TL;DR: Pass, backups not directly accessible or bootable.
Sadly, their “Detailed Guide For WIndows Backup And Restore” at [ https :// www. isoo. com/guide. php ] only repeats how 1-2-3 easy it is, and does not indicate by what method backup and restore are made – no mention of making boot media, having appropriate sized backup media of any type on hand before starting, and whether or not we can “restore” to a new, blank replacement disk, or only restore to fix a failed disk – there is nothing specific.
I learn by example ( yeah, everyone does ), and I want the “by doing what” details, such as I mention above – I want details in advance on making boot media, CD or USB, and what backup media, CD, USB, internal or external hard drive ( can this effectively “clone” ), can I use the backed-up media from another working computer and “restore” to make a series of clone working drives, does this load a special boot-driver memory-resident to permit live backup of all UEFI partitions, even partitions in use, will Windows crash if I manually block that driver ( if there is one ), or do I have to uninstall the program to eliminate any special driver, or is the installation permanent, and I’d have to reinstall Windows from Microsoft media to rebuild a computer without the Isoo driver?
I have way too many questions that are unaddressed by the vendor at their own websites, and the potential risk to my system is severe just for me to learn how this software does what it promises, that is, if it does what it promises.
Moreover, I’d prefer no intermediary, that is, I want a backup to be immediately usable by swapping in to boot, but this software promises to make presumably encoded compressed backups, accessible only from their own program “database”, separate backups that include incremental data which would require me restoring a whole series of backups to the original or replacement drive in order to get back to where I can test if I have full function – to restore incremental backups, can I use the restored drive to boot and then restore the increments, or do I always have to use the Isoo boot media to access and restore the incremental data … and where is the Isoo “database” stored if I boot to a finished and locked CD, does the Isoo emergency boot media need to access and read each backup media in order to learn what’s on each backup … so I’d have to connect every backup to teach it, or can I get by with just labeling them 1, 2 and so on with magic marker or post-it notes and restore by MY preference ( I had a backup tape drive that demanded I scan the entire tape 1 in real-read-time in order to get to a single file that I knew was on tape 2, for horrible example, that took 2 hours to retrieve 1 backup replacement file ).
I’d rather clone once and update the contents of the clone and know the clone is immediately swappable to boot, backing up to an identical internal SATA/NVMe, or to an external USB drive/flash.
How do we access our Isoo-backed-up data?
Are we limited to ONLY rebooting to external Isoo-boot media, and restoring an entire Isoo-backup set, wiping out anything and everything we have done since the backup – so do we have to make yet another Isoo-backup FIRST before we even begin to look for and recover a lost file, then restore everything just to get to restore the lost file, then restore our subsequent Isoo-backup in order to get back to where we were before we lost the one file, then … didn’t we just overwrite our recovered lost file with the subsequent restore of a backup of a crashed version of that lost file, do we have to delete or rename anything before backup if we do not want it back it up and risk restoring it over a good copy?
My hair is on fire – yours?
So, no, if we cannot “see” our backup data directly through Windows File Explorer, if we cannot directly read the contents of our backup through Windows File Explorer, if we cannot use Windows File Explorer to go and get a good version of the ONE file we just messed up, then Isoo is not offering me what I need.
I see this as useful for:
– building clones, but there are easier, more direct ways to clone
– restoring kiosks ( customer-single-use hotel lobby computers ) where there’s no new data, but just to recover from corruption or mechanical failure, but again, swapping in a clone is easier
They put a lot of work into this program … and yet, I can see absolutely no competitive, advantageous use for it … except the potential ( NOT implemented yet ) ability to live clone a running UEFI disk drive, the entire drive, while it is in use, and then have that backup drive actually be bootable as an emergency replacement on demand, or as a distributed clone drive to other computers – again these possibilities are NOT implemented in this software, I’m just imagining where the programmers could go with their technical savvy ( Microsoft and other company’s licensing systems may refuse to function on UEFI clones used in other computers, their licensing may even refuse to function if re-written to other drives, even if attempted to reboot in it’s native computer ).
No, the SOS offering here is not a trial, but is a lifetime full function license, note that the Isoo web-download trial is full function for 15 days, and the cost otherwise of a license if you want to buy one over and above SOS here is $30US for a lifetime license.
At [ https :// www. eassos. cn/onekeyrestore/ ], EasSOS ( like “EaseUS” only a different company ) are quite proud of this being the first all Chinese architecture to backup UEFI, and being currently the only product offered by the similar-ish sounding company name Isoo in English, yet still registered with a security certificate in Chinese, 秦皇岛易之数软件开发有限公司, which translates as Qinhuangdao Yizhishu/Yizhizhu Software Development Co Ltd, a little more at [ https :// www. isoo. com/aboutus. php ] – Qinhuangdao is a port city on the coast of China in northern Hebei province, about 186 miles / 300 km east of Beijing, on the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea, more at [ https :// en. m. wikipedia. org/wiki/Qinhuangdao ], yeah, let’s learn about each other – world peace through world trade is up to us.
Note the spelling error in the SOS download page, first referring to this as EIsoo.
Again, pass, backups not directly accessible or bootable.
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