Disk-cloning software

I am planning to upgrade my laptop's HD and want to know if there are good Disk-cloning software that you have tried and recommend? Hopefully free?

 

Acronis True Image. It's free for 30 days and I've used it multiple times for cloning HDDs. Works like a charm

 

It took me ages to get rid of Acronis after i had the trial installed. I've just used the built-in backup function in Vista which works perfect, never had anything not working or whatever

 

I've heard Acronis doesn't have the best uninstaller, perhaps Revo in advanced mode would do better.

Does Vista's back up software clone to new HDD's?

 

Wow, that is neat. So you just use the Complete PC Backup ? Doesn't that create a compressed version of the files?

 

30-day trial here for the best HD program I have ever used, and I use it on a daily basis.

 

It has nothing to do with disk cloning as stated by OP ;-)

cheers ...

 

Oh contraire! BootIT NG is a fantastic program for creating partitions, resizing them, moving them, cloning them, imaging them etc.

It is also a boot manager that can allow you to "hide" certain partitions from different boot configurations. I had an IBM laptop with 2 hard drives, six partitions and three different versions of Windows. I used BootIT NG to hide each OS partition from the other OS's when booting up. Win2000 could not see the WinXP os partition or the Win2000 Server one and vice versa.

It's a GREAT program. Highly recommended. But as I said, it is a bit cryptic and requires CAREFUL use.

Gary

 

I use Acronis and it's great. It has a very simple cloning interface and it's worth the price.

 

EASEUS is awesome and completely free without a 30 day trial.

 

Will try on an existing system.

cheers ...

 

Just be careful if you play around with the boot manager part of it. I really screwed up that laptop with multiple hard drives I spoke of the first time I used it. But once you understand how it works it is VERY powerful.

The first time you run it, it will ask if you want to install the boot manager. Decline that offer and it goes right into maintenance mode where you can resize, move, clone partitions. One REALLY cool thing is you can give it a sequence of things to do like, resize a partition and then slide the next partition down into the empty space created and then increase the size of the second partition. And THEN tell it to execute that set of commands. It then does all of this SIMULTANEOUSLY. Really slick. I know of no other app that does that. All others have to execute the steps in order.

Gary

 

Thanks! Looks like a good program, have you tried it?

 

I recommend Drive Snapshot. It does not need any installation, has a fully functional 30 day evaluation and is extremely fast.

I use it with Bartpe / UBCD and have successfully restored and backed up many images.

 

If you want Acronis, make sure that you download and install the trial version before buying. I have just found that that the bootable CD doesn't work with my optical drive.

And please don't trust ANY backup software that claims that it can make a perfect image of your drive while the OS is running. If you want to be safe, you should only make the clone of your drive from a bootable CD.

 

Can I get an AMEN, brothers and sisters? Seriously, I concur with this 100%. I would NEVER, ever trust any image that was created WHILE the OS was running. I only use bootable media for starting up the cloning application.

Gary

 

And you should also restore the image when the OS is not running.

BTW: do you distrust incremental backup too? I don't trust it. I always do full backup. I know it would take more space but it is safer that way.

 

I would also give Casper a mention. It has worked for me on occasions when Acronis failed.

IIRC, the Casper trial will clone a disk but not resize the partitions.

John

 

I still use good old Ghost v.8

 

I trust incremental backups for my D: partition, where I have ALL of my user data. I use only imaging for backup of my C: partition where I have ONLY the OS and applications.

To clarify, to me "backups" are file level copies to another device. I do a full backup of my D: drive and then incrementals to keep the backup up to date. I use imaging, bit-by-bit copies, for my C: partition.

Gary

 

Yep, me too. I do occasionally use BootIT NG as well, mostly for partition modifications, but sometimes for imaging too. But only when I can't get Ghost v.8 to recognize a drive, i.e. rarely.

Gary

 

Ok, I am a bit confused.

Can someone recommend a tried and good cloning software for a one time use. I do not plan to upgrade my laptop HD more than once (at least for now)
Thanks,

 

Another vote for Acronis. Make sure you backup your ENTIRE drive, including the MBR, or you will have difficulty if you ever need the restore partition. All in all, best I've ever used, and relatively quick. All the apps I install take, manually, about 12 hours.. acronis image is less that 30 minutes. No brainer for me, and works great every time.

 

if you have a 32-bit system, I still highly recommend EASEUS. I've used it a lot and it clones BETTER than Acronis.

If you're switching HD types (say, PATA to SATA), Acronis will break things. EASEUS won't.

 

AMEN!!!

 

Not from me!

I used Seagate DiscWizard (Acronis TI 10 stripped) twice to clone a drive from Windows and both worked without a hitch.

 

You should definatly check out Disk Copy, its free, powerful and does the job. Used it a couple of times with no problem.

 

I have used it too, but only from bootable media. I don't trust clones while the OS is running. There are too many chances for things to be out of sync on the resulting image. I suppose if one were VERY careful and closed down all running apps and services, the chances of an out of sync situation are minimized. But if I am not going to be running anything while the imaging is going on, I might as well be running the image software from bootable media and KNOW it is safe.

YMMV

Gary

 

Ghost 2003 here, last good ghost version IMO.

 

For me I really don't know. I thought acronis was good until I tried installing my backup files back but just to realized the file was corrupt and lost all my data...

 

I just use Windows Home Server.

 

Acronis works like a charm, it works great for me and I recommend to all our clients.

I like the older v.11, but the 2009 version is getting rave reviews.

I can reinstall my entire Vista OS from a backup usb hard drive in under 30 minutes, including all my favorite programs and data.