AOMEI Backupper

Overview

Backup software is judged on one occasion only, which is the day you need to restore. Everything else about it is preamble. AOMEI Backupper earns its place by making the restore path simple and by shipping the rescue media that lets you take it when the machine is dead, which is the state a machine is usually in when a restore becomes urgent.

The program covers the full range: full disk images, partition images, file and folder backups, and direct drive to drive cloning for the case where you are moving to a larger or faster disk. Incremental and differential chains keep the storage cost reasonable, scheduling handles the discipline nobody has, and the whole thing runs quietly in the background rather than announcing itself. This build unlocks the Professional, Technician, Technician Plus and Server feature sets together, so the tier limits do not apply.

Imaging, backup and cloning

A system image captures the whole boot drive including the hidden partitions that Windows needs to start, which is the part people miss when they copy files manually and then wonder why the new disk will not boot. Images compress, split for storage on a file system with size limits, and can be encrypted with a passphrase. They mount as a drive letter for pulling out a single file without a full restore, which is the feature you will actually use most often.

Incremental backups store only what changed since the last run, which keeps daily backups fast and small. Differential backups store everything changed since the last full one, which uses more space but makes a restore simpler because only two files are involved. The scheme picker explains the trade in plain language, and the retention rules delete old chains automatically so the destination does not silently fill up.

Cloning writes one drive onto another directly, with the partitions resized to fit the new size and the alignment corrected for a solid state target. That last detail matters: a clone that preserves the old alignment onto an SSD costs a meaningful amount of performance, and this handles it without being asked.

The rescue environment

The included WinPE media builder writes a bootable stick or ISO carrying the restore side of the program with storage and network drivers loaded. From that environment you can restore an image onto a bare drive, restore onto different hardware entirely with the driver injection step enabled, or reach an image sitting on a network share.

Restore to dissimilar hardware is the feature that turns a backup into a genuine disaster recovery plan. A machine whose motherboard has died can be restored onto a completely different one, with the storage controller drivers injected during the restore so the result actually boots. It is not guaranteed on every hardware combination but it works far more often than it fails.

Scheduling and where to put the backups

Schedules run daily, weekly, monthly, on an event such as user logon or system shutdown, or when a specific USB drive is plugged in. That last trigger is the one that makes an external drive backup actually happen, because it removes the step where somebody has to remember.

As for destination, the rule that has never changed is that a backup on the same physical drive as the original is not a backup. An external drive, a second internal drive or a network share are all supported, and the program will happily write to more than one destination for the same job. If the data matters, one copy should be somewhere that a power surge or a theft would not take with it.

What you get

• Full disk, partition, file and system images with compression and encryption
• Incremental and differential chains with automatic retention rules
• Images mount as a drive letter for single file recovery
• Direct drive to drive cloning with SSD alignment correction
• Bootable WinPE rescue media builder, stick or ISO
• Restore to dissimilar hardware with driver injection
• Network share destinations with stored credentials
• Schedules on time, event, logon, shutdown or USB insertion
• Professional, Technician, Technician Plus and Server tiers all unlocked
• Command line interface for scripted and unattended jobs

Inside the archive

• AOMEI Backupper installer covering all four feature tiers
• WinPE rescue media builder with an ISO already prepared
• Storage and network driver set for the rescue environment
• Notes on restore to dissimilar hardware
• Language files for the interface list shown above

System requirements

Installing it

1. Unpack the archive to a local folder.
2. Suspend real time protection for the length of the install.
3. Run the installer as administrator and let it finish.
4. Open the program and confirm the tier badge shows the full feature set.
5. Build the rescue media immediately, before you need it, and test that the machine boots from it.
6. Create your first full image to a destination that is not the drive being imaged.

Mirrors

Release history

Questions about this release

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