Free Disk Imaging Software?

[LarryJoe]

I am going to try Windows 7 this weekend and upgrade from Vista Home Premium SP2. I have several hard drives and use one for the OS only. I want to image this to another drive in case I need to restore to vista. I have Ghost 14 but I find it incredibly bulky and hard to use. A long time ago I used to use a simple floppy version of ghost that was easy and saved me. I just want a basic program that will create the image and create a boot CD for recovery.

Any insight here? I don't mind paying a small fee, but free is better. I have googled this and there are many out there, but wanted to check with the pros first.

Thanks,
Joe

 

[Matt84]

I haven't used Gost 14 so can't comment on it being hard to use. I use Macrium Reflect Free Edition to do drive imaging at home. It uses Volume Shadow Copy to do imaging live and as a part of the backup process creates a boot CD.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

 

[LarryJoe]

Thanks very much. I will check it out. I ended up intalling 7 yesterday without imaging and I learned that the install most likely images the vista install as I had to give it a few tries as it failed and "restored" vista. This was probably the most painless install of a MS OS ever for me.

 

[AFurryReptile]

Macrium Reflect is good. The only thing I don't like about it is the fact that it doesn't give you an estimate of the final image size.

You can get Acronis 11 for Seagate and Maxtor drives in the form of SeaTools, and for Western Digital drives in the form of Acronis WD edition. I'd recommend those.

 

[CZroe]

Can Macrium Reflect clone D2D?

Oh! FWIW, we need to start calling it "DRIVE" imaging software now that things are goin' SSD.

Edit: Nope. Doesn't seem to.

Edit 2: After getting it booting once again, I want to clone a failing drive as-is before repairing the OS install. Macrium fails soon after starting> SeaTools for Windows doesn't have any imaging options doe sthe DOS version? Acronis WD Edition is downloading as we speak (the two HDDs involved are Maxtor and WD).

 

[AFurryReptile]

I do believe if you create a recovery CD with Acronis you'll be able to do some disk to disk. If not, you can try Clonezilla, which I know can do it.

 

[CZroe]

Originally posted by: AFurryReptile
I do believe if you create a recovery CD with Acronis you'll be able to do some disk to disk. If not, you can try Clonezilla, which I know can do it.

Thanks. Acronis had the option but it wouldn't even attempt it shen I'd try to start... it said I may need to run check disk, which I had just done (made the previously unbootable HDD bootable again). If it's bootable and I can access files, download and install programs, etc, perhaps I should just manually copy everything to the other HDD and then run an XP Recovery installation (something I already planned to do). I just thought an imaging app would make it simpler but I guess they can't just power through the errors on a failing HDD (just copy the files, corrupted and all).

 

[manko]

Originally posted by: CZroe

Originally posted by: AFurryReptile
I do believe if you create a recovery CD with Acronis you'll be able to do some disk to disk. If not, you can try Clonezilla, which I know can do it.

Thanks. Acronis had the option but it wouldn't even attempt it shen I'd try to start... it said I may need to run check disk, which I had just done (made the previously unbootable HDD bootable again). If it's bootable and I can access files, download and install programs, etc, perhaps I should just manually copy everything to the other HDD and then run an XP Recovery installation (something I already planned to do). I just thought an imaging app would make it simpler but I guess they can't just power through the errors on a failing HDD (just copy the files, corrupted and all).

Use a Linux Live boot CD, like SystemRescueCd, then use GNU ddrescue to recover and clone as many sectors as possible to a new drive (or drive image). Then you can use chkdsk /f on the new drive or mount the image in Linux or in Windows with FileDisk to copy as many files as you can or use other recovery programs.

 

[MStele]

I like Acronis. Its cheap, and it works great. You can find it at most stores for $39.99 and it comes with a bootable dvd that will not only create backup images, but also partition and format drives. If your looking for real-time backup, its not that great though. There are better programs out there if your looking to mirror directories and what not. But for the money there really isn't anything better.It will even let you shadow partition, so you can stash an image on your harddrive out of reach of the OS, and you can then install a bootloader to access it or just boot from the dvd and do it that way.

 

[CZroe]

Originally posted by: manko

Originally posted by: CZroe

Originally posted by: AFurryReptile
I do believe if you create a recovery CD with Acronis you'll be able to do some disk to disk. If not, you can try Clonezilla, which I know can do it.

Thanks. Acronis had the option but it wouldn't even attempt it shen I'd try to start... it said I may need to run check disk, which I had just done (made the previously unbootable HDD bootable again). If it's bootable and I can access files, download and install programs, etc, perhaps I should just manually copy everything to the other HDD and then run an XP Recovery installation (something I already planned to do). I just thought an imaging app would make it simpler but I guess they can't just power through the errors on a failing HDD (just copy the files, corrupted and all).

Use a Linux Live boot CD, like SystemRescueCd, then use GNU ddrescue to recover and clone as many sectors as possible to a new drive (or drive image). Then you can use chkdsk /f on the new drive or mount the image in Linux or in Windows with FileDisk to copy as many files as you can or use other recovery programs.

Thanks, but Acronis did the trick after all. The message listed TWO possibilities and I assumed the first, considering the condition of the drive. It turns out that it was the SECOND... the target drive was too small (15GB on two partitions on an 80GB drive to a 20GB drive). It didn't seem to have the option to clone one partition to another drive so I deleted the recovery partition and it went well enough. I can always restore it on the bad drive and recover the data if needed as long as it doesn't get any worse.