program to backup one hard drive to another?

[ZippyDan]

sometimes i just want to backup an entire hd to another hd. i always do this by just plugging in the dvd i want to backup as an internal slave to one of my desktops. i often do this with both desktop and notebook drives.

it seems though that this never works out as easily as it should. using just plain old windows explorer and doing a Select All and dragging the file over, always ends up giving me errors - even after i change ownership of all file to the current user

im looking for a program, preferabbly something freeware, that can just copy everything from one hd to another, with no hassle. any such thing?

 

[statik213]

install this: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta...-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd&displaylang=en
It works on windows xp...

then drop to a command shell (start->run->type cmd [enter])
type
robocopy c:\ d:\ /MIR
assuming c:\ is your source drive and d:\ is your target drive..

try robocopy /? for additional parameters.

 

[corkyg]

True Image (Acronis) does this very well - fast and accurate CLONE function. Best done with a bootable CD so that the OS is not running. That avoids sharing barriers and violations. Most HDD companies provide cloning/duplicating ware as well.

 

[dunkster]

Visit the site for the maker of your new HD (Maxtor, WD, etc.) and download the installation utility for your drive model.

I've used both Maxtor and WD utilities to clone bootable drives, including multi-partition structure, flawlessly. I used the Maxtor utility when the 'new' drive was Maxtor, and the WD utility when the 'new' drive was WD.

Hope this helps!

 

[ZippyDan]

thanks for the suggestions. not really sure if it helps but:

1. i want to be able to do this within WinXP so that i can do other stuff at the same time
2. not sure that a clone is what im looking for, as im looking to backup an entire HD to a folder (like c:\backup), not for the purposes of booting from the backup or restoring the backup, but just because im too lazy to actually pick and choose the important parts

robocopy might be what i want

 

[0roo0roo]

i use ghost