Recommend a good free Ghost program.

[codec_spurt]

I don't know if it's been mentioned, but Clonezilla is a very powerful free open source imaging and cloning utility.

Clonezilla is good. I hate all that command line shit. I get confused.
Have a look at this if you like that stuff:
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/free ... tware.html


For me, the best drive imaging program is this:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-fr ... rogram.htm

Easeus Todo Backup Home

It does incremental backups beautifully. It does partition backups.
It does Folder backup. It backs up USB sticks and SD cards.

Anyway, check out techsupportalerts' article.

[Hypertone]

Cloenzilla isn't really command line. You don't have to enter commands, but the inferface is best suited to Linux geeks.

For anyone looking for a commercial backup/imaging program for automatic image backups inside Windows, Shadowprotect is the best thing I've ever used. You can restore the image to different hardware or virtual machines and it works beautifully.

[codec_spurt]

Cloenzilla isn't really command line. You don't have to enter commands, but the inferface is best suited to Linux geeks.

Do tell! Not really command line. Is that like GUI? 'But the interface is best suited to Linux.' Mmmm..

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-fr ... rogram.htm

[Proxima4]

I'm sure it's had a mention a bit off topic, but when I've had to clone any drives for laptop swaping I used 'Acronis Easy Migrate' which came free with a case and new hard drive bought from Drive My Laptop online.

http://www.drivemylaptop.co.uk/

Everything worked really well.

However I feel after the install I suffered from exception crashes more frequently. This kind of thing is bound to causes issues in the master boot records, for VST licencing I'm sure registration key's don't like murmerings in the MBR or Windows itself, Other KVR members maybe able to shed more light on this.

But considering the ammount of time needed to swap files and locations over to a new drive takes. for me, I would rather install programes and files cleanly to a new drive. yes it takes longer, but in the long run, you have a pc or laptop that run's with more confidence and you have more confidence in.

Just my thoughts.

[brok landers]

haven't read the whole thread, but you might want to have a look on thisone:

http://redobackup.org/

i just found it now, so i have zero experience with it, but from the specs it sounds very good and it's totally free, no stripdown of commercial software, it's opensource.
basically it sounds interresting because it allows for bare-metal restore. it is actually a boot software based on ubuntu, which includes a fullblown backup/recovery software, so no depenency on previously installed operating systems etc is the case (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bare_metal_restore).
so what you do is, you download the file and burn it on a cd or print it on a stick. that's pretty much it. then, for doing the backup, you just start up from the disk or from the stick (make sure your machine/bios actually allows from booting from usb in this case), and backup whatever you want to wherever you want (i wouldn't recommend to backup to a c drive in case of a system backup though, i'd use a removable hd always). for restoring, you'd again just boot from the cd/stick, and the graphical userinterface will guide you in some few, easy steps. you just browse to the backed up file and restore it. that seems to be pretty much it.
haven't found out yet if it can do incremental backups, too.

i'd also be interrested in some opinions of actual users of this software, if there are.

[deleted]

DELETED

[brok landers]

haven't read the whole thread, but you might want to have a look on thisone:

http://redobackup.org/

i just found it now, so i have zero experience with it, but from the specs it sounds very good and it's totally free, no stripdown of commercial software, it's opensource.
basically it sounds interresting because it allows for bare-metal restore. which is actually a boot software based on ubuntu, which includes a fullblown backup/recovery software, so no depenency on previously installed operating systems etc is the case (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bare_metal_restore).
so what you do is, you download the file and burn it on a cd or print it on a stick. that's pretty much it. then, for doing the backup, you just start up from the disk or from the stick (make sure your machine/bios actually allows from booting from usb in this case), and backup whatever you want to wherever you want (i wouldn't recommend to backup to a c drive in case of a system backup though, i'd use a removable hd always). for restoring, you'd again just boot from the cd/stick, and the graphical userinterface will guide you in some few, easy steps. you just browse to the backed up file and restore it. that seems to be pretty much it.
haven't found out yet if it can do incremental backups, too.

i'd also be interrested in some opinions of actual users of this software, if there are.

it's fast, it's easy, it just WORKS ...
but easeus to do provides a top feature - browsing a backuped partition for specific files to search for!

as far as i see it redo backup can do it, too, see here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7lEP6VvIiM

[SASonlinemastering]

I have recently left software solutions and have now opted for an Integral SATA copy station.

It is not so good for incremental back ups but great for quick clone of a drives.

Although hard drive prices are currently expensive. (floods in Thailand)

[codec_spurt]

haven't read the whole thread, but you might want to have a look on thisone:

http://redobackup.org/


i'd also be interrested in some opinions of actual users of this software, if there are.

Funnily enough, I was going to post here about this very program - and then I find it being recommended by others.


This is my take.

I've been dipping into the waters of Linux recently - taking months sometimes to create an install of certain distros. Of course I would like to back these up, so I just did a sector by sector backup in ToDo. Unfortunately when it comes to shove - it will perfectly restore your disk, but it will not restore your boot sector - and you will have a brick. A totally useless piece of ****.
I was gutted. Several installs were lost this way. Ok...

I did some research and - Redo is the answer! No, really. It works absolutely flawlessly - I must say - I have only used it for Linux distros - though it does work on win systems too apparently - but it is just awesome.

I must say though, I had no luck in creating a bootable usb stick with it.
It is a fully fledged Linux distro in it's own right - go here to find out more: http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=redo.

You can create bootable usb sticks with it and format etc. etc...
You can even access the internet with it:
http://redobackup.org/features.phpis

So.. No luck myself creating a bootable USB, but, so what?
I just used the burned cd and it worked perfectly. Tried and tested several times. This program really works.

I tried doing dd commands in linux to create iso's ( but they were not to 9660 standard ) that is all another story - forget that.

No other program can use such a wonderful GUI to backup your linux installs.
I don't doubt for a minute it can do windows too.
It is free. It is being developed. It has a very high rating at Sourceforge.

This is just my experience. Free backup programs for windows are ten a penny.
Some might be better than others. This is the ONLY ONE for Linux.
And it works just great. I wish I had discovered this program before I lost what is nearly a whole year of work in Linux distros. Not any more. I am covered. I love this program. Use with confidence!

[ouroboros]

ok folks, time for some ign'ance:
I have the free Acronis true image that came with my WD harddrive.
I have backed up my files a number of times, so I'm safe for now, .

I would like to move to an SSD.
1) Is it possible to clone my boot drive to SSD
2) Will Acronis do this?

Thanks

[standalone]

ok folks, time for some ign'ance:
I have the free Acronis true image that came with my WD harddrive.
I have backed up my files a number of times, so I'm safe for now, .

I would like to move to an SSD.
1) Is it possible to clone my boot drive to SSD
2) Will Acronis do this?

Thanks

Seagate hard drives come with a free version of Acronis called 'DiscWizard', I guess it must be more or less the same program. This is what I found in their forum:

http://forums.seagate.com/t5/forums/sea ... wizard+ssd

You could compare the manuals to see if they are the same:

http://www.seagate.com/files/www-conten ... .14382.pdf

It was updated last year, be sure to have the latest version of the free Acronis.

People don't seem to be mad about cloning drives, but I guess you could give it a go, there is nothing to lose. You can always install from scratch if it doesn't work right.

[Guenon]

Another vote for Macrium Reflect. The free version is very nice, I've been using it for a while. I got the Pro version for my main system just because it was on a nice sale here: http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/macrium-reflect/

It says the deal might come back, I have no idea how often they do such sales. On that site deals like that typically only last for 24 hours, though.

[codec_spurt]

ok folks, time for some ign'ance:
I have the free Acronis true image that came with my WD harddrive.
I have backed up my files a number of times, so I'm safe for now, .

I would like to move to an SSD.
1) Is it possible to clone my boot drive to SSD
2) Will Acronis do this?

Thanks

That is all very lovely, but if you have a catastrophic failure, how shall you boot into your beloved windows partition where the program resides on to use it to back up what you lost.


I might be wrong, and maybe you made a recovery disk. But I see a lot of people thinking: Oh, I made a backup - if anything goes wrong I shall fix it from there. Only to realize 'doh, can't boot to windoze'.


Then your image is useless. You are totally f*****.
Macrium reflect is indeed very good as Guenon says - it is free - it is fairly fast, very stable. I would use the feature that allows you to make a bootable recovery cd should it all go tits up. The free version is fine - by all means buy the full one and support them if you can, but the free version is tops.


See here if you don't believe me:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-fr ... tion_Guide


Macrium Reflect gets the top choice in it's class:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-fr ... tion_Guide


The latest version comes with PE recovery - Pre-installed environment, basically an os you can boot when all else is dead and the program will run and re-install your back up. It's not perfect, but pretty good for free.

I still use Easus ToDo, but it is hard to find now since they made it payware, but it is still out there and it does incremental and differential backups.


Macrium is the best free, easiest, most stable imaging software you can get for the average user. It is quite fast too. Oh and it can write to vhd format if you want to mount a virtual drive of it later on.


I use this now for my windoze, but still use ReDo for my Linux.

Read the reviews above. They are pretty thorough. Acronis used to be the king but unless you are using an old version 8, the newer ones have stability problems. You don't want to back up your hd thinking everything is hunky dory and then when you restore your release you are totally f*****. Macrium works.
Then again, I am paranoid and use Paragon too, and that is pretty excellent also. Macrium is much easier to use though, and like I said - fast.



To answer your questions ouroboros:
1/ Is it possible to clone my boot drive to SSD?

As long as your SSD is the same size or bigger than the drive you cloned originally, i.e. if your main hd was 500Gb and you want to transfer that to a 256Mb SSD, you might have problems, some programs allow this though - to clone to a smaller drive, but it escapes me right now which ones.


2/ Will Acronis do this?

Of course it will, assuming that the program where you ran Acronis from in the first place is where you will run it from in the future to do the replacement.

You really must look into recovery disks - special disks that are very often Linux based that can be booted from a non-operational computer and will call the program off the cd itself, and then find the image file (can still be on you windows machine - it will still read) and then restore.

It sounds confusing but is not. If you have any problems pm me, it would only take a couple of minutes to explain.

But please do not rely on an image you made in windows, for windows to fail and then for you to be really f*****. Some imagine sofware will still read the image you made in windows - fair enough, but others will laugh and say - you need to be running windows to restore this backup.


That is my experience anyway.


There is so much high-quality free imaging software out there now that can run from a recovery cd (linux) should your system go tits up, that you should get some piece of mind. Many can even automatically access internet to recover drivers and do diagnostics too. Just make sure you have one burned. If the system becomes unbootable - that will just be the os - most the time the data files of the backup image will be intact. But it really doesn't hurt to have one of them on a separate hd too.

[cimoc]

I might be wrong, and maybe you made a recovery disk. But I see a lot of people thinking: Oh, I made a backup - if anything goes wrong I shall fix it from there. Only to realize 'doh, can't boot to windoze'.

Please excuse the dummie question, I have been very lucky never to be in a situation where I needed to use a disk image (YET ), but if you have cloned the system disk (say C) to another disk (say D), and the disk C dies, won't you be able to set D as booting device in the BIOS and boot into windows from there? Isn't that the whole idea of cloning you system disk? Or have I completely misunderstood the whole idea?

[codec_spurt]

I might be wrong, and maybe you made a recovery disk. But I see a lot of people thinking: Oh, I made a backup - if anything goes wrong I shall fix it from there. Only to realize 'doh, can't boot to windoze'.

Please excuse the dummie question, I have been very lucky never to be in a situation where I needed to use a disk image (YET ), but if you have cloned the system disk (say C) to another disk (say D), and the disk C dies, won't you be able to set D as booting device in the BIOS and boot into windows from there? Isn't that the whole idea of cloning you system disk? Or have I completely misunderstood the whole idea?

It's not a dumb question at all. An intelligent one in fact.

It depends whether your C drive or your D drive are on the same physical disk.
i.e. partitioned.

If so in that case, it may be that a virus wipes your C drive (quite common) and it will leave your D drive intact in which case you can restore, but you still need the software to do it - if that software was on your C drive you are f****d.

This is where a recovery disk will come into play - no probs - boot into a linux recovery cd - restore - job jobbed.

But if you have a bastard of a virus that not only knocks out your C drive - it may do your D drive as well - you have had it.

Now, if your C drive is on one physical drive and your D drive is on another physical drive you stand much more chance.


My advice: Always back up 'offline' to a separate hard drive - usb.
That way - in the worst case scenario - you can call up your linux recovery cd and use the image data from there to restore.


So, do you have your image of your C drive on a separate physical disk?
It would be best if you did, and one that is outside of your physical computer - i.e - usb.


Then nothing can touch you. You might even get voltage spikes and other nasties - motherboard failure even - if you have a clone of your C drive on an external disk you can restore from there.

The C drive is for the operating system. The D drive is for data. The D drive you don't even really need to clone just copy.

But C Drive is where it is at. That is where all your programs and os and setup files are stored.


Use the programs mentioned, back them up to an external drive. Also make a backup of your D drive too (data) this is where all your cubase/ableton/Studio One files are kept.

Once you restore your C drive - then you just need to copy back your D drive and you should be good to go.


Trouble is, you can get MBR viruses or just corruptions that will wreck your whole system, then it won't know your C drive from your D drive from your a******.

I use MBR Wizard.
http://mbrwizard.com/

Should any corruption happen for any reason - it can be restored.
There are other precautions of course, some built into the windows recovery disk itself. But if you ever get an MBR failure just ask - it may seem impossible to fix, but can nearly always be fixed - with the right tools.


Still, this is an important area to think about. I have a few different ways to restore my MBR should it go tits up....

I think Super Grub is one of them:
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/super-grub2-disk/


There may be more than one reason why you can't boot into your windoze os.
And bootloaders are not the least of those problems.

Still, if you want to restore you full C drive:
Macrium Reflect. Paragon. Acronis. ReDo. ToDo.


Just make sure you have that clone off line on a usb drive and even if you have to sort out the boot loader to get it working, you will be able to re-clone your drive. And of course, the data you had on your D drive will be backed up, won't it.


C drive needs a clone. D drive just needs a copy.

I clone both at the same time. And most recovery software will let you choose what data you want restored by creating a virtual drive you can read from.



BACK UP YOUR IMAGES/CLONES TO AN EXTERNAL USB DRIVE!
If your system goes down - hard drive might crash - happens - you will be able to put in a new hard disk and re-clone. If your back up of your C drive was on the D drive and it all f**** up, then you have nothing to work with do you.
External USB drive - no probs - Most motherboards these days will allow you to not just read from the external USB but also to boot from it.







Oh as an example in point - I have a friend who had Acronis true image with his new seagate hard drive - it makes an image from the system (learn about cold and hot imaging) while the computer is running. But if the drive fails he can not use the software to restore - with a recovery cd you can read/write/recover as long as the disk is not physically damaged.

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=301710


http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB. ... 4840381/21



I don't know if i mentioned this:

BUT ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR IMAGE/CLONE TO AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE AND HAVE A RECOVERY CD THAT WILL READ THAT DATA IN SOFTWARE FROM THAT CD.