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Cloning software

  • 17-03-2009 4:56pm
    #1
    Gagetman
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 88 ✭✭


    Hi,
    Does anyone know of a freeware cloning software that actually works. I have downloaded a couple of different types but had no success in getting to work. I want to copy a hard drive in a system to keep as a backup in the event of hd failure.
    Thanks
    G:confused:


Comments

  • #2
    10-10-20
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,074 ✭✭✭10-10-20


    Have you considered using rsync or are you after a block-level image instead of a file-level copy?


  • #3
    feylya
    Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 23,363 Mod ✭✭✭✭feylya


    You could try something like PING (http://ping.windowsdream.com/) or Mini PE although I'm not sure on the legality of that.


  • #4
    funk-you
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,743 ✭✭✭funk-you


    Lads, this is a bit of a grey area. Can we make sure to keep any suggestions legal.

    -Funk


  • #5
    unnameduser
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,081 ✭✭✭unnameduser


    google "snapshot" works a treat for me and its free.


  • #6
    WhyWasThatFor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10 ✭WhyWasThatFor


    I use Clonezilla to take backups of my OS partition. You can also backup full disks. Linux based tool. Just burn app to CD and boot from CD drive. I just use the default settings. Worked fine for me.


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  • #7
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 93,601 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    It's difficult to backup a live system since many of the key files will be locked.

    If you have a sever that supports hot swap drives or get an external USB drive then you can software mirror it. This takes a long time and you have to do it from scratch each time, but don't have to worry about open files and such.

    For windows you can use ASR to backup the system drive
    recovery is by installing a clean copy of windows and restoring the backup over it and choosing the option to not overwrite newer files. The big plus here is that you can restore to different hardware.


  • #8
    BaconZombie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,813 ✭✭✭BaconZombie


    We now solely use CloneZilla at my job since Ghost {dos bootdisk} was having issues with newer SATA and NIC chipsets.

    It great for cold backups and SysPrep images.
    WhyWasThatFor wrote: »
    I use Clonezilla to take backups of my OS partition. You can also backup full disks. Linux based tool. Just burn app to CD and boot from CD drive. I just use the default settings. Worked fine for me.


  • #9
    the merchant
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 547 ✭✭✭the merchant


    I've used Macrium Reflect (free version)

    http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp


  • #10
    Gagetman
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 88 ✭✭Gagetman


    Thanks everyone for all your suggestions. I have tried several with varying degrees of success. The one that worked for me the best was HDClone. It made an exact copy of the hard drive which worked perfectly when I tested it.
    Most of the other software produce images instead of exact copies. The image is fine but trying to copy that onto a new drive was where i kept falling.
    I guess cloning is probably a bit of a taboo subject for obvious copyright reasons but it is good to know I have a spare hard drive in case of a problem. This happened me before and I lost a lot of personal photos and home movies.
    Regards
    G


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