R-Drive Image review: Our favorite backup gets even better

At a look

Professional’s Score

Execs

• Tremendous-reliable, quick, disk and partition imaging with replication
• File and folder backup with differential copies
• Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive help
• Lean-and-mean Linux and WinPE boot media

Cons

• Minor interface quirks
• No help for S3-compatible on-line storage

Our Verdict

Quick and dependable, model 7.2 of R-Drive Picture provides on-line storage help and the flexibility to duplicate photographs throughout a number of locations to an already huge array of options. Our really helpful backup and catastrophe restoration resolution.

Greatest Costs Immediately: R-Drive Picture 7

Face it, nobody actually must pay for backup lately, but I like to recommend that you just plop down the $45 that may get you R-Drive Picture. Why? As a result of it’s the one Home windows backup resolution that I’ve ever tried that hasn’t let me down in a technique or one other.

Actually, I exploit R-Drive Picture for backing up my backups. Moreover, if there’s failing media concerned, R-Drive is certainly what I attain for. For those who’re already accustomed to R-Drive Picture and solely need particulars about model 7.2’s new options, skip all the way down to the “What’s new….” part.

Additional studying: See our roundup of the perfect backup software program to study competing merchandise.

What are R-Drive Picture’s options?

R-Drive Picture’s bread and butter is creating drive and partition photographs — i.e. copies of the whole lot contained on a disk or considered one of its subdivisions, together with boot data. It creates full (all knowledge), incremental (all knowledge modified for the reason that final picture), or differential (all knowledge modified for the reason that unique full picture) varieties.

The ensuing photographs will be in R-Drive Picture’s personal format in addition to the extra widespread Microsoft VHD/VHDX codecs. Pricier variations help VMDK.

This system may also confirm stated photographs, restore them complete, copy disk-to-disk (cloning), and mount its proprietary photographs as digital disks which you can browse and recuperate particular person recordsdata and folders utilizing Home windows Explorer. Observe that Home windows itself can mount VHD/VHDX codecs, however R-Drive will mount these as effectively.

Most customers solely have to picture a complete drive or partition from time to time for catastrophe restoration. Therefore, R-Drive Picture may also create the identical sort of picture container from chosen teams of recordsdata or folders.

You possibly can’t use file and folder photographs for catastrophe restoration as they don’t comprise all of the partition and boot info, however they do enable for quick backup of your important knowledge, decreasing storage necessities and backup instances drastically. Observe that any process will be saved and reused.

So far as drive file codecs, R-Drive Picture understands Microsoft’s FAT (16/32), NTFS, and exFAT; Apple’s HFS/HFS+, and APFS; in addition to the Little and Massive Endian variants of UFS1/UFS2 and Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 FS (Linux), and ReFS.

Different file techniques are supported on a byte-by-byte (all sectors are backed up — containing knowledge or not) foundation with no preview or file-level entry from throughout the program, solely wholesale restore. R-Drive Picture additionally helps {hardware} RAID (as single volumes) and software program RAID: Home windows, Apple, and Linux mdadm.

For catastrophe restoration, R-Drive Picture creates WindowsPE (Home windows 10 Pre-install Atmosphere) and/or Linux-based boot discs. The previous enables you to boot on some techniques with Safe Boot enabled within the BIOS.

Each the Home windows-style GUI and the old-school DOS-like (see the picture beneath) interfaces can be found from the Linux boot disc, nonetheless the WinPE model provides solely the trendy GUI.

Jon L. Jacobi

Jon L. Jacobi

Jon L. Jacobi

It can save you your photographs to native drives, community places, in addition to on-line (new) and to simply about any media. This system even burns CDs and DVDs (for boot and backup) by itself. Don’t giggle — optical media remains to be in widespread use for company archiving.

Associated options embody e-mail notifications on job completion; working applications primarily based on the success or failure of the method; the flexibility to bypass file or disk errors and proceed the job (nice for recovering knowledge); utilizing Home windows or its personal proprietary shadow service (flushing and locking knowledge); in addition to process throttling (diminished CPU utilization).

Scheduling is supported, and I like that it leverages the prevailing Home windows process scheduler. Too many distributors add their very own for no good cause. It’s additionally good reassurance that there’s no ongoing telemetry (communications between this system and the corporate) in play. To not be paranoid (who me?), however that’s one thing you may wish to take into account when offering low-level entry to your knowledge.

R-Drive Picture additionally includes a partition supervisor so you may delete, safe wipe, create, and re-size partitions with out leaving the R-Drive Picture interface. As talked about, it’s out there solely from the graphic interfaces (Home windows native and Linux/WinPE boot disks).

There’s an choice to convert partition layouts from MBR (Grasp Boot Report) to GPT (GUID Partition Desk) and vice versa. I’ve by no means had the necessity, however some techniques boot extra reliably utilizing one or the opposite. AES-XTS picture encryption is supported and it’s also possible to resize the C: (OS) partition with out having to reboot afterwards.

What’s new in R-Drive Picture 7.2?

Probably the most salient new R-Drive function for many customers would be the capability to write down photographs on to OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive. Connecting requires that R-Drive Picture and you go online to the service, as is the case with all applications with this functionality.

My solely minor gripe is that including on-line service locations is completed whereas defining a process. Because the definitions are persistent throughout duties, defining them ought to be carried out from the primary web page or the preferences dialog.

Personally, as I exploit a cloud storage supervisor to make my cloud storage seem native, the brand new R-Drive function that has me most excited is replication — i.e., the flexibility to repeat the picture post-creation to a number of secondary places.

You may ask, “However what if the preliminary picture vacation spot is on-line? Do you need to obtain it once more for replication, wasting your bandwidth?” I inquired about this, largely as a result of I had some points with on-line imaging utilizing the preliminary 7200 construct that R-Instruments despatched me. (For those who take a look at the display screen captures, you’ll discover that they’re from construct 7201).

Concern not, the preliminary picture is at all times created domestically even when the first vacation spot is on-line. Each for replication and in order that R-Drive Picture is aware of it gained’t exceed out there storage. Photographs are shotgunned to any on-line locations to maximise efficiency for those who select a couple of.

One other welcome new function for model 7.2 is differential file and folder backup — R-Drive Picture will copy solely new recordsdata (for the reason that unique picture creation) to your picture.

How does R-Drive Picture carry out?

Other than some preliminary glitches with construct 7200, R-Drive Picture stays excellent in my testing, and remains to be my first (and solely, actually) alternative for imaging and catastrophe restoration.

As to the glitches, construct 7200 failed in my makes an attempt to again up on-line. Apparently, my distinctive expertise for breaking issues was at work and there have been too many timeouts in my broadband connection for the preliminary launch construct to deal with. Every thing was proper as rain with the next 7201 construct.

c, although this could take an exceedingly very long time in case your drive throws a variety of learn failures. Most applications throw up their arms and simply inform you you’re SOL. That is the rationale R-Drive Picture is my go-to for failing media.

R-Drive Picture is sort of quick, although it nonetheless performs Scotty (the Star Trek engineer) by constantly overstating backup instances. Switch charges are in fact dependent upon the media and pipeline to it, however all have been on par or higher for the quantity of bandwidth out there. I used a 5GB picture for on-line, and a 450GB picture for native jobs.

One other beauty of R-Drive Picture is that it doesn’t devour a variety of sources and nonetheless runs on legacy {hardware}. The minimal system requirement is just that the CPU be Intel-compatible. For those who’re utilizing older {hardware}, R-Drive Picture is by far the perfect factor going.

Must you purchase R-Drive Picture 7.2?

As I’ve stated a number of instances already, R-Drive Picture 7.2 stays my stalwart imaging and catastrophe restoration utility, and as such, my prime advice. I like the brand new a number of vacation spot replication function — one thing I feel all backup applications ought to have. As R-Instruments addressed the glitches I skilled in file time, I’ll chalk these as much as a barely optimistic launch date. Nonetheless the perfect.

Observe. If you have already got a model of R-Drive Picture that you just’re pleased with, you may leverage a cloud storage supervisor corresponding to CloudMounter or Mountain Duck and picture to simply about any on-line service.

Editor’s notice: As a result of on-line companies are sometimes iterative, gaining new options and efficiency enhancements over time, this overview is topic to vary with a purpose to precisely replicate the present state of the service. Any adjustments to textual content or our remaining overview verdict might be famous on the prime of this text.