to do backup ?

Hi All,

Have any of you guys used ToDo Backup? What did you
think of it?

http://www.todo-backup.com/products/...p-software.htm

-T

On 01/30/2014 11:52 AM, Todd wrote:
Hi All,

Have any of you guys used ToDo Backup? What did you
think of it?

http://www.todo-backup.com/products/...p-software.htm

-T


I have been watching their videos:
http://www.todo-backup.com/document-download.htm

Every recovery option starts with "First launch
the program". AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!

I want to know how to do it when the main hard drive
is crashed. Do I have to first reinstall Windows,
then run their program??????

Can you recover using a Win PE disk?

Frustrated.

-T

On 1/30/14 1:04 PM, Todd wrote:
On 01/30/2014 11:52 AM, Todd wrote:
Hi All,

Have any of you guys used ToDo Backup? What did you
think of it?

http://www.todo-backup.com/products/...p-software.htm

-T


I have been watching their videos:
http://www.todo-backup.com/document-download.htm

Every recovery option starts with "First launch
the program". AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!!

I want to know how to do it when the main hard drive
is crashed. Do I have to first reinstall Windows,
then run their program??????

Can you recover using a Win PE disk?

Frustrated.

-T

I believe you boot from a CD to do the recovery. Used it a long time
ago, just played with it, no opinions.


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 24.0
Thunderbird 24.0

Todd wrote:

Hi All,

Have any of you guys used ToDo Backup? What did you
think of it?

http://www.todo-backup.com/products/...p-software.htm

Odd coincidence, just finished a restore an hour ago! It works
perfectly, I have no complaints other than the UI could maybe be a bit
more intuitive?


--
XS11E, Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project:
http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/

On Thu, 30 Jan 2014 11:52:09 -0800, Todd wrote:

Hi All,

Have any of you guys used ToDo Backup? What did you
think of it?

http://www.todo-backup.com/products/...p-software.htm

Never heard of it. I always use Macrium Reflect Free.

http://www.macrium.com/pages/downloads.aspx

--
s|b

On Thu, 30 Jan 2014 15:04:27 -0800, Todd wrote:

On 01/30/2014 12:58 PM, s|b wrote:
On Thu, 30 Jan 2014 11:52:09 -0800, Todd wrote:

Hi All,

Have any of you guys used ToDo Backup? What did you
think of it?

http://www.todo-backup.com/products/...p-software.htm

Never heard of it. I always use Macrium Reflect Free.

http://www.macrium.com/pages/downloads.aspx



i am only finding a 30 day trial


Try he http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

--

Char Jackson

Todd wrote:

Have any of you guys used ToDo Backup? What did you
think of it?

http://www.todo-backup.com/products/...p-software.htm

I have used Easeus ToDo freeware version. It was lacking in something
so I bought the Workstation version. At this point, it's been too long
to remember all of why I had to go to the payware Workstation version
but do remember that snapshots weren't available in the free version of
cheaper Home version. After finding out about all the problems
encountered by users with creating snapshots and they could fail due to
disk fragmenting (something lots of users schedule or configure the
defragger to perform in the background) and other causes that could
render the snapshot corrupted, it was lucky that I didn't rely on it and
only played with it for awhile. That was about 2 years ago, or more, so
maybe they've made improvements in where they store the snapshots, how
they hide them in the file system, and handle defrags. Making and
restoring from snapshots where a hell of a lot faster than saving and
restoring image backups. There just seem to be too many gotchas with
Easeus' method of snapshotting. Read their forums about it.

When I had a problem with an old version of Acronis TrueImage not
working well on an x64 version of Windows, I moved to ToDo (and then
ToDo Workstation) which had no problems saving images or restoring them.
Their free version also only does full and incremental backups. The
longer the chain of incremental backups (incrementals are based on the
last full backup or the next incremental which means incrementals are
chained to incrementals) the more unreliable was a restore. If one
incremental was defective then the whole chain of incrementals from that
point, and later, were unusable. Differentials are always based on the
last full backup. The maximum differential chain length is 2: 1 full
and 1 differential. If you did a monthly full followed by incrementals
for the rest of the month, you'd have 1 full + ~30 incrementals for
chain length. That's why most users only do a weekly full with daily
incrementals so the max chain length is 1 full + 6 incrementals;
however, that means having to do full backups more often and those
occupy the most space. If you don't schedule backups to run
periodically, like daily, and assume that you will only create a backup
before you do some major change then you are guaranteed to lose files
because there will be changes to your system that won't be caught with
such a coarse granularity in backup scheduling.

You can see a comparison of the different versions of ToDo at:

http://www.easeus.com/backup-software/

Back when I was using ToDo Backup, I had to jump to the Workstation
version to get the snapshot feature and, I think, also to get
differential backups. That was several years ago. Then Acronis fixed
their product and I went back to TrueImage. Easeus provides no means of
hiding or securing the backup location. TrueImage does with its hidden
partition. You can emulate a hidden partition (so most malware won't
find your backups) by using devcon, the command-line version of Device
Management, to disable the hard drive where you store the backups. You
would tell ToDo to run commands before the backup (enable the drive), do
the backup, and run commands after the backup (disable the drive). That
still meant there was a window of opportunity to see the backup
partition on the hard drive during the backup but it was better than
leaving it exposed all the time. Some folks will use externally
attached (USB) hard drives on which to store their backups and then
power off the USB drive when the backup completes. That means you have
to forego scheduled backups which devolves you to performing manually
instigated backups which means very coarse granularity of backups, plus
you have to be at your computer to power up the USB drive, manually
start a backup, and to power off the USB drive.

For a WinPE bootable disc, it was much easier to do in TrueImage than
Todo. Acronis did the download of the WAIK (Windows Automation
Installation Kit), did its config, and used it in the background to
create the WinPE disc. Todo makes you separately go do a manual
download of WAIK, let you figure out how much of it you want to install,
and walks you through but it is still a lot more manual process. While
both let you create a rescue disc, that uses some Linux variant so often
they cannot see external or network drives. You need WinPE for that
(and include any needed drivers when creating the WinPE image).

Last I heard, there is no portable version of Easeus ToDo Backup. You
have to use their rescue disc (Linux) or WinPE disc (Windows) if the OS
won't boot which means you cannot run their program inside that OS to
restore it.

If you're using partitions greater than 2GB in size, you won't have GPT
support in the free version of ToDo needed for those large partitions.
The free version doesn't include WinPE support so you're stuck using
their Linux-based rescue disk. Maybe it might see your network drives,
maybe not. Depends if the Linux distro they use has the drivers for
your NIC card or onboard chip but that only gives you network access and
perhaps not the file sharing protocol supported by the hosts with the
networked drives. If instead of the free version you go with Home or
Workstation versions of ToDo, the WAIK download is 1.7GB in size and
consumes even more on the hard disk when installed. If you need to add
drivers to the WinPE ISO image, take a read at the following forum
threads to see how much a pain it is to accomplish:

http://forum.easeus.com/viewtopic.ph...p=51971#p51971
http://forum.easeus.com/viewtopic.php?t=22410

Alas, their forum corrupted the .zip file several months after uploading
it (it was usable for a couple weeks after upload) and I don't have my
doc file anymore since I figured it was available online at their site.
Basically you need to use some software to break out the .iso file,
modify the files to add drivers, and rebuild the ISO image that then
gets used by ToDo, Macrium, and other backup programs when they use
their wizard to build the WinPE boot disc. I don't know if Easeus has
made the procedure any easier and less error-prone in the last ~2 years.
That they way they support WinPE for a boot disc doesn't mean it's an
easy task or fully automated by them, especially when you cannot use the
..iso file included in the WAIK package and have to modify it to add
drivers.

s|b wrote:

On Thu, 30 Jan 2014 11:52:09 -0800, Todd wrote:

Hi All,

Have any of you guys used ToDo Backup? What did you
think of it?

http://www.todo-backup.com/products/...p-software.htm

Never heard of it. I always use Macrium Reflect Free.

http://www.macrium.com/pages/downloads.aspx

Macrium Reflect Free only does full backups. No incremental or
differential backups.

Easeus ToDo Backup Free will do full and incremental backups.

VanguardLH V nguard.LH wrote:

s|b wrote:
Todd wrote:

Have any of you guys used ToDo Backup? What did you think of
it?

http://www.todo-backup.com/products/...kup-software.h
tm

Never heard of it. I always use Macrium Reflect Free.

http://www.macrium.com/pages/downloads.aspx

Macrium Reflect Free only does full backups. No incremental or
differential backups.

Easeus ToDo Backup Free will do full and incremental backups.

Will it restore? I've used their paid-for products with little joy.

The only reason to do other than a full backup is to save time.
You still have to copy out important files when the system is
wrecked and you are ready to do a restore, since those files will
have changed since the last backup of whatever sort.

Macrium Reflect is just excellent at what it does. Been using it
for years and hasn't let me down yet. Jillions of 10 GB restores
to conventional and SSD drives. And it's easy to use, especially
now that I have it on a USB drive.

Macrium Reflect backups are read-only browsable, making them very
useful. And of course it compresses the backups. Macrium Reflect
excels at the basics.

Todd Todd invalid.invalid wrote:

John Doe wrote:

Macrium Reflect is just excellent at what it does. Been using
it for years and hasn't let me down yet. Jillions of 10 GB
restores to conventional and SSD drives. And it's easy to use,
especially now that I have it on a USB drive.

Macrium Reflect backups are read-only browsable, making them
very useful. And of course it compresses the backups. Macrium
Reflect excels at the basics.

Thank you!

Fishface recommended it. The best use I can imagine is for making
incremental backups of a Windows installation (nowadays that
process never ends here). I've been making backups of my
Windows/programs C drive since Windows 95-98. And Macrium Reflect
has been flawless for that task (reports of contrary experiences
are invited).

I use a small and fast SSD for the operating system (with
programs) drive to be copied. A large conventional drive for the
backups, data, and everything else (whatever "everything else"
might be). No more messing with partitions.

On 1/30/2014, XS11E posted:
Todd wrote:

Hi All,

Have any of you guys used ToDo Backup? What did you
think of it?

http://www.todo-backup.com/products/...p-software.htm

Odd coincidence, just finished a restore an hour ago! It works
perfectly, I have no complaints other than the UI could maybe be a
bit more intuitive?

Comes with the territory. I actually think ToDo is a bit more intuitive
than Macrium.

Example: if you try to back up without enough room available, ToDo
won't let you proceed. Macrium goes ahead and then bails at about 98%
when it runs out of room. I really once *did* get to 98% :-)

I still use Macrium, though, although I'm currently annoyed at them. I
just this afternoon ran a backup script that was supposed to be
incremental and it did a new full backup.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On 1/30/2014, Gene E. Bloch posted:
On 1/30/2014, XS11E posted:
Todd wrote:

Hi All,

Have any of you guys used ToDo Backup? What did you
think of it?

http://www.todo-backup.com/products/...p-software.htm

Odd coincidence, just finished a restore an hour ago! It works
perfectly, I have no complaints other than the UI could maybe be a
bit more intuitive?

Comes with the territory. I actually think ToDo is a bit more
intuitive than Macrium.

Example: if you try to back up without enough room available, ToDo
won't let you proceed. Macrium goes ahead and then bails at about 98%
when it runs out of room. I really once *did* get to 98% :-)

I still use Macrium, though, although I'm currently annoyed at them.
I just this afternoon ran a backup script that was supposed to be
incremental and it did a new full backup.

I remembered something, I think.

Once while running a Macrium backup I accidently hit an abort or stop
button. The program stopped instantly without so much as a
by-your-leave.

It's possible that I got annoyed :-)

Caveats:

1. I *think* it was Macrium.

2. I never tried it while running a ToDo backup, so I can't compare.

I'm running a Macrium clone BU as we speak: I haven't given up on it
yet.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

Gene E. Bloch wrote:
On 1/30/2014, XS11E posted:
Todd wrote:

Hi All,

Have any of you guys used ToDo Backup? What did you
think of it?

http://www.todo-backup.com/products/...p-software.htm

Odd coincidence, just finished a restore an hour ago! It works
perfectly, I have no complaints other than the UI could maybe be a
bit more intuitive?

Comes with the territory. I actually think ToDo is a bit more intuitive
than Macrium.

Example: if you try to back up without enough room available, ToDo won't
let you proceed. Macrium goes ahead and then bails at about 98% when it
runs out of room. I really once *did* get to 98% :-)

I still use Macrium, though, although I'm currently annoyed at them. I
just this afternoon ran a backup script that was supposed to be
incremental and it did a new full backup.


(98%) Macrium does this, because it uses a compressor.
Try turning off compression before starting the
run, then see if it notices or not. Since compression
works to a variable extent based on content, Macrium
can't really tell whether its lightweight compressor
will fit the stuff.

It should have a fairly good idea, how many sectors will be
backed up. It works that out, precisely, at the beginning
of the run (when it makes the file systems quiescent with
VSS, and parses the sectors needing to be copied for the
"intelligent sector" copy). If compression (the default) is present,
it doesn't know how much space will be saved.

I never run Macrium with compression enabled. If I want
to compress an archive later, I do it with a separate
compression program. To compress all my current backups
(made with Macrium and otherwise), took around *2.5 weeks*
of continuous computing :-) Saves a bit more space that way.

Does ToDo do compression ? If not, that's probably a good
thing. While I applaud Macrium for putting in the lightweight
compressor, it does have that exposure, of detecting
that sufficient space is present. And estimating that
compression would save nothing, that probably wouldn't
go over very big with the user community ("I had space
left, and my backup would not run!") :-) You can't win really.

Paul

On Thu, 30 Jan 2014 22:36:42 -0500, Paul wrote:



Does ToDo do compression ? If not, that's probably a good
thing.

Paul,

ToDo does 4 levels of compression - None, Normal, Medium, High.

The default is Normal; I don't know what numbers can be equated to the
above 4 levels but I did set my compression to None as the default.
On my own PCs, I use the Workstation version of ToDo backup. When
installing ToDo on friends and neighbors PCs, I use the Free version.

The Free version will build a Linux rescue disk, whilst the
Workstation version also offers WinPE, which is what I use for myself.

On 1/30/2014, Paul posted:
Gene E. Bloch wrote:
On 1/30/2014, XS11E posted:
Todd wrote:

Hi All,

Have any of you guys used ToDo Backup? What did you
think of it?

http://www.todo-backup.com/products/...p-software.htm

Odd coincidence, just finished a restore an hour ago! It works
perfectly, I have no complaints other than the UI could maybe be a
bit more intuitive?

Comes with the territory. I actually think ToDo is a bit more
intuitive than Macrium.

Example: if you try to back up without enough room available, ToDo
won't let you proceed. Macrium goes ahead and then bails at about
98% when it runs out of room. I really once *did* get to 98% :-)

I still use Macrium, though, although I'm currently annoyed at
them. I just this afternoon ran a backup script that was supposed
to be incremental and it did a new full backup.


(98%) Macrium does this, because it uses a compressor.
Try turning off compression before starting the
run, then see if it notices or not. Since compression
works to a variable extent based on content, Macrium
can't really tell whether its lightweight compressor
will fit the stuff.

It should have a fairly good idea, how many sectors will be
backed up. It works that out, precisely, at the beginning
of the run (when it makes the file systems quiescent with
VSS, and parses the sectors needing to be copied for the
"intelligent sector" copy). If compression (the default) is present,
it doesn't know how much space will be saved.

I never run Macrium with compression enabled. If I want
to compress an archive later, I do it with a separate
compression program. To compress all my current backups
(made with Macrium and otherwise), took around *2.5 weeks*
of continuous computing :-) Saves a bit more space that way.

Does ToDo do compression ? If not, that's probably a good
thing. While I applaud Macrium for putting in the lightweight
compressor, it does have that exposure, of detecting
that sufficient space is present. And estimating that
compression would save nothing, that probably wouldn't
go over very big with the user community ("I had space
left, and my backup would not run!") :-) You can't win really.

Paul

When I ran ToDo I used its default, normal compression.

I don't see why Macrium can't make adequate estimates beforehand based
on its typical compression ratios. That sort of thing is what software
engineers are for.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)