Runtime Software Reviews 2

RUN TIME BROKER IS RUINING M PC >PLEE HELP ME REMOVE THT PROGRAM

Thanks to Runtime Software’s flawed software (DriveImage XML) and their lack of support for those who use it, I have spent the last three weeks trying unsuccessfully to restore the image of my operating system that I created with their program to an SSD drive in my laptop.

There are several issues with this particular piece of software, and a few searches on the web have revealed that these problems have been plaquing users for over a decade. Yet this company has yet to update it.

Here is my experience with this company and DriveImage XML.

I recently used DriveImage XML to create an image of the SSD in my Lenovo Laptop (W530 Thinkpad). I created the image in an external USB hard drive which has a total size of 3.63 TB. The partition on my laptop's SSD is 914GB. The image was smaller and did not take up the entire drive.

I ran into a problem with my system and tried to restore the image using the same software.

When I tried, I received this message "Target partition must be at least the size of the original source drive."

This doesn't make sense since while the external drive holding the image is bigger, the actual image is not.

I then tried to shrink the partition on the larger drive to be smaller than the destination drive. That didn't work either and I received the same message.

It would not be uncommon for a user to store an image on a drive larger than the source drive. The issue should be the size of the image vs. the size of the destination drive and NOT the size of the source drive.

I then purchased a much larger SSD to replace the smaller one in my system. I first cloned the current operating system and then attempted to restore the image.

Then I ran into the second problem, "unable to retrieve drive layout" which is also something that has been plaguing users for over a decade. Even though the GPT is the newer and more current partitioning scheme, this software only supports the older MBR (Master Boot Record) format! As one reviewer pointed out in 2015 "the makers of this software should say up front about mbr vs gpt, or rewrite the program to work both ways."

GPT is the current standard partition format for Windows, especially when installing on newer computers with UEFI firmware, as it offers more flexibility and features compared to the older MBR format; therefore, most new Windows installations utilize GPT partitioning.

I tried out this software initially because I had read several positive reviews which noted that DriveImage XML was available free for personal use. Unfortunately, this comes with zero tech support, something that is not obvious on their website. Even if the commercial version is purchased, support is provided for the period of only one year and for a limited number of support incidents specified at the time of purchase.

I have been a user of computer systems since the early 1980’s, and I have never encountered a piece of software that is so flawed and user-unfriendly. I have also rarely encountered a company that, while offering a program for free to personal/private users, refuses to offer any support at all.

Now, I have to start from scratch and rebuild my system.

While I can’t speak to this company’s other products, judging by DriveImage XML and their response to my call for help, I would avoid both and look elsewhere