Is there good (FREE) hdd cloning SW?

[bupkus]

We've decided the best backup strategy would be to clone the hdd on the PC and keep daily file backups. Should the hdd fail the office manager could simply unplug primary SATA internal drive and plug in the secondary SATA internal drive. Then just restore the most current file backup.
This approach is attractive as their tech support (me) has moved out of state.

Key to this would be some nice cloning SW. I used to us Norton Ghost for the boot on USB floppy but I don't use floppies anymore and would like something simple and current. I don't like cloning from inside Windows but maybe that has been resolved with shadow copy.
Currently using Windows 7 Ultimate and XP Media Edition.

I could use some feedback on this as I haven't done a clone in years.

Thanks.

 

[lstratos]

We've decided the best backup strategy would be to clone the hdd on the PC and keep daily file backups. Should the hdd fail the office manager could simply unplug primary SATA internal drive and plug in the secondary SATA internal drive. Then just restore the most current file backup.
This approach is attractive as their tech support (me) has moved out of state.

Key to this would be some nice cloning SW. I used to us Norton Ghost for the boot on USB floppy but I don't use floppies anymore and would like something simple and current. I don't like cloning from inside Windows but maybe that has been resolved with shadow copy.
Currently using Windows 7 Ultimate and XP Media Edition.

I could use some feedback on this as I haven't done a clone in years.

Thanks.

Cheap way ghost with usb boot disk but you can alway spend a little money and get something like shadow protect, ghost within windows to image file, can restore into dis-similar hardware within minutes..

boot off the shadow protect cd and restore from network, usb flash or hdd, etc.. there are a lot of these bare metal back and restore like back up my info. appassure replay..

i use these for a lot of windows 2003/2008 servers and have no issues.. some even do exchange servers with single item restore from an exchange information store

 

[EQTitan]

Acronis 2010 home is awesome, make boot cd/usb run acronis, select additional options, clone...walk away.

 

[corkyg]

Acronis 2010 home is awesome, make boot cd/usb run acronis, select additional options, clone...walk away.

Echo this! I run it with bootable CDR or thumb drive. Proportional cloning can be done between drives of different sizes.

 

[EQTitan]

Echo this! I run it with bootable CDR or thumb drive. Proportional cloning can be done between drives of different sizes.

You can also have acronis strip the drivers should the drive be going into a machine not identical to the drive be cloned....

 

[bupkus]

Acronis 2010 home is awesome, make boot cd/usb run acronis, select additional options, clone...walk away.

I hate to say but I have been reading some horrible reviews about the 2010 version.
What's up with that?
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/316602/review/true_image_home_2010.html

 

[bupkus]

I'm looking at newegg and they have 4 version of Acronis.
1. Acronis Disk Director 10
2. Acronis True Image Home 2010 Amaray Case ($20 after $20 MIR)
3. Acronis True Image Home 2010 Mini Box
4. Acronis True Image Home 2010 Large Box

 

[Evadman]

Acronis 2010 home is awesome, make boot cd/usb run acronis, select additional options, clone...walk away.

this times a lot.

 

[bupkus]

this times a lot.

What do you mean?

 

[corkyg]

I hate to say but I have been reading some horrible reviews about the 2010 version.
What's up with that?

I didn't see anything bad in that review. I'veen using it foir over 6 months on 3 machines - it's better than TI-11. Been using it for years since version 6.

I never run it from within Windows - always use the bootable CDR it prepares. That gets the OS out of the way.

 

[bupkus]

I read somewhere that Acronis can provide the creation of bootable restore CDs or DVDs or even a restore partition just like with my Dell laptop. Is that true and is it in ATI Home 2010?

 

[corkyg]

The Acronis bootable Rescue Media can be created in CDR, DVD, Thumb Drive, or other bootable media. That provides a good GUI based on Linux that can clone anything the drive can read - OS independent. I clone a RAID array to a single backup drive. The Rescue Media can also do all the backup and restore functions. This is my ace in the hole made by the program:

By ATI Home 2010 do you mean TrueImage 2010?

That is the newest version:

 

[bupkus]

I just got Acronis True Image Home 2010 from UPS.
Did I make a mistake in buying this product? I need a product that I can clone a hard drive on several different computers. These computers are used in businesses where there is not access to the internet.
Acronis made little of the need to first activate the product on their website. Maybe Paragon.

 

[Emulex]

Symantec BESR 2010 is the best - it just works. no activation b/s just a serial.

 

[bupkus]

Too much money.
I have an old version of Ghost that created floppies for cloning. I can't get to them right now so I need something else.
I hope the Trial version of Acronis will do this for me.

 

[Liquidfluidity]

I used WD HD Clone Utilities - worked like a charm and was fast and efficient. Had no errors. I'd use it again and it was free.......

 

[thedosbox]

I used WD HD Clone Utilities - worked like a charm and was fast and efficient. Had no errors. I'd use it again and it was free.......

This. Both Seagate and WD offer freely downloadable utilities for cloning drives that work so long as one of the drives involved is theirs.

 

[BTA]

Clonezilla seems to work fine for me.

 

[Matt84]

Macrium Reflect Free Edition

 

[BarkingGhostar]

When using the Intel Matrix Storage on a couple of home computers, the on-motherboard solution is terrific for a perfect cloning mechanism. Well, at least that has been my experience.