macrium reflect vs Paragon Backup 10

[Jeff]

I am not satisfied with W 7's backup utility and am looking for an
alternative.
I am considering purchasing either Macrium or Paragon. I know they both
have trial versions but I wonder what do most people prefer between
these 2 and why?
Thanks.

 

[Jeff]

I am not satisfied with W 7's backup utility and am looking for an
alternative.
I am considering purchasing either Macrium or Paragon. I know they both
have trial versions but I wonder what do most people prefer between
these 2 and why?
Thanks.

Just wanted to add that I was considering both the paid and free
versions, including Acronis True Image which I have used for years with XP.
Is it true that Macrium is faster than Acronis?

 

[Percival P. Cassidy]

Just wanted to add that I was considering both the paid and free
versions, including Acronis True Image which I have used for years with XP.
Is it true that Macrium is faster than Acronis?

I haven't used Acronis or Paragon, but I found the free version of
Macrium Reflect good enough that I was willing to buy the full version
for its extra features, and also because it's only with the paid version
that I can create a Windows PE rescue CD: I could create a Linux-based
rescue CD from the free version, but that couldn't see the external
drive I was using for backups.

Perce

 

[Ken Blake]

Just wanted to add that I was considering both the paid and free
versions, including Acronis True Image which I have used for years with XP.
Is it true that Macrium is faster than Acronis?

I don't know Macrium and I don't know which is faster, but I can tell
you that I like Acronis True Image a lot.

And since most of us can do a backup overnight while we are sleeping,
I think speed is hardly an important factor.

 

[Jeff]

I haven't used Acronis or Paragon, but I found the free version of
Macrium Reflect good enough that I was willing to buy the full version
for its extra features, and also because it's only with the paid version
that I can create a Windows PE rescue CD: I could create a Linux-based
rescue CD from the free version, but that couldn't see the external
drive I was using for backups.

Perce

Thanks Perce.

How long have you used Macrium?
Have you successfully restored with it?
Are you happy with the paid version?

I just did a trial of both the free versions of Macrium and Paragon.
They both seem to work fine.
I did a full backed of the same partition to an external USB drive with
both:
- Macrium took 43 minutes to finish, Paragon took 27 minutes.
- Paragon allowed me to add a comment to the backup. Macrium did not,
but maybe it does in the full version.
- Macrium's B/U was 37 GB, Paragon's was 36.4 GB

Jeff

 

[Jeff]

I don't know Macrium and I don't know which is faster, but I can tell
you that I like Acronis True Image a lot.

And since most of us can do a backup overnight while we are sleeping,
I think speed is hardly an important factor.

Thank you for replying.
I've used Acronis for years in my XP system and it has rescued me more
than once. I just heard that it had problems with W7 but maybe that has
now been fixed.

I now primarily use a laptop which is off at night. So backups at night
do not work for me unless I want to leave the laptop on all night,
something I do not do.

 

[Percival P. Cassidy]

How long have you used Macrium?
Have you successfully restored with it?
Are you happy with the paid version?

I just did a trial of both the free versions of Macrium and Paragon.
They both seem to work fine.
I did a full backed of the same partition to an external USB drive with
both:
- Macrium took 43 minutes to finish, Paragon took 27 minutes.
- Paragon allowed me to add a comment to the backup. Macrium did not,
but maybe it does in the full version.
- Macrium's B/U was 37 GB, Paragon's was 36.4 GB

I used Macrium free over a period of a few months on WinXP and for a
month or so on Win7. I've had the paid Macrium for only a week. I've
restored with both versions.

I haven't found a way of adding a comment to a Macrium backup, but I try
to give the image files meaningful names.

I found a 20%-off coupon for Macrium on line somewhere, but I can no
longer tell you where. Include "coupon" or "discount" in a search.

Perce

 

[SC Tom]

Thank you for replying.
I've used Acronis for years in my XP system and it has rescued me more
than once. I just heard that it had problems with W7 but maybe that has
now been fixed.

I now primarily use a laptop which is off at night. So backups at night do
not work for me unless I want to leave the laptop on all night, something
I do not do.

The latest version of ATI Home 2010 works fine with Win 7 and XP (I use it
for both); I picked up a copy for $23 from Amazon, and have been using it
for a while now. It allows for comments to be added to the backups, both
full and incremental.
Booting from the CD, I can create a 60GB image in about 45 minutes. It takes
less time than that to restore the same image (I just had to do that last
week).
I have not had any problems with it, but then I always create and restore
using the boot CD and not from within Windows. No particular reason; just my
personal preference.
I can't give you a comparison to Macrium or Paragon since I haven't used
either of them.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Thank you for replying.
I've used Acronis for years in my XP system and it has rescued me more
than once. I just heard that it had problems with W7 but maybe that has
now been fixed.

I now primarily use a laptop which is off at night. So backups at night
do not work for me unless I want to leave the laptop on all night,
something I do not do.

Could you not make an exception for backing up?

 

[Seth]

Could you not make an exception for backing up?

(to piggyback on the above comment) Does the software not have a setting to
shut the machine off when done? I know a lot of my software for encoding
video (a lengthy process) has an option to shut the machine down when done.

 

[SC Tom]

Thank you for replying.
I've used Acronis for years in my XP system and it has rescued me more
than once. I just heard that it had problems with W7 but maybe that has
now been fixed.

I now primarily use a laptop which is off at night. So backups at night do
not work for me unless I want to leave the laptop on all night, something
I do not do.

As an addition to my previous post, ATI has the option to turn off the PC
after backing up, so you could start the backup and go to bed, if you
wanted. I have not tried it, so I don't know how well it works. I will on my
next one and let you know.

 

[Char Jackson]

I now primarily use a laptop which is off at night. So backups at night
do not work for me unless I want to leave the laptop on all night,
something I do not do.

A lot of the current crop of backup software works equally well during
the day. ;-)

 

[Char Jackson]

I don't know Macrium and I don't know which is faster, but I can tell
you that I like Acronis True Image a lot.

And since most of us can do a backup overnight while we are sleeping,
I think speed is hardly an important factor.

Here's another vote for Acronis. I've been using it for years,
upgrading along the way as needed, and it has never let me down.

 

[SC Tom]

Thank you for replying.
I've used Acronis for years in my XP system and it has rescued me more
than once. I just heard that it had problems with W7 but maybe that has
now been fixed.

I now primarily use a laptop which is off at night. So backups at night do
not work for me unless I want to leave the laptop on all night, something
I do not do.

Just to let you know- I just backed up 51GB to an external USB drive in 25
minutes. Using 'Normal' compression, it takes up ~30GB on the external
drive. The notebook did shut itself off after a 15 second countdown.
That is one of the things I like about ATI- I can start a backup in the
morning, go make some coffee and breakfast, read the paper, and 3S the
bathroom, and the backup is finished. I lose nothing out of my day like
that, and I have the security of knowing I have a backup of my entire hard
drive.

 

[Jeff]

The latest version of ATI Home 2010 works fine with Win 7 and XP (I use
it for both); I picked up a copy for $23 from Amazon, and have been
using it for a while now. It allows for comments to be added to the
backups, both full and incremental.
Booting from the CD, I can create a 60GB image in about 45 minutes. It
takes less time than that to restore the same image (I just had to do
that last week).
I have not had any problems with it, but then I always create and
restore using the boot CD and not from within Windows. No particular
reason; just my personal preference.
I can't give you a comparison to Macrium or Paragon since I haven't used
either of them.

Thank you. That is very helpful.

 

[Jeff]

Could you not make an exception for backing up?

You mean you do not backup every night! (Just kidding).
Point well taken.

 

[Jeff]

Just to let you know- I just backed up 51GB to an external USB drive in
25 minutes. Using 'Normal' compression, it takes up ~30GB on the
external drive. The notebook did shut itself off after a 15 second
countdown.
That is one of the things I like about ATI- I can start a backup in the
morning, go make some coffee and breakfast, read the paper, and 3S the
bathroom, and the backup is finished. I lose nothing out of my day like
that, and I have the security of knowing I have a backup of my entire
hard drive.

Sounds great. I think I will go with ATI - as I have for years with my
old version 6 on XP.
Thanks.

 

[SC Tom]

Sounds great. I think I will go with ATI - as I have for years with my
old version 6 on XP.
Thanks.

You're welcome! I think you'll be pleased with it!

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

(to piggyback on the above comment) Does the software not have a setting to
shut the machine off when done? I know a lot of my software for encoding
video (a lengthy process) has an option to shut the machine down when done.

I think it does.

Also, you can schedule Macrium (paid version) to run a backup with settings
to wake the computer from sleep (*not* from off!) and to shut it down at
the end. On the nights when I wish to back up, I plug the drive in and
sleep the computer instead of powering down.

I had some trouble with that, and ended up having to modify the scripts or
XML files it generates (I did both). For example, I added a command to run
a Nirsoft utility to turn off the screen, since my computer is too close to
where I sleep

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

You mean you do not backup every night! (Just kidding).
Point well taken.

See my response to Jeff in this same subthread for an additional idea.

I also manage to imply in that post that I don't back up every night