• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Hard Drive Copy Utility

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
No it doesn't. I just made an image and if I were to restore that image to my big, new drive it'll wipe out the partition (and everything in it!) Big warnings saying DON'T DO THIS IF YOU HAVE DATA, etc....
Click to expand...
to restore your drive it copies over the partition and all the info associated with it , including wiping whatever info you may have changed since creating the image. all the programs so far discussed , give you the option to replace just a single partition with your image. of course you are going to lose your data. your existing data because your replacing it with your image of your old data.
if this doesn't make sense just return the computer to dell and get a game cube.
good luck
 
Originally posted by: bluemax
Data Lifeguard won't copy system files in use. :| Useless prog for duplicating a good Windows install....
I need Ghost myself. I'm in the same boat....
Click to expand...

Thats true, that's the reason why you restart the pc using the FLOPPY that you create from downloading the program. It works from a DOS like program and it works very good ever since I've used it a time or two.
 
Originally posted by: kursplat
if this doesn't make sense just return the computer to dell and get a game cube.
good luck
Click to expand...

Wow... gee... that was a whole lotta' help. That's great, really! Thanks a lot! You're a really great guy, Kursplat!

:frown:

*cough* I don't think it's unreasonable to want a program that can copy ALL files from drive "x" to drive "y" including those pesky windows system files WITHOUT destroying the data held on drive "y". :frown:

Using WD's program from DOS would work perfectly if it weren't for one more pesky problem... it won't recognise the drives as FAT and execute the program. They're only FAT32 for crying out loud... I didn't even go with NTFS for that and other reasons.


[assuming a much dumber accent] And I cain't seem to pull this disk outta' dis' here draaive... mebbe' if ah pour some melted butter in there and ripped it out with pliers.... Dere! Gots mah disk... hey! Com-pooter sez it hain't werkin' no more! I'm callin' tech support on this peeese-o-#%^!!
(sadly, a true story.) 😛
Click to expand...
 
I don't think it's unreasonable to want a program that can copy ALL files from drive "x" to drive "y" including those pesky windows system files WITHOUT destroying the data held on drive "y".
Click to expand...
do you want to do incremental backups so you have a mirror of your existing drive ? or do you want to take a snap shot of say , a fresh install so you can restore it , if need be , at a later date ? is the data held on drive "y"all on one partition or are there multiple partitions? i use 2 partitions so i can keep my docs folder and other things separate from my operating system files. take a snap shot of a fresh install (setup just the way i want) , and if something happens i can restore that no problem.
if you have 1 partition for the whole drive , then any program that copies ALL the system files and hard drive info, in a restored as was and bootable manner is going to want to overwrite everything.
now if you just want to incrementally backup changes as you go there is software that can do that very well. but it probably won't be able to make an image that you can just lay on a different hard drive , boot and go.

for creating an image of a drive , Drive Image 7 works great. you can even do your boot partition from within windows.
good luck
 
bluemax


Quote:

But if you have data on drive C and drive D, want to make a complete copy of drive C (including boot) but leave data on D intact, will it still do it?


You didn't read the directions far enough.
1 make an image of c drive
2 make another image of d drive and test it
3 put c drive image on d drive
4 explore d drive image from WITHIN trueimage and copy only the files you desire from the original d drive image to your newly restored d drive.

It's really very simple, I have done it many many times
The reason why Trueimage is so good is because it is so complete.
 
Originally posted by: kursplat
<blockquote>Quote
I looked at what you guys recommended, but it doesn't seem to want to copy the drive verbatim.
Click to expand...
ghost or drive image ? or both? did you get either of them or are you just looking at a web sites about those programs.[/quote]

If you want to run a program that creates images directly to DVD, I would DISCOURAGE PQ DI 7.0. Even though it says it does it, I doesn't work for either of the two DVD-/+RW drives I've tried and I have seen anyone on the web say it has worked writing directly to DVDs, CD yes, DVDs no.

Buyer beware.

 
I can't believe no one has mentioned 'dd' yet ;-)

If you don't know anything about Linux, then forget it ( obvisously you're not an "expert", otherwise you wouldn't have asked for a "hard drive copy utility" in the first place 🙂 ).
Otherwise, just use 'dd' command. No, you don't need to install Linux on your system, just use one of those Linux running on CD, boot your system into Linux, and the copy command can be as simple as:

# dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/dev/hda2 bs=256k

This command duplicate your first IDE drive to the second IDE drive, at the maximum speed your disk can handle.

Of course, since the whole operating system has to run on a single CD, not every device driver is included, which means it may not recognize some uncommon adapters or disks.

The obvious advantage? It doesn't cost a penny.


 
TrueImage 7 makes Ghost look clumsy. Anyway - one of its slickest features is that it auto burns you a boot CD with the complete program - and this becomes the best way to clone a drive. Cloning makes a perfect duplicate - no image file to restore - but you have to destroy anything on the target drive. But, that is true with any cloning operation.

If all you want is an image file of a drive, then that can be done without destroying data on the target drive.

Here is an interesting wrinkle - once you create the bootable CD, it in turn can be used on any computer without regard to TrueImage being installed or not. That makes it a perfect tool for those who work on other people's machines, etc.
 
After years of using Ghost succesfully, it snagged on my current install and without upgrading, I decided to try other proggies. I like Acronis but found CasperXP to be the best thing out there IMO...simple to use while in the OS and does RAID0 effectively.
 
Originally posted by: corky-g
TrueImage 7 makes Ghost look clumsy.  Anyway - one of its slickest features is that it auto burns you a boot CD with the complete program - and this becomes the best way to clone a drive.  Cloning makes a perfect duplicate - no image file to restore - but you have to destroy anything on the target drive.  But, that is true with any cloning operation.

If all you want is an image file of a drive, then that can be done without destroying data on the target drive.

Here is an interesting wrinkle - once you create the bootable CD, it in turn can be used on any computer without regard to TrueImage being installed or not.  That makes it a perfect tool for those who work on other people's machines, etc.
Click to expand...

Did you get it to write natively to a DVD? (ie, without saving image to another Hd then doing a file copy to DVD)
 
I'm not quite sure what you are asking - but let me put it this way. TrueImage 7 will create a bootable CDR - I don't know about DVD - I don't need or do them. That bootable CDR is the way to clone - it is graphically better than a Windows reboot (uses the command prompt format a la CHKDSK.) It gives you the full menu and allows cloning to external Firewire as well as USB drives. I do IDE to IDE and it is faster than Powerquest's DriveCopy 4. I do 5 of these every week. The bootable CDR, once made, can be used on ANY PC.

Anyway, I will check the DVD possibility and get back to you.

OK - here is what the manual says about media:

<DIR>

<DIR>

You can store images on almost any PC storage device: local hard drives, network drives or a variety of IDE, SCSI, FireWire (IEEE-1394), USB (1.0, 1.1 and 2.0) and PC card (formerly called PCMCIA) removable media drives, including CD-R(W), DVD-recordable, magneto-optical, Iomega Zip and Jaz drives. </DIR></DIR>
 
Drive Image is now being sold by Symantec. Here's what their website says:

"On December 5, 2003, Symantec Corporation acquired the technology and interests of PowerQuest corporation.

===================================================

Also, I have used Partition Magic to obtain partition sizes and copy one drive to another. It's a well regarded product.

I don't know if it will automatically duplicate partitions. I just bought the new version because my old version is too out of date to be useful. I haven't had time to install it yet, so I can't be any real help on whether it will automatically create the partions.
 
I have used Drive Image and Ghost; most recently I tried "Casper" (yes, sounds very similar) and it worked very well.
 
Originally posted by: pdn
Is one of these HDD's a Western Digital? If so download the <a target=new class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp#dlgtools">Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools V. 11.0</a> utility and it has a free drive to drive copy program. This is what I like about Western Digital. 🙂
Click to expand...
...IME, it's SLOW, though. In ghost, you should be able to select disk from disk and it should copy the partitions just fine.

Also, if you make a bootable CD, you can use Ghost w/ a CDROM.
 
Originally posted by: corky-g
I'm not quite sure what you are asking - but let me put it this way.  TrueImage 7 will create a bootable CDR - I don't know about DVD - I don't need or do them.  That bootable CDR is the way to clone - it is graphically better than a Windows reboot (uses the command prompt format a la CHKDSK.)  It gives you the full menu and allows cloning to external Firewire as well as USB drives.  I do IDE to IDE and it is faster than Powerquest's DriveCopy 4.  I do 5 of these every week.  The bootable CDR, once made, can be used on ANY PC.

Anyway, I will check the DVD possibility and get back to you.

OK - here is what the manual says about media:

<DIR>

<DIR><FONT size=3>

<P align=justify>You can store images on almost any PC storage device: local hard drives, network drives or a variety of IDE, SCSI, FireWire (IEEE-1394), USB (1.0, 1.1 and 2.0) and PC card (formerly called PCMCIA) removable media drives, including CD-R(W), DVD-recordable, magneto-optical, Iomega Zip and Jaz drives. </P></DIR></DIR></FONT>
Click to expand...

Yea, the backup images to a DVD-R, DVD+R, or DVD+RW. This program has either made saucers or failed (on the RW).

I just want to let people know, despite that it says it can, I have yet to hear from or read in googlegroups search that someone wrote to a DVD natively (that's the medium that holds the backup image, not the bootable CD.)

I suppose I should get an external drive enclosure. Did you backup to firewire or USB attached HD?
 
[/i]</P></DIR></DIR></FONT>[/quote]I suppose I should get an external drive enclosure. Did you backup to firewire or USB attached HD?[/quote]

An external will work - but it is slower. No, I use IDE. I have two drives mounted in each computer and can access either one separately or both together for cloning.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top