Program to completely clone a drive

I am upgrading my HD and dont want to lose programs I have installed that have licenses and so forth. Best program to do so?

 

Probably something like Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image.

You may still need to re-install some apps if you re-install from a backup though.

 

Good programs are Acronis True Image and Norton Ghost (2003 and earlier, anything afterwards isn't great from what I hear).

 

If you want a free one you could try clonezilla.
http://clonezilla.org/

I've never used it. It was recommended on a pcper.com podcast though. Those guys know their stuff.

I bought Acronis trueimage years ago. It's very intuitive.

 

depends on your resources.

do you have a computer with two drive controllers so you can go disc to disk, or do you need to go disc-image-disc?

the disc you are cloning--did it come from a large manufacturer with hidden partitions?

does the disc have any bad sectors?

I have a special cloning box that I use and most of the time I use clonezilla these days, but sometimes I will revert to acronis, but depending on the disc (damaged ones) I've rotated several others through when the owner absolutely need PROGRAM X and I do not have the install anymore.

I've tried just about every one of these

http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/backupandimage.shtml

 

I use Easeus Backup from this site.

http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/

 

Only if you installed them AFTER the backup was made. Or is that what you were trying to say?

Gary

 

I concur on the Ghost 2003 version, it is the last good version of the app as far as I am concerned. After that it got the full Symantec treatment, i.e. bloat.

Gary

 

Check the website of the replacement disk. They may have a free version of Acronis, for use with their drives. I know Western Digital does.

 

I guess Im glad I got ghost 2003 when I did.

 

Can someone explain the CLONE process in simple steps for me please?

If a full backup is made, can that drive be substituted for the original drive?

Or do you have to install the new drive, then transfer the files from a back up drive?

I have an ACER netbook with XP, on 160GB, and just want to clone it all to a SSD, is this even advisable / possible, thanks, John

 

I use True Image Home. It's very good. Norton Ghost may work for you too but I have never used it. At any rate, it is best to clone your drive when the OS is NOT running. That is you should boot to the CD to run backup software and clone your drive to an external drive or to an internal optical drive burner. Cloning the hd while the OS is running is not advisable since things can change in the background when the OS is still running.

 

+1 Acronis True Image,

I used True Image WD Edition to clone my WD drives.

 

Here's how cloning works.
1. Clone the internal drive to an external hd or internal optical drive.
2. Replace the old internal drive with a new one
3. Restore the clone to the new internal drive

If the cloning is done properly, you shouldn't have any problem. I have done it with Acronis dozens of times before.

 

OK, thanks for the quick responses, but I am still confused

The new drive will not have an operating system on it, (assuming the backup is made to a 3rd drive), how can the restore part of the cloning process work, or is that so simple I am missing something here.

I did read most of Acronis online manual and most of that concentrate on the backup as just that, a backup, nothing about being able to replace the drive and have it boot up as if nothing changed.....

PS - I did mention that it is a netbook ergo, it has no CD or DVD disk drive

 

You restore it by booting from the CD. The software backup program will run from the CD, not the hard drive.

 

Cloning is by definition supposed to create a 1-to-1 copy of your drive onto a new one. This process is mostly used by general consumers who want to increase the size of their drive without having to re-do everything from scratch.

You don't NEED to use a 3rd drive, you just need some form of a dock to put your 2nd internal drive and do a 1-to-1 clone. Assuming said clone drive goes in the same machine as the original(same specs), then you should be able to pop in the new cloned HDD and boot up as if nothing happened.

 

That, my friend, describes exactly the way that I imagine this to work; now, as the title of this thread asks, which program will do exactly that, without a CD / DVD drive?

I have a dock with USB connection; just looking for confirmation that a particular program will make copies of all files, including operating system, and not just some type of 'image'

I see Acronis has a special program for netbooks for $29.99, will that work the magic for me? Is it worth it to find out on my own? Not sure, just trying to find someone who has been there, done that.......

 

What are the brands of the drives you're using? If they're both WDs or Seagates or whatnot, Acronis has a free edition for each HDD brand.

 

You only need one WD drive to use theirs.

 

Thanks, have seen this advice before; ACER Aspire One netbook has Toshiba drive and I have an OCZ SSD on the way.

For now I have installed Macrium Reflect to see if I can backup to a 32GB USB; next step is to work out how to restore to a different drive.........

 

I use Drive Snapshot but it is not newbie friendly.

 

If using Acronis True Image:
1. Install ATI software on netbook.
2. Install the new SSD in the external USB enclosure
3. Run the Clone Disk application from the ATI Utilities (see attachment)
You will be cloning your netbook HD to the SSD. With Acronis your existing HD partitions will be automatically resized to fit the target hard disk.
4. After the cloning is complete, remove the HD from your netbook and replace it with the SSD in the external enclosure.

You are done.

I mention Acronis as that is what I have but any software that will clone to an external drive will work.

 

Thanks and you will be getting the REP power from me

This has been quite a saga today, Macrium Reflect couldn't do it, then I first tried Acronis Netbook Edition but it does not have the CLONE option on the menu as shown in your screenshot, so right now the full Acronis True Image is running and looking good at 21% complete as I write this

Hope it helps others in the near future also, I will report more later, thanks again, John