What's the equivalent of Norton Ghost used these days?

[Barfo]

I have a laptop with Windows 7 Professional and I want to swap the hard drive for a bigger one. I don't have the windows dvd or a key to install it so I figured the best way to preserve the Windows license is to make an image of the hard drive and restore it in the new one.

Now I haven't done this since the Norton Ghost days and I doubt it will work with a modern OS, so which program should I get to do this with Windows 7?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Acronis free? CloneZilla?

http://www.maximumpc.com/hard_drive_cloning_software_2014

 

[TheELF]

The dos version still runs fine since it has nothing to do with the OS.
There are newer versions of norton ghost available.

Also every harddrive manufacturer offers a version of acronis disk image which has become the standard in the last years,so if you have a PC and are comfortable with connecting the laptop HDD to it you could get a cloneing software for free.

Also do a search with your laptop model on the net,a lot of them have a OEM windows key "burned" in their Bios so you could do a fresh install without loosing your licence.

 

[Essence_of_War]

In addition to the usual Acronis/Clonezilla suspects, I use Terabyte Image for Win/Linux. It's free to try/test.

 

[nk215]

I used to use GHOST back then. Now I use Macrium and Paragon. The biggest different between them is that you can restore an OS drive with Paragon w/o the need to boot from an external media (CD or USB).

Please note there's significant change in Win8/8.1 which makes alot of pre-Win8 disk image programs troublesome to use. Older softwares do not support UEFI boot.

 

[ctk1981]

I've used acronis free before with no problems. I use Macrium Reflect now to make backups but the images are stored on a 2nd HDD.

 

[jkauff]

The free Acronis clone software that comes with most drives works great. Be sure to follow the instructions, though, like disconnecting any other drives in your system.

 

[rsutoratosu]

how fast is paragon. I'm an old ghost enterprise user and need to buy a new version for the newer os.. sometimes ghost takes forever.. ie 128gb @ 2-3 hours

 

[uberman]

I've been upgrading my laptops with large Seagate drives. The Diskwizard software (free Seagate software package) for transferring files to the Seagate HDs comes with Acronis True Image Free. Works for me.

 

[tweakboy]

In OS you do have one.

 

[ronbo613]

Clonezilla

 

[rgallant]

how fast is paragon. I'm an old ghost enterprise user and need to buy a new version for the newer os.. sometimes ghost takes forever.. ie 128gb @ 2-3 hours

-that depends on your system
before raid two weeks ago just using the built in win7 imaged around the 110gb, I clocked it around 4-5 minutes.[840pro to evo 750 gb] both sata III

using aomei pro now compressed to 80% [80gb] ,around the same or slower + verify.[evo 750gb is now on sata II].

note win7 image will only do/save more than 200gb for more than one image, so it keeps only one image and why I moved to a better backup program.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Revoke the license and then reinstall after formatting.

 

[tcsenter]

I don't have the windows dvd or a key to install it so I figured the best way to preserve the Windows license is to make an image of the hard drive and restore it in the new one.?

If this was a retail FPP version then you can use just about any free key finder to get the activation key. If it was an OEM pre-activated Windows (e.g. from Dell, HP, or another PC maker) then you can use Activation Backup and Restore:

ABR BETA for Win7

I just used it a couple weeks ago to backup the OEM activation on an Acer prebuilt system when I replaced the HDD with SSD, and did clean install of Windows 7 rather than cloning the OEM HDD. Saved the backup files and ABR program to thumb drive, then restored it after installing Windows 7 without product key. Worked a charm.

Genuine unmodified ISOs of Windows 7 SP1 can easily be found for download on teh interwebs. e.g. scroll down to Windows 7 Professional 64-bit with SP1 English

 

[Towermax]

I use Macrium Reflect free--it always works great.

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

Norton Ghost is free the first time, create a new e mail
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/norton_ghost.html