Bayou

Acronis is a very robust and complex piece of software. Overkill for most home users.

SyncBack is excellent, but the SE version is the one to get. ($40 lifetime license) SE offers historical versions of your backed up files, while the free version does not. Historical versioning is needed for protection from "ransomware".

Whole disk imaging is pretty useless.

srt101fan

Can you please explain why you consider "whole disk imaging" useless?

NCMtnMan Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC

Not if you use it correctly. It can save you from having to completely install the operating system, applications and data which can take hours and often days to ever get back up and running. During my 30 plus years in IT I have recovered both workstation and servers in a very short period of time using image backups. I run an image backup of my main system every two weeks. And, a cloud backup of my data files everyday, and my cloud service also backus up the data to a local drive as well. Should I have a hard drive failure, infection, corruption I can be backup and running in a couple of hours without having to reload applications, setting etc. Even if your image file is a couple of months old it is still faster than having to reinstall everything from scratch.

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

I have W10 but use the “still available within the operating system” W7 backup image along with SyncToy to back up three computers. The imaging backup takes a while to run.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

SyncBack is excellent. You setup the folders you want backed up and save them in a Group. I have five folders that I backup regularly. I backup to two external drives and also to a NAS.

Bayou

I was actually trolling a bit when I wrote what I did about whole drive imaging. I figured it would illicit a response or two from fellow IT pros.

Yes, drive imaging can be used to quickly recover recover a system that has failed catastrophically, but along with that quick recovery comes lost opportunity. In an enterprise environment yes, we must move quickly, and the computer systems we deal with usually have a narrow purpose when compared to the typical home user. The work machine is less likely, because of its focused usage and professional maintenance, to be a mess, burdened with countless small issues. Over the years the home user has likely installed, and uninstalled, numerous trial programs, including driver updaters, "performance enhancers", whacky utilities, redundant security apps, etc. The business user does not do these things to the work computer.

The opportunity to rebuild from scratch usually breathes renewed life into a machine that has gradually grown
less functional. Copy that drive image to a new drive instead of rebuilding, and you copy years of dysfunction...a missed opportunity to improve performance.

JBeck Loc: Orangeville Ontario

I use Acronis 14 ..never failed me..

NCMtnMan Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC

While I will not disagree with you concerning the condition of many systems including a lot of small business ones that get about as much abuse as many home ones, the original post was about different software to perform image backups. While a fresh start is something we both find helpful at times, I would imagine that most of the folks posting here are more concerned about getting their "computer world" back than going through the time and effort involved to perform the clean install.

Bayou

I appreciate your well made point. BTW I used to be a NCMtnMan myself! Transylvania county.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

After trying Acronis, Easeus and Macrium, I found Macrium to be by far the best for cloning/imaging.

Dikdik Loc: Winnipeg, Canada

There's also a program called 'FreeFileSync' that I've been using for years.

In-lightened Loc: Kansas City

Is the home version for computer and image backup adequate?

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I use the free version just for cloning/imaging of an entire partition, not regular backups, so not sure if the free version has regular file backup functionality

dmagett Loc: Albuquerque NM/Sedona AZ

I have been using Acronis "forever". I currently have 2010 and 2018 on different PC's and they work perfectly.
I do not use all of their "features" . I only do full backups of my system as necessary. I create a bootable CD to use for restore (in case system crashes). I must say that I am a believer in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Therefore I don't always update to the "latest" if what I have works fine for me.

srt101fan

Thanks for clarifying.