Cloning your HDD (what software)

[mudmanc4]

Normally I do not have to clone a drive, just reinstall the apps and done.

This time the drive must be cloned. I need the entire and exact data in the same place on a different drive and a different machine. Same OS.

So what software are you guy's using to clone a drive to a new drive. I've got a few things here that I've paid for in the past, but they are expired.

[coknuck]

I've never cloned a HHD but I back up with this and it claims to image the HHD.

Macrium Reflect :

http://www.techsuppo...eflect-free.htm

http://majorgeeks.com/Macrium_Reflect_FREE_Edition_d6034.html

[Pgoodwin1]

I use Carbon Copy Cloner. It's very good.

[TriRan]

i used http://www.techsuppo...artition-Wizard minitool the last time i had to do this

[CA3LE]

I use Carbon Copy Cloner. It's very good.

Agreed... I've used Carbon Copy Cloner a few times and it works great, it's for Mac. In Windows there's Norton Ghost and PC Disk Clone X.

[mudmanc4]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm having a look at all of them now.

Anyone used clonezilla ?

Not into paying for things if i can avoid it. Since the FSF is so huge anymore you know. I just try and give back when I can.

[CA3LE]

Clonezilla's supposed to be good... but you don't have to pay for Carbon Copy Cloner either. You can if you want to but it's done the job for me before without having to pay.

[mudmanc4]

Yea I should have stated this is a windows hardware update.

[Pgoodwin1]

Sorry. I didn't realize that CCC was Mac only. I used it upgrade my wife's 2006 MacBook Pro with a 7200 rpm 500 GB 2.5" internal boot drive, and cloned her old 80 GB drive with that SW. It went well, and was very easy and intuitive. This page scores the PC software but I didn't try to figure out how they got their scoring data. At least you could start there, then scan for user reviews.

http://disk-imaging-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

[mudmanc4]

I've used ccc as well , works perfectly as it should.

I could not figure what was wrong while using clonezilla, wtf kept failing. So I tossed in pmagic which includes clonezilla, and a plethora of other utilities, which during a sector scan, found slow as molassis <500ms sectors. Uhg , well lets get another drive in and do it again. Seems each time i need to do something important and in a damn hurry, I end up running into a zillion literally stooopid issues that slow me up.

Anyhow, onward!

[ninjageek]

Myself, Have always used "shadow protect". Odd thing, you can request a full evaluation of the program, Which I got no problem. Burn it to C.D.

Now AFTER the 30 day trial, well you really should throw away the C.D. and never use it again. It would be wrong to keep it and continue to use it after the 30 day trial. Cause its the full evaluation, and its on C.D,.someone with no morals could use it as long as they so desired................Just saying.

Have used this program for over a year, Saved my behind Countless times, Takes under 10 min to back up the hard drive, and restore it. I have a Solid state drive takes, 4 Min to back up a 28 gig file, 5 min to restore it.

[changeforwho]

I used Acronis True Image 2012 (Pc Backup and Recovery) was able to clone a 750 gig HDD to a 256gig SSD with no snags whatsoever.

Edited October 21, 2012 by CA3LE
Added link to Acronis website

[mudmanc4]

Acronis used to be pretty good.

I'm using pmagic , which contains a plethora of the best utilities from the community, as well as a partition and or entire disk cloner , as well as almost if not every script anyone might need to service their machine or drive(s) scsi to ide and everything in between.

[fmrusmcrntx]

I recently used Apricorn's "Apricorn Direct 5 GB USB 3.0 Notebook External Hard Drive Upgrade Kit EZ-UP3" product which I purchased from Amazon to clone my old WD Mechanical HD to a new Intel SSD. The kit includes both a USB 3.0 (backward compat to 2.0 if that's all one has)device that provides an external connection to the new SSD. It also includes Apricorn's "EZ Gig Cloning" software that's so simple to use "a caveman could do it". This product worked flawlessly, quickly allowing me to get rid of the old WD Mechanical drive. Once I'd done my PC, I told my neighbor about how much faster the SSD was; we obtained another Intel SSD and did the same job on his PC. The Apricorn product I'm speaking of can be found on Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005PU8T44/ref=pe_175190_21431760_M2T1_SC_dp_1. Plz understand I ain't selling anything here, just providing info. I'm sure other products such as those mentioned work well also. But for me, going into this process cold, I found the Apricorn HW/SW combination to be a winner!

[TriRan]

I recently used Apricorn's "Apricorn Direct 5 GB USB 3.0 Notebook External Hard Drive Upgrade Kit EZ-UP3" product which I purchased from Amazon to clone my old WD Mechanical HD to a new Intel SSD. The kit includes both a USB 3.0 (backward compat to 2.0 if that's all one has)device that provides an external connection to the new SSD. It also includes Apricorn's "EZ Gig Cloning" software that's so simple to use "a caveman could do it". This product worked flawlessly, quickly allowing me to get rid of the old WD Mechanical drive. Once I'd done my PC, I told my neighbor about how much faster the SSD was; we obtained another Intel SSD and did the same job on his PC. The Apricorn product I'm speaking of can be found on Amazon at:

http://www.amazon.co...1_SC_dp_1.��Plz understand I ain't selling anything here, just providing info. I'm sure other products such as those mentioned work well also. But for me, going into this process cold, I found the Apricorn HW/SW combination to be a winner!

links to product's like that are perfectly ok because it pertains to the subject at hand!

so don't worry

~ Mark

[ninjageek]

One thing I can never stress enough. Keep your Important stuff backed up to DVD. No matter what software you use, It is possible restoring your computer can fail. Odds are slim, but sadly it happens,

Not only do i keep my important files backed up, I keep the settings for my browsers backed up. You will also find, when someone finds software that Not only works well, but has never failed the user, they are pretty sure it will never fail, and I am just as guilty as others. I only use shadow protect. Never failed me, Won't use anything else. BUT.......

It can fail, just any other software, so cover your bottom, keep it burned to disk, Maybe even double your protection with a external hard drive, thats what I do, Keep it burned, keep it on external,

[mudmanc4]

The solution I've found to all things concerning our data, is to backup , just as ninja says. Always backup.

I have used backuppc for some time, and it's never failed me. With the CGI interface running debian dist , you can be assured security as well as reliability.

Just grab an old machine, when I say old, it can be almost as old a machine as you have, repetitively speaking. And install debian, then configure backuppc. Simple and easy, fast secure and always there. Have an issue, put any version of any file saved instantly right back on your machine , or the new machine if need be.

Set it and forget it.

[ninjageek]

Well that will teach me!!! Guess what happened to me? Yep my backup tried to fail. So much for posting in this thread, lol.

Had to get inventive, Deleted the partition, formatted it, Then my backup worked fine. Kept saying the backup was to big for the partition.

I did a backup of Just Windows with Updates, so Now I have two, One with the current state of my puter, One that is Just windows, Will say, Re installing Windows is not that big of deal, Took a hour and a half tops.

Just thankful I have a current copy of Hirens, It has all kinds of useful free software, I used the Segate Disk Wizzard to Delete and Format the Partion, So Fresh install of Windows was truly a Fresh Install

[mudmanc4]

Why don't you take an old machine , and I mean any old thing , P3 will do , 512 or even a little less ram will work, no need for a video card or sound or anything else for that matter. Just a basic system. You'll be running a full featured enterprise level backup server.

Download ans burn to cd backuppc

While formatting any disk ( I just set up a server with 380 Gb of data on a 20 gig drive, and with compression level only at 3, before pooling it took up 1.5 Gb space.

You'll need to install debian, you don't have to format first, but i do DOD at least 7 swipe for this ) the latest preferred fist, no gui, setup ssh and get apache installed, as backuppc is a perl application so it uses apache / cgi . Full gui after install.

If anyone is interested I can do a writeup. Just yesterday I used it to backup a windows server 2000 setup used as a domain controller , which was a little tricky, since winbind and kerberos must be used to join the domain and smb is used.

I've been using backuppc for more then a year now and it is unbelievably the lifesaver and heartbeat of everything i do. At this point there is really no other means i would even attempt to use to backup anything important.

[TriRan]

Why don't you take an old machine , and I mean any old thing , P3 will do , 512 or even a little less ram will work, no need for a video card or sound or anything else for that matter. Just a basic system. You'll be running a full featured enterprise level backup server.

Download ans burn to cd backuppc

While formatting any disk ( I just set up a server with 380 Gb of data on a 20 gig drive, and with compression level only at 3, before pooling it took up 1.5 Gb space.

You'll need to install debian, you don't have to format first, but i do DOD at least 7 swipe for this ) the latest preferred fist, no gui, setup ssh and get apache installed, as backuppc is a perl application so it uses apache / cgi . Full gui after install.

If anyone is interested I can do a writeup. Just yesterday I used it to backup a windows server 2000 setup used as a domain controller , which was a little tricky, since winbind and kerberos must be used to join the domain and smb is used.

I've been using backuppc for more then a year now and it is unbelievably the lifesaver and heartbeat of everything i do. At this point there is really no other means i would even attempt to use to backup anything important.

i'd enjoy reading a write up!

[mudmanc4]

The setups are entirely different for windows and linux. I'll do either windows server using active directory {domain controller} or linux. The linux setup is quite simple compared to windows. As well as the differences between SSH keys, static IP or DHCP. So whichever one is fine I've had to do each.

The server setup (backuppc) is the same either way. You can also backup any number of servers local and or remote, as well as any combination of operating systems. Configurations for each are set within each host.

So just say which setup you'll initially need it for.

i'd enjoy reading a write up!

[TriRan]

The setups are entirely different for windows and linux. I'll do either windows server using active directory {domain controller} or linux. The linux setup is quite simple compared to windows. As well as the differences between SSH keys, static IP or DHCP. So whichever one is fine I've had to do each.

The server setup (backuppc) is the same either way. You can also backup any number of servers local and or remote, as well as any combination of operating systems. Configurations for each are set within each host.

So just say which setup you'll initially need it for.

linux one for sure i only have 1 windows server and its just for development at this point

[mudmanc4]

I'll add it to the list. But at least this one will be on my own time, so no pressure.

Know what it's like to spend days righting wrongs within a corporate network then have someone jump in and screw it in five minutes ? Over porn and file sharing, just silly. I've not yet had the time to block ports and restrict external access, so again tomorrow I'm at it again. First thing , change all AD passwords, start mega logging, and block block block...... did i say block applications and or anything outside of emails for starters ? Only then can I gain any headway at all.

[starship_troopers]

sorry for not being able to read the entire post. i will definitely read through in a bit, but i just saw the o.p. and decided to throw a software program into this thread. DRIVE IMAGE XML. i love this program. i've only used the disc backup and not used the option to backup to another hdd. but im sure it would work.

http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

[starship_troopers]

mudman, did you ever find a good software?