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    Hard Disk Image Question

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by gadawg31, Dec 7, 2008.

  1. gadawg31

    gadawg31 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I was wondering if someone could clarify a couple of items for me. I read yesterday several threads concerning cloning or imaging your hard disk. A few mentioned using Seagate Discwizard, so I tried and it told me that I don't have any seagate products. Does anyone know of any other software that is available to clone/image my computer? Also, if I clone my machine and later have to replace the mother board, what will be the concequences? I have several issues with my computer and I want to keep everything as is and not have to re-install, so that is why I am asking. Thanks in advance.

    gadawg31
     
    gadawg31, Dec 7, 2008
    #1
  2. swarmer

    swarmer beep beep

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    Try DriveImageXML. It's technically file-based, so not true imaging... but that shouldn't matter if it's a Windows FAT32 or NTFS volume.

    Also if you have Vista Business or Ultimate, there's Complete PC Backup built in, which does some of the same sort of stuff.

    Another option is to see if you can find a timed trial of one of the commercial programs such as Acronis TrueImage.
     
    swarmer, Dec 7, 2008
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  3. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    Acronis Migrate Easy or True Image have fully-functioning, but timebombed trial versions.

    There is also a trial of Casper, my current favourite, which doesn't support partition resizing.

    In general, you will have problems trying to restore an image onto different hardware since Windows will have the wrong drivers installed. You fix simple driver problems but if the HDD interface hardware is different you will probably get a BSOD. If you are feeling rich, you can try Acronis Universal Restore.

    You have the option of extracting files from your images so creating the images is not a complete waste of time.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Dec 7, 2008
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  4. nizzy1115

    nizzy1115 Notebook Prophet

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    Ghost, Ghost, Ghost.
     
    nizzy1115, Dec 7, 2008
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  5. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    I'll toss in my vote for Acronis True Home Image.
     
    Shyster1, Dec 8, 2008
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  6. davidfor

    davidfor Notebook Consultant

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    My vote goes for DFSee - www.dfsee.com. As well as imaging, it is also a very powerful tool to recover lost data, partitions, and partition resizing and so on.
     
    davidfor, Dec 8, 2008
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  7. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    I'll take a look-see; I'm always up for adding another tool to the arsenal. Acronis THI is pretty handy with mixing and matching partitions, but I don't believe the product does data recovery.
     
    Shyster1, Dec 8, 2008
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