How can I make an exact clone of a HD?

MikeHunt79 · 15 Jan 2010 at 18:47

Is there a recommended program? I need to clone a HD, bootblock, partitions, everything! What's the easiest way of doing this?

rollinsoundz · 15 Jan 2010 at 18:50

copy and paste everything lol

moleh · 15 Jan 2010 at 19:22

http://clonezilla.org/

roachyuk · 15 Jan 2010 at 19:51

ill have to take a look at this myself always good to know

sjcf1 · 15 Jan 2010 at 20:11

If your running windows 7, or vista for that matter, its got a really useful backup option, you can do a full image backup, and what's more, you can load it up when your reinstalling. Which saves a heap of time if you've got a lot of programs to install afterwards

DavyBoy · 15 Jan 2010 at 20:49

Acronis True Image would be perfect for you, I'm sure they have a trial version on their site.

Essexraptor · 15 Jan 2010 at 21:38

Interested in this DavyBoy

I have Acronis True Image and I'm not quite sure which method to use!

ie create a backup image of the OS partition or the clone drive utility

Any help with this would be welcome to me and the OP?

manbearpig · 15 Jan 2010 at 21:40

RAID 1, Syncback?

Essexraptor · 15 Jan 2010 at 21:43

sjcf1 said:
If your running windows 7, or vista for that matter, its got a really useful backup option, you can do a full image backup, and what's more, you can load it up when your reinstalling. Which saves a heap of time if you've got a lot of programs to install afterwards

Is this using the Win7 recovery boot disc to restore the image created by Win7 using the included backup software?

muon · 15 Jan 2010 at 23:45

Essexraptor said:
Interested in this DavyBoy

I have Acronis True Image and I'm not quite sure which method to use!

ie create a backup image of the OS partition or the clone drive utility

Any help with this would be welcome to me and the OP?

Definitely not create backup image. Was a lot of pain getting my install back after assuming that was the correct option.

I was using a 32GB SSD. Somehow, windows 7 partitions the drive at 100MB for the boot partition. However, true image couldn't create such a partition (the closest it could get was 101.9) and obviously that meant that the original partition images couldn't be written. Luckily if you just recover the main OS partition and then use repair system from the windows disc, it fixes everything so that all the necessary files get put onto the main OS partition instead of the non existent 100MB partition.

DavyBoy · 16 Jan 2010 at 10:38

I've done both, cloning my OS and creating backup with Acronis, when I used the clone method it re-imaged my SSD's using the wrong alignment, whereas with a full backup using "sector by sector" it worked perfectly for me.

Essexraptor · 16 Jan 2010 at 19:58

DavyBoy said:
I've done both, cloning my OS and creating backup with Acronis, when I used the clone method it re-imaged my SSD's using the wrong alignment, whereas with a full backup using "sector by sector" it worked perfectly for me.

OK so clone method = no

full back up "sector by sector" = yes

back up to external HDD + create a recovery boot disc in Acronis?
reformat HDD or fit new SSD for instance
boot to recovery disc
restore backed up OS to drive

correct?

subbass · 17 Jan 2010 at 01:15

It's been a while since I used Trueimage so my memory of it is a bit sketchy. I only ever used the Backup image option and it worked fine. I'm guessing the cloning method is for when you have a new hard drive and want to make a 1:1 copy of the old drive to the new one on the fly. Whereas the backup method is just that, which allows you save an image of the entire or selected files/folders of the hard drive and restore whenever you choose to do so with the recovery cd.

So yes in short. Just use the backup method and save image to another hard drive or partition. Then use that image you just saved and restore to the new hard drive.

DavyBoy · 17 Jan 2010 at 01:17

That's right Essexraptor.

MikeHunt79 · 17 Jan 2010 at 01:32

Cheers, I'll give Acronis a go.

I've tried the free equivalent (Driveimage XML) and while it's nice, it won't read my partition.

I think this may be because my HD I'm trying to back up has bad/unreadable sectors.

I'll give acronis a go, hopefully is has an option to skip bad sectors.

I'll give clonezilla a go also, that may work.

tankskun · 17 Jan 2010 at 04:37

ghost101 said:
Luckily if you just recover the main OS partition and then use repair system from the windows disc, it fixes everything so that all the necessary files get put onto the main OS partition instead of the non existent 100MB partition.

Can you please detail me on how to do this. I need to create an image of a new ssd I have bought.

Essexraptor · 17 Jan 2010 at 16:21

DavyBoy said:
That's right Essexraptor.

Thanks

rz30 · 17 Jan 2010 at 19:52

btw i don't think acronis deals with partition imaging well, by that i mean, acronis has a "universal restore option" if you have purchased it so that you can restore an image to dissimilar hardware, and the UR only works if you image the whole drive, it is costly but you ideally would use Ghost enterpise ed.