Free HDD Imaging Software

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shurcooL

[H]ard|Gawd
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Oct 12, 2007
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Hi,

Suppose I have a laptop that has one hard-drive and a working system on it. I want to be able to format the entire laptop, install a completely new OS, mess around with it, and then restore the system back to its original working state.

So it seems I'll need some hard-drive backup/imaging software that you can burn on a disk and boot off of.

I've never used this type of software before, so the first thing a quick google search led me to was DriveClone Home 5, which seems to do what I want (as well as their other Pro/Express versions), but there's only a 30-day free trial.

I also found this list of free software, but there are quite a lot. Some searches here suggested 2 free solutions: Clonezilla and DriveImage XML. But DriveImage needs a running copy of XP to work.

So that leaves Clonezilla as the only free tool. Is this a good choice for me? It seems harder to use, but I've installed Linux and stuff before, so I know what a "mount" is, etc.

Any suggestions are welcome.
 
If the laptop has a Seagate hard drive, you will be able to use the free Discwizard tool, which is a version of Acronis True image, compatible with Windows 7 and all before.
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/discwizard

Clonezilla is fine. Except, it is not very user-friendly (no GUI).


You may need to create a second partition. May be not.
Give it a test drive on a virtual machine and see if it can do what you want.
 
Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately it's not a Seagate.

You may need to create a second partition. May be not.
Click to expand...
What do you mean?

My laptop's hard-drive already has multiple partitions on it. It's got XP and Ubuntu on it. I was looking to make an image of the entire hard-drive, so all the partitions and boot-related things are preserved in their entirety. In other words, I'd like each byte to be exactly the same pre-backup and post-restore.

P.S. It's only 40 GB and 95% full, so I don't mind if it just makes a byte-by-byte image of it, instead of only backing up the used sectors.
 
Create one image for each partition.
Then, you can restore one if you want or restore all if you want (flexibility).

The imaging tool may or may not give you the option of burning to a DVD. If not, you will need a destination partition to store the image to (at least, temporarily).
 
Like I said, I'd rather create an image for the entire hard-drive. That way, I won't have to re-create the partitions in the right order, make sure they're bootable, etc. The whole idea is to completely back the drive up. I don't need flexibility.

As far as the backing up destination goes, I forgot to mention, but I'd like to do it to another computer on LAN. So a SAMBA share, basically.

I've tried Clonezilla on a virtual machine, and it connects to a SAMBA share successfully. However, for some reason, it doesn't seem to actually create the HDD image. I get a "No input device!" error.

clonezilla.jpg


This kinda got me worried... What if I make the image successfully, but then I run into problems restoring it. Then I'll have lost my entire system... That prospect makes this whole operation seem very dangerous. =/
 
shurcooL said:
What if I make the image successfully, but then I run into problems restoring it. Then I'll have lost my entire system... That prospect makes this whole operation seem very dangerous. =/
Click to expand...

It is dangerous if you do not test it first to make sure that it is functional.
Temporarily restore the image onto an empty hard drive and make sure that everything is working. Then, you know your image is fine and you know you can restore it if needed.
 
Ok, I tried it on my laptop, and it seems to be creating a backup image successfully onto my desktop Samba share.

The problem is... I'd have no way to test out its restore functionality without actually doing it on the real thing. By then, it'd be too late if something goes wrong. ;/
 
If you don't mind a little excess for the end result, download the trial of Acronis True Image 2009. Make a recovery CD. Uninstall Acronis 2009. That CD will do backups, clone drives, wipe drives (DBAN is having issues with AHCI controllers, this doesn't), and it doesn't expire like the trial does.
 
Oh right! I forgot this was a laptop.

Are you ready?
Set up a small technician system on a desktop with a few partitions and one or two operating systems. Create the image and then restore.
If it works on your small test system successfully, it should work on the laptop as long as you create and restore the image the same way.
If it fails, it is only a test setup and you have not lost anything.
 
batteriesnotincluded said:
download the trial of Acronis True Image 2009. Make a recovery CD. ...
Click to expand...
The trial did not create the boot CD on Version 11.
Did Acronis change it for version 2009?

Edit:
I just gave it a try. It let's you create a boot media.
But, the boot media created by the demo version does not create any images.
It only gives you a message reminding you that you need to buy it first.
 
Last edited:
Ok, I figured out that "No input device!" error I got earlier. It was because that test VM had no partitions, and Clonezilla backs up entire hard-drives on a partition-by-partition basis (rather than byte-by-byte).

I've tested it out by creating a quick Ubuntu install with some extra partitions, added some files, then completely erased the hard-drive from the VM and created a blank one of the same size. Restoring the hard-drive with Clonezilla seemed to have restored everything successfully. The partitions were the same, GRUB was back in the MBR, and my files were there.

However, I'm still quite unsure about it because it works on a partition level, even when backing up an entire hard-drive. That means it perfectly well may work fine with ext2/3/swap/fat32 partitions that I created, but perhaps it could still fail with a different partition config, etc. In other words, the test I ran does not guarantee it will work for my laptop. It should, but I can't be 100% sure.
 
MrF said:
The trial did not create the boot CD on Version 11.
Did Acronis change it for version 2009?

Edit:
I just gave it a try. It let's you create a boot media.
But, the boot media created by the demo version does not create any images.
It only gives you a message reminding you that you need to buy it first.
Click to expand...



They must have fixed that then, because I'm backing up my wife's laptop right now off the trial disc. I downloaded the trial when it first came out, so changes since then that disable that capability aren't out of the question.
 
shurcooL said:
Ok, I figured out that "No input device!" error I got earlier. It was because that test VM had no partitions, and Clonezilla backs up entire hard-drives on a partition-by-partition basis (rather than byte-by-byte).

I've tested it out by creating a quick Ubuntu install with some extra partitions, added some files, then completely erased the hard-drive from the VM and created a blank one of the same size. Restoring the hard-drive with Clonezilla seemed to have restored everything successfully. The partitions were the same, GRUB was back in the MBR, and my files were there.

However, I'm still quite unsure about it because it works on a partition level, even when backing up an entire hard-drive. That means it perfectly well may work fine with ext2/3/swap/fat32 partitions that I created, but perhaps it could still fail with a different partition config, etc. In other words, the test I ran does not guarantee it will work for my laptop. It should, but I can't be 100% sure.
Click to expand...

Nothing is 100 percent when it comes to data backup and recovery. I've used Clonezilla to backup and restore some completely twisted mixed Linux/Lindows partition structures without a problem. I always do drive -> image for a backup type. You should get to choose if you want to backup a partition or the entire drive. When you choose to backup the whole drive, it only copies used bytes so the saved image is small.

You are fishing for a problem with Clonezilla when there is not one there. It is designed to do exactly what you are trying to do.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
Last edited:
ocellaris said:
I've used Clonezilla to backup and restore some completely twisted mixed Linux/Lindows partition structures without a problem.
Click to expand...
Cool, that's a little reassuring. Were you using the latest stable version 1.2.2-14, or was this a while ago?

I always do drive -> image for a backup type. You should get to choose if you want to backup a partition or the entire drive.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's exactly what I tried. What I meant earlier is that even when backing up the entire drive, internally, it still does it one partition at a time. When restoring, it glues them all back together.

You don't have to do any extra work, but it seems a little less reliable compared to if it did it just by coping all the bytes without caring what's inside.
 
I have used bootit next generation it works great! it prompts you to install then nags you to buy it or it will expire just don't install the program just use the program off the disk it will do everything you want just don't install the software since you don't want the boot loader anyway. I have been using it for years without any issues. the only thing I wouldn't recommend is resizing partitions as winxp up will think something is wrong it will still boot but it will think it has a virus or something. making an image is easy no matter if you want to put it on another hard drive or making a bootable dvd.

Do a google for it it's easy to find a very small program fits on a floppy but there is a iso for a cd image burn as well.
 
shurcooL said:
Cool, that's a little reassuring. Were you using the latest stable version 1.2.2-14, or was this a while ago?
Click to expand...

I've been using Clonezilla for a while, whatever the latest stable build was at the time. Looks like in the latest one they added a beginner mode.

Yeah, that's exactly what I tried. What I meant earlier is that even when backing up the entire drive, internally, it still does it one partition at a time. When restoring, it glues them all back together.

You don't have to do any extra work, but it seems a little less reliable compared to if it did it just by coping all the bytes without caring what's inside.
Click to expand...

I can't think of any inherent reliabiliy issues with how it works, and its certainly been effecient in my uses. Also when you start using it to backup non-full drives or larger drives, you will appreciate not creating huge images that are direct byte-byte copies of the originals.
 
Imaging an entire physical drive is useful when you are going to restore it onto a different drive. If it fails, you still have the original drive intact with all the contents. Imaging an entire physical drive as the only means of backup to be restored on the same drive is not a good plan.

There is always a probability that an image you create may not work.
There are actions you can take to reduce the extent of damage if that probability becomes a reality.

1- Move your data (pictures, movies, music, documents, ...) to a separate partition, or physical drive, than your OS.
2- Use any backup program, not an imaging program necessarily, to backup your data.
3- Run frequent data backups.
4- Install your programs that are self-contained in a different partition or physical drive than the OS.
5- Use the drive imaging tool for imaging your OS only.

Now, your OS images become much smaller, and easier to manage and test. If an image is screwed up, you only lose the time needed to re-install an OS, not everything.
The probability of losing all of your data, programs and OS due to a single tool failure becomes remote.
 
jackofalltrades said:
I have used bootit next generation it works great! it prompts you to install then nags you to buy it or it will expire just don't install the program just use the program off the disk it will do everything you want just don't install the software since you don't want the boot loader anyway. I have been using it for years without any issues. the only thing I wouldn't recommend is resizing partitions as winxp up will think something is wrong it will still boot but it will think it has a virus or something. making an image is easy no matter if you want to put it on another hard drive or making a bootable dvd.

Do a google for it it's easy to find a very small program fits on a floppy but there is a iso for a cd image burn as well.
Click to expand...
But its boot loader is useful... has batch-backup-of-partitions. With sound effects when done... which
I use very often.
its "partition work" icon can put BSD "fdisk" (partition header) on, which about 2 days
ago I used to fix a corrupted partition before re-initialization.
Several years ago,
I made images of partitions, installed each to a larger partition on a larger disk,
and both windows98 FE and freebsd ran fine in the resulting larger disk.
Besides, it is easy... and I don't remember any messups with it ever.
 
MrF said:
Imaging an entire physical drive is useful when you are going to restore it onto a different drive. If it fails, you still have the original drive intact with all the contents. Imaging an entire physical drive as the only means of backup to be restored on the same drive is not a good plan.

There is always a probability that an image you create may not work.
There are actions you can take to reduce the extent of damage if that probability becomes a reality.

1- Move your data (pictures, movies, music, documents, ...) to a separate partition, or physical drive, than your OS.
2- Use any backup program, not an imaging program necessarily, to backup your data.
3- Run frequent data backups.
4- Install your programs that are self-contained in a different partition or physical drive than the OS.
5- Use the drive imaging tool for imaging your OS only.

Now, your OS images become much smaller, and easier to manage and test. If an image is screwed up, you only lose the time needed to re-install an OS, not everything.
The probability of losing all of your data, programs and OS due to a single tool failure becomes remote.
Click to expand...

man speaks the truth..
save the data first... if you have a 30gb image file that is corrupted, chances are the whole thing is useless.. there may be ways to recover some data from it.. but who knows...

at least there is a tool for getting data from corrupted windows bkf files.. that may have saved me before..
 
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