500GB external USB hard-drive?

 

Last edited: Mar 3, 2016

Of course! It would be a silly backup program if it couldn't do that.

I usually use it exactly like that, but I generally use eSATA, or USB 3.0 external HDDs if I can.

edit: Rufus is great for making bootable USB drives: https://rufus.akeo.ie/

 

Last edited: Mar 3, 2016

We have a winner

 

Is Clonezilla still the best choice for PC?

I've got a laptop with the ' hard disk failing.... back up now ' pop up after a recent clean reinstall win 7 home.

Partition Wizard?

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 14, 2018

Maybe you mean "What's the easiest and most reliable way to do it?" I think using a cheap USB stick [or CD] with backup software on it is, IMHO. You just plug it in, plug in an external HD or use the internal one, boot from the stick and run the backup software. Easy. That's also the best way to get rid of the viruses - by using an AV boot CD or USB stick. It's always best to use an "external OS" for special tasks like this.

Now there are other programs that work in that fashion, like Acronis True Image. It's also very reliable and easy to work with.

Cheers!

 

Try this >> https://www.paragon-software.com/free/br-free/#