I do use Acronis, but have also had some issues with it. It doesn't handle things well if there are any errors on the disc (I have reported this and they have indicated it shouyd be fixed in the new 2021 version recently released). They also do a sector-by-sector copy, but I've never tried that feature.

I'll be testing 2021 in the next few weeks.

I have also used it to do a disc-to-disc clone from a failing drive which ran very successfully (even going from a larger to smaller drive with different partition sizes).

I know you didn't want to hear about Acronis, but I just wanted to share my recent experiences, not to change your mind, but maybe to stay open to consideration.

I suspect all of the programs have issues at times. While the backup may take longer, it's a good idea to turn on the verify checking, because you won't know until you have to restore, and then it's too late.

Another thing I've done in the past is to just do a disc-to-disc clone (with like discs) and make the setting to duplicate the disc ID. That way, if a disc dies, I just pop in the backup and I'm up and running and all apps are still authorized. You just have to be careful not to mount that disc on the same commuter because the OS doesn't know how to deal with two OS discs with the same disc ID.

John

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