Disk image software

I'd like to copy an image of my hard disk to a larger hard disk, so that I can restore the image to third hard disk and boot that third hard disk. I have other data on the larger disk I don't want to destroy.

I looked at Acronis True Image Home, but it will only backup data (rather than creating a bootable drive) or clone a drive (destroying all data on the larger hard drive). It won't create an image file that can be installed on a third disk and booted (at least, not if I'm reading the manual correctly).

I'd like the software to run from Windows XP or a small usb stick

What software, preferably free, should I look at?

 

I use Acronis to create images on a HDD. Then boot from a bootable USB and select the image and restore. I've restored images to other HDDs. Sounds like it will do what you want it to do. In fact I created a backup lastnight of my SSD and than restored it while I was doing some driver updates.

 

Acronis TrueImage definitely lets you clone a drive. I have done it many many times. You need to create a bootable CD / DVD, boot into that, and choose the "Tools" menu option to get to the disk cloning tool. It can be confusing, since Acronis emphasizes its backup & restore capabilities more than anything else on its menu structure. Which is annoying.



But if you're through dealing with Acronis, try Clonezilla ( Clonezilla - About). Free Linux-based disk cloning tool. Downloadable as a bootable CD / DVD ISO image, or as a package taht can be used to create a bootable USB flash drive.

 

Which version of Acronis are you using?

Perhaps I'm misreading the manual

1) How do you create the image?

Clone destroys the data on the target drive, so the only alternative is backup. Do you need a sector-by-sector backup?

2) Then run the program, walk through recovery settings and it will produce a bootable drive from the backup?

 

If you go to clone, it says it will destroy the data on the target drive, which is not what I want. I want an image which can be stored on a drive without destroying other data on the drive, then restored to a fresh drive. I don't have a working burning, so I need to use either a USB stick or restore from an image on one USB drive to another USB drive.

 

Cloning over writes the target disk data. Just choose image backup. I have a disk with 5-10 images that I have Acronis store the images on. Cloning is not what you want. You want a simple image back up, and it doesn't have to be sector-by-sector. I use Acronis 2010.

Acronis True Image 2012 User Guide, scroll to page 38 of the PDF.
http://download2.acronis.com/u/pdf/ATIH2012_userguide_en-US.pdf

 

The correct spelling is Acronis (with no h). Thought I would let you know

 

I also have 2010

FWIW, page 37 includes

"Disk/partition backups are different from file and folder backups. Acronis True Image Home 2012 stores a sector-by-sector snapshot of the disk or partition. This includes the operating system, registry, drivers, software applications, data files, and system areas hidden from the user. This procedure is called "creating a disk image," and the resulting backup is often called a disk/partition image."

So a regular backup is sector-by-sector. The checkbox appears to back up empty sectors, see page 61

 

Yea, when creating the image just don't check sector by sector and it won't backup useless empty space. I never do a sector by sector backup.

 

Noted

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