New
#621
LOL- you can spend ages playing with it.
As well as the buttons across the bottom of the windows - Rt click the Wizard in the Notification area for other options.
FREE Great Programs for Windows 7
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New #623
Disk2vhd
Copyright © 2009 Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com
Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft's Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). The difference between Disk2vhd and other physical-to-virtual tools it that you can run Disk2vhd on a system that's online. Disk2vhd uses Windows' Volume Snapshot capability, introduced in Windows XP, to create consistent point-in-time snapshots of the volumes you want to include in a conversion. You can even have Disk2vhd create the VHDs on local volumes, even ones being converted (though performance is better when the VHD is on a disk different than ones being converted).
The Disk2vhd user interface lists the volumes present on the system. It will create one VHD for each disk on which selected volumes reside. It preserves the partitioning information of the disk, but only copies the data contents for volumes on the disk that are selected. This enables you to capture just system volumes and exclude data volumes, for example.
Note: Virtual PC supports a maximum virtual disk size of 127GB. If you create a VHD from a larger disk it will not be accessible from a Virtual PC VM.
To use VHDs produced by Disk2vhd, create a VM with the desired characteristics and add the VHDs to the VM's configuration as IDE disks. On first boot, a VM booting a captured copy of Windows will detect the VM's hardware and automatically install drivers, if present in the image. If the required drivers are not present, install them via the Virtual PC or Hyper-V integration components. You can also attach to VHDs using the Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 Disk Management or Diskpart utilities.
Note: do not attach to VHDs on the same system on which you created them if you plan on booting from them. If you do so, Windows will assign the VHD a new disk signature to avoid a collision with the signature of the VHD's source disk. Windows references disks in the boot configuration database (BCD) by disk signature, so when that happens Windows booted in a VM will fail to locate the boot disk.
Disk2vhd runs Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1, and higher, including x64 systems.
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New #625
Hi Brink,
There are at least two hard disk manufacturers that have a free slightly reduced functionality version of Acronis True Image.
If you have a Seagate or Maxtor hard drive in your system, it's called DiscWizard.
I think Maxtor has their own version also, but the link isn't working today.
If you have a Western Digital hard drive in your system, it's called Acronis True Image WD Edition Software.
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New #626
Maxblast and DiscWizard are identical - they are based on ATI 11.
The WD version is based on TIH2009. Allegedly TIH 2009 has all sorts of problems on 7.
If you happen to have one of those drives - the Seagate versions work fine.
Here is the Maxblast link:
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...00dd04090aRCRD
Very limited functionality - there are much better free versions available with more functions.
Interesting you mention them. A lot will already have drives from those mfrs. BUT they are not free products. They are a free Add-On if you purchased a Seagate /WD drive. They are not free to all.
Curious the previous post mentions Disk2vhd.
Paragon does a free Add on for anyone who bought the Drive Backup Pro, or Partition Manager Pro.
It does Disk to vhd , also Vhd to Disk, and migrate o/s to new hardware.
That is not free to all either.
Sorry, I don't think they count as free products.Last edited by SIW2; 09 Oct 2009 at 07:13.
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New #627
StarDock Fences is out of beta.
Fences - Reviews and free Fences downloads at Download.com
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New #628
That's a valid point, but they are free to those who qualify and those people might appreciate being able to use the programs.
There are others that work very well, I still use Macrium Reflect on a couple of my computers.
If I have a backup made by DiscWizard, can I use Acronis True Image WD Edition Software to restore it?
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New #629
Probably - the backup images will in .tib format.
I imagine a newer version will pick up the previously created .tib. You will have to browse to the backup, obviously.
I don't use Acronis (except to test them , out of interest) - I prefer the Macrium and Paragon products - I know all the Paragons will pick up their arc format backups created by other versions.
I think the Acronis will only pick up the .tib if if is the same or newer version of the program. I don't think ATI 10 for example would recognise a .tib created by ATI 11.
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