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Which systems imaging software do you recommend.

I like Ghost 2003 version, but it will not do Vista / Win 7,. newer versions can. Some folks prefer Acronis and it is reasonably priced and works well. Can't speak to Driveimage, but I have heard of it. In any event, it is always best to use these programs by themselves or from a rescue cd you create from the program. I do not trust any program to make a system image properly, when doing it while the OS & Apps are running. Ghost boots to DOS to do it's work. I am pretty sure Acronis does it similarly when you use the rescue cd the program can make.
 
for what OS? what features matter? The windows 7 image backup works well, and simply. But it doesn't seem as functional and compressible as those made with some programs you've mentioned
 
I was planning on creating an image of the fresh install of Windows 7 that I plan to do soon. So I was looking around for a good systems image software and I couldn't really find any highly rated free solutions. If I download a trial version of Acronis or Ghost, can I still perform a backup and be able to restore the image afterwards? If so, I don't get how a 30 day limit trial is different than the paid version since this is only a 1 time affair for me.
 
I imagine they will all do what you want, I went with Acronis simply because that's what stuck in my mind after hanging around here for a while, so far I've used it once to recover from an image (which I made inside the Win7 OS) and it worked perfectly. FYI Acronis 2010 fucks with WinXP machine share folders but it's an easy fix in the registry
 
Jumpman23 said:
I was planning on creating an image of the fresh install of Windows 7 that I plan to do soon. So I was looking around for a good systems image software and I couldn't really find any highly rated free solutions. If I download a trial version of Acronis or Ghost, can I still perform a backup and be able to restore the image afterwards? If so, I don't get how a 30 day limit trial is different than the paid version since this is only a 1 time affair for me.
Click to expand...

if you have a newer western digital harddrive, go on their website- you can most likely get a free for-wd acronis imaging+partitioning program. If the ability to store that image as a restoration partition like oems place on systems isn't a big deal; I highly suggest just using the windows imaging backup software; it'll make sure all linked files/partitions/directories are included, and you can incrementally add/alter the image- which is useful when you have your software structure well in place and a recent round of driver and application updates has made the rounds.
 
So if I download a trial of Acronis and use that to back up, after 30 days can I restore that image back? Or am I restricted from running the software to restore the image till I buy it?

I found a image backup software called Macrium Reflect and from the reviews it seems like a great freeware. Has anyone heard of it or used it?
 
I recommend Acronis... never tried Macrium.

i have installed the trial and backed up, and then restored after 30 days, but the problem is that you cannot do another backup of that machine until you purchase. it's not too expensive so that's no problem.
 
Chiefcrowe said:
I recommend Acronis... never tried Macrium.

i have installed the trial and backed up, and then restored after 30 days, but the problem is that you cannot do another backup of that machine until you purchase. it's not too expensive so that's no problem.
Click to expand...

I picked up a copy of True Image 2010 for $20 at Best Buy this week. The install disc was bootable you you did not have to install it to create system images.
 
Raincity said:
I picked up a copy of True Image 2010 for $20 at Best Buy this week. The install disc was bootable you you did not have to install it to create system images.
Click to expand...

is it true that acronis has moved to a subscription model, like A/V? (one year of use then pay up again)

I'm looking to find something for when I upgrade to win7 - I've been happy with true image 11 on xp-x64, but apparently that doesn't work on windows 7.
 
I used filezilla to clone my win7rc disk before upgrading to RTM. Just mentioning that that works. Didnt try backing up to files tho, because I required a clone.
 
Not for the Home version. It may be that way ( not sure ) on the Business or Server versions.
 
has anybody used shadowprotect?

http://store.storagecraft.com/acb/stores/1/ShadowProtect-Desktop-Edition-35-P55C8.aspx

I think it's down the them or norton, acronis forums are filled with people raging on both their products and their comically bad support. The one thing that looks good though is that acronis can backup to .zip files, which would make it easier to recover files onto a computer without acronis installed (like my mac at work) should everything go to hell at a bad time.

ghost forum seems better, but I still have bad memories of symantec bloatware 7-8 years ago. How are they doing on that front?
 
I use Clonezilla. It's free/open source, and supports a lot of filesystems. It can also create a "rescue" disk, although it seems trivial, and is featured in quite a few cloning softwares from what I have seen.
 
Why did no one tell me how easy disk imaging is these days? I remember trying it years ago with crappy software that had waves upon waves of nonsense options so I never tried it again. I just used Acronis True Image 2010 and imaged my whole Windows hard drive in less than 30 minutes start to finish... wow, so easy.
 
imported_brandon said:
I use Clonezilla. It's free/open source, and supports a lot of filesystems. It can also create a "rescue" disk, although it seems trivial, and is featured in quite a few cloning softwares from what I have seen.
Click to expand...

I use Clonezilla, too. However, it is an 'all or nothing' approach. At this time you cannot retrieve an individual file; you must rollback to the entire disk/partition image. They are working on providing this functionality, according to the SourceForge page.
 
bruceb said:
I like Ghost 2003 version, but it will not do Vista / Win 7...
Click to expand...

Actually, it will. Just ghosted my new i7 build last week with it and have tested the image by actually restoring without any issues. I've used it without problems on Vista and Win 7.
 
If your making images of entire partitions or hard disks, then I highly recommend Acronis. Its simple and works great, plus its cheap. The best part is you don't have to install anything. It will boot from the dvd do everything from there so there is no worry about being compatible with any particular operating system unless you want to use the included software. If you need a more comprehensive backup program then you might want to see other options though.
 
That is nice to know. Too bad the folks at Ghost and Radified.com
forums (ghost support) do not know 2003 can work with Windows 7
 
Windows deployment services is free (with 2k3 r2+) and will network boot the pc for you. You can access individual files in the image and the like if you want or need to.
 
To clarify, I only do images by partition to/from...since I've always had multiple partitions on my drives. Ghost 2003 may not be able to do entire disks...but it 100% works for partitions with Vista and Win 7.
 
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