Best HDD clone software?

Z

Zatos

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 1, 2005
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I was going to upgrade my smaller HDD here and was wondering what would be the best software to clone it with. I've notice disparagingly different reviews between editors of tech sites vs. customer experiences. So I'm not sure I want to trust them.

Not sure what to use really... last time I did it 4 years ago I used Acronis, but I've seen tons of horrible experiences people have had with the newer versions, so now I'm a bit scared!

Thanks for the advice.
 
When you say clone, I assume you mean imaging?

I have always had good results with Symantec Ghost. I have used the personal edition for HD backups at home, I have also used the enterprise edition for deploying images across a LAN. Quick and easy.
 
I use the free linux tools or the free version of acronis that I can download since I have WD and Seagate drives.
 
Acronis TI Home. Grabs the MBR, doesn't care about drive sizes (need to have enough to actually move though obviously), and has a pretty decent interface.

Clonezilla is nice too from what I've heard. Haven't used it in several years myself though, as it didn't ever work when I tried, but a few friends have used it recently with success.
 
I used the free EASEUS Disk Copy to swap my work laptop from HDD to SSD, then back to HDD when I decided to use my SSD for something else, then back to SSD after using it for a day with the HDD back in. The HDD and SSD happened to be the same size so I'm not sure how different sizes would work out, but it was completely flawless for what I needed.
 
OldMX said:
Give CloneZilla a try, works flawless all the time.
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+1

I've used this a lot with linux and Windows based machines. Works quite well in most cases. Ghost is great for doing large scale deployments, and across is good when all else fails (I use it sparingly tho).
 
Thanks guys. I think the majority recommended CloneZilla. I'm afraid to try the new ATI or Ghost based on user reviews. I know not everyone has problems but there were certainly a LOT of people that did.

I've also heard EASEUS is pretty good... although limited in options (and free I think). My only concern with EASEUS, if I understand correctly, is that your original disk is gone after you complete the process. That just seems stupid, so I hope that's not right. Also, I guess it doesn't resize the partition. I know there is software that will let you resize it. I'm just not sure how that works. What I mean is that I have two partitions on one drive. If I copy both partitions over and then resize both to utitilize all the HDD space, will it end up using separate locations for the same partition? As in they would be in different areas so it couldn't read all the data just from one section. Ultimately reducing read and write times by bouncing back and forth between areas. Is that at all accurate?
 
I would search the forum since the question comes up pretty often and has been answered many times.

Unfortunately no one's stickied a thread for cloning software to make it easier for people.
 
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Zatos said:
Thanks guys. I think the majority recommended CloneZilla. I'm afraid to try the new ATI or Ghost based on user reviews. I know not everyone has problems but there were certainly a LOT of people that did.

I've also heard EASEUS is pretty good... although limited in options (and free I think). My only concern with EASEUS, if I understand correctly, is that your original disk is gone after you complete the process. That just seems stupid, so I hope that's not right. Also, I guess it doesn't resize the partition. I know there is software that will let you resize it. I'm just not sure how that works. What I mean is that I have two partitions on one drive. If I copy both partitions over and then resize both to utitilize all the HDD space, will it end up using separate locations for the same partition? As in they would be in different areas so it couldn't read all the data just from one section. Ultimately reducing read and write times by bouncing back and forth between areas. Is that at all accurate?
Click to expand...

Check TODO Backup, from EASEUS, its an imaging software like Acronis, never tested but heard good things about it.
 
I'm afraid to try the new ATI or Ghost based on user reviews. I know not everyone has problems but there were certainly a LOT of people that did.
Click to expand...
I can only speak about Acronis......

I've been using ATI for @ 10yrs. and reliability did take a major nose-dive with version(s) 2010 when they incorporated 64bit and W7 into the program.

The latest 2011 builds (I'm using ATI Home 2011 Update1 ver.6597) have been fine.
 
Zatos said:
I was going to upgrade my smaller HDD here and was wondering what would be the best software to clone it with. I've notice disparagingly different reviews between editors of tech sites vs. customer experiences. So I'm not sure I want to trust them.

Not sure what to use really... last time I did it 4 years ago I used Acronis, but I've seen tons of horrible experiences people have had with the newer versions, so now I'm a bit scared!

Thanks for the advice.
Click to expand...

I advise you to clone hard drive using Handy BAckup, it allows you to clone hard disk with all contents or, separately, clone partition. HDD cloning is performed through hard disk imaging.
 
Zatos said:
I've also heard EASEUS is pretty good... although limited in options (and free I think). My only concern with EASEUS, if I understand correctly, is that your original disk is gone after you complete the process. That just seems stupid, so I hope that's not right. Also, I guess it doesn't resize the partition. I know there is software that will let you resize it. I'm just not sure how that works. What I mean is that I have two partitions on one drive. If I copy both partitions over and then resize both to utitilize all the HDD space, will it end up using separate locations for the same partition? As in they would be in different areas so it couldn't read all the data just from one section. Ultimately reducing read and write times by bouncing back and forth between areas. Is that at all accurate?
Click to expand...

Nope. The original drive is not altered in any way. FYI, the partitions were still aligned after cloning back and forth.

Partitions cannot be split up. If you wanted to make the first partition bigger, you'd have to move the second partition to the end of the drive, leaving the unallocated space in the middle, which the first partition could then be extended to. Parted Magic is an easy way to resize partitions. I generally dislike handling NTFS stuff with Linux (due to a Fedora install wiping my NTFS partitions years ago), but I've had nothing but great luck with Parted Magic. I can't really give you any specifics about resizing partitions after using EDC, since my drives happened to be the same size.
 
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