Looking for 'live' cloning software

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todlerix

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I like using SyncBack for data backups, but I have a need for a nightly clone of the C drive - its 520GB of data. I'd like the computer to stay on, and also be automated.

Need to do an entire clone to a spare drive. I have raid mirror but the client wants to take the external drive home (alternating external drives) incase of theft/fire/flood/etc.
Anyone have a favorite they'd like to recommend?

$100 or less is my goal, for the software.

OS, win xp pro

11/19/2010 Edit: I ended up going to Macrium Reflect, good stuff.
 
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Backup Exec System Recovery or Acronis True Image are my suggestions.

$100 is kinda meh though.
 
Windows Home Server. Nightly backups with smart diffing and the ability to restore.
 
Acronis True Image has been able to do "live" imaging since inception years ago. Was a big thing people discussed when it first appeared over whether it was reliable to image an OS in operation but, it's proven itself over the years to be basically as reliable as one could hope (I do use True Image and recommend it as my primary imaging tool but I don't do live imaging myself, just for the record).

Their consumer "Home" version is what I'm speaking of, by the way. Acronis True Image Home 2011, the basic product. Everything above and beyond that does it too but that's the consumer product they're most famous for.
 
Bahamut said:
Acronis True Image has been able to do "live" imaging since inception years ago. Was a big thing people discussed when it first appeared over whether it was reliable to image an OS in operation but, it's proven itself over the years to be basically as reliable as one could hope (I do use True Image and recommend it as my primary imaging tool but I don't do live imaging myself, just for the record).

Their consumer "Home" version is what I'm speaking of, by the way. Acronis True Image Home 2011, the basic product. Everything above and beyond that does it too but that's the consumer product they're most famous for.
Click to expand...

very helpful, i'll check it out.

Thanks
 
I remember testing Acronis True Image server a while back. You have a server, then you push the agent to the machines you want to backup and it will do live imaging. You can even push a restore! Pretty sweet. Probably more then 100 bucks though... I find one thing the free software market lacks is quality imaging software.
 
Red Squirrel said:
I find one thing the free software market lacks is quality imaging software.
Click to expand...

Plenty of them out there...
Clonezilla
Macrium Reflect
DriveImageXML
P.I.N.G.
Easues Disk Copy (very good free one...looks and behaves much like Acronis TI, just a green GUI instead of blue) (it's a bit slower...but hey, for free)

And lets not forget, if you purchased a WD or Seagate drive...right from their download section they have their own free versions of Acronis TI..again...free, just gotta have one of their drives as the source or destination.
 
todlerix said:
I like using SyncBack for data backups, but I have a need for a nightly clone of the C drive - its 520GB of data. I'd like the computer to stay on, and also be automated.

Need to do an entire clone to a spare drive. I have raid mirror but the client wants to take the external drive home (alternating external drives) incase of theft/fire/flood/etc.
Anyone have a favorite they'd like to recommend?

$100 or less is my goal, for the software.
Click to expand...

What OS are you using?

Windows 7/Windows 2008 R2 backup software supports full image backups for bare metal restores.
 
Clonezilla seems to only function from a usb drive.

I don't want a manufacturer specific program.

Trying Macrium Reflect.
 
maybe you can script a VM converter to convert the machine to a virtual disk each night
 
Macrium Reflect is very cool, allows you to mount the drive as well to browse for a specific file.
 
My friend uses the free Paragon Drive Backup software and he loves it. I noticed that they just released a new version; downloading now and will test it out. Going to set my SSD to back up to one of my mechanical drives.

I finally convinced work to let us switch from Symantec Backup Exec to Paragon's commercial product (Drive Backup 10 Server), and it's kicking ass so far.
 
I installed the Paragon software I linked to above, and was able to complete a live backup of my SSD without a problem. Very impressed with the software so far.

That being said, it is important to note that I did a backup of my drive, not a clone. In other words, if my primary drive failed I could install another drive and restore the image that Paragon made to it -- this is unlike Ghost which is designed to clone the primary drive to a secondary disk, and if the primary drive fails you just slap the second disk in and go. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but I'm not aware of any software that can reliably do a live clone while the OS is running. I've used Macrium Reflect and Easeus Disk Copy to clone disks, but the process has to be done offline.
 
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