Ramblings of an old Doc

 

EaseUS approached me to review their newest updated Todo Backup Workstation 4.5. I agreed to do so, because of my positive experience reviewing Todo EaseUS Partition Manager Pro 9.1. You can find that review here.

 

This software does everything you want it to do, through a simple user interface. Installation is a breeze, and what’s better is that there’s no reboot (as in prior editions). There’s a video that comes with it that explains various aspects of the program, as well as being able to choose installation location which is a nice option to have. You can watch the video at any time from within the program which is another nice point.

The screenshots below were in fact created from that video which presents a series of screen shots with a nice amount of time given to each.

There’s a good set of instructions in pdf form which can be downloaded here: http://www.todo-backup.com/support/documents.htm but, there’s a really good Help as part of the software as well.

For a full set of features, take a look here: http://www.todo-backup.com/business/workstation-backup/features.htm

Fundamentally, there are two kinds of backups: Image and Clone. They have different purposes. To backup all sorts of data, etc. you would choose clone with high compression (to fit on optical media) or lower compression (there are 4 choices) to external drives. You can make it backup with file a splitting option as well as putting on a password and determining the speed of the process as well as its priority of tasking in using the CPU. There is an incremental backup as well which after initial backup, stores all changes to files.

The second is “Snapshot”: This is probably best used as a “Restore Point”, before installing software, drivers and “MS Patch Tuesdays”. They are super fast. They can also be used as a “once a week” quickie. As EaseUS put it:

“Snapshot is an alternate solution to system backup. It needs less storage space and the restoration speed will be greatly increased. In addition, the disk which contains snapshot files will be protected.

Despite the superiority of snapshot in efficiency, for a long-term data protection backup is preferred, as it is more stable. It is a better choice because snapshot is only a “quick method” which might be unavailable after the system has been changed too much.” – EaseUS

Creating a new backup is very easy:

Also, with the backup, you can choose what to back up and in which order, name and rename them as well.

 

By the way, the ‘scheduling’ really works, a “Pause” and a “Resume” and you also get immediate results as to the success or failure of the backup.

As for recovery? You can choose anything from a file, a partition to the whole disk. There’s a safe, easy and fast migration of your system from a HDD to a SSD, to dissimilar hardware configuration for hardware replacement. You can explore, copy and restore files and folders directly from a backup image in Windows Explorer.

I’m sorry I can’t touch on all the features of this worthy software.

Advanced backup tools are provided as well:

  • Disk clone - create an exact image copy of disk (GPT disk included) and exactly migrate all files to another.
  • Partition/dynamic volume clone - create an exact image copy of partition or dynamic volume and exactly transfer all files to another.
  • Check image - check integrity of image file and make sure the backups can be restored successfully.
  • Mount/Unmount image - mount a disk and partition image to a virtual partition (working as ordinary, logical drives) to explore or copy files in it.

At this point, I really can’t tell you which is “better”, Acronis or EaseUS… because my thinking is that for very similar software, EaseUS is at times less expensive.

I say “at times” because there’s always some type of deal going on somewhere on both programs. It costs $39 (US), but the frequent deals make looking around a bit worthwhile.

Supports:

W2000/XP/Vista/7/8

Giveaway:

I’d like to thank EaseUS for donating 10 free licenses of EaseUS Todo Backup Workstation 4.5 software for WC members. I don’t have them in hand yet, so please be patient for a bit and I’ll make a separate post about that.

Source:

http://easeus.com/


Comments
on Aug 02, 2012

Great spot Doc! I use the free version and I like it. I find it easier to use than some other programs.

 

Fast too, for a disc image, but that's probably partly due to having and SSD installed.

 

Thanks for the info, Doc! 

on Aug 02, 2012

Does this see and backup unlettered partitions?  I used to use Roxio, but my current setup has an unlettered, hidden partition, remnants of my Vista install. ( I can't get rid of it, it contains boot info) To use Roxio I have to assign a letter to it, make the back up, then remove the letter. Too much work.

I'm using Acronis but it isn't a real gain in speed over Roxio I'd be willing to try EaseUS if it can see my hidden partition.

on Aug 02, 2012

 

Does this see and backup unlettered partitions?  I used to use Roxio, but my current setup has an unlettered, hidden partition, remnants of my Vista install. ( I can't get rid of it, it contains boot info) To use Roxio I have to assign a letter to it, make the back up, then remove the letter. Too much work. I'm using Acronis but it isn't a real gain in speed over Roxio I'd be willing to try EaseUS if it can see my hidden partition.

 

 

Yes it can you use sector by sector backup to copy unlettered or linux partitions the free version will do it

on Aug 02, 2012

on Aug 02, 2012

Wizard1956
Does this see and backup unlettered partitions?  I used to use Roxio, but my current setup has an unlettered, hidden partition, remnants of my Vista install. ( I can't get rid of it, it contains boot info) To use Roxio I have to assign a letter to it, make the back up, then remove the letter. Too much work.

I'm using Acronis but it isn't a real gain in speed over Roxio I'd be willing to try EaseUS if it can see my hidden partition.

The way I understand it Wiz: EaseUS uses VSS shadow copying (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Copy

This creates snap shots at the block level.... thus the partition should be copied (snapshot mode). As for cloning, if you choose to clone the entire disk, then whether there's a letter or not, the disk gets cloned. 

The only way to be sure would be to go to their Forum (http://forum.easeus.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=27237) - that one which deals with pre-sales questions.

Hey,"Dammit, Jim: I'm a Doctor, not a Wizard!". I should be ashamed......but I'm not.

on Aug 02, 2012

Too bad this version isn't a freebie. lol

on Aug 02, 2012

Uvah: Did you read my last paragraph?

Giveaway:


I’d like to thank EaseUS for donating 10 free licenses of EaseUS Todo Backup Workstation 4.5 software for WC members. I don’t have them in hand yet, so please be patient for a bit and I’ll make a separate post about that.

on Aug 02, 2012

Thanks for the info guys. I'll check it out.

on Aug 02, 2012

DrJBHL
Uvah: Did you read my last paragraph?


Giveaway:


I’d like to thank EaseUS for donating 10 free licenses of EaseUS Todo Backup Workstation 4.5 software for WC members. I don’t have them in hand yet, so please be patient for a bit and I’ll make a separate post about that.

Uhhhhh......

on Aug 02, 2012

Thanks for the review Doc, informative!

on Aug 02, 2012
You're very welcome, Lorenzo! Thanks for reading it.
on Aug 03, 2012

on Aug 04, 2012

Seems like a great tool!!

on Aug 06, 2012

The 10 licences are in hand!

1. The first 10  WC Members to pm me with the email address where they want their key sent will receive a key.

2. EaseUS will be sending that key within the next few days, so please pay attention to your "spam" folder as well as the email at your email address.

3. I will answer your pm as to whether you are among the 10.

on Aug 07, 2012

The 10 licenses have been claimed, so the "giveaway" offer is over.