Any free disk cloners ?

I have Acronis trueimage on one of my laptops, and it seems a very useful program if one needs to reinstall OS.

Any free cloners ?

 

you can download a free copy of acronis from seagate.com

 

More info here:
http://forums.techguy.org/tech-tips-tricks/576440-free-acronis-true-image-maxtor.html

Ypu can install it, so long long as there is a seagate or maxtor drive connected to the system (and external HDD works fine)

 

That's great! I have a Seagate HD.

 

bump ....

 

DriveImage XML: http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm

 

acronis just has a deal for like 10$ for ati... ill see if i can find the link

 

Thanks for the link. Busy downloading the software now. +1 for you

Thanks,
Theo

 

Why pay for it when you can get it for free ?

 

Thanks for the link - seems to be just what I've been looking for.

 

if you have access to a linux system you can use dd to clone partitions and entire drives.

 

You could even use Linux to create one big compressed tarball out of the Windows partition.

 

Being a newb to image backups, I have a couple of stupid questions to ask. What do the image backups using Acronis actually back up? Would restoring from an image eliminate the point of a clean install?

Basically, I am wondering if using acronis restores everything back to the state that it was in when the image was taken. If I wanted to clean install to improve performance, but not lose any of my settings, programs, files etc.. Would backing up from an image serve that purpose?

 

Yes that is one of the great benefits of creating an image. Also disaster recovery.

 

Would you do that by restoring the whole image or selectively restoring individual files and folders?

Also, does Discwizard come with the option to make a bootable cd?

 

Bump......

 

You can do both

Yes.

You have the full functionality of acronis tueimage.

 

I'm using system rescue cd < http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page >
It's a bootable CD with partimage inside < http://www.partimage.org/Main_Page > You can make a backup of a partition on an other partition, on an USB disk, using a cd/dvd writer or accros a network

 

Not full function with SDW. For instance, you can't do incremental backups. I'm using Karen's Replicator for that.

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Here's what I found on Wilder's

Here what I know so far. Last week I tried to use the equivalent program (Seagate DiscWizard) on a system with 1-2 year old Maxtor SATA drives. I got the same error message you got about needing to have at least one Maxtor or Seagate drive in the system. I just installed it on the same system that got a new Seagate drive two days ago. The system has two older Maxtors, a Western Digital and the new Seagate. All the drives are SATA. It works fine now. Maybe it is hit or miss about what older Maxtor drive will work.

The program is based on TI10, but is a simplified (limited) version. It can do the following:

Hard Disk Management
Clone Disc
Add New Disc
Image Backup
Image Restore
Create Bootable Media

Manage Image Backups
Explore Image Backup
Mount Image Backup
Unmount Image Backup
Check Image Backup for Errors

It can only do full disk/partition backups. The "My Computer" button is active. The "My Data", "My Application Settings" and "My E-Mail" buttons are grayed out. There is no ability to do incremental or differential backups. There is also no ability to schedule any tasks.
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Not sure if still available but Acronis gave away an older version many months ago. It was the real deal with a key and all and had no limitations as to manufacturer of the HDD. I installed it on multiple drives on seperate computers. In fact did a small busines roll-out using the freeware.