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News and Reviews => Mini-Reviews by Members => Topic started by: IainB on November 23, 2013, 05:51 AM

Title: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: IainB on November 23, 2013, 05:51 AM
Originally posted:2013-11-23
Last updated2016-05-03

Basic Info
App Name
(2 apps used consecutively)		AOMEI Backupper FREE (used to clone a drive)
AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE (used to resize a partition)
Thumbs-Up Rating :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup: - that's just for the cloning and partition management; backup was not trialled/tested.
App URLhttp://www.backup-utility.com/download.html
On that page AOMEI Backupper has two alternative installation files:
One size: 60MB, supports both Windows 7/8/Vista/XP and Windows Server 2003/2008/2012 (link to CNET download)
The other size: 20MB, it only supports Windows 7/8 and Server 2008 R2/2012. (link to a "local" download)
App Version ReviewedAOMEI Backupper v1.6
AOMEI Partition Assistant SE v5.2
Note that much newer versions are now available, but these were the ones trialled at the time.
Test System SpecsMS Win7-64 Home Premium
Supported OSesPC Windows (various)
Support MethodsSupport website: http://www.backup-utility.com/support.html
Upgrade PolicyFree upgrades.
Trial Version Available?Not applicable - this is FREEware.
Pricing SchemeAOMEI Backupper + AOMEI Partition Assistant are FREEware.
See also: AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional Edition 5.5 free (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=36765.msg344283#msg344283)

Intro and Overview:
For a while now, my trusty HDS PRO - refer Hard Disk Sentinel PRO - Mini-Review (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=29796.0) - has been telling me about the failing health of my laptop's hard drive - a Seagate 2.5 inch 500GB SATA 7200RPM 16MB Cache Hard Drive Model: ST9500420AS.
The drive's performance status was 100%, but the calculated statistical relevance of several non-fatal error events meant that its health status - that had initially dropped from 100% to 69% and then been stable at that point for months - had started frequently edging downwards in progressive small increments to 55%.
The HDS report Overview at this point stated:
_____________________________
There are 21 bad sectors on the disk surface. The contents of these sectors were moved to the spare area.
Based on the number of remapping operations, the health of the disk was decreased in different steps.
There are 1 weak sectors found on the disk surface. They may be remapped anytime in the later use of the disk.
7408 errors occured during data transfer. This may indicate problem of the device or with data/power cables. It is recommended to examine and replace the cables if possible.
At this point, warranty replacement of the disk is not yet possible, only if the health drops further.
it is recommended to examine the log of the disk regularly. All new problems found will be logged there.
It is recommended to continuously monitor the hard disk status.
_____________________________

So yesterday (a Friday) I took the bull by the horns, figuring that I had better do something about it before it failed completely (though it was fully backed up), otherwise I'd probably have to commit a mountain of time to the recovery.

So I went online and ordered a hard drive I had been keeping my eyes on - a Western Digital Scorpio Black 750GB 16MB 7200rpm 2.5Inch SATA3 Hard Drive Model: WD7500BPKX. (The failing Seagate drive was a discontinued model.)
The supplier is in the same city as myself, so after some thought I sent them a follow-up email asking if they could send it by URGENT courier same day, rather than the normal 2 business days courier delivery.
I got a call from them telling me that it would cost NZ$30 to do that, so I agreed and paid via credit card. I figured it was worth it as it would give me a weekend to sort out any wrinkles. The package duly arrived about 2 hours later that afternoon.

I put the new drive in a USB3 portable hard drive carrier that I bought a while back (it's proved to be a very useful purchase). Then I ran a few tests/inspections on it using HDS - including its 3-built-in tests:

The latter 2 tests would have run for hours, but I stopped them after about 30mins. with no evidence of any problems. I took screenshots as I went. The old (failing) hard drive had failed its built-in Short and Extended Self-tests within a few minutes.
I then formatted the drive and repeated the inspections/tests. I took screenshots as I went, but there was no difference before/after the formatting. HDS said the new drive was in 100% performance status and 100% health status and all the SMART flags were good.
So I figured it was safe to go ahead and use the disk - it was AOK.

The next thing was - What to do? I had started to use the Win7 system image tool that gives you a once-only chance to write the image to 6 or so CD-ROMs, but it was so incredibly constipated, and I was running out of CD-ROMS (which I rarely use for anything), so I stopped it before writing to the first CD. It said it could resume from there. This was archaic.
So I did what I usually do - gathered some more information. I chanced across a new report that I had been given automatic access to in my Gdrive (Comparison- AwardSpace vs Freehostia- Best Free Hosting (http://docs.google.com/document/d/1qbvtILlpEKZibXc3o5yzNF7lNgVD-wc5v-VeeV4u8TE/edit)). It was from BearWare (http://bearware.info/), so I went to the website and right there I saw the recommendation for AOMEI Backupper. Now BearWare doesn't usually recommend anything unless it meets certain high standards, and his post of the thing mentioned images and clones, so I took a look at the AOMEI Backupper (http://www.backup-utility.com/download.html) website.

AOMEI Technologies is based in China - as it says here - AOMEI Company (http://www.backup-utility.com/company.html):
CHENGDU AOMEI® Tech Co., Ltd.
Address: 3F, SOHO Business Port, No.5 HongJiXin Rd, Chengdu, China
Postcode: 610000
- so that probably explains the awkward use of English. It took me a while to understand that the Cloning function is part of AOMEI Backupper.
On the download page (http://www.backup-utility.com/download.html), it distinguished between two alternative installation files for AOMEI Backupper:

I downloaded and installed the smaller file, then executed AOMEI Backupper. Click-click-click with the mouse - and in less than 20 seconds I had started cloning my failing Seagate drive to the new WD drive.
It was by then Saturday 2AM. I sat with it for a couple of hours, interested in seeing its progress reports, and making sure that the laptop would not go to sleep and set the screen to switch off after 2 minutes of no keyboard activity (so as to keep the temps down inside the laptop). I estimated that at the rate it was going it would take about 8 hours to complete, and so I went to bed. I was awoken at about 8AM by the HDS alarm gong telling me that the health of the Seagate drive had deteriorated another 1% to 54%, and I noticed that AOMEI Backupper was still busy making the clone with apparently no problem. By 10:05AM, AOMEI Backupper had completed the cloning process and shut the laptop down (as I had set it to do in the options).
So I swapped the old/new drives around. started up the laptop and ran the HP BIOS and system checks. Everything was perfect.
So I let it continue and boot into Windows. No problem.

After running some more tests and fossicking about and making notes, I started up AOMEI Backupper and took screenshots as I went (see following).

Examples - screenshots/clips:
Main GUI window: (going to each menu item)

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]



This is the picture of the cloning result - the cloned drive and the original (failing) drive:

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]


This is a screenshot of AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - after adding the unallocated storage to the C: partition and relabelling the partition:

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

Who this software is designed for:
Pretty much any PC user who wants a bombproof backup utility. From the website, the software provides:

Features include:

The Good:
My trial has made real, live use of 2 software applications:
Both applications:
I was/am very impressed with them.
See also: comparison of Drive Imaging backup tools (both free and commercial) - Raymond.cc compares 20 Drive Imaging Tools (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=37539.msg351483#msg351483) - AOMEI Backupper was very highly rated.

Needs Improvement:
No notes on this as at this stage. I have not found any drawbacks/limitations in either application so far.

Why I think you should use this product:
If you need good backup functionality, and particularly drive/disk cloning and subsequent partition management (as in my case, for example where I was in serious need of both), then these 2 applications could well be ideal for you.

How it compares to similar products:
I have no experience of using fully integrated backup software like this, so cannot make any useful comment.
AOMEI Backupper and AOMEI Partition Assistant were used consecutively, and did a fine job.

Conclusions:
I was very impressed by the ease and simplicity with which AOMEI Backupper created the clone and AOMEI Partition Assistant assigned the unassigned drive space to the cloned C: drive.
It arguably couldn't have been easier/simpler.
If the rest of the AOMEI Backupper functionality is as good, then I may drop my FreeFileSync backup program in favour of this one.
These applications seem to be so good, I reckon they could be described as "bombproof".
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper (Free), used to clone a hard drive - Mini-Review
Post by: 4wd on November 23, 2013, 06:04 AM
So I went online and ordered a hard drive I had been keeping my eyes on - a Western Digital Black 2.5 inch 500GB SATA 7200RPM 16MB Cache Hard Drive Model: WD5000BPKX. (The failing Seagate drive was a discontinued model.)
-IainB (November 23, 2013, 05:51 AM)

Analysis of the last image would seem to indicate that the new HDD is 750GB ... unless Backupper has impressive compression techniques also.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper (Free), used to clone a hard drive - Mini-Review
Post by: IainB on November 23, 2013, 07:35 AM
@4wd: Thanks for spotting that. Yes, I had cut-and-pasted the wrong details in. Corrected it now.
The new drive is: Western Digital Scorpio Black 750GB 16MB 7200rpm 2.5Inch SATA3 Hard Drive Model: WD7500BPKX.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper (Free), used to clone a hard drive - Mini-Review
Post by: IainB on November 25, 2013, 04:52 AM
2013-11-25 2351hrs: Updated to include AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE details.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper (Free), used to clone a hard drive - Mini-Review
Post by: tomos on November 25, 2013, 08:05 AM
It's always really great to know when something *actually* works :up: :up:

I'm wondering - it took about 8 hours to clone everything with a USB3 connection (I think?) - is that not very slow? Although I guess it does have to create the partitions etc.  :-\

I suppose if your drive was failing quicker, maybe creating a system image would be better, in case the drive died.


EDIT//
I see they have two versions:
Download AOMEI Backupper Full Version 1.6
Platform: Windows 7, 8, Vista, XP and Windows Server 2003, 2008, 2012
Size: 60MB

Download AOMEI Backupper for Win7 1.6
Platform: Windows 7, 8 and Server 2008 R2, 2012
Size: 20MB

which one did you use (with apologies if in review - I did look over it again quickly but couldnt see any ref).
Thanks! and thanks for the review!
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper (Free), used to clone a hard drive - Mini-Review
Post by: IainB on November 25, 2013, 04:40 PM
@tomos:
Yes, everything seemed to work perfectly. Very nice when that happens!

I was using a USB3.0 device, but via a USB2 connection. It would probably been a lot quicker with a USB3 connection.
As it was, the clone took about 8hrs, and the allocation of the unallocated space to the cloned C: drive took 1 to 2 hrs. (not sure, as I didn't time it).

Sorry, the download files are referred to, but rather buried in the Intro and Overview:
On the download page (http://www.backup-utility.com/download.html), it says:
The software has two installation files:
One size: 60MB, supports both Windows 7/8/Vista/XP and Windows Server 2003/2008/2012, you can download according to your OS. (link to CNET download)
The other size: 20MB, it only supports Windows 7/8 and Server 2008 R2/2012. (link to a "loal" download)
I downloaded and installed the smaller file, then executed AOMEI Backupper. Click-click-click with the mouse - and in less than 20 seconds I had started cloning my failing Seagate drive to the new WD drive.
-IainB (November 23, 2013, 05:51 AM)

I only needed the smaller file as that was relevant to my OS.
I found the website a bit confusing on this and some other subject, but I put that down to the website's use of English rather than anything else.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper (Free), used to clone a hard drive - Mini-Review
Post by: 4wd on November 25, 2013, 04:50 PM
@IainB: You don't mention whether or not the cloning process required that it be done with OS offline, (like many of them do due to locked files), ie. it rebooted the system and then started the cloning.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: IainB on November 25, 2013, 05:30 PM
@4wd: I had never needed to use a cloning tool before, and did not know what to expect, though I did wonder what it was going to do with locked files.
It just started the clone from when I launched the program, no rebooting or anything. At the end of the exercise, it said it was "copying the system files" (OWTTE) and I assumed that included any locked files or system files that might have been used/changed during the cloning process.
Like I said:
...I downloaded and installed the smaller file, then executed AOMEI Backupper. Click-click-click with the mouse - and in less than 20 seconds I had started cloning my failing Seagate drive to the new WD drive.
_____________________________________
-IainB (November 23, 2013, 05:51 AM)
I was impressed, and subsequent testing of the clone (which I am using as my primary now) indicates nothing amiss so far.

Could you maybe suggest some areas where I could poke around to check up on the output? I'm not really sure where to look or what to look for otherwise. I did notice that the Windows Update History is blank, but I think that is because I deleted that prior to cloning to reduce space used on the drive (and to reduce backup/cloning time).
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: IainB on November 25, 2013, 05:34 PM
2013-11-26 1232hrs Updated the opening post (review) to clarify some of the content, in light of questions asked.
Sorry if it was a bit garbled, but I was pretty dog-tired when I wrote it, so probably prone to making mistakes at that time.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: tomos on November 26, 2013, 03:06 AM
Thanks Iain -
I'm trying to read slower these days, but in e.g. a review like this, there's a lot of info, so it's easy to miss something, I find ;-)
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: 4wd on November 26, 2013, 03:14 AM
Could you maybe suggest some areas where I could poke around to check up on the output?
-IainB (November 25, 2013, 05:30 PM)

The best check is, of course, a fully functioning system.  If it appears to be working OK and your installed programs, (especially things like AV and virtual devices, if you have any), work OK then I'd say it's working fine.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: IainB on November 26, 2013, 07:01 AM
Could you maybe suggest some areas where I could poke around to check up on the output?
-IainB (November 25, 2013, 05:30 PM)
The best check is, of course, a fully functioning system.  If it appears to be working OK and your installed programs, (especially things like AV and virtual devices, if you have any), work OK then I'd say it's working fine.
-4wd (November 26, 2013, 03:14 AM)
Yes, it seems to have been an easy, painless process. The cloned system behaves just like it was the old one. No hiccups. I had been expecting much worse.
Things like MS Security Essentials and a virtual CD-ROM drive are operating just fine. So is everything else - so far!
That AOMEI software is quite impressive.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: beethoven on December 13, 2013, 10:48 PM
I am a bit confused as to what "cloning" means as opposed to creating an image and what the advantage would be?
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: IainB on December 13, 2013, 10:58 PM
Forgot to mention this: After I had started using the cloned drive, Windows 7 Firewall Control (now Windows 8 Firewall Control) from http://sphinx-soft.com/Vista/order.html kept telling me I needed to refresh the licence, so I guess the licence must be tied to the hard drive number, or partition size, or something, and the change(s) had been detected by the software.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: IainB on December 13, 2013, 11:11 PM
I am a bit confused as to what "cloning" means as opposed to creating an image and what the advantage would be?
-beethoven (December 13, 2013, 10:48 PM)
Yes, I found it confuzzling too.
It seems that an "image" is a picture of a drive as at a point in time - which image you can superimpose (clone) onto several hard drives if you want, at some future date. A clone is thus created when an image of a drive is taken and superimposed onto a different hard drive.
I didn't take an image, I just cloned the thing in real time, directly from the original drive.
The intermediate stage of creating several CDs holding the image, and then cloning that image to a new hard drive seemed a bit unnecessary for my purposes, but it would have been essential if (say) I had wanted to make 10 clones on 10 different PCs.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: IainB on March 19, 2014, 05:34 AM
2014-03-19 2330hrs: Updated opening post review to include links to DC Forum discussions:
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: Curt on July 17, 2014, 02:21 AM
[original posted deleted. wrong location (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=36765.msg359682#msg359682)!]
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: tomos on July 27, 2015, 04:18 PM
 :Thmbsup: Well, I successfully restored one system image via Aomei Backerupper free version (henceforth 'AB')

# AB offers to do a full disc backup (imaging). In my case there's three partitions.
=> Partitions can be individually restored.
? does anyone know -
if the partitions are destroyed - or changed, can Aomei still restore the complete drive?
Or would the partitions have to be recreated before it could restore?

If AB doesnt do that, is there any other software that will make a backup of the partition structure (not their contents) ?
EDIT// I will have also have a go with their Partition software
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: tomos on July 31, 2015, 04:26 PM
:Thmbsup: Well, I successfully restored one system image via Aomei Backerupper free version (henceforth 'AB')
-tomos (July 27, 2015, 04:18 PM)

did (another) restore - just of the OS partition - worked fine again :up:
Previous restore was from a 'System backup (http://www.backup-utility.com/features/system-backup.html)' image which includes any hidden boot mumbo-jumbo :p :)

Comparison chart:
http://www.backup-utility.com/edition-comparison.html

"Exclude Files from File Backup" is listed for all editions:
does anyone know if this is possible when creating an image? (I think it isn't possible to exclude files from an image, but hope I'm wrong)
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: Shades on August 01, 2015, 08:29 AM
When you create an image, the whole concept is to take everything.  If you don't want that, you are making a plain file backup.

Depending on the format used for the generated image file, there might be software that allows you to peek inside those files, allowing you to read and copy stuff from that image file.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: tomos on August 01, 2015, 09:03 AM
When you create an image, the whole concept is to take everything.  If you don't want that, you are making a plain file backup.
-Shades (August 01, 2015, 08:29 AM)

hiberfile.sys and the paging file are often excluded by default by this type of software when creating an image file


Depending on the format used for the generated image file, there might be software that allows you to peek inside those files, allowing you to read and copy stuff from that image file.
-Shades (August 01, 2015, 08:29 AM)
Yeah,
Aomei does allow to mount an image and copy files from that.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: Shades on August 01, 2015, 02:06 PM
Software the uses the Windows installation on the system to create images of itself do exclude those files, I agree.

Hard-core tools, software that does not use the installed Windows, doesn't care. This type of software is probably not for the faint of heart...but imho is usually less messy that the kind that uses Windows.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: tomos on August 01, 2015, 03:22 PM
Hard-core tools, software that does not use the installed Windows, doesn't care. This type of software is probably not for the faint of heart...but imho is usually less messy that the kind that uses Windows.
-Shades (August 01, 2015, 02:06 PM)

I'm sometimes faint of heart, but always curious ;-)
so just wondering, can you give an example there ?
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: Shades on August 02, 2015, 02:13 AM
HDclone, Clonezilla, PartImage, R-Drive Image to name a few. R-Drive Image supports both ways. Back in the day the software to got to (for this type job): Ghost (before Norton bought it).

Don't be fooled by the 'Clone'-part in the names of some applications. These also gave options to manage disk/partition images. HDclone is my personal favorite. The free version of this software is limited in functionality and slow. Very reliable, though. The commercial versions do not have these limits.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: tomos on August 02, 2015, 12:20 PM
^thanks Shades.

More Aomei experiences:
I wanted to delete a partition; incorporate the freed-up space into 'C'; then divide 'C' into three partitions:
[C | Data | Partition-with-space-for-one-backup-image]

Aomei Partition Assistant:
# I created a boot usb-flash-drive (it's Win PE)
# on a laptop with three partitions (one a miniscule one with some Dell tools), I:

At this stage I rebooted: everything was fine so I created a new 'System image' using Aomei Backerupper
I then booted again with Aomei Partition and:

This one worked fine too :up:
So all in all a very successful experience with both tools :-*
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: tomos on April 22, 2016, 07:48 AM
When you create an image, the whole concept is to take everything.  If you don't want that, you are making a plain file backup.
-Shades (August 01, 2015, 08:29 AM)

hiberfile.sys and the paging file are often excluded by default by this type of software when creating an image file
-tomos (August 01, 2015, 09:03 AM)

I contacted Aomei re this. English wasn't so good, but IIUC:
Aomei Backupper does *not* copy the paging file, but does copy everything else.
There are no options (in any version) to exclude files when creating an image.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: dr_andus on May 02, 2016, 01:44 PM
Would any of you know whether the incremental backup in AOMEI works with the System Backup or only with Disk Backup?
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: IainB on May 02, 2016, 05:23 PM
@dr_andus: Not sure I understand the Q or what you are requiring to do. For example, what's the difference between your definitions of the System backup and the Disk backup?
If the system files are on the same disk as all your data, then presumably they can be backed up incrementally, if you specify that for the relevant system folders when running backups. Not sure what the value would be in that though.
Of course, reverting to an earlier restore point would enable you to restore the system to the state it was in at an earlier date/time.
OTOH, making a new disk image copy (clone) would create a recoverable full disk and system image as at that date/time, but, AFAIK the disk image copy/clone can't be incrementally updated - i.e., it's frozen as a snapshot as at a particular date/time.
Not sure whether this helps.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: dr_andus on May 02, 2016, 05:41 PM
@dr_andus: Not sure I understand the Q or what you are requiring to do. For example, what's the difference between your definitions of the System backup and the Disk backup?
-IainB (May 02, 2016, 05:23 PM)

I was referring two the two backup options in the AOMEI interface, as they call them:

http://www.backup-utility.com/features/images/system-backup/system-backup.gif

If the system files are on the same disk as all your data, then presumably they can be backed up incrementally, if you specify that for the relevant system folders when running backups. Not sure what the value would be in that though
-IainB (May 02, 2016, 05:23 PM)

I was reading up on it in their help file,

Free Incremental Backup and Differential Backup Software (http://www.backup-utility.com/features/incremental-differential-backup.html)

and apparently with the Incremental Backup you can save time and disk space, as it builds upon the previous backup.

What wasn't clear to me whether this only refers to the Disk Backup feature or also to the System Backup feature.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: dr_andus on May 02, 2016, 05:47 PM
P.S. I just noticed on the Help page they do say

Note: Also you can create a full backup of disks or system partitions by selecting "Disk/System Backup" here.

so maybe that means the answer is 'yes'?

Has anyone tried this, by any chance? I don't have much experience with this class of software, so I just want to make sure I'm not messing anything up.

It took over 7 hrs today to back up my system and then verify the backup, so I'd rather not do a full system backup every time if I don't have to.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: IainB on May 02, 2016, 07:29 PM
@dr_andus: Oh well done! That's what I would have done - gone and looked at the Help documentation ... but usually as a last/later resort...    :-[

I'm sorry I can't be much help as I don't know much about how AOMEI does its backups, as I have not actually tried that out. I use FreeFileSync for an incremental/differential backup. I don't back up system files though - that's including the C:\Windows and C:\Program Files (2 dirs.)  ("generic" proggies).
However, I do back up:

Backup strategy:
Before conducting backups, one needs to have a clear idea about what one needs to back up, and why, and what would be the most appropriate method for one's peculiar needs.
Where you say:
...It took over 7 hrs today to back up my system and then verify the backup, so I'd rather not do a full system backup every time if I don't have to.
________________________
- it would seem that you might not have a clear strategy.
In the old days, I never really had a backup strategy either, and used to back up (originally) to floppy disks as a matter of course. It was very tedious and I didn't do it often enough.
Then my backup strategy was learned by accident from a successful and speedy recovery from a fatal failure of a laptop some years ago, when I was working overseas on an urgent project. I learned the advantage of portability of programs and data.
It was the laptop keyboard processor that had failed, rendering the device unusable. The latest data that I was working on was intact on the hard drive, but not yet on any backup.
So, within a day I had got a new PC, and, after an IT support guy had helpfully suggested it, the old hard drive became a PHD (Portable Hard Drive) - I bought a PHD enclosure, which was relatively new technology at the time. This was used as my new, key backup/recovery feature.
I now consider a PC as just a temporary resting-place for my nomadic computing requirements and periodically update my backups to a portable hard drive reserved for the purpose, I also rely on some Cloud backup, but have that backed-up also. I am thus usually able to recover all my data stores from backups, one way or another. (Paranoia rules.)

Things tend to change, and now that Windows 10 offers some more useful backup functionality - especially the apparently really useful backup and restore functionality of File History - I shall trial it, and maybe, after I have trialled it, it could well end up becoming my new de facto backup/recovery tool to a PHD...
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: dr_andus on May 03, 2016, 03:25 AM
Thanks for your suggestions, IainB.

In the end it took a lot more, something like 10 hours to create a system image, as the verification afterwards took as long as the creation of the image.

I have a 1TB drive, but with everything together I only have around 250GB data on it to back up (including systems files). This is why I was surprised that it took so long to create it. And while AOMEI was doing it, it was saying it was going through to whole of 913GB, which is the size of the entire C:\ drive.

The resulting image file was 427GB. Again, if all my data is c. 250GB, what's the extra stuff?

As for whether AOMEI can do incremental backup of the system, I have now checked (now that the process has finished) and the answer seems to be yes:

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

I still wonder though if system incremental backup is safe or good practice.

But clearly, I would prefer to go with an incremental backup next time, as my external hard drive is 1TB, so another full backup might not even fit. And even on a 2TB not all that many full backups would fit.

As for my strategy? It is to do a system backup, as I'm about to install some new drivers on my laptop, and I want to be able to roll back if anything goes wrong.

Maybe what I could have done differently is to keep my application data on a separate physical drive within the laptop or on a partition, so that the C:\ drive only contains the Windows 7 Pro installation.

I think the reason I haven't done that is that in the past I came across some of my older software that was awkward to use when the files it worked with were on another drive. But maybe I'll have to reconsider that.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: dr_andus on May 03, 2016, 03:58 AM
Maybe I should have also mentioned that the external USB 2.0 Toshiba hard drive I'm using I bought in July 2009, so it's not exactly the latest tech (and for most of its life it sat on a shelf, unplugged)... It might account for some of the slowness.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: Shades on May 03, 2016, 07:35 AM
If the device is from 2009, chances are that your USB hard disk is of the USB 2.0 kind. Although theoretical speeds of USB 2.0 are higher, in practice you are happy if such a device can sustain a read/write throughput of 20MByte/sec. If the rest of your computer is from around the same period, chances are that your internal hard disk(s) is/are connected to SATA 2 port(s). 4 to 5 years ago the successor of SATA2 came out, which doubled the speed of SATA2. Around that same time USB 3.0 also came out.

A SATA3 internal hard disk in combination with an USB 3.0 device connected on a USB 3.0 port will cut the time it takes to create your backup significantly.

Personally, I think it is better to think of those portable/external USB hard disks as a convenient way to create a backup. Not fast or professional, but very convenient. And if you start the backup just before you go to sleep, after a night's rest the backup is done, so no harm no foul.

For the bulky size of the full backup: Does it contain Windows restore points? Windows has a knack of not adding certain parts of its bulk, to keep the total byte count a lot lower than the actual amount of bytes stored on the hard disk (for example: the folder 'System Volume Information' on each and every partition of your hard disk collects a lot of 'cruft' over time). A tool such AOMEI doing a full backup won't skip such folders.

Incremental backups have the big advantage of being small almost all the time. And as a result, those won't take up much of your time. The disadvantage is that restoring data from such backups can take a long time...and if you have used unreliable media somewhere in the 'chain' of backups, restoring data can become a major headache very quickly.

While the option 'verify' makes you think that your data is backed up safely, if you don't actually test your backups (both incremental and full) the only thing you did was losing time by writing a pile of verified useless garbage. Don't find out you are (royally) screwed the moment a failure occurred and you need to restore your backup. Test your backups when your computer is in working condition first, because you can easily create a new backup if the previous one fails to restore.

Decide for yourself what would be an acceptable period of losing data. As your priorities are likely very different from mine, I wouldn't presume to know how long such a period can be for you. Besides, each different type of data can have a different period. But that is for you to examine and decide.

Anyway, during that period you could make incremental backups and do a full backup once you hit the full extent of such a period. Creating backups using this guideline will be more than adequate for home/small business use.

But whatever backup schema you'll end up using, always test your backups!
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: dr_andus on May 03, 2016, 08:37 AM
Shades - thanks very much for the detailed answers!  :Thmbsup:

If the device is from 2009, chances are that your USB hard disk is of the USB 2.0 kind. Although theoretical speeds of USB 2.0 are higher, in practice you are happy if such a device can sustain a read/write throughput of 20MByte/sec. If the rest of your computer is from around the same period, chances are that your internal hard disk(s) is/are connected to SATA 2 port(s). 4 to 5 years ago the successor of SATA2 came out, which doubled the speed of SATA2. Around that same time USB 3.0 also came out.

A SATA3 internal hard disk in combination with an USB 3.0 device connected on a USB 3.0 port will cut the time it takes to create your backup significantly.
-Shades (May 03, 2016, 07:35 AM)

OK, maybe it's time to get me a new USB 3.0 external hard drive then. It's a relatively new laptop (says "SCSI Disk Device), it does come with a USB 3.0 outlet as well.

For the bulky size of the full backup: Does it contain Windows restore points? Windows has a knack of not adding certain parts of its bulk, to keep the total byte count a lot lower than the actual amount of bytes stored on the hard disk (for example: the folder 'System Volume Information' on each and every partition of your hard disk collects a lot of 'cruft' over time). A tool such AOMEI doing a full backup won't skip such folders.
-Shades (May 03, 2016, 07:35 AM)

I see. For some reason Windows Restore thing was off (I can't remember why I turned it off, maybe someone recommended me to do that), and I was reminded by HP Support Assistant just a few days ago to turn it back on, which I did.

Incremental backups have the big advantage of being small almost all the time. And as a result, those won't take up much of your time. The disadvantage is that restoring data from such backups can take a long time...and if you have used unreliable media somewhere in the 'chain' of backups, restoring data can become a major headache very quickly.
-Shades (May 03, 2016, 07:35 AM)

I see. So maybe I'm better off getting a new USB 3.0 external hard drive with larger capacity (2 or 3TB?), and then have some full backups occasionally as well.

While the option 'verify' makes you think that your data is backed up safely, if you don't actually test your backups (both incremental and full) the only thing you did was losing time by writing a pile of verified useless garbage. Don't find out you are (royally) screwed the moment a failure occurred and you need to restore your backup. Test your backups when your computer is in working condition first, because you can easily create a new backup if the previous one fails to restore.
-Shades (May 03, 2016, 07:35 AM)

Sorry, what do you mean by "actually testing"? How do do that without messing up the existing installation?
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: tomos on May 03, 2016, 01:23 PM
The resulting image file was 427GB. Again, if all my data is c. 250GB, what's the extra stuff?
-dr_andus (May 03, 2016, 03:25 AM)

can you check the C drive and see how full it is (not just data)?

I've used aomei successfully a couple of times now for restoring images.
I always do a new image, always the system backup option as it will catch any mini boot partitions as well.
I never do incremental, just delete older images (I usually try an keep at least two).

Could you figure out how long the backup should take -- using Shade's estimate of 20MB/s ?
Ten hours sounds like an awful long time (sounds far too long to me but I'm not going to do the maths now).
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: Curt on May 03, 2016, 04:51 PM
They have a sale the coming weekend; 7+8'th of May 2016

The offer prices are not yet revealed, but "up to 65% off for a bundle"
Scroll all down: http://www.backup-utility.com/landing/aomei-weekend-sales.html
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: tsaint on May 03, 2016, 05:07 PM
AOMEI Pro Backupper ... free for 8 more hours from "now" at http://sharewareonsale.com/s/aomei-backupper-pro-freebie-sale
Main pro advantage seems to be clone image ability
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: dr_andus on May 03, 2016, 06:03 PM
can you check the C drive and see how full it is (not just data)?
-tomos (May 03, 2016, 01:23 PM)

The C drive size is 913GB, currently used 189GB. There are also a few partitions:  1GB system, also an HP Recovery drive (D drive), size 15.3GB, used 13.6GB. And there is HP Tools (E drive), size 1.99GB, used 55.6MB.

The size of the disk is 931.51GB.

I've used aomei successfully a couple of times now for restoring images.
I always do a new image, always the system backup option as it will catch any mini boot partitions as well.
I never do incremental, just delete older images (I usually try an keep at least two).
-tomos (May 03, 2016, 01:23 PM)

Thanks for sharing that.

Could you figure out how long the backup should take -- using Shade's estimate of 20MB/s ?
Ten hours sounds like an awful long time (sounds far too long to me but I'm not going to do the maths now).
-tomos (May 03, 2016, 01:23 PM)

Yeah, I have backed it up once before, just when I bought it and my other data wasn't on it, using a newer external hard drive with USB 3.0, and I don't remember having any trouble with that. It's just that I wanted to make use of this old 1TB drive that was sitting idle. But maybe I should just get a brand new USB 3.0 drive for this purpose, if it makes such a big difference. 10 hrs is just a pain.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: dr_andus on May 03, 2016, 06:09 PM
Thanks for the heads-up.  :up:

AOMEI Pro Backupper ... free for 8 more hours from "now" at http://sharewareonsale.com/s/aomei-backupper-pro-freebie-sale
Main pro advantage seems to be clone image ability
-tsaint (May 03, 2016, 05:07 PM)

Well, I note that one of the Pro features is

Faster Speed for Backup & Restore

Could this be one of the reasons why my backup was so slow with the Free version?
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: IainB on May 03, 2016, 11:47 PM
@tsaint: Many thanks to you for this link:    :Thmbsup:
AOMEI Pro Backupper ... free for 8 more hours from "now" at http://sharewareonsale.com/s/aomei-backupper-pro-freebie-sale
Main pro advantage seems to be clone image ability
________________________
-tsaint (May 03, 2016, 05:07 PM)
I just now downloaded and installed it. I noticed that it sets up a bunch of Services on installation. Could be an overhead...
I managed to get the AOMEI Partition Assistant PRO for FREE a couple of years ago.
I had been waiting for the AOMEI Backupper PRO to come up for free, but never saw it.
I've made a note of that website.

@Curt: And thanks to you for this link:    :Thmbsup:
They have a sale the coming weekend; 7+8'th of May 2016
The offer prices are not yet revealed, but "up to 65% off for a bundle"
Scroll all down: http://www.backup-utility.com/landing/aomei-weekend-sales.html
________________________
-Curt (May 03, 2016, 04:51 PM)
I've made a note of that website also.

By the way, where these special offer websites insist on your giving a Facebook "Like", or a Google+ "Like", or your email address or some such - refer Firefox Extensions: MaskMe anonymous email aliases (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=1685.msg398461#msg398461)
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: tomos on May 04, 2016, 03:57 AM
@dr_andus,
I'm still a bit confused -- you say C drive has 189GB, but you also mention 250GB.
Even if you backed up the whole drive, I dont see why you should get an image of over 400GB - unless I missed something big, things aren't adding up there.

Check the settings in aomei:
select your type of backup, and bottom left in tab is 'backup options'.
There is a setting called 'Intelligent sector' -- that should be ticked. Check compression as well. I dont see how either of those would cause a 400+ backup, but still worth checking.

If the backup is much bigger than what's on the disc, I'd either contact aomei, or try a different image programme.

PS possibly not much help at this stage, but this is why I put in a separate partition for data -- so as creating an system-image is relatively small and quick.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: dr_andus on May 04, 2016, 04:49 AM
I'm still a bit confused -- you say C drive has 189GB, but you also mention 250GB.
Even if you backed up the whole drive, I dont see why you should get an image of over 400GB - unless I missed something big, things aren't adding up there.
-tomos (May 04, 2016, 03:57 AM)

Sorry, I wasn't very clear. The 250GB was my estimate, before I was able to look (as backup was in progress). When I add up the Windows (C:), System, HP_Recovery (D:) and HP_Tools (E:) partitions (which all reside on a 931.51GB sized disk), all used space comes to 208.16GB. Windows (C:) on its own is 189GB.

I guess I'm not entirely clear what gets backed up when I choose the System Backup option. Does it make an image of the entire disk (with all the above partitions), or only of the Windows (C:) partition?

I'll check your other suggestions a bit later, as my machine is busy with other things just now. Thanks.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: tomos on May 04, 2016, 04:56 AM
^the 'System backup' would be 'C' partition plus any hidden partition that is required for booting (in windows 7 at least, there's often a hidden 100MB partition with boot files).

'Disk backup' would be the complete drive (all partitions).
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: dr_andus on May 04, 2016, 05:16 AM
I see... So what are the use cases for System vs. Disk backup? Wouldn't I be always better off doing a complete Disk backup then, to make sure I don't ever lose anything?
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: tomos on May 04, 2016, 07:38 AM
I see... So what are the use cases for System vs. Disk backup? Wouldn't I be always better off doing a complete Disk backup then, to make sure I don't ever lose anything?
-dr_andus (May 04, 2016, 05:16 AM)

me, I create an image to backup the OS. If something software related is going to go wrong, it's probably going to be with the OS. I guess copying *everything* could cover you if you ever want to replace the harddrive -- but I have no idea how good aomei backupper is at that. It's unlikely that those other partitions are going to have problems, but that's why we do backup, isn't it :-) (I'm talking round in circles here...)

Your more immediate problems are size of backup and time:
you could try a system backup and see if it's any quicker/smaller. If not, as said already, I'd be looking at the (free) competition (macrium?).
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: tomos on June 20, 2017, 08:48 AM
Aomei Partition Assistant Pro is free today on BDJ (next 17 hours, you may have to install today) - or you can purchase two Pro lifetime licenses @ 60% off (for ~$20)
http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/aomei-partition-assistant-pro-edition/in=todays-deals-home

My experience using it was positive:
More Aomei experiences [Aomei Partition Manager]:
I wanted to delete a partition; incorporate the freed-up space into 'C'; then divide 'C' into three partitions:
[C | Data | Partition-with-space-for-one-backup-image]

Aomei Partition Assistant:
# I created a boot usb-flash-drive (it's Win PE)
# on a laptop with three partitions (one a miniscule one with some Dell tools), I:
  • deleted the 12GB 'Recovery' partition
  • I then had to *move* (and resize) the 'C partition so as it would take over the now unallocated space (this was slow: I had to use an 'up' arrow to increase the size of 'C')

At this stage I rebooted: everything was fine so I created a new 'System image' using Aomei Backerupper
I then booted again with Aomei Partition and:
  • split 'C' into two partitions
  • then split the newly made partition into two partitions

[..] worked fine :up:
-tomos (August 02, 2015, 12:20 PM)
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: IainB on June 20, 2017, 10:36 AM
@tomos: Thanks. By the way, where you wrote:
I guess copying *everything* could cover you if you ever want to replace the harddrive -- but I have no idea how good aomei backupper is at that.
__________________
-tomos (May 04, 2016, 07:38 AM)

AOMEI Backupper seems to work very well. Made light work of my disk clone/backup - as described in the OP, "...a bombproof backup utility" - and this was in a situation where the failing hard drive was in a dynamically and progressively deteriorating state, even actually moving down 1% to 54% "health" status during the cloning process. It was so impressively good and trouble-free at what it does that I was inspired to write the mini-review in the OP. Disk cloning was "new territory" for me as I had never been in this position with a failing drive before, nor needed to make a disk clone before and was thus unfamiliar with the necessary process. AOMEI Backupper saved me from a potential major headache with that failing drive.
Of course, I should not omit to mention the huge  value in having HDS (Hard Disk Sentinel), which was what had first alerted me to the problem of the disk's deteriorating state and was monitoring and reporting on its declining health.
Refer: Hard Disk Sentinel PRO - Mini-Review (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=29796.msg276908#msg276908)
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: tomos on June 02, 2018, 03:00 AM
Another Aomei Partition Assistant experience:

I wanted to split the C partition (the only other visible partition was a Lenovo recovery one).

I chose to do this *without* creating an Aomei bootable usb-stick.
Was fairly simple, you click 'Split' and get to choose size of new partition. It suggests that you allow Aomei to 'check' that non-split partition, which I did. Was fine. (Note I had also defragmented the drive beforehand.)

I'm afraid I didnt keep a proper record of the whole thing, so this from memory: On clicking 'Apply', Aomei created a PE environment (virtual?), then rebooted Windows. This took some time, but not excessive. On rebooting, the new partition was not visible in Explorer, but was visible in Disk Management -- I formatted it there -- it was then visible in Explorer.

This could probably all be done simply using Disk Management, but I think one would have to shrink the volume first and then create the new volume.
How to Manage Partitions on Windows Without Downloading Any Other Software (https://www.howtogeek.com/101862/how-to-manage-partitions-on-windows-without-downloading-any-other-software/) (howtogeek.com)
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: tomos on June 19, 2018, 06:50 AM
Aomei Backerupper on BDJ today:
Pro for free
Lifetime Pro for ~22US$
http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/aomei-backupper-professional/in=todays-deals-home

Note #1 there is no info available about what exactly the lifetime offer involves (one commenter claiming it's not lifetime -- but I think it's just that the fineprint only covers the free offer).

Note #2 appears Firefox and Chrome and some anti-virus are labeling it (presumably the free offer) as malware/virus. Possibly because of something like opencandy in the installer?

Comparision of Standard etc. versus Pro:
https://www.aomeitech.com/ab/comparison.html
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: IainB on June 19, 2018, 01:05 PM
@tomos: Thanks for the heads-up re BDJ for Aomei Backupper. I shall d/load it.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: IainB on June 19, 2018, 01:31 PM
... Things tend to change, and now that Windows 10 offers some more useful backup functionality - especially the apparently really useful backup and restore functionality of File History - I shall trial it, and maybe, after I have trialled it, it could well end up becoming my new de facto backup/recovery tool to a PHD. ...
-IainB (May 02, 2016, 07:29 PM)
I recently finally got around to trialling the Win10 File History utility.
Verdict:  :down:   :down:   :down:   :down:   :down:
I'll not be using it any more.
Reason: It apparently can't handle long path/file names. In the Event Viewer the File History logs show repeated instances of this (following) kind of error:
File was not backed up due to its full path exceeding MAX_PATH limit or containing unsupported characters:

C:\Users\[UserID]\OneDrive\C-Drive\Workdata.004\LIBRARY\Private\Some directory ID\Another directory ID\Application for registration as a something with a very long filename that goes on and on and on - Form-XXKF-06-2015 [BLANK].pdf

If you want it to be protected, try using different directory and file names.

I would have been blissfully unaware of this crippling limitation in the File History utility had I not gone to look in the relevant logs in Event Viewer.

The creation of the same long filenames/paths can be supported in Win10, and Windows Explorer and xplorer² and Everything can find/operate on these filenames.
Why on earth Microsoft released File History in such a state as to be unable to support long paths like the rest of the system would seem to be a mystery.
Sheesh.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: IainB on June 19, 2018, 11:11 PM
Once the Free AOMEI Backupper Pro v4.1 was downloaded, I couldn't figure out - HOW THE HECK DO YOU REGISTER using the key sent separately via email?
Others had asked this Q in the discussion thread at BDJ, but there seemed to be no answer as yet.

At the time of installation of this latest version, my installation does not ask for a key or anything. It just works.
The installer removed an earlier Pro version that I had and asked if I would like to keep the key, or something, so I said "Yes".
I wonder - is that how it "registered" - i.e., automatically using the old key?
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: tomos on June 20, 2018, 04:20 PM
Once the Free AOMEI Backupper Pro v4.1 was downloaded, I couldn't figure out - HOW THE HECK DO YOU REGISTER using the key sent separately via email?
Others had asked this Q in the discussion thread at BDJ, but there seemed to be no answer as yet.

At the time of installation of this latest version, my installation does not ask for a key or anything. It just works.
The installer removed an earlier Pro version that I had and asked if I would like to keep the key, or something, so I said "Yes".
I wonder - is that how it "registered" - i.e., automatically using the old key?
-IainB (June 19, 2018, 11:11 PM)
the offer continues today.
I got the free/Pro version -- but downloaded the software (trial version) directly from their site, and added the key to that successfully.
It sounds like yours is registered, but hard to know...
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: IainB on June 20, 2018, 09:02 PM
...It sounds like yours is registered, but hard to know...
-tomos (June 20, 2018, 04:20 PM)
Yes, I was fairly sure that was likely to be the case.

Interestingly, in the BDJ discussion thread @Pequi Smith said:
The license is tied to the Machine ID. So if you upgrade from 4.0.6 to 4.1.0 and elect to keep the registration(it will ask), it will upgrade to a registered version of 4.1.0. Which is what happened to you (and me).
If you clone the partition to another HD, the registration will be invalid since it uses the HD serial number (and other stuff) for the registration algorithm.

Copied from: AOMEI Backupper Pro - Backup and Restore Software - 100% off PC - <http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/aomei-backupper-professional#comments138248>

I was aware that the registration was probably attached to the Machine ID but not that it was attached to the HDD ID also. That could be a good reason for NOT using AOMEI Backupper Pro.
For example, in this Mini-Review, I originally used AOMEI Backupper FREE to clone a failing HDD on my laptop to a new HDD. I then replaced the failing HDD with the new (cloned) HDD, and the laptop worked perfectly - including AOMEI Backupper FREE, which I used to test it all out after the switchover.

However, if the registration was attached to the HDD ID also, then I would presumably not have been able to have done this using only AOMEI Backupper Pro throughout, because the registration would have been rejected due to the new/changed/unrecognised HDD ID.

If this is the case, then it could probably serve as a good example of the sorts of knots that software vendors can unintentionally tie themselves and the user up in when they try to create a rock-solid and loophole-free registration key/process. This sort of thing could tend to be frustrating and detract from the perceived utility/value of the software to the customer - and there is evidence of that frustration in the discussion thread. There is also significant frustration shown regarding the apparent inconsistency of virus reports from downloading the installer software from the same and/or different sources. These points/problems do not seem to have been adequately addressed by the vendors in the discussion thread, so I would suspect that the BDJ result for this software giveaway might be somewhat less than its potential might have been, and that frustration could have created negative consumer confidence in AOMEI products.

Despite this, I think that my live trial of the software in this Mini-Review demonstrates that AOMEI Backupper FREE is a brilliant tool. That would probably go for AOMEI Backupper Pro as well.
Title: Re: AOMEI Backupper FREE + AOMEI Partition Assistant FREE - Mini-Review
Post by: tomos on June 21, 2018, 01:34 AM
I was aware that the registration was probably attached to the Machine ID but not that it was attached to the HDD ID also. That could be a good reason for NOT using AOMEI Backupper Pro.
-IainB (June 20, 2018, 09:02 PM)
I'm presuming this is only the case for the free version :-\ unfortunately Aomei hasn't clarified this (unless they did since my last post).
EDIT//
I see Aomei did comment (only once but on the topic of lifetime licenses) and didn't clarify, so i guess one would have to work on the presumption that tied-to-machine is also true for the paid version.
Tied-to-HDD seems extreme :-/ I wonder where they got that info.