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Windows backup solution needed...

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htismaqe

Very Senior Member
I have 5 Windows PC that I need backed up. I've been using AOMEI since it's free but I'm looking to spend a little money and get something a little more robust. AOMEI paid has most of the features I need but it's not particularly well-supported since it's from China. Here are my needs:
  1. I need a volume license for 5 PCs.
  2. I need the ability to do automatic file management and image concatenation. I normally do Full + Incremental or Differential. AOMEI paid version has the ability to merge and create a new full image after a certain number of incremental backups, cleaning up the number of backup files in the process.
  3. The ability to scheduled backups, preferably via a native service rather than Windows Task Scheduler.
  4. The ability to image an entire drive at once. I want to be able to image all partitions and restore them to a bare drive if necessary.
  5. The ability to easily create a restore USB or CD for bare drive restores.
Those are the things I can think of off the top of my head.
 
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I would look at Acronis True Image. I haven't looked at their business products in a while, but myself and some of my customers are very happy with the desktop version. It will do both disk imaging and file-based backups, has a very flexible backup management (keep the last "x" days, last "x" chains, or until reaching a total size limit). It also supports backup validation (and I think consolidation, tho I never really looked at that specific one).

Even when dealing with disk images, you can still browse an image to recover a single file or folder.
 
Acronis is at the top of my list right now. I like AOMEI but as I said, it's one of those pieces of software that looks more like shareware than a real professional solution. Acronis appears to be really polished.

Biggest con I can see for choosing Acronis over AOMEI :
I can only find one actually - Acronis is a one-time purchase. To get software updates, you have to purchase a yearly subscription. Given the pricing, it's basically like buying the software all over again every 12 months. The subscription also includes cloud backup which I do not need at all (I backup my NAS to offsite).

Biggest con I can see for choosing choosing AOMEI over Acronis:
Other than the aforementioned issues, AOMEI offers 4 and 6 PC licensing options. 4 isn't enough and 6 is $30 more than 5 PCs on Acronis.
 
For unattended end user backups I use Genie9 Timeline already for may years: The beauty of this solution is that you can install and forget it! No Administration, no nothing to do any more.

The end user can right click any time on the file or folder and get back any state in the past (similar as Apple's Time Machine). :rolleyes:

Of course it supports also bare metal restore in case of major failure via "Genie Timeline Disaster Recovery" - not the image thing you are asking for, but at the end you get the same result.

It might not be THE solution for all your needs, but you should have a look into it for "normal user" backups... :cool:
 
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I can only find one actually - Acronis is a one-time purchase. To get software updates, you have to purchase a yearly subscription. Given the pricing, it's basically like buying the software all over again every 12 months.

When you buy a version (for instance Acronis TI 2016), you get all the updates to the 2016 version for free - you just don't get the new 2017 version when it comes out. Version upgrades are typically a bit over 50% the price of a full license (and they often offer special discounts that will bring that to below half the price of a full license), and is totally optional. You can stick to the same version, generally new versions were mostly to support new Windows releases, and to improve on their cloud-based backup (which I don't use).

So you can pay just one time and stick to that license for the life of the PC, or pay what amounts to be a full license every 24 months by upgrading yearly. You can also skip upgrades that aren't worth it, bring the cost down even more, upgrading only if there is any real reason to do so.
 
It might not be THE solution for all your needs, but you should have a look into it for "normal user" backups...

I used Genie Backup (its predecessor) for quite a while with my customers (and still do with our own internal server). Its main limitation IMHO is the lack of disk imaging capability. It also occasionally had trouble cleaning up its catalog files, filling up gigabytes of disk space with old catalogs. Otherwise, it was running pretty well.

For our customers, we usually had them buy an Acronis True Image Server license for bare metal disaster recovery (we only update the image every few months), and the Genie Backup (now we use Backup Assist instead) for the up-to-date data restore.
 
If Genie doesn't do disk imaging the way I need, I can't use it.
 
Another vote for Acronis...

Do you have any experience with AOMEI, though? I actually like it and it does pretty much everything I need except automated file management. It gets great reviews with it usually ending up #2 behind Acronis in about every category. I like the idea of lifetime upgrades for a one-time purchase, plus I can get a 6 PC license for the price of a 5 PC license of Acronis.
 
Do you have any experience with AOMEI, though?

Unfortunately, no...

I was exposed to Acronis for imaging some computers for a family member that had passed away, and the SW there worked flawlessly...

I've got a license running on my primary windows machine to back it up, and it's worked well enough not to change.

Looked at AOMEI - looks like it will do the job, just as well as Acronis - so it would come down to pricing.
 
I would look at Acronis True Image. I haven't looked at their business products in a while, but myself and some of my customers are very happy with the desktop version. It will do both disk imaging and file-based backups, has a very flexible backup management (keep the last "x" days, last "x" chains, or until reaching a total size limit). It also supports backup validation (and I think consolidation, tho I never really looked at that specific one).

Even when dealing with disk images, you can still browse an image to recover a single file or folder.

RMerlin what are your thoughts on Macrium Reflect product? I found it to be much more reliable for backups to network shares and it is virtually bug free unlike Acronis.
 
And the pricing is what has me vexed. AOMEI just seems to be a better deal. $4 difference and 1 more PC plus lifetime upgrades.
 
RMerlin what are your thoughts on Macrium Reflect product? I found it to be much more reliable for backups to network shares and it is virtually bug free unlike Acronis.

I briefly tested it a few years ago. I don't remember my exact conclusion, but I remember it didn't offer me anything worth changing from Acronis TI to it.
 
I briefly tested it a few years ago. I don't remember my exact conclusion, but I remember it didn't offer me anything worth changing from Acronis TI to it.

I see. It was quite the opposite for me. I grew tired of the slowness and common crashes I had back when I was using Acronis 2012 and discovered Macrium as its alternative. The difference was night and day and I never went back. Perhaps Acronis has improved over these years...may need to try them again.
 
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