Disk Imaging Software

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Deleted member 133315

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I am looking for a decent disk imaging app, but I dont know which one to get.

I know about acronis and ghost, havent used them for years mind you, plus I have the one built into windows 7 ultimate that I can use, I havent used it thus far, but I am about to flatten my shit and start over, but this time I am wanting to make an image so that after I install I wont need to reinstall in the future if anything bad happens.

It's been a long time since I last imaged my rigs, back in XP days it was, so I am a little behind on whats out there.

So, what Imaging app should I use and why ? I would like a full featured one which must be absolute rock solid when it comes to creating images, as rock solid as possible that is.

As I dont want to mess about with flaky images because the imaging app isnt upto the job.

So what imaging app would you all prefer to use and which one would you recommend that I buy or get if its freeware?

can I get some pointers asto what is the best imaging app out at the moment.

Cheers
 
I've heard Acronis keeps the partition alignment correct; not sure how much of an affect this would have on a standard mechanical HDD though. Never used Acronis myself, though.

I've heard CloneZilla is a good freebie program; no personal experience.

I still use Ghost at work, except it's an ancient version; version 8 I believe it is.
 
Clonezilla and PING (my personal favorite) are rock solid, why dont you download the .isos and try them for yourself? Both keep partition alignment when restoring, even on bare metal restores.
 
I will check out clonezilla and ping, I havent heard of ping before but I have heard of clonezilla, I use filezilla alot, so if its fromt he same people it should be pretty decent.

Cheers for those suggestion's as I had totally forgot about CZ.

Any more suggestions ? is the free ones above as good as the paid for products or would I be better going with acronis or ghost etc, or are they all about the same ? I ask that because I havent used imaging stuff for atleast 5 years, so I have totally forgotten about whats all out there and whats good and whats shit.
 
Since you've got at least one WD drive listed in your sig, I'd suggest using the free version of Acronis True Image provided by Western Digital at:

http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119

It's "stripped" in that it's missing some of the full blown aspects of the retail Acronis product, but in terms of imaging functionality it's exactly the same, and since you own a WD product (or several), there ya go.
 
Does the Acronis freebie only clone to a WD disk ?

As it says this on their website

Drive Cloning - Copies the source drive to a new WD drive, leaving all data on the source drive.

So would I be forced to use a WD drive instead of my ssd's to clone on to ? or will it support cloning onto anything.

Normally when I format, I disable all my other storage drives and then plug them in one by one after I have loaded the OS.

Would I still be able to clone onto my SSD's even though the WD drives are unattached ? obviously during the imaging process the WD's will be attached, but when I start writing the image to the ssd's they wont be for about 5 minutes, would that make a difference ?
 
Macrium Reflect is pretty good and its not bloated and they do offer a free version.
 
Since you've got at least one WD drive listed in your sig, I'd suggest using the free version of Acronis True Image provided by Western Digital at:

http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119

It's "stripped" in that it's missing some of the full blown aspects of the retail Acronis product, but in terms of imaging functionality it's exactly the same, and since you own a WD product (or several), there ya go.
This for sure if you have a WD drive.

PING was also recommended and I have used it. It's OK but I found you can only clone partitions, not entire disk (if the disk has 2 partitions, you can only clone 1 at a time). Unless I was using it wrong ;) You can also dump the live disc kernel onto the hard drive and burn it along with the image to a CD which helps if you don't want to carry around your boot disc.
 
It's the same product you'd buy minus a few features of the full retail product - the only reason you have to have a WD drive is during the installation as it checks to make sure you do have such a drive (either internal or even external over USB/eSATA/Firewire), and that's it. Once it's installed, it'll work with any brand of drive for any reason you're using it.

So again, since you bought some WD hardware, they've giving you a copy of True Image for free, make use of it. ;)
 
Acronis also does a version for Seagate/Maxtor drives - get from it the Seagate site - free for owners of those drives.
 
Does the Acronis WD Edition allow the new drive be taken over completely or will it have to be manually be resized by a partition tool later?
 
If I remember correctly, you get the option of using the whole drive (IE: the newer one is bigger), above the size of the original partition.
 
Ive been using Acronis True Image home for over a year now, has never let me down, it saves space if you use teh compression, and doesnt take a lot of time to restore, and i like the option of encrypting your backup witha password just incase something happens.

And it doesnt have to be the same HDD that you made the backup from :)
 
EASEUS Todo Backup 2.0.

Free, and powerful. (And the third thread I write this in is the charm).
 
Free in the sense that it's provided by Western Digital and Seagate/Maxtor for their products - you just have to have one of their drives in the machine or attached to get the software installed, but once it is you're good to go even if you pull out or detach the branded drives.
 
+1 acronis and +1 EASEUS Todo Backup 2.0.

ive used both pretty good acronis is what we use at my shop for backing up peoples computers.
 
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