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Good HDD cloning software...
- Thread starter dodge8604
- Start date
IMHO Trueimage is the easiest to use - take a look here
The have a trial version, so if you can clone your disk within the trial period it won't cost you a penny.
It will burn a bootable CD-ROM version for you, although I have had more success by selecting 'make an iso file' from within TrueImage and burning the iso file to a CD-ROM with Nero.
Although you can clone the HDD you are booted from, it is better to boot to CD-ROM and clone the disk from there.
The have a trial version, so if you can clone your disk within the trial period it won't cost you a penny.
It will burn a bootable CD-ROM version for you, although I have had more success by selecting 'make an iso file' from within TrueImage and burning the iso file to a CD-ROM with Nero.
Although you can clone the HDD you are booted from, it is better to boot to CD-ROM and clone the disk from there.
I recently grabbed DriveClone off of
It was just released a couple months ago and works great! I copied 8GB of data in less than 20 min. It is packed full of options (backing up to DVD, network drives, USB 2.0, etc). Also, it runs in a Pre-OS environment, unlike some of the others out there that attempt to do so while the entire OS is loaded. I've used quite a few different cloning utilities over the last few years, but this tops them all.
The only downside is that it's a 15-day trial ($49.95 to buy), but if you only need it this one time, then there you go. Later if you decide you want a reliable imaging utility for making backups, you might consider it worth the money.
Acronis's TrueImage is another favorite of mine, but it's just not as fast on the cloning side as DriveClone - though it's imaging features are unmatched!
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
It was just released a couple months ago and works great! I copied 8GB of data in less than 20 min. It is packed full of options (backing up to DVD, network drives, USB 2.0, etc). Also, it runs in a Pre-OS environment, unlike some of the others out there that attempt to do so while the entire OS is loaded. I've used quite a few different cloning utilities over the last few years, but this tops them all.
The only downside is that it's a 15-day trial ($49.95 to buy), but if you only need it this one time, then there you go. Later if you decide you want a reliable imaging utility for making backups, you might consider it worth the money.
Acronis's TrueImage is another favorite of mine, but it's just not as fast on the cloning side as DriveClone - though it's imaging features are unmatched!
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
cdogg
Interesting - more competition. I've bookmarked that site.
I like the fact that Trueimage will run from a CD-ROM. Have you tried Trueimage set to maximum compression? I regularly backup a 30GB partition with about 14GB on it in around 20 mins across a network. The resultant 'tib' file is around 6 GB.
The only kind of drive Trueimage can't handle at the moment is any kind of RAID - that's when its booted from its own CD-ROM, stand alone.
I have found some issues running Trueimage on an old PC running windows98 and it's none too keen if you modify the contents of the backup image either. (Make a copy of the 'tib' file first if you plan on trying that.) I can't say I am over impressed with their support either. I still love the product though.
Interesting - more competition. I've bookmarked that site.
I like the fact that Trueimage will run from a CD-ROM. Have you tried Trueimage set to maximum compression? I regularly backup a 30GB partition with about 14GB on it in around 20 mins across a network. The resultant 'tib' file is around 6 GB.
The only kind of drive Trueimage can't handle at the moment is any kind of RAID - that's when its booted from its own CD-ROM, stand alone.
I have found some issues running Trueimage on an old PC running windows98 and it's none too keen if you modify the contents of the backup image either. (Make a copy of the 'tib' file first if you plan on trying that.) I can't say I am over impressed with their support either. I still love the product though.
I forgot to add the links.
DriveClone
TrueImage
You need to compare their features carefully and pick the right one for you. For instance DriveClone claims to handle RAID 0 & 1 Trueimage can't (yet). Tueimage does both image and file backups - you need another product from farstone to do file backups.
DriveClone
TrueImage
You need to compare their features carefully and pick the right one for you. For instance DriveClone claims to handle RAID 0 & 1 Trueimage can't (yet). Tueimage does both image and file backups - you need another product from farstone to do file backups.
Yeah, it's always nice to see a little competition to keep companies motivated in updating often and packing in new features with each new release.
Honestly, I didn't time it myself when I copied the 8GB, but the erradic timer in DriveClone showed that the one-to-one copy (no compression) completed in just over 14 minutes at almost 600MB/min. The drives involved were more than 4 years old, so you can picture the low cache (2MB) and lack of features found in SATA being big factors too.
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
Honestly, I didn't time it myself when I copied the 8GB, but the erradic timer in DriveClone showed that the one-to-one copy (no compression) completed in just over 14 minutes at almost 600MB/min. The drives involved were more than 4 years old, so you can picture the low cache (2MB) and lack of features found in SATA being big factors too.
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
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