[Micronet] EaseUS Backup Software

[Mike Friedman]

Does anyone here have any knowledge of the EaseUS backup software for Windows?  In particular, the Free version for non-commercial use?  I like the interface and it supports the few features I really care about for such software, but in my initial testing I'm experiencing a problem with it and I don't know if this is my fault or a deficiency in the software itself.  I'd be willing to upgrade to the commercial version, even though I don't need the extra features it supports, if I thought it would not exhibit the problems I'm currently having.

If you do have knowledge of this software and are willing to help, please contact me and I'll give you the specifics of my experiences thus far.

Until now (for the past year and a half or so), I've been using the Seagate Replica software, which I guess works sort of like the Mac's Time Machine (which I know very little about), doing continuous incremental backups.  But Replica has been buggy;  it hooks into Windows Explorer and has been causing crashes and severe system performance problems.  I've finally uninstalled it and now I have a well-working system again.  But I need a replacement for the backup facility.  I want at least the following features, which EaseUS has:

• Runs on Windows 7
• Backs up to an external hard drive
  
• Does full system backups
• Does file backups of all files (i.e., including hidden and system files)
  
• Will backup files even while I'm using the system
  
• Supports incremental or differential backups that I can schedule automatically at whatever frequency I want
• Supports creation of a bootable disk to allow system and full file recovery even if I can't boot from my C drive at all

If it turns out that there's a better alternative than EaseUS, I'd like to know about it, but EaseUS would suit my purposes just fine if it didn't have the kinds of problems I'm currently experiencing.

Thanks.

Mike

 
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[Jon Forrest-2]

On 3/23/2012 3:31 PM, Mike Friedman wrote:

> But I need a replacement for the backup
> facility.  I want at least the following features, which *EaseUS* has:
>
>   * Runs on Windows 7
>   * Backs up to an external hard drive
>   * Does full system backups
>   * Does file backups of /all/ files (/i.e., /including hidden and
>     system files)
>   * Will backup files even while I'm using the system
>   * Supports incremental or differential backups that I can schedule
>     automatically at whatever frequency I want
>   * Supports creation of a bootable disk to allow system and full file
>     recovery even if I can't boot from my C drive at all

The backup program that comes with Windows 7 does all these
except incremental or differential backups, which don't make
complete sense in an image backup.

By the way, I've found that using USB 3.0 makes a huge
improvement in how long it takes to do a system image
backup. This is no big surprise but the USB 3.0 external
drives are now cheap enough so there's not much cost
differential anymore.

Jon


 
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[Mike Friedman]

On 2012-03-23 15:58, Jon Forrest wrote:

On 3/23/2012 3:31 PM, Mike Friedman wrote:

But I need a replacement for the backup
facility.  I want at least the following features, which *EaseUS* has:

  * Runs on Windows 7
  * Backs up to an external hard drive
  * Does full system backups
  * Does file backups of /all/ files (/i.e., /including hidden and
    system files)
  * Will backup files even while I'm using the system
  * Supports incremental or differential backups that I can schedule
    automatically at whatever frequency I want
  * Supports creation of a bootable disk to allow system and full file
    recovery even if I can't boot from my C drive at all

The backup program that comes with Windows 7 does all these
except incremental or differential backups, which don't make
complete sense in an image backup.

Jon,

I looked at Windows backup, but my main interest is in full file backups (I'd like to be able to recover individual files and I want to back up my entire C file system).  I need to be able to do incremental or differential backups frequently, because a full backup takes many hours so I'd not be doing those very often.  (My C disk is 688GB and it's about half full now).

Mike




 
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[Jon Forrest-2]

On 3/23/2012 4:29 PM, Mike Friedman wrote:

> Jon,
>
> I looked at Windows backup, but my main interest is in full file backups
> (I'd like to be able to recover individual files and I want to back up
> my entire C file system).

That's the one bad thing about Windows image backup, you
can't restore individual items. What I do is an image backup,
and then I use Robocopy to copy just the files
I need. (I keep all such files under one directory).

> I need to be able to do incremental or
> differential backups frequently, because a full backup takes many hours
> so I'd not be doing those very often.  (My C disk is 688GB and it's
> about half full now).

That's a great argument for switching to USB 3.0. I bet
it will take much less time.

Jon

 
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[Guy D. VINSON]

I have been using a product called syncback (free) that seems to do the trick. I believe it has a paid version that will backup locked or open files as well. I back up to a second drive in my desktop and have not tried any other destination but it looks like it would work to external drives as well. Syncback (2BrightSparks)
---
Guy Vinson
Infrastructure & IT
College of Environmental Design
510-842-7199

On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 4:37 PM, Jon Forrest <[hidden email]> wrote:

On 3/23/2012 4:29 PM, Mike Friedman wrote:

> Jon,
>
> I looked at Windows backup, but my main interest is in full file backups
> (I'd like to be able to recover individual files and I want to back up
> my entire C file system).

That's the one bad thing about Windows image backup, you
can't restore individual items. What I do is an image backup,
and then I use Robocopy to copy just the files
I need. (I keep all such files under one directory).

> I need to be able to do incremental or
> differential backups frequently, because a full backup takes many hours
> so I'd not be doing those very often.  (My C disk is 688GB and it's
> about half full now).

That's a great argument for switching to USB 3.0. I bet
it will take much less time.

Jon


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[Mike Friedman]

On 2012-03-23 16:37, Jon Forrest wrote:

That's the one bad thing about Windows image backup, you can't restore individual items. What I do is an image backup, and then I use Robocopy to copy just the files I need. (I keep all such files under one directory).

The reason I want to have a full backup of my file system is that I don't want to have to know ahead of time which files I might ever need to restore.  In fact, some time ago, with a different backup system, I tried to be selective about which files/directories I backed up.  Then I discovered that, over time, I had created new directories on my system but hadn't reflected this in my backup configuration.  I don't want to have to worry about this.

I need to be able to do incremental or
differential backups frequently, because a full backup takes many hours
so I'd not be doing those very often.  (My C disk is 688GB and it's
about half full now).

That's a great argument for switching to USB 3.0. I bet
it will take much less time.

At some point I will move to USB 3.0 (though my current computer has only USB 2.0 ports).  But the elapsed time of the full backup is not my only problem.  Bruce Satow has offered to help me (he uses EasyUS), so I've given him the details of my symptoms.  It involves the size of the backup images and other things as well.

Mike


 
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[John D. MacDonald]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512

I've used SyncbackPro for years, and for some very heavy/complicated
migrations.  (Like moving 99% of Law School data from Windows file
servers to AFS)  I've yet to find anything it can't handle.  It even
knows/respects/warns about filesystem limitations (including AFS?!),
character support, directory size limits, etc.  Offers comparison of
files on any metadata you can imagine, scheduled syncing, and on and
on.  Extremely powerful tool.

John


On 3/23/2012 4:52 PM, guy vinson wrote:

> I have been using a product called syncback (free) that seems to do
> the trick. I believe it has a paid version that will backup locked
> or open files as well. I back up to a second drive in my desktop
> and have not tried any other destination but it looks like it would
> work to external drives as well. Syncback (2BrightSparks) --- Guy
> Vinson Infrastructure & IT College of Environmental Design
> 510-842-7199
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 4:37 PM, Jon Forrest
> <[hidden email] <mailto:[hidden email]>>
> wrote:
>
> On 3/23/2012 4:29 PM, Mike Friedman wrote:
>
>> Jon,
>>
>> I looked at Windows backup, but my main interest is in full file
> backups
>> (I'd like to be able to recover individual files and I want to
>> back up my entire C file system).
>
> That's the one bad thing about Windows image backup, you can't
> restore individual items. What I do is an image backup, and then I
> use Robocopy to copy just the files I need. (I keep all such files
> under one directory).
>
>> I need to be able to do incremental or differential backups
>> frequently, because a full backup takes many hours so I'd not be
>> doing those very often.  (My C disk is 688GB and it's about half
>> full now).
>
> That's a great argument for switching to USB 3.0. I bet it will
> take much less time.
>
> Jon
>
>
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- --
- -

===================================
 John D. MacDonald
 Information Systems Architect

 UC Berkeley School of Law - IS&T
 366 Boalt Hall
 510-642-7191
===================================









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