NTI Echo | NEW! Version 6 via Download | Disk Cloning & Migration Software | Make an exact copy of HDD or SSD with Dynamic Resizing | Permanent License (Not A 1-Year Subscription!)

The task of closing the contents of your computer’s hard drive (whether it is mechanical or SSD) is ridiculously simple, or at least it should be. But the handful of companies who we have turned to for many years as our go-to software brands have done everything in their power to confuse and obfuscate the simple into arduous tasks with unnecessary rules, restrictions and fluff. One if the major names we all think of, in an incredible lapse of common sense, even suddenly decided to change their product name and turn it into a subscription. Who could ever need to pay a yearly ransom for a task that most people do only once or twice ever in their lifetimes? And another has the supremely poorly advised gotcha, that most customers don’t find out until it is too late, that they can only clone ONCE and then game over. Needless to say I needed an alternative to those formerly great products and found this for a one-time purchase price lower than any other major brand.IS THIS FOR REALMy first impression was to question the legitimacy of this software, it sounded too good to be true. Their general appearance comes across as a couple of guys operating out of a rented van, what I got reminded me of the way I used to buy software years ago. They are hypersensitive about some of the misguided reviews, as well they should be, some come across as plants from nefarious competitors. Even the product itself has little notes taped inside and dire warnings to follow the instructions exactly and never use the letter O.USING ITInstallation happened without a hitch on a five year old Win 10 computer. The things I had been warned about like that I had to register it online first didn’t happen. When I opened the app it was ready to go with the most obvious source and destination pre-chosen and a couple of easy to understand choices that even a novice could understand. I made my choice and it started to run WITH a progress status bar (despite what some naysayers claimed that I was just left with a blank screen to stare at). Their interface is clean and contemporary and I knew what it was doing every minute including an accurate time to completion, which by the way did not take all day - I transferred about 500GB from my source disk (the entire contents) in less than a half hour.RESULTSIn the final analysis the results are what counts. Once the process was done it instructed me what to do next and makes the logical move of shutting the computer down so you can do that safely. I removed the old boot drive, swapped locations with the new 2TB hard drive and powered up. The cloned drive booted perfectly and every app and file was an exact replica. Absolutely no surprises.YES NO MAYBEHaving a career in the computer industry and having built, repaired and used nearly every genre of PC I say I can’t understand why anyone would buy any other software than this one. And to be clear I did buy it with my own money, and also bought its two major competitor’s products the same way. Unless you clone drives for a living, in which case you wouldn’t be looking at this product, this is the way it’s supposed to be. Keeping in mind that five stars equals a product that is the best of the best, that’s what I give Echo 5.

I am very concerned about keeping my machines backed up. And a key component for me is to be able to get back up and running as soon as possible when my primary disk goes out. So, I decided to give this a try for my new Windows 10 machine. The system is new, with no additional software installed. I bought an identical SSD storage device to the one inside my machine to make a disk copy. I bought the software and installed it. In my first run, a stupid Windows update interrupted the process which did seem to be working.After the updates were completed, I tried to do another disk image copy. It failed with the error that the program could not partition the disk. I deleted all partitions on the export device. Same error. I created a single NTFS partition and left it empty. Same error.I contacted NTI's customer support. They suggested I had a virus protection software that was interfering. I explained that I did not. In any case, I went through all the windows default settings and disabled the firewall, and anything else that looked like that might cause the problem. I still kept getting the same error. NTI's customer support representative threw his hands in the air and told me he didn't know what else to suggest. When I asked if I could get a refund, he said I'd have to work through Amazon.I must add that the user interface on NTI software is old. I'm talking Windows 98 old. It does not compensate for 4K monitors an you have to reset your settings to run in 1080P to read the text. Their customer support is sub par.I was hoping to get some reasonable backup software without paying a yearly fee. I don't trust the Microsoft cloud strategy because it only backs up My data and not my system. At this point, I'm willing to go back to Acronis and pay the yearly fee.

I don't know why they bother to send a cd because you basically have to go to the website to download the product. I was having some difficulty installing it from the cd and tried to call their tech support but the admin assistant who answered the phone said something about them having an issue with their licensing server but was able to tell me how to get to where I needed to go to download the correct product. I will say the software once you are able to get it downloaded is fairly easy to use and worked great for cloning my HDD to my new SSD. I would have given it 5 stars if I didn't have to jump through those hoops to get it working.