Favorite disk imaging software? | The Coffeehouse

dentaku

I need more HDD space but I don't want to re-install my OS, apps, virtual instruments etc. because my system is setup just the way I like.

If I buy a new 1TB drive, which software have you guys used successfully to transfer the contents of a smaller drive (with Vista-32bit on it) to a new one? I have another drive with XP on it that I can boot into so it doesn't necessarily need to be something that you run from a bootable CD.

I've actually never messed with disk imaging software before other than once on someone else's computer and we used a utility provided by the harddrive manufacturer.

Hmmm... I think Western Digital has a free tool that does this. I'm going to check it out.

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

As much as I dislike Symantec, their Ghost product does me fine.

Note: don't get the corporate-imaging product, you want the consumer one that lets you clone images.

dentaku

In reply to W3bbo

#Jul 28th @ 2:43 PM

Now that I've searched the Western Digital site I remember that I used their free Data Lifeguard tools a long time ago and it worked. It's weird that it doesn't officially support Vista considering it works with XP which uses NTFS too.

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=606&sid=53&lang=en

I could simply use the bootable CD option and clone the 320GB drive to the newer larger one.

Dodo
I'm your creativity creator™ :)

Well, in theory, you could just create a primary NTFS partition on your new drive, mark it as active and copy all your stuff (files) over and it should boot just fine. Though, I'd recommend you create a 200MB partition in the beginning of the drive where you put the boot stuff, and use the rest for the windows folders, programs and personal files.

If you wan't a disk imaging program, try Acronis True Image (has a free trial).

blowdart
Peek-a-boo

When I've needed to do it I've always used Acronis True Image - it's never let me down.

dahat

After a few hours of pimping my product at the Product Fair... I get to do so again here, wahoo!

*cough* Windows Home Server *cough*

dentaku

In reply to blowdart

#Jul 28th @ 3:25 PM

Ghost comes with so much useless other stuff I can't trust it. I remember an older version of Ghost sticking Grub on a drive without asking a few years back. The newest one comes bundled with a ridiculous amount of other stuff.

Acronis True Image seems like a better solution. They also seem to have a new product that only transfers one drive to another named Migrate Easy 7 and it looks like the 15 day free trial is fully functional.

dentaku

In reply to dahat

#Jul 28th @ 3:44 PM

I'm just transferring everything from one bootable drive to another, WHS would be a bit more than I need Smiley

ManipUni
Proving QQ for 5 years!

In reply to dahat

#Jul 28th @ 3:44 PM

WHS is interesting but far too expensive. With systems starting at £300+... If I was going to spend £300 I would go buy a cheap Dell Desktop and use free tools to turn it into a backup system (e.g. Robocopy, Volume Shadow Copy, Microsoft Backup et al) . Plus the selection seems limiting, since I can only find a couple of them for sale at all.

I also worry that WHS is one of these "perfect or no fit" solutions. You either get exactly what you're after in terms of backups etc or it fails to really accomplish anything (e.g. Microsoft OneCare).

PS - This is my current backup solution Tongue Out

@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL

SET _source=c:\Users
SET _dest=k:\users

SET _what=/COPYALL /B /SEC /MIR
SET _options=/R:0 /W:0 /LOG:Backup_Output.txt /NFL /NDL

ROBOCOPY %_source% %_dest% %_what% %_options% /XJD

LeoDavidson

I recommend Ghost. It isn't perfect (and I'm not a huge fan of Symantec) but it works pretty well.

I used Acronis True Image instead for a few years but I got fed up with its bugs which they never seemed to fix. Bugs in a backup tool are not a good sign, really, especially when they affect image validation or encryption and are known about and sat on for months/years with no fix (while the inevitable fixes-and-adds-nothing yearly update still comes out, asking you for money-for-nothing). In theory it's a better tool that Ghost but, IMO, it isn't in reality.

I'd recommend against Paragon DriveBackup too, FWIW. I bought that after the last straw with Acronis and it turned out to be awful. It seems to be able to do a lot but the UI is an inconsistent mess where it's clear that new features have been added by people who didn't know the old UI, and to do certain things you have to start from a completely different place than other closely related things. It's beyond unintuitive, or at least was about a year ago (it could be better now). I swore I'd never go back to Symantec but a friend switched from Acronis to Ghost a few months before and kept saying it worked well so I cut my losses and gave Ghost a try. I've been happy with it ever since.

One thing Ghost is still lacking, though, is the ability to properly filter what is or isn't included in an image backup. Like several other tools, it can only filter when doing file-based backups. (OTOH, its file-based backups actually complete, unlike certain other tools I could mention!)

dentaku

In reply to LeoDavidson

#Jul 28th @ 4:48 PM

Well I'm just looking to clone a drive to a larger drive and make sure it's still bootable and that the OS will not notice anything changed except for the larger amount of free space. I'm thinking the time limited version of Acronis Migrate Easy should do the job if the free Western Digital tool doesn't.

I'm not sure if there's any reason why a tool that loads off a bootable CD that can clone a drive with XP on it (like WD Data Lifeguard) couldn't also do the same thing to a drive with Vista on it even though the website doesn't say it's for anything newer than XP. It's just a bootable NTFS formatted drive just like an XP system would have.

RLO

In reply to dentaku

#Jul 28th @ 7:05 PM

If you want a free tool, and are comfortable using a command line you can always go the Windows PE route. Windows PE is part of the Windows Automated Installation Kit.

Download

Windows Imaging on Technet

Otherwise go the Symantec Ghost Route.

I used to use Ghost, but once I started using Windows PE for imaging, I never looked back.

dentaku

In reply to RLO

#Jul 28th @ 8:00 PM

I've use BartPE before and it has been very handy when working on other people's computers that where too messed up to boot.

I have another drive with XP installed on it that I can use (using the boot loader built into my Asus motherboard) so I wouldn't even need to do it from a bootable CD.

AndyC

In reply to dentaku

#Jul 28th @ 7:05 PM

dentaku said:
I'm not sure if there's any reason why a tool that loads off a bootable CD that can clone a drive with XP on it (like WD Data Lifeguard) couldn't also do the same thing to a drive with Vista on it even though the website doesn't say it's for anything newer than XP. It's just a bootable NTFS formatted drive just like an XP system would have.

The Vista bootloader actually checks if it's on the drive it was originally installed on IIRC. If the disk serial has changed and the cloning tool doesn't make the appropriate changes to warn Vista that it's been cloned, it won't boot. I seem to recall having to use hacks to get Ghost to work properly when Vista first came out, but it's since been updated (and we've moved over to ImageX anyway).