Disk Imaging Software; Recommendations?
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Thanks to all who replied to my previous post concerning the benefits of 64bit OSs over 32bit. I've opted for the 64bit version. I have another question for you guys concerning disk imaging software. I require a disk imaging program (preferably freeware) that can back up a disk or partition to a backup medium that can be run from DOS (I.e a startup disk) and - and this is the most important bit - can cope with the BIOS set to AHCI mode for disk access. What I'm really after is a Norton Ghost clone that can cope with AHCI. Unfortunately, my Norton Ghost (v9.0) doesn't recognise any disks when AHCI is enabled. Do you guys know of/use/can recommend (delete as appropriate!) any such software? Cheers.
I am the Breeg, goo goo g'joob Aici zace un om despre care nu sestie prea mult
Acronis True Image Home After backing up, you can access the file as if it's a disk partition.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997 -
Thanks to all who replied to my previous post concerning the benefits of 64bit OSs over 32bit. I've opted for the 64bit version. I have another question for you guys concerning disk imaging software. I require a disk imaging program (preferably freeware) that can back up a disk or partition to a backup medium that can be run from DOS (I.e a startup disk) and - and this is the most important bit - can cope with the BIOS set to AHCI mode for disk access. What I'm really after is a Norton Ghost clone that can cope with AHCI. Unfortunately, my Norton Ghost (v9.0) doesn't recognise any disks when AHCI is enabled. Do you guys know of/use/can recommend (delete as appropriate!) any such software? Cheers.
I am the Breeg, goo goo g'joob Aici zace un om despre care nu sestie prea mult
Another free one not mentioned is macrium reflect.... http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp[^]
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I did not know of clonezilla, but its GUI is somehow nonexistent :~... As you've used both of them... would you say that CloneZilla is better than DriveImageXML? Which is your experience? Thank you!
[www.tamelectromecanica.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
I trust CloneZilla a little more than DriveImageXML but that is just my opinion. DriveImageXML has an advantage of being able to make a live image of a running OS (although I have had this fail). BartPE is much slower to boot and may have more hardware dependency than the linux livecd that CloneZilla runs from.
John
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I trust CloneZilla a little more than DriveImageXML but that is just my opinion. DriveImageXML has an advantage of being able to make a live image of a running OS (although I have had this fail). BartPE is much slower to boot and may have more hardware dependency than the linux livecd that CloneZilla runs from.
John
OK, thank you...
[www.tamelectromecanica.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
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Acronis True Image Home After backing up, you can access the file as if it's a disk partition.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
Acronis True Image Home
After backing up, you can access the file as if it's a disk partition.Just make sure there isn't any need to extract any large groups of files with restricted permissions (eg users folder) in the image if you want to access it from another box. The mounted image is read only, and will enforce the old permissions. The workaround is to doubleclick on the tib file and navigate it via explorer. Doing that completely ignores permissions. The catch is that if you try and copy large chunks of files out at once it times out while fiddling before starting the actual copy, so you need to suck files out of the tib a small chunk at a time. Alternately if you have a sacrificial drive you can restore to that, nuke the permissions and copy normally (this is faster than the other option). EDIT: Or enough free space to create a virtual hard disk. Can you tell I've been swearing at ATI (not that ATI*) recently. * Well actually I've been swearing at them too; but that's a separate rant.
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
modified on Thursday, May 19, 2011 10:07 AM
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Thanks to all who replied to my previous post concerning the benefits of 64bit OSs over 32bit. I've opted for the 64bit version. I have another question for you guys concerning disk imaging software. I require a disk imaging program (preferably freeware) that can back up a disk or partition to a backup medium that can be run from DOS (I.e a startup disk) and - and this is the most important bit - can cope with the BIOS set to AHCI mode for disk access. What I'm really after is a Norton Ghost clone that can cope with AHCI. Unfortunately, my Norton Ghost (v9.0) doesn't recognise any disks when AHCI is enabled. Do you guys know of/use/can recommend (delete as appropriate!) any such software? Cheers.
I am the Breeg, goo goo g'joob Aici zace un om despre care nu sestie prea mult
I've used Terabyte Image for Windows[^] (and DOS, and Linux) successfully to back up and move disks around. Works well.
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John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
Acronis True Image Home
After backing up, you can access the file as if it's a disk partition.Just make sure there isn't any need to extract any large groups of files with restricted permissions (eg users folder) in the image if you want to access it from another box. The mounted image is read only, and will enforce the old permissions. The workaround is to doubleclick on the tib file and navigate it via explorer. Doing that completely ignores permissions. The catch is that if you try and copy large chunks of files out at once it times out while fiddling before starting the actual copy, so you need to suck files out of the tib a small chunk at a time. Alternately if you have a sacrificial drive you can restore to that, nuke the permissions and copy normally (this is faster than the other option). EDIT: Or enough free space to create a virtual hard disk. Can you tell I've been swearing at ATI (not that ATI*) recently. * Well actually I've been swearing at them too; but that's a separate rant.
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
modified on Thursday, May 19, 2011 10:07 AM
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Thanks to all who replied to my previous post concerning the benefits of 64bit OSs over 32bit. I've opted for the 64bit version. I have another question for you guys concerning disk imaging software. I require a disk imaging program (preferably freeware) that can back up a disk or partition to a backup medium that can be run from DOS (I.e a startup disk) and - and this is the most important bit - can cope with the BIOS set to AHCI mode for disk access. What I'm really after is a Norton Ghost clone that can cope with AHCI. Unfortunately, my Norton Ghost (v9.0) doesn't recognise any disks when AHCI is enabled. Do you guys know of/use/can recommend (delete as appropriate!) any such software? Cheers.
I am the Breeg, goo goo g'joob Aici zace un om despre care nu sestie prea mult
I have used Drive Snapshot[^] for years to image a server farm at my job. The restore program works on BartPE and others. I don't know if it will meet your needs but they do offer a functional trial. (Yes, it costs money, and yes, we do pay for it.) Now that Win2k8 has the bare-metal server backup and restore feature, I don't need Snapshot anymore for some of my servers.
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Thanks to all who replied to my previous post concerning the benefits of 64bit OSs over 32bit. I've opted for the 64bit version. I have another question for you guys concerning disk imaging software. I require a disk imaging program (preferably freeware) that can back up a disk or partition to a backup medium that can be run from DOS (I.e a startup disk) and - and this is the most important bit - can cope with the BIOS set to AHCI mode for disk access. What I'm really after is a Norton Ghost clone that can cope with AHCI. Unfortunately, my Norton Ghost (v9.0) doesn't recognise any disks when AHCI is enabled. Do you guys know of/use/can recommend (delete as appropriate!) any such software? Cheers.
I am the Breeg, goo goo g'joob Aici zace un om despre care nu sestie prea mult
If you're running Win 7: when you run a Win7 backup for the first time, you’ll automatically be prompted to make your first system image. It’s part of the initial backup process, built-in, and very easy to do.
Best wishes, Hans
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Thanks to all who replied to my previous post concerning the benefits of 64bit OSs over 32bit. I've opted for the 64bit version. I have another question for you guys concerning disk imaging software. I require a disk imaging program (preferably freeware) that can back up a disk or partition to a backup medium that can be run from DOS (I.e a startup disk) and - and this is the most important bit - can cope with the BIOS set to AHCI mode for disk access. What I'm really after is a Norton Ghost clone that can cope with AHCI. Unfortunately, my Norton Ghost (v9.0) doesn't recognise any disks when AHCI is enabled. Do you guys know of/use/can recommend (delete as appropriate!) any such software? Cheers.
I am the Breeg, goo goo g'joob Aici zace un om despre care nu sestie prea mult
I aggree with John. Clonezilla as free and Acronis True Image as paid image solutions working well. Both can be booted from live cds. So if your os is broken, this is important. Advantage True Image: can build live images, can create incremental backups, merge backups Disadvantage True Image: Linux partitions (I'm using a dual boot pc) can only be stored as raw images Clonezilla is part of Parted Magic LiveCD. There you've also a partition manager called GParted included in one box.
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I have used Drive Snapshot[^] for years to image a server farm at my job. The restore program works on BartPE and others. I don't know if it will meet your needs but they do offer a functional trial. (Yes, it costs money, and yes, we do pay for it.) Now that Win2k8 has the bare-metal server backup and restore feature, I don't need Snapshot anymore for some of my servers.
I've used snapshot quite a bit too and another interesting tidbit about it is that I can boot from a Windows 7 installation disc (or USB drive) to get a Windows environment and then use snapshot to restore a drive. This is faster than BartPE and was more convenient for me (since I didn't have BartPE available).
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Thanks to all who replied to my previous post concerning the benefits of 64bit OSs over 32bit. I've opted for the 64bit version. I have another question for you guys concerning disk imaging software. I require a disk imaging program (preferably freeware) that can back up a disk or partition to a backup medium that can be run from DOS (I.e a startup disk) and - and this is the most important bit - can cope with the BIOS set to AHCI mode for disk access. What I'm really after is a Norton Ghost clone that can cope with AHCI. Unfortunately, my Norton Ghost (v9.0) doesn't recognise any disks when AHCI is enabled. Do you guys know of/use/can recommend (delete as appropriate!) any such software? Cheers.
I am the Breeg, goo goo g'joob Aici zace un om despre care nu sestie prea mult
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I've used snapshot quite a bit too and another interesting tidbit about it is that I can boot from a Windows 7 installation disc (or USB drive) to get a Windows environment and then use snapshot to restore a drive. This is faster than BartPE and was more convenient for me (since I didn't have BartPE available).
That's clever! I'll have to try that (or a Windows Server disc). It doesn't have to be Win7, though, for anybody else who might be reading this. Did you know that, from Windows 2000 on, you can press Shift+F10 during GUI setup to get a command prompt? MS KB 242380[^]
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Thanks to all who replied to my previous post concerning the benefits of 64bit OSs over 32bit. I've opted for the 64bit version. I have another question for you guys concerning disk imaging software. I require a disk imaging program (preferably freeware) that can back up a disk or partition to a backup medium that can be run from DOS (I.e a startup disk) and - and this is the most important bit - can cope with the BIOS set to AHCI mode for disk access. What I'm really after is a Norton Ghost clone that can cope with AHCI. Unfortunately, my Norton Ghost (v9.0) doesn't recognise any disks when AHCI is enabled. Do you guys know of/use/can recommend (delete as appropriate!) any such software? Cheers.
I am the Breeg, goo goo g'joob Aici zace un om despre care nu sestie prea mult
Typically use snapshot. Pretty easy to store, view and recover. Use a 1TB usb drive with Hiren's boot cd loaded on the mbr for quick boot to minixp for quick saves of client/server computers. usually use this as a quick backup for any computers I plan to work on as a JIC scenaro.
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Thanks to all who replied to my previous post concerning the benefits of 64bit OSs over 32bit. I've opted for the 64bit version. I have another question for you guys concerning disk imaging software. I require a disk imaging program (preferably freeware) that can back up a disk or partition to a backup medium that can be run from DOS (I.e a startup disk) and - and this is the most important bit - can cope with the BIOS set to AHCI mode for disk access. What I'm really after is a Norton Ghost clone that can cope with AHCI. Unfortunately, my Norton Ghost (v9.0) doesn't recognise any disks when AHCI is enabled. Do you guys know of/use/can recommend (delete as appropriate!) any such software? Cheers.
I am the Breeg, goo goo g'joob Aici zace un om despre care nu sestie prea mult
I use the Ubuntu discs in trial mode (where it boots into a useable OS that just works without touching your hard drive). It has no problems reading various partition types, file systems, or working with AHCI. Most network interfaces are supported without doing anything more so if you have a network location you'd like to backup to, this is one way to do it. From Ubuntu, I just use the terminal to do my imaging.
- Backup and Compress: dd if=the_device_you_want_to_backup bs=blocksize_in_bytes conv=noerror | gzip -c -9 > path_and_filename
- Document the Device Metrics: fdisk -l the_device_you_want_to_backup > path_and_filename
- Decompress and Restore: gunzip -c path_and_filename | dd of=the_device_you_want_to_restore_to conv=noerror
- If you have an uncompressed image, you can even mount it for viewing or for reading and writing. The options depend on how you backed it up, but you can mount partitions from within an entire drive image or individual partition images (if you backed up each partition into its own file).
The device to backup is typically /dev/sda (the entire contents of the first physical hard drive), or /dev/sda1 (the first partition on the first physical hard drive). If you're backing up to external media like a USB drive or a SDHC card, the path to the media is usually /media/volume_name/. bzip2, pigz (parallel GZip implementation), pbzip2 (parallel BZip2 implementation), lzop (extremely fast compression and decompression), and xz (LZMA compression) are all drop-in replacements for GZip; adjust the arguments accordingly. I'm a Linux terminal newbie, so please check the commands carefully before applying. The DD tool has been jokingly referred to as "disk destroyer." (Hint: if ≠ of) I hope this helps. :) By the way, did you really want to restrict your options to DOS tools?
My GUID: ca2262a7-0026-4830-a0b3-fe5d66c4eb1d :) Now I can Google this value and find all my Code Project posts!