Disk cloning Software recommendation

Spazzfish

Spazzfish

Spazzfish

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Joined
5 Apr 2009
Posts
303
Hi peeps.
I want to clone my current c: boot drive onto an external usb drive, yank out the c: drive and replace it with a ssd then clone back across from the external drive.
I haven't done this in years. I used to use something called norton ghost booted off floppy. I was wondering if people could recommend some good software that works well that I can use to get the job done. I'm not so interested in the expensive stuff that allows you to do fancy backups. Just want to do a disk clone this once for now and maybe again a little later down the line. I'm running windows 7. I've seen talk of Acronis, but it seems a bit over the top for my needs and can be a bit unreliable (from what i've read).
Thanks:)
 
Spazzfish said:
I'm running windows 7. I've seen talk of Acronis, but it seems a bit over the top for my needs and can be a bit unreliable (from what i've read).
Thanks:)
Click to expand...
Windows 7 will do it natively, no need for third-party utilities - Control Panel > Backup and Restore > Create a system image/Create a system repair disc :)
 
As CaptainCrash suggest, no point paying for third party apps, W7 has a great built in backup utility, type backup into the start menu,first option, select it, select create backup, select the System drive (DEFAULT) and your C: drive, then select a drive to put the image on... Secondary drive or USB, then continue, takes minutes. I have used it on both my desktop and laptop with no problems :)

Make sure to create a recovery CD First !!!
 
Last edited:
CaptainCrash said:
Windows 7 will do it natively, no need for third-party utilities - Control Panel > Backup and Restore > Create a system image/Create a system repair disc :)
Click to expand...

I tried this, but it doesnt support restoring from USB sticks for some reason, most annoying.
 
bulldog147 said:
Acronis True Image Home 2010 is the best one!
Click to expand...

I tried the free version of Acronis that came with my SSD, but it wouldnt let me copy the bigger source partition to the smaller SSD, will the full version let me downsize the destination disk?
 
Hi thanks for the input people. I'm trying the free option first the windows 7 backup. What confuses me with this is it wants to back up two of my three hard drives saying they are both needed for windows to run.
Now erm windows is wrong because it doesn't, my d drive has my game installs on it that's all. Is there anyway I can use this windows back to just clone drive c?
 
Spazzfish said:
Hi thanks for the input people. I'm trying the free option first the windows 7 backup. What confuses me with this is it wants to back up two of my three hard drives saying they are both needed for windows to run.
Now erm windows is wrong because it doesn't, my d drive has my game installs on it that's all. Is there anyway I can use this windows back to just clone drive c?
Click to expand...
To be honest I haven't actually used it, but maybe it also wants to copy the 100MB boot partition which Win7 creates on a new install (this isn't assigned a drive letter, so you won't see it in Explorer, although it should be visible in Disk Management).

Another thought that's just occurred to me is that cloning from a mechanical HDD to an SSD may leave you with the wrong offset - you might be better off just backing up your user data and starting afresh with a nice clean install on the SSD. :)
 
I used The full version of acronis 2010 to to a disk clone from big partition onto a smaller one (just make sure that the actual files will fit)

I've also used Ghost on a Barts CD to do the same.

Bear in mind that all the imaging programs atm mess up partition alignment on SSD's and you'll need to fix this manually.
 
Zarf said:
I used The full version of acronis 2010 to to a disk clone from big partition onto a smaller one (just make sure that the actual files will fit)

I've also used Ghost on a Barts CD to do the same.

Bear in mind that all the imaging programs atm mess up partition alignment on SSD's and you'll need to fix this manually.
Click to expand...

Ok thanks that information is helpful:)
Looks like i'm going the Acronis route. Amazon have it on sale at the moment and the other options are not quite working as i'd like.
How would you amend the partition alignment?
 
What about if you just partition the disk in Windows 7 first (to get correct allignment, then clone it without touching the partition.
 
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