Does anyone know of a good disc cloning utility which is free or costs under £30.
I want to upgrade my XP system disc in my SFF to a larger capacity one(currently 250gb). I do not want to go though the hassle of installing XP and all my applications again so this seems a good idea.
I vote for going slightly over budget (around 40 quid) for Acronis True Image. Best imaging software around and damned, damned useful.
Moo.
CAT-THE-FIFTH (13-03-2009)
Acronis is superb.
For something free but simple, check out the UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD - Google it) which has a few on IIRC.
Originally Posted by Saracen
CAT-THE-FIFTH (13-03-2009)
If either drive is a Seagate then Seagate Disc Wizard is free from the Seagate site, and is just Acronis True Image rebranded. Or if you have an old seagate lying around just mount it in the system as long as it detects one in the PC it'll work.
Otherwise, grab the Windows AIK from Microsoft and use Imagex.
CAT-THE-FIFTH (13-03-2009)
Hello,
if you want cloning try paragon drive backup
if you dont mind backing up current system and storin the image somewhere then restoring to new drive try image for windows
btw i have a hate for acronis. has 2 or 3 services running all the time and it never worked on my systems. so bloated and doesnt work.
the two i reccommeded work great with both my computers.
CAT-THE-FIFTH (13-03-2009)
Don't know about previous versions, but the latest Acronis certainly only has 1 service with a very small footprint (It's installed on the machine I'm writing this from)
You can optionally run 2 other processes (not services) that enable a few additional features:
1)Archive explorer - allows you browse compressed disk images through Explorer. You don't even know they are images
2)Image Monitor - Does any back-end tasks like scheduled backups and monitors for new image files.
Both of the processes combined are using less than 7meg for me under Vista, and you do not need them running to use Acronis.
IMO, Acronis is anything put bloated, being one of the best pieces of backup software I've come across. It's also won a huge number of awards (including HEXUS ones).
I'm not trying to undermine your experience lodore, but it really is the first time I've heard someone say something bad against it.
CAT-THE-FIFTH (13-03-2009)
dd! \o/
CAT-THE-FIFTH (13-03-2009)
I don't use Acronis in it's windows state : only from a bootable disc to create & restore full backups. Even though I've got it loaded in W7 on the laptop for incremental backups it doesn't cause any issue with performance there. At least it's not Ghost.
Found out Acronis works very, very well over a network too, taking images off network shares- found out by accident today when it was right in front of my eyes
Moo.
CAT-THE-FIFTH (13-03-2009)
Hey Agent,
Ive only tryed acronis version 9. it didnt work for me so after a few updates i switched. each update requires creating of a new boot cd anyway.
paragon only uses one process and thats when its running. same for image of windows.
image for windows takes up 8mb disc space for the application and installs one driver to be be able image hile the system is running.
It also has TBIviewer to extract indivitial files.
i have been a long time member of wilders security forums and it hosts the acronis forums which shows all the problems that people have with it.
there is also a thread of at least 20 pages long of people wanting an alternitive to acronis true image since they cannot trust it.
the other thing that annoyed me was the next version 10 added useless features such as backing up application setttings.
with ati 9 you needed the services running to be able to do a backup. it had 3 services if im not mistaken.
does it still need you to create a new recovery disc when you upgrade from say 2009.1 to 2009.1.2?
the other thing is that it didnt uninstall cleanly and after the manual instuctions the only way i could boot is to use last known good.
since ive got full images i may try the lastest acronis at sometime just to see if it has improved.
Last edited by lodore; 13-03-2009 at 08:14 PM. Reason: corrections
CAT-THE-FIFTH (13-03-2009)
Interesting post - thanks
i tried cloning before and i didnt get veryfar with it
but i was highly recomended clonezilla
our boiler broke so we has no heating or hot water, this is the bloody result ^^
CAT-THE-FIFTH (13-03-2009)
I like true image, Never failed for me. Yes, you do need to create a fresh boot disk after updating.
CAT-THE-FIFTH (13-03-2009)
did i beat your £30 ideas?
our boiler broke so we has no heating or hot water, this is the bloody result ^^
Caspar XP worked for me - but now I'd just use a linux live CD and the dd command (to amplify directhex's earlier post!) Thats free - which easily beats your £30 budget!
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CAT-THE-FIFTH (19-03-2009)
I've used the UBCD which includes cloning tools and stuff like MaxBlast and Seatools. Also use the Paragon products which are excellent. Variety of products around your budget and most offer 30 day trial.
CAT-THE-FIFTH (19-03-2009)
Not got around yet to doing anything!!
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