We took a gander at their free, aptly-named partition management software when we explored how to Dual-Boot Windows 7 Alongside Windows Vista or Windows XP but it appears as though the software makers EASEUS have another trick up their sleeve: ToDo Backup. While somewhat prone to errors depending on your configuration, ToDo provides a simple way to create a complete image of your system from which you can recover… should your operating system go to pot for any reason.
Basically, you launch the software and create your image – either to an external hard drive or to another partition. (Hey, guess what you can use to create a new partition.) Then, use the software to create bootable rescue media (CD/DVD, flash drive, etc.) so that you have something to boot into should your OS crap out on you. Then you just sit back and wait for your system to fail. When the day comes that you can’t boot into Windows, just use that bootable media you created to boot into the ToDo recovery console and “restore” your computer to a previous point in time (retaining all of your software installations and their respective settings) using the image you created in that first step. Voila.
Like I said, I encountered an error or two but nothing major. However, there are a few different critical errors that reviewers on Download.com have pointed out. It’s free though so it’s definitely worth a shot. If you’d prefer a hassle-free experience, you could always shell out a few bucks ($50, actually) for Acronis TrueImage Home.
(By the way, I *highly* recommend Acronis Backup & Recovery – especially with the Universal Restore add-on. As an IT pro, it’s come in handy more times than I can even fathom. My only complaint is with their product licensing. It’s expensive for enterprise users and volume licensing isn’t nearly as easy as it is with Microsoft. For 30 different users, I was given 30 different product keys… and 30 more for the Universal Restore add-on. That’s a lot of keys to manage. There’s a better way to manage that, Acronis.)
[via FreewareGenius]
We have found Acronis Server Image (v10) has been crashing SBS 08. We have at least 3 of 4 seperate installations that have crashed on us. Anyone else had this problem??