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Drive Image software - 64bit W7 Home Premium

  • 18-06-2010 8:32pm
    #1
    Amalgam
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,026 ✭✭✭


    I am installing Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit for a family relative. The laptop is ready to roll.

    I need to make a drive image, much like Acronis or Ghost. I am loathe to purchase Acronis True Image, as the commentry by users with 64bit Windows doesn't encourage a purchase.

    I don't want something that works within Windows either, classic Ghost-like back up from a cold CD boot is fine.

    Image create to storage
    Image restore from storage

    Those are my requirements.

    ..is Clonezilla reliable? ..and what should I look out for, I am a bit unsure, Windows 7 seemed to create a second, very small partition during install.

    Any advice appreciated.

    Cheap or free is a plus.
    Tagged:


Comments

  • #2
    Fysh
    Moderators, Arts Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators Posts: 11,106 Mod ✭✭✭✭Fysh


    If you own either a Seagate or Maxtor disc in a computer to which you can also connect the laptop hard drive (even if the laptop drive is connected by a USB-SATA adapter) you may be able to use Maxblast or Discwizard - both of those have an option to create a bootable CD, I've used both to image laptop and desktop images succesfully (including Windows 7 Professional 64-bit). That being said, both are basically OEM'd versions of Acronis True Image with the relevant disc manufacturer branding.

    Alternatively, you could get the DriveImage XML plugin and include it in a BartPE disc. I've used this once before and it worked, though it was pretty damn slow.

    Haven't used Clonezilla, I keep meaning to try it out. There's also PING (Partimage Is Not Ghost), but I've not used that either.


  • #3
    PogMoThoin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,874 ✭✭✭✭PogMoThoin


    I got a free serial for Acronis 10 on an offer some time back, it works fine on Windows 7 64bit even though its not the latest version. No problems and I have used the images


  • #4
    Amalgam
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,026 ✭✭✭Amalgam


    Thanks for the suggestions.

    Ping looks like it does what I want.. and nothing more. Self standing .iso and outside the OS.


  • #5
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 93,563 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    clonezilla contains a few utils on the disk including partimage and dd so similar to ping in that sense.

    tip backup the partition table too, windows gets very snotty if you try to restore it to a partition at a different location as it uses a hard sector count to boot from :(
    you can use dd if=/dev/sda of=partn bs=512 count=1
    or use debug in windows or cfdisk in linux and write down the numbers
    there is also a diskedit program for windows dskedit IIRC that will alllow you to copy the boot sector


    but yes you are 110% correct in preferring a cloning utility that doesn't run inside the OS , because of the difficulties in backing up files that are currently in use.


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