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The recommended backup / imaging software?


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Hi All,

Sometimes before fixing a clients PC i usually create an image of their hard drive onto my machine or a spare hard drive. Ive always used Norton Ghost since i can remember.

I'm looking for a different image making software which is like Norton Ghost but maybe quicker at creating the image? or is freeware?

Suggestions are really appreciated!

Thanks

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I have used Clonezilla for tons of computers and have had no problems whatsoever from it, even restoring images created with older versions of Clonezilla. I even keep a server in my home and have stored/restored backup images from that server over SSH with no issues. I have used it with Windows systems from XP to 7, and across all sorts of different Linux distributions, so it seems to have good support for all the various filesystems.

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I've used Acronis for years, and it's working well. I can image 40GB in about 10 minutes on a schedule, and re-image in about 8 minutes.

Agreed! I have used Acronis for years and it has never let me down. Very fast as mentioned by Prowler as well.

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Windows backup, at least in Windows 7, can backup daily but that is only for certain things and it can make a full image for restoring back to that image. With the backup I am not sure what is included but I think it includes system files, registry, and your documents. You can make the full image backup to a USB drive or network.

One thing I have learned is when you do a system image backup is that Windows places that image in a specific folder structure and names. Do not change it or when you try to restore that image Windows will not see it. If you restore the folder structure and names then it will work again. It works great. I created a system image after I installed Windows with a few applications. Last week I actually needed to use it and it worked flawless.

I have not used the incremented backup feature so I have no comment on that. I do know that you can explore the incremented backed up files and retrieve a file if you needed to without going back to that backup.

I have not looked for documentation but I think very little people know about this feature.

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I have used Clonezilla for tons of computers and have had no problems whatsoever from it, even restoring images created with older versions of Clonezilla. I even keep a server in my home and have stored/restored backup images from that server over SSH with no issues. I have used it with Windows systems from XP to 7, and across all sorts of different Linux distributions, so it seems to have good support for all the various filesystems.

I recommend this as well. Given that this is for repairing PCs, a bootable solution would work best for you. It's open source licensed under GPLv2, so this should make it free for commercial use.

http://clonezilla.org/

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I use Acronis and it works perfectly. Not free though.

Am going to check out this Clonezilla though.

Edit:

Checked it out. I've used that before and now I remember why I quit using it. It was about as undependable as heck, when I used it. Usually took a minimum of 3 tries to get it to work properly. Will stick with Acronis.

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acronis quite good.

so is easeus todo backup.

Free: http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software.htm

Workstation $40: http://www.todo-backup.com/business/workstation-backup.htm

Server $199: http://www.todo-backup.com/business/server-backup.htm

Advanced server is $299

take a look at their full products

http://www.easeus.com/product.htm

BTW the UI is very acronis like.

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Clearly he asked for freeware, so why would you even mention acronis?

Unless your taking about the FREE version given away my drive makers in their toolsets?

There are like a million ways to take an image. So you can boot a CD/DVD/USB and take the image to drive you have plugged into the machine or over the network. You could boot the machine PXE and take the image that way again over the network or to something you plug in. Or you could take the drive out of the machine your going to work on plug into yours and take the image.

Plugging the drive into your machine and taking the image clearly going to be the FASTEST!!! Booting PXE is the easiest if you ask me for just ease of taking an image of most anything.

So what do you want? As mentioned already imageX from MS is FREE and every easy to use! Easeus is also free - you also have drive image XML which is fast and easy if your plugging the drive into your machine.

So how do you currently take the image now, boot of media and where do you put the image. Again if your looking for speed, taking the drive out and plugging directly into your SATA/IDE connection on your PC is going to be the FASTEST method of taking an image. There are very cheap adapters to plug a 2.5" drive into your normal IDE, etc. etc.

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The one downside of Windows Backup is it doesn't do any compression when doing image backups. Norton Ghost is very good IMHO for incremental+compressed backup. Acronis used to be good IMHO but has now become extremely bloated.

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