Ashampoo Backup 2021 doesn't give you a lot of choices, which some people might prefer -- if you've got loads of settings and options, then you have to know what each of them does in order to make intelligent selections. The flip side of course is that those missing options might give you the flexibility to do what you want/need, rather than just what this particular app offers. That said, copying the raw data from a hard disk and storing it on a virtual hard disk is hardly rocket science, so Ashampoo Backup 2021 should work to backup your disks or partitions just as well as any competing apps. Maybe the most prominent example of what's missing, Ashampoo Backup 2021 only creates incremental backups -- that's it. The free version of Macrium Reflect has 4 templates for differential & incremental backups, as well as full backups, including the option to include free space, in case for example you need to try and recover lost files.
I'm always writing that the most important criteria for a backup app is Does The Bootable USB Stick Work with all of your devices -- it makes little sense to use a different backup app on each device. Ashampoo Backup 2021 makes that step harder for you... Most apps use the recovery .wim file located on a hidden Recovery partition created by default when you install Win10. Some, like Macrium Reflect & Paragon HDM, give you the *Option* of using the Windows ADK [an almost 3GB install] if you want/need to do something extra complicated, but Ashampoo Backup 2021 Requires it (!).
Installing Ashampoo Backup 2021 is a little bit more [I don't want to say cringeworthy] impactful to Windows. A duplicate of the C:\Users\ [UserName]\ folder called _ashbackup_ is created, there are a couple of folders added to ProgramData, 2 folders added to C:\Users\ [UserName]\ AppData\ Local\, 22 C++ runtime files added to Windows\ System32, along with 13 package cache files and 4 installation files, and a new service that runs with Windows is added.
In the comments some folks have reported that the C/C++ runtime included in the setup file apparently didn't install. I took apart the setup file, & found that the included C/C++ runtime setup files are vc_redist.x86.exe & x86: vc_redist.x64.exe, showing visual c++ 2015-2019 redistributable in the detail tab of properties.
support.microsoft[.]com/en-us/topic/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads-2647da03-1eea-4433-9aff-95f26a218cc0
When there's a backup app offered on GOTD someone almost always posts in the comments asking if the backup archives are in a common or universal format. Paragon does offer the option of a VHD that is mountable in Win10 without Paragon software installed, but most do not do anything similar. Ashampoo Backup 2021 uses .vmdk -- just not one .vmdk file that you could possibly mount without using Ashampoo Backup 2021. A test backup in my Win7 32-bit VM has 126 files.
Finally, last time I did an Ashampoo offer on GOTD I couldn't install and activate the app the next day. In the past, if you registered an Ashampoo GOTD you owned it, period. I can't know if that's the case this time until tomorrow, but if that's important to you, you might want to wait until tomorrow to see if it is in fact possible to install in another copy of Windows [a VM?] before committing to Ashampoo Backup 2021 as your backup solution.
