Good cloning software?

Anyone know of a good cloning software? I would be interested in one whether it is free or pay.

 

What do you want to be able to clone exactly. I know of a few cloning utilities, but their functionalities and features differ. Do you want it to be alignment aware for SSDs, do you want it to be able to clone from a larger drive to a smaller drive without having to shrink the partition on the original drive and so on?

 

all of the above?

 

i use marcium reflect. afaik its ssd aware but i used samsungs own software to clone my hdd. but ive used reflect for everything else and im quite sure its a good ssd migration tool as well.

 

IMO Acronis True Image is the best there is but in most cases a clean installation of the operating system is best.

PC backup software | Acronis True Image

Very often deals on the software can be found.

 

Clonezilla. Free nd easy to use.

 

Have been using Easeus for a long time, zero problems. Does alignment. Also clones to smaller drive (if total size of files is not larger than target drive, of course).

 

another vote for Clonezilla

Clonezilla - About

 

I've used Clonezilla often and I like it a lot, it's quite robust and bootable, but doesn't check for alignment far as I know and the version I use doesn't do larger to smaller. I've used Acronis which has worked very well to clone from SSDs to other SSDs (the Intel version of Acronis, 2011 I think). I have also used Macrium reflect to clone HDDs (worked perfectly), EzGig which came bundled with one of my Crucial SSD also worked pretty well, but you need their USB adapter too so it ends up being expensive for nothing when it's not bundled with a drive. Finally, I just used the Samsung cloning tool made by Clonix last week to clone to a Samsung Evo SSD, worked without issues. I don't know if there is a standalone version of that software though.

 

I recommend Acronis as it can boot from CD and run it apps from there so you can use that cd on another computer that doesn't have acronis installed to clone the drive or make a image of the drive. That is why I like Acronis is because of it's flexibility to run on or form the cd. That is something the OP should consider if they don't have Acronis installed. I installed Acronis on one computer and make a bootable cd to use on another or to keep around should my install fail then I can use it to boot and restore my desktop image back to the desktop.

 

Clonezilla doesn't automatically check for alignment, you're correct about that. However there is a simple formula (which I can't remember right now, being as tired as I am) that ensures that the drive is aligned correctly when applied. I also recall going from smaller to larger the last time I used it for my wife's machine, I believe from 320 to 750GB...

 

smaller to larger isn't an issue going from larger to smaller is the issue some for cloners

i was looking at this but was wondering if i should just get a cloner instead for my vantec nexstar
Rakuten.com - Aleratec 1:1 HDD Copy Dock USB3.0 Hard Disk Drive Duplicator Part 350123

 

Oops!, I meant larger to smaller, gonna edit my previous post.

As for alignment, partition the drive before cloning and start it at 1024 KB, I used diskpart to align the drive, then used clonezilla.

 

so what do you think is the best free one and best purchase one that includes: alignment aware, bootable, SSD aware, bigger to smaller, and anything else important? Are there any other limitations or important things i should know?

Also this if possible:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...h-storage/733771-raid-0-m500.html#post9394769

 

bump

it sounds like acronis is the best to me. It does all the above right? (the list in above post).


I am looking to clone my SSD this weekend to my 1TB hardrive for back up. I plan on doing that every other week or month probably

Question what does it mean 1 PC....how does it know? If i take each computer and clone the drive how does it know?

Also can i use my nexstar for clone with this software? How does that work? It would be real easy and nice to use the NexStar
http://www.amazon.com/Vantec-NexSta...qid=1382989438&sr=1-4&keywords=vantec+nexstar

Also i am right that from what i need clonezilla wont work for me right?


EDIT: so does acronis work when the PC is on? That would be convenient but not a must. I have no problem pulling it out and it just dubs it to a new drive. that is what i was thinking of doing with the nexstar for my other computers. I have a few spare drives to use.


EDIT: acronis has this option below for their top tier product....how does it keep you from migrating to a new PC??? Does that even matter? I used to just pull my hardrive from one computer to another without issue so how does that option matter?

 

no one -_- I could really use this last little bit of help to really understand these last few questions to know what i need and what the differences are.

 

I haven't used Acronis aside from cloning, so I can't really answer as far as backups are concerned, but my understanding was that you install the software on a computer, from there it runs the backup to the specified device/drive and if the option is selected will periodically update it or make a new one for that computer. When you need to restore, you use that backup. Since you need to activate the software and it has to be installed, you can only use it on one computer, but you then get to choose what to backup, when and how.

 

Clonzilla if you want free.

Acronis if you don't mind paying.

 

so you can only clone the drives in the computer? Is it limited to one drive? my point was can i plug a drive in an enclosure into my computer and clone it to another external enclosure for backing up separate drives?

 

That is one thing that I don't know, someone who used Acronis will have to answer. That said, if all you want to do is clone one external to another, you might as well use something like Macrium which is free and will do that nicely.

 

does it do ssd to hardrive and vice versa? can it do larger to smaller? does it do the alignment stuff?

 

well arconis seems hokey on the migration part...i dont see how they restrict that but whatever. The part that i like though is the dynamic disc for the premiere version....they might have me sold on that part i am not sure. I have to figure it out but being able to fittle with raid disks in backing them up that sounds convenient if i head that route down the road.

 

Yah Acronis is Best cloning tool.Its feature & Layout is users friendly.No need to think hard, just go for Acronis True image home

 

you can clone TrueCrypt drives without an issue right? If it is sector for sector or whatever it shouldn't be an issue right?

 

Clonezilla will do from USB to Anything. Device to Device or Device to Image. I am sure Acronis will do the same. I wouldn't really pay for Acronis personally and have been using Clonezilla for years.

Examples:
Internal Drive -> External Drive (Bootable Physical Copy) = Device to Device
Internal Drive -> Image file on another drive = Device to Image
USB Drive -> Another USB Drive = Device to Device

Just remember that if you are doing Device to Device that you make sure you get your Source and Destination correct or else you will wipe up out what you wanted to copy.

 

huh?

BTW yea i downloaded the trial and it appears to do normal cloning without an issue. I think i'll go with acronis...i kinda like the automatic back ups it does with incremental updates. It'll just be convenient for my main PC and i'll use it to just dupilcate everything else in my external bay. I'll see how it works with cloning encrypted drives. I really need to get around to encrypting my OS drive. I'll work on that after i got a good back up system to be safe ^^

I wonder how that works if you have an encrypted OS and try to use acronis...hummm that might be the better question is that would actually work.....

 

Well what encryption are you talking about more specifically? Sector by Sector should work.

1649: Compatibility of Acronis Backup Software with Encryption Software

 

Well i was going to use TC and due full drive encryption. I assume backups would work just fine in cloning disk to disk but i don't know how that pans out with running an encrypted OS in real-time with automatic back-ups.

 

Hmm I am not sure either. What happens when you copy out of a TC volume to an encrypted volume?

 

you lost me on your last sentence

 

Haha it was badly worded! Late night. Sorry about that.

Acronis has many more features and is more like a full backup solution. Clonezilla really is a strong free contender that is great for doing imaging. There is also ShadowProtect which I have never used either.

 

but you agree just cloning...duplicating an encrypted drive is no issue but the ancronis automated backups might be an issue with an encrypted OS?

 

If I have understood correctly Acronis will be backing up the decrypted version of the files. Here is someones experience with TrueCrypt and Acronis. He makes a good point that when the full drive is encrypted you will see very large images when you do sector by sector when booting from the Acronis CD or Clonezilla.

Here is what TrueCrypt says about backing up

Another great resource that has bit more explanation about sector by sector and mounted filesystem backups which Acronis does on schedules.