Alternatives to Acronis?

NOT happy with Acronis. Earlier today I inadvertently shut down Windows while Acronis was doing one of its automatic backups, and I was treated to an "operations are running" shutdown screen that did not progress to a shutdown, even after an hour. I had gone out and left it because I figured maybe Windows was running some kind of big update. Anyway when I got home and realized it was still showing the "operations are running" screen, I got worried and Googled it. The first result mentioned Acronis and I put two and two together. It was at that point that I realized my external drive was spinning like crazy and was red hot to the touch. So I immediately turned it off and the computer finished shutting down. 
 
Turns out this is a much complained about problem with Acronis - it hijacks the shutdown procedure, doesn't inform the user that the process is still running or provide an option to abort shutdown or abort Acronis, and leads to this never ending shutdown screen. People have talked about losing data because of it, and there are many complaints that Acronis refuses to address the problem. Indeed I saw a response from Acronis on their forum where they suggested that other software does the same thing (I've never seen it before) and that it's supposed to work this way. I'm using Acronis 2014 but I read someone say that it happens to them with Acronis 2015 as well. 
 
So I'm no longer confident about using Acronis and am open to suggestions for other automatic imaging software. 

Unfortunately that doesn't work for me, I've tried it. I just can't seem to get my head together to do manual backups 

I love acronis, learn to be subservient to it and all will be ok for you.
 
Plus you will have your backup which is the the best thing for you if you have a hard drive because these days you just cant trust em!

Lots of people have recommended Paragon.  I have Acronis, but I've run into some similar issues with it and will probably switch soon.

Anyone have any opinions or experience with Macrium? 

craigb
I was going to suggest you check out the comments about Paragon in the Computer forum (or whatever it used to be called) but, apparently, it's gone...
 
Too bad because there was a LOT of really good information in that forum!
 
Note that if it's just been moved or renamed, that I was unable to find it.

the computer forum on cakewalk?  it's not gone!  you must have your filter set to not show it.
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/Computers-f84.aspx

Hi,
 
I do not "build" my own computers, my friend does.
 
But the whole software setup is all mine. I can not figure out why an "image" would be that important ... that you have to redo the whole machine. If it was setup correctly, Windows first, then the Firewal/AV (etc), and then the Updates, then you are (conceivably) properly protected, and in the last 8 years I have had only one problem with one of those rotorooter kits, and F-Secure log'd in and cleaned it and voila ... fixed. By that time I had removed all software in the computer, and only had Windows and F-Secure to ensure that the smallest number of files was in trouble.
 
Since then, I do things manually, and I will NOT (EVER) by a named computer, because of the crap that is added to it that creates more connections than you can ever conceive or expect. Those named computers would be tough on most musicians that use them for their creations. One more slight detail ... I do not use "Home" editions. I have used Professional Editions ONLY, for the past 10 years, and in fact went immediately to 64bit on W8 when the silly setup would lose the Name Resolution Information and kill the home network information. The 64 bit does not "lose" it, but it is very sluggish when the other computer comes up or went to take a nap. You have to go to the other computer and tap a link this way, and then it wakes up so you can go that way. Talk about sloppy merde!
 
My experience has been, that if folks get infected and hurt like that, there is something not necessarily good that you are doing on that computer ... thus, I only do email/browsing on Cymbaline, and never on the other computers, for example, which, so far, has cut down the problems considerably!

I'm interested too. I was about to buy Acronis 2015 but the reviews scared me. I need a disk cloning solution. I am getting a USB3 drive bay to use. I have 1 500G drive for the OS and programs, and 2 2TB drives, one for samples and one for projects. I'm getting either three duplicate SATA drives or one 3TB drive and put partitions on it but I'll probably get three drives because I am a dummy and don't know how to partition, I prefer a button that says "Clone".
I'm just not sure about Acronis but a lot of people seem to use it with no trouble. I want something that works and is EASY to use. Does three backup drives sound OK or dumb?
Note, I am not interested in backup but in drive cloning and then maybe once a week making sure it is up to date, can I do that or am I asking for trouble. In the past I've used Norton default set and a USB HD for backing up my laptop but it would still be a PITA if I crashed and had to restore. I want to drive clone on my DAW so I can just swap out a drive if it crashes.
I'm still on W-8.1 too, I'm not sure if I should update it. I guess I'll ask Jim about that but what do you think? Any opinion?
J

Just downloaded Macrium free, it's easy to use and I've made images of my 2 boot drives on a 3rd external usb3 drive...time will tell if it works but all reports seem positive.

I'm going to try Macrium I think. 
 
However, there is a way to get Windows to schedule regular image backups with its inbuilt System Image Backup tool. It used to have a backup scheduling feature but for some reason Microsoft removed it for Windows 8.  But you can create a task in the Task Scheduler using Windows PowerShell like so: 
 
http://pureinfotech.com/2013/10/24/schedule-windows-81-system-image-backup/
 
Info on how to restore from a backup here:
 
http://winsupersite.com/w...se-system-image-backup