free software to clone drive in win8?

[tommo123]

trial of acronis won't do it, Passist needs to reboot to do it.

any free software to clone my windows drive to another SSD while in windows?

 

[Schmide]

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/12/using-windows-8s-hidden-backup-to-clone-and-recover-your-whole-pc/

 

[corkyg]

Cloning is IMHO, best done outside of Windows using bootable media. Why would you want to stay within Windows?

 

[tommo123]

so i can do other stuff and not cancel an encode that's been going on for almost 2 days

also, schmide, i tried that and end up with a backup file in a folder on the destination drive, not a bootable drive.

 

[JackMDS]

so i can do other stuff and not cancel an encode that's been going on for almost 2 days

Boot CD cloning is much superior to doing it from within Windows.

On my systems using Boot Acronis TI 2013 it takes 8 to 25 Minutes.

 

[tommo123]

but i only have a trial of acronis. besides, as long as the image is good enough to boot from that's all i need. then i can install win8 again over it and choose a clean install

 

[tommo123]

someone on another forum mentioned Macrium Reflect Free

used it and it worked a treat

(updated in case someone else has similar issue)

 

[MontyAC]

Macrium Reflect is a great free imaging program. Fast and reliable.

 

[hamunaptra]

Boot systemrescuecd and use dd .... =) ... easy & free

 

[tommo123]

this is easy and free too

plus i didn't have to reboot to clone the drive

side note - can you get dd onto a bootable flash drive?

i have one as a keychain and would be so useful to have other bootable images on there

 

[Raincity]

Macrium reflect works great and does not have all the bloat True Image incorporates. Cloning a drive within windows wont be a problem.

 

[Virgorising]

but i only have a trial of acronis. besides, as long as the image is good enough to boot from that's all i need. then i can install win8 again over it and choose a clean install

Ironically, I just posted asking input for HDD backup apps. I have always used the remarkable XXclone. But, re Acronis, many HDD manufacturers offer free non trial versions! Pls do a search!

 

[tommo123]

the free ones don't work for long IME. have had various versions with various drives and they have weird limitations iirc

why would i search for a limited version of acronis etc when a free app works fine?

 

[Virgorising]

the free ones don't work for long IME. have had various versions with various drives and they have weird limitations iirc

why would i search for a limited version of acronis etc when a free app works fine?

I was simply saying the free versions of Acronis such as WD and Seagate offer do not expire.

If you found a free app which does what you need it to......that rocks.

 

[Raincity]

The last time I checked. The WD version of True Image did not support the correct alignment for SSD drives.

 

[Snoop]

Macrium reflect works great and does not have all the bloat True Image incorporates. Cloning a drive within windows wont be a problem.

I just started using Macrium after using Norton Ghost and Acronis for years. Macrium is awesome. No bloat. Only runs when scheduled. Much faster than Acronis 2012.

Its simply blows the others away for me. I LOVE the fact that it doesnt install and run 10 tons of crap like Norton and Acronis.