Best software to make a hard drive image

[ingeborgdot]

I want to make an image of the hard drive so that if something goes wrong I can just put in the disc and restore it to like new. What do you recommend? Or is there such a thing?

 

[Rottie]

Acronic True Image or Norton Ghost will image the hard drive only after you install OS and before you install any applications/games/etc. That way it will restore to new.

 

[gizbug]

Acronis. Wouldn't think of touching norton.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Norton Ghost is a good program, I have used it in the past with success. Loads of symantec / norton haters here though (due to their home user security products), personally I would use whichever was the cheapest (Ghost or Acronis)

If you own a Seagate or Maxtor hard drive, you can get acronis true image for free.

 

[ingeborgdot]

We have many computers with many users. Most of the users are very computer illiterate. We are using this if (or when) they mess up the computer. We don't want to reinstall the os and then all the apps etc. We just want an image ready so we can just do a quick fix. Does this sound like it's possible?

 

[EagleKeeper]

I have had to do this a couple of times for my kids & family members.

Ghost is easy enough that I could handle the situation long distance.

 

[mc866]

I haven't used Ghost much but when I did I didn't find it to be as intuitive as Acronis. This was a while back though. I've been using Acronis since version 7 or so and it's been great. I suggest Acronis.

 

[jonmcc33]

Originally posted by: Rottie
Acronic True Image or Norton Ghost will image the hard drive only after you install OS and before you install any applications/games/etc. That way it will restore to new.

Well, you actually image it after you've installed all the applications so you don't have to install them again.

 

[KeithP]

You might want to give Drive Snapshot a look. There is a 30 day trial available.

http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/down.htm

-KeithP

 

[powerMarkymark]

After many problems with Ghost I will now only use Acronis.

M@rc

 

[Rottie]

Originally posted by: jonmcc33

Originally posted by: Rottie
Acronic True Image or Norton Ghost will image the hard drive only after you install OS and before you install any applications/games/etc. That way it will restore to new.

Well, you actually image it after you've installed all the applications so you don't have to install them again.

yeah I did.

 

[nordloewelabs]

i use the freeware DriveImage XML from inside of a free BartPE disc. works flawlessly.

only down side is that if you image a drive/partition of 20GB, you can only restore that image to another partition of 20Gb or larger....even if the original drive/partiton you imaged were half empty. that's actually a commom problem in many imaging programs. however, from what i've heard, Ghost does not have this problem.