R-Drive Image Review: A Reliable Backup Solution with Recent Growing Pains
R-Drive Image has been my trusted backup and imaging utility for almost two decades. Its extensive feature set, including disaster recovery options and enhanced support for popular cloud storage services, makes it a compelling choice for users seeking robust data protection. Throughout its various iterations, R-Drive Image has consistently delivered successful backups, solidifying its reputation as a reliable tool.
Pricing:
At the time of this review, R-Drive Image is priced at 44,95 Euro.
One of the most significant advancements in this latest version is the expanded support for cloud storage services. The addition of Amazon S3 and S3-compatible repositories is a welcome improvement, addressing a previous limitation. Furthermore, the integration of Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud support, albeit in the Technician and Corporate tiers, expands the program’s versatility for users with diverse storage needs. For most end-users, the consumer program’s seamless compatibility with Dropbox, OneDrive, and the more affordable S3 and S3-compatible services will prove highly valuable.
R-Drive Image boasts a comprehensive array of features, including file, folder, partition, and whole drive imaging in its proprietary format. It also supports partition and drive imaging to non-proprietary VHD/VHDX and VMWare formats, offering flexibility in image storage. Additional capabilities include disk copying and cloning, a full-featured partition editor, and a bootable recovery disk with both modern and classic, character-based interfaces.
The character-based interface on the recovery disk remains a quirky favorite, its dated appearance providing a nostalgic feel. Most users will likely prefer the more modern interface, but the classic option offers a unique and functional alternative.
R-Drive Image utilizes "Tasks," which are essentially scheduled jobs. These tasks offer granular scheduling options and even media rotation in the more expensive versions. "Scripts" serve a similar purpose as tasks, but are designed for command-line execution. This allows users to leverage R-Drive Image in both graphical and command-line environments.
Another standout feature is replications, which enable creating copies of an image and saving them to multiple destinations. This functionality allows users to back up a single data set to various locations using the same task or "script," enhancing data redundancy and protection.
R-Drive Image also offers extensive support for various file systems, including FAT/exFAT, NTFS, ReFS / ReFS2+ (Resilient File System), HFS/HFS+/APFS, XFS, Little and Big Endian variants of UFS1/UFS2, and Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 FS. This broad compatibility makes it suitable for backing up non-Windows computers.
Unfortunately, backing up Macs using R-Drive Image is no longer a viable option due to Apple’s restrictions on booting from unsigned media. This limitation is a drawback for users with Apple devices.
One notable issue is the program’s handling of network locations. While R-Drive Image supports mounted network drives, WebDAV, and FTP, it lacks the ability to add files from network locations that are not mapped to a drive letter by Windows. However, the developers are actively working on addressing this limitation.
Another minor complaint is that the program provides only a mild warning, rather than preventing users from attempting to write an image to a destination with insufficient space. This can lead to errors and frustration, particularly during testing.
Despite these minor shortcomings, R-Drive Image remains user-friendly for basic operations. The wizard-style interface guides users through the process of selecting files, folders, drives, or partitions, and choosing a destination for the resulting image. Creating recovery disks is also a straightforward process.
The Tasks/Scripts area could benefit from some refinement. The distinction between tasks (for GUI use) and scripts (for command-line use) is not immediately clear. It would also be beneficial to have an "Execute" button in the task bar for running tasks, rather than relying solely on right-click context menus.
The end-user version of R-Drive Image, suitable for a single computer, is priced at $45. The Technician version is $299, the Corporate version is $189, and multi-seat and transferrable-seat versions are available for $500 and $900, respectively.
While performance is important, reliability and bug-free operation are equally crucial in a backup program.
R-Drive Image has long been lauded for its stability and reliability, but recent versions have exhibited some growing pains. Version 7.3 (7304) introduced a significant bug that caused an endless failure loop when the program ran out of space on the destination media during a file imaging task. The error dialog could not be canceled, requiring users to terminate the program via Task Manager.
The developers promptly addressed the issue within two days, demonstrating their commitment to resolving problems. However, such issues should ideally be caught before release.
Additionally, visual glitches, such as overlapping buttons, were observed in the interface, suggesting a rushed release.
Despite these issues, R-Drive Image’s core functionality remains strong. Numerous operations to and from internal and external storage, NAS devices, and online storage services (Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive) were completed successfully. The recovery media booted without problems, and backup/restore operations were glitch-free.
In the end, all successful backups maintained their integrity and could be mounted and restored. This is the most important aspect of any backup solution.
Despite the recent glitches, R-Drive Image’s backup engine remains trustworthy. With the addition of enhanced online support and multiple destinations per job, it offers a comprehensive backup solution at a competitive price. While I will continue to recommend and use R-Drive Image, I urge the developers to prioritize thorough testing to prevent future bugs from reaching users.
