Hard Disk image Tool

Ok guyz..
I received the Dell laptop and I did a clean installation and installed all my required softwares.
Now I need to create a hard disk image, so later if anything goes wrong (I get a virus, too many crap softwares, etc...) I can restore it within few minutes rather than spending hours trying to do the same thing all over again.

What are the Free software that you recommand for this purpose?

 

trial versions of Norton Ghost or Acronis DiskImage. Google for each. GL

 

Thanks for the reply

normally I don't like trial versions.
Acronis expires in 15 days. I dont want a popup saying that I cant restore my image coz i'm using a trial version.

Have u used the trial versions of above softwares? how is it?
Do u hv any free software to suggest?

 

I suggest you buy Acronis, its worth every penny.

 

Thanks for the suggetion but buying it is totally out of the question, coz I'm dead broke.
How about the trial version of Acronis?

 

u do have somehow to pay for a b.u. medium - like an external hard drive.
cheapest way is to create urself a b.u. cd/dvd using bartpe tools, for "almost" a quick restore

cheers ...

 

I already have a external hard drive and if possible I will burn the image to a DVD as well. Only problem I have is about the software.

Anyway Thanks for the suggetion I will use Bartpe and see.
Pls let me know if u hv any other free tool.

 

A linux bootable CD with dd? It's all I ever need/use

 

but what i have is a windows system

 

Doesn't matter. Linux bootable CD's won't change anything on your hard disk, but they can access it. All you're wanting to do is create a disk image (on a removable USB drive I assume). You'd just boot from the Linux LiveCD, mount your USB external drive (automatic in most newer distributions), and then go to a console and type "dd if=/dev/hda of=/media/sda1/harddrive.img bs=1M" and let it run. Make sure the of argument is correct for your system, but it's not too horribly complicated, and it just makes a very simple, bit for bit copy of the drive. It won't compress things like more advanced software or have and handy management bells and whistles or be as easy or foolproof to use as Acronis or Ghost or whatever else is out there, but it's free and it works. It doesn't care what's on the drive, Windows or whatever. It just copies the bits. If you want to pump the image over the network... that's another issue entirely.

Edit: Actually, you could type "dd if=/dev/hda bs=1 | bzip2 > hardimg.bz2" and that'd use bzip2 to compress the image. You could also consider using "gzip" instead of "bzip2" to get a faster compression, though not as much space-saving.

To restore in the first case (if you hosed Windows or whatever), you'd just boot from the Linux LiveCD again, then mount the USB drive, and type "dd if=/media/sda1/harddrive.img of=/dev/hda bs=1M" and let it run. If you used the compression scheme like I said above, you'd have to do "bzip2 -c /media/sda1/hardimg.bz2 | dd of=/dev/hda bs=1M" to restore it.

But I'm not a Linux dork. I promise MOST IMPORTANTLY: I give no warranty on this information, though if you ask nice I can help you figure out what you need to do. It was written having Ubuntu/Kubuntu as the LiveCD in mind. It is sound and reliable IF you do everything correctly, but if you don't do the right things for YOUR specific system, you can break your system and have to reload it from scratch, or have an unusable drive image. Caveat emptor.

 

I don't think that this is something you should be trying to save on.

Windows comes with a Backup tool (Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Backup), but I think that you should get a 'real' backup tool. Norton Ghost, Acronis DiskImage and Paragon DriveBackup are all excellent tools and excellent investment. I have tried all three before. I like DiskImage a little less than Ghost and DriveBackup, but they all are very good.

 

*shrug* Works for me. I'm not gonna pay perfectly good money for a solution that does more than I need.

A backup is completely different than a drive image too, Leshii. And using the commands I showed him is just as powerful as any of the software you listed, if not more so. He should also be doing backups regularly in a different manner, though, alongside this drive imaging.

The only problem with what I proposed is that it's more like working with a saw without a guard, rather than some safety-scissors. You can do a lot more things with what I proposed, and it's free, but you can cut yourself easily if you don't pay attention or know what you're doing.

 

Thanks guyz
I'll give it a try

 

I second Leshii's suggestion of the Windows Backup tool. If you have XP Pro, it's automatically installed. If you have XP Home, you have to install it. Instructions can be found at:

http://www.theeldergeek.com/backup_for_xp_home_edition.htm

I use EMCDantz Retrospect and have been very happy with it, but it costs money.

A Google for "opensource backup" will give you a variety of opensource backup options.

Hope this helps.

Brent

 

thanks..........