what is THE BEST hard drive ghosting program?

[Trey22]

Another vote for Acronis True Image.... creates an image from within Windows and has a ton of other options... I use it on all my machines.

 

[corkyg]

Aconis TrueImage all the way. I have had it since version 4.0. It is now up to 9.0. It's big strength for me is cloning one drive to another regardless of size or partitions, and it creates a bootable CD which gives the full program and GUI with Windows not running. That is real power! It can also clone specific partitions. A cloned bootable drive is immediately bootable as well. Imaging is OK, but it has to be restored to be bootable.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Originally posted by: GrammatonJP
Used ghost since 99... have 0 problems.. got the enterprise version.. you can dump images to network shares, etc.. build images, etc.

You can dump to network shares with the normal version

 

[Henny]

True Image!!

Use it from a boot CD.

 

[ta8689]

QUESTION! Ok, so I make an image to use from say a dvd (or a few) Now... is it going to be the whole 37 gigs (about how much crap I usually put on) or will the image be smaller and compressed? Should i not put games on and keep it to the little software (SOO MUCH OF IT!!!)?

 

[macaddict]

Anything made by Norton makes me yack. Acronis TrueImage is so much more flexible and reliable. It goes on all my machines.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Originally posted by: ta8689
QUESTION! Ok, so I make an image to use from say a dvd (or a few) Now... is it going to be the whole 37 gigs (about how much crap I usually put on) or will the image be smaller and compressed? Should i not put games on and keep it to the little software (SOO MUCH OF IT!!!)?

It compresses. Give it a shot. You can choose the compression level and it will tell you the final size. My clean install image with XP, Office, HL2/CS:S, Warcraft III, Firefox, etc. is a little over 2 gigs.

 

[Trey22]

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: ta8689
QUESTION! Ok, so I make an image to use from say a dvd (or a few) Now... is it going to be the whole 37 gigs (about how much crap I usually put on) or will the image be smaller and compressed? Should i not put games on and keep it to the little software (SOO MUCH OF IT!!!)?

It compresses. Give it a shot. You can choose the compression level and it will tell you the final size. My clean install image with XP, Office, HL2/CS:S, Warcraft III, Firefox, etc. is a little over 2 gigs.

True.

What I do is make 2 images, one right after a clean install w/ all the drivers, then another image after installing all my apps/programs/utilities/etc. Data is kept on another drive.

 

[ta8689]

OK. I bought a raptor 74 gig hard drive and my 160 sata will be my storage/ backup drive. Ill partition it and keep my HDD image on one depending on how big it will have to be, then make an image of my raptor with all my crap on it. Then its a matter f making a new image every 6 months to stay ontop of drivers n stuff. Not too hard seeing as I just restore the old one, then update stuff, then make an image of that. Thanks guys. By the way... Are the raptor drives like seriously really noticably faster?

 

[jjsbasmt]

Drive Image was great, but has morphed into Ghost when Symantec purchased PowerQuest. I use Ghost and True Image 9 and love both of them. No issues other than Ghost required .NET from MS.

 

[ta8689]

bump for answer to last ?

 

[Gunslinger08]

Originally posted by: ta8689
OK. I bought a raptor 74 gig hard drive and my 160 sata will be my storage/ backup drive. Ill partition it and keep my HDD image on one depending on how big it will have to be, then make an image of my raptor with all my crap on it. Then its a matter f making a new image every 6 months to stay ontop of drivers n stuff. Not too hard seeing as I just restore the old one, then update stuff, then make an image of that. Thanks guys. By the way... Are the raptor drives like seriously really noticably faster?

Yes, they are. I'm running a 74 gig drive and it's much faster than any of my old drives. The 150 gig is supposed to be even faster.

 

[ta8689]

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: ta8689
OK. I bought a raptor 74 gig hard drive and my 160 sata will be my storage/ backup drive. Ill partition it and keep my HDD image on one depending on how big it will have to be, then make an image of my raptor with all my crap on it. Then its a matter f making a new image every 6 months to stay ontop of drivers n stuff. Not too hard seeing as I just restore the old one, then update stuff, then make an image of that. Thanks guys. By the way... Are the raptor drives like seriously really noticably faster?

Yes, they are. I'm running a 74 gig drive and it's much faster than any of my old drives. The 150 gig is supposed to be even faster.

well i dont exactly have 300 bucks right now

 

[Lyfer]

Question, If I purchase a copy of Arconis Trueimage from newegg for $30, I can use it to backup unlimited number of machines correct? Or do I have to buy a license for each machine I intend to backup?

 

[Buck Naked]

Originally posted by: Lyfer
Question, If I purchase a copy of Arconis Trueimage from newegg for $30, I can use it to backup unlimited number of machines correct? Or do I have to buy a license for each machine I intend to backup?

The right thing to do is buy a copy for each machine.

 

[mshan]

Radified Guide to Ghost:

http://ghost.radified.com/

 

[macaddict]

Actually, NewEgg has a Special on TrueImage right now if you hurry $24.99 for this software is excellent!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832200204

 

[corkyg]

After all is said and done - d0oesn't this thread belong in SOFTWARE?

 

[Baked]

Originally posted by: macaddict
Actually, NewEgg has a Special on TrueImage right now if you hurry $24.99 for this software is excellent!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832200204

$24.99 + $2.99 S/H + Tax = Meh

Downloadable Verion = $29.99

 

[Spicedaddy]

Originally posted by: joshsquall
I like Acronis TrueImage. I like it enough that I bought it.

Yep