Hard drive cloning programs

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  1. Posts : 8
    win 7 pro 64 bit
       #1

    Hard drive cloning programs


    What are good, easy to use colning software for Win 7. Kelly
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  2. Posts : 6,618
    W7x64 Pro, SuSe 12.1/** W7 x64 Pro, XP MCE
       #2

    I can't tell you yet, except to say to avoid Acronis TI 2010. I have spent the day trying to get it installed and working without any success as of yet. I may well be the exception, because there are alot of others who have it working okay, but one bad experience is enough for me.
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  3. Posts : 2
    Windows 7
       #3

    Hi I'm using Macrium Reflect it's free just google it does what it says on the tin
    give it a try !!
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  4. aem
    Posts : 2,698
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit
       #4

    Norton Ghost for me.
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  5. Posts : 11,840
    64-bit Windows 8.1 Pro
       #5

    Ive been using Acronis True Image Home 10 since day one, and it has saved my bacon more than once...
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  6. Posts : 96
    Windows 7 Ultimate
       #6

    Doesnt windows 7 come with a program to
    Complete Image backup ?

    Isnt that good enough or reliable ?
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  7. Posts : 11,840
    64-bit Windows 8.1 Pro
       #7

    Yes it does come with a back up utility.. whether it is good enough is a subjective question...
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  8. Posts : 7,878
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #8

    seekermeister said:
    I can't tell you yet, except to say to avoid Acronis TI 2010. I have spent the day trying to get it installed and working without any success as of yet. I may well be the exception, because there are alot of others who have it working okay, but one bad experience is enough for me.
    I have it and I'm using it and it's working just fine for me on Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit. No problems installing, using, restoring, etc. I've got it on a lab machine and I test with it quite regular and restore back to prior points to test again.

    Macrium Reflect is good..as it's free. However, I had problems with my mouse not working on the restore and I tried everything that I could think of and could never get my mouse and such working...so I just picked up Acronis when NewEgg was running it for $23.99.

    The built-in imaging tool is good...but it's not really for cloning as it can only move it to another drive which is the same size as the original.
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  9. Posts : 1,011
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64 (Retail)
       #9

    Acronis TIH 2010 has a cloning utility that is found under the "Tools & Utilities" menu in the program. It can clone to any size disk, provided the data on the source disk will fit on the target disk. It has two modes, automatic and manual. If one uses automatic, then the partitions on the source will be automatically resized proportionally on the target if the target drive is a different size than the source. So if the target drive is larger than the source, each partition on the target will be automatically proportionally resized to be larger than they are on the source. This may or may not be desirable and this could make cloning not possible in some circumstances, depending on the size of the source partitions and the size of the target drive, if the target drive is smaller than the source.

    So in the situation where the automatic mode produces undesirable results or won't work at all, one can use the manual cloning mode and this allows one to manually set the size of the partitions for the target drive, and use any size drive, again, assuming the data on the source partitions will actually fit on the target drive and in the partition sizes that one manually specifies.

    So in sum, I have found Acronis TIH to quite easily make very reliable clones to any size drive, assuming there is sufficient space on the target drive to fit all the data that is on the source drive.

    That said, for backing up my laptop drive by cloning (which I occasionally do in addition to regularly making compressed image backups), I usually clone to a drive that is the same size so I can use the automatic mode with just a few quick clicks, without having to manually resize any partitions. It just makes it quicker and simpler. But I have used the manual mode when cloning to different sized drives and it works quite well also. Just takes a little more time and effort.
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  10. Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       #10

    Cloning has different meanings to different people.

    Some mean an imaging program. Some mean an application that can tranfer an existing operating system partition to another hard drive on the same PC, without an intervening image--as might be done when you upgrade to a new hard drive.

    Macrium Reflect Free cannot do the latter. Acronis can.
      My Computer


 
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