John Ross Posted August 26, 2008 Share Posted August 26, 2008 Has any of the tech experts got an opinion on which is the best software for making images of a drive onto another drive so in a meltdown situation one can get straight back to a reasonably recent backup. I know Acronis seem to be big in this field but I just wondered if there are other cost effective solutions (yes money is very tight). What is best practice? Right now I fly by the pants with three drives and an external with multiple backups of very important scenery files and Gmax source material etc but no images as such. Your advice and opinions would be much appreciated. John Ross Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice_King Posted August 26, 2008 Share Posted August 26, 2008 Acronis is good but if you have another Drive you want to back stuf up to then just copy it there and Zip it at the same time to save space. This method will work for every thing except you C:/ Partition If you just want to back the C:/ up the GHOST would possibly be the cheapest alternative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
}SkOrPn--7 Posted August 26, 2008 Share Posted August 26, 2008 I use Acronis and feel it's just the leader in this field and has never failed. I also use this program which I think may help you but for me running both using Acronis to take full drive images and East-Tec Backup 2008 t䁘o take just the selected files. http://www.east-tec.com/consumer/backup/index.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolter van der Spoel Posted August 26, 2008 Share Posted August 26, 2008 I have Acronis and must admit it works a bloody marvel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heiko Glatthorn Posted August 26, 2008 Share Posted August 26, 2008 I am using the Vista Ultimate complete PC backup feature. Similar to Acronis it makes a mirror image including the boot sector. I have one image on a secondary HDD and one on an external HDD. Saved my .... not only once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Ross Posted August 26, 2008 Author Share Posted August 26, 2008 Mmmm, thanks all. Mango's tale is a salutary lesson to all like me who do not image and by the sound of it Acronis seems to win with Ghost second. I still use XP on the main computer with Vista business on a laptop on order from Dell so Vista not an option for the main. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heiko Glatthorn Posted August 26, 2008 Share Posted August 26, 2008 Yeah, i recommend Acronis as well. I used it before i installed Ultimate. A great feature there is the locked partition for the backup. It's save against intruders like Viruses or Trojans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grumman Posted August 27, 2008 Share Posted August 27, 2008 I'm also looking for such a tool. Anyone have any comments about O&O DiskImage 3 Pro? Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Ross Posted August 27, 2008 Author Share Posted August 27, 2008 I was on the verge of buying Acronis 11 and noticed on another forum that Seagate include a scaled down version of Acronis 10 in their DiscWizard utility. I downloaded it and it is by Acronis and seems to have disc imaging and all the usual backup type funcitons. Anyone used it? (you have to have a Maxtor drive or Seagate for it to function). John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolter van der Spoel Posted August 27, 2008 Share Posted August 27, 2008 I have version 11 installed here John, did that with the new puter, I don't know about that freebee version, but hey if it does the trick the better, just make sure you make a bootable cd/dvd for your system, this enables the thing to start up in safe mode in case of a "hick-up" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Ross Posted August 27, 2008 Author Share Posted August 27, 2008 Thanks Wolter. Yes, a bootable DVD better be done - I am way too sloppy with backups and will pay the price one day. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Webb Posted August 27, 2008 Share Posted August 27, 2008 I sometime use Windows Easy Transfer as a backup utility. It's like doing an image, but without the OS and programs which you can install off program disks. Done one restore and been very impressed. The great thing about it is that you can "restore" to a totally different computer. Not very geeky - but I like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gurdy Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 I am using the Vista Ultimate complete PC backup feature. Similar to Acronis it makes a mirror image including the boot sector. I have one image on a secondary HDD and one on an external HDD. Saved my .... not only once. Only in ultimate? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Webb Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 I am using the Vista Ultimate complete PC backup feature. Similar to Acronis it makes a mirror image including the boot sector. I have one image on a secondary HDD and one on an external HDD. Saved my .... not only once. Only in ultimate? Check here:http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/compare-editions/default.aspx Looks like everything except Basic. I sometime use Windows Easy Transfer as a backup utility. It's like doing an image, but without the OS and programs which you can install off program disks. Done one restore and been very impressed. The great thing about it is that you can "restore" to a totally different computer. Not very geeky - but I like it. More info: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/get/easy-transfer.aspx Forgot to add that you can restore to a different username too. I was administrator on my old setup (Vista Basic), now on Vista Ultimate, I'm Matt (who knew?!). All my Outlook settings, rules, etc went across, no probs. The bad thing I suppose is that I dont think it would backup one's proud FS installation. Only the stuff in %APPDATA%\Microsoft\FSX\ would be backed up. Cheers, Matt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heiko Glatthorn Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 Oh, the Business edition got the complete backup feature as well. I didn't know this. Ultimate and Business then... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a49002 Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 Has any of the tech experts got an opinion on which is the best software for making images of a drive onto another drive John Ross John, If money is tight you can always opt for a slightly different solution and use Open Source Software, in this case an application called Clonezilla (http://www.clonezilla.org/). This program can create images of partitions or an entire disk and the interface is straightforward with user help at the Website. In addition, there is an accompanying program that combines Clonezilla with another Program called 'GParted' which allows you to resize, format, check partitions as well as create images. This application is available at http://gpartedclonz.tuxfamily.org/download.php. Both the above programs originate from the Linux World which is why they arent mentioned much in a Windows environment but they work very well. I have used Gparted for NTFS partitions (such as is commonly used in Win XP etc) on numerous occassions. Generally the programs come as ISO images which you download and burn to a CD, then boot from the CD and off you go. I have also used Ghost and Acronis which are both very good, but its hard to beat zero price, unless you are after a slick user interface. Just another suggestion. Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Ross Posted August 28, 2008 Author Share Posted August 28, 2008 Hello Paul I will also have a look at that. I am all in favour of Open Source after using such programs as OpenOffice.org. Very talented people out there. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice_King Posted August 28, 2008 Share Posted August 28, 2008 John what I would do if I was you is , 1. Purchase a decent size Backup Drive, ie a 1Tb at least and preferable NOT external for what I propose and has stood me in good stead for many years. 2. Run several simple scripts that at regular intervals to copy EVERYTHING from each partition to it's corresponding Backup Partition on you newly acquired Drive. ( I use a SATA Drive in a Carrier that is placed in the PC once a week). 3. Use Norton GHOST or similar to make an EXACT copy of your C:\ in it's entirety. 4 Edit you registry and Windows Environment to trim out the crap and place your user Profile ANYWHERE but C:\ My basic System Does not and will NEVER have ANYTHING other than the Operating System on C:\ and Never have my Profile stored on C:\ either. MS Windows is VERY wasteful of resources and horrendously in-efficient with regard to Temporary File management, but we all knew that right . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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