Is there a decent free cloning program out there??

StevieP

StevieP

StevieP

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I'm after some free cloning software if such a thing exists!

Basically doing a full W7 reinstall is a bit long winded for my dad and so I wanted to do a completely fresh install for him, update it with all of the current Windows updates and install all of the "essential" programs that he uses (Windows Live Mail, banking programs etc) and then basically save an image of that "clean" install somehow and so he can do a full reinstall quickly and easily should he need to.

Is the above possible without spending??

Thanks...
 
http://clonezilla.org/ - http://clonezilla.org/show-live-doc-content.php?topic=clonezilla-live/doc/01_Save_disk_image]here's a guide

Don't let the awful site fool you :p. The basic operation is you partition your hard disk to provide a home for the backed up images. You then run Clonezilla and have it image your disk to that partition. If you ever want to restore that image you just tell Clonezilla to restore back to your HD.

YouTube has plenty of video guides which make it look far less daunting than that video.
 
Thanks for the reply, I'll give it a look!

I assume you get the option to be able to save the image to another hard drive rather than partitioning the main driver? (in this case, an SSD)

Ideally I'd like to be able to stick the image on a mechanical sata-connected drive and be able to restore from there rather than taking up a chunk of the relatively small SSD!

Also, how does the restore work? Is it a Windows-based operation or do you need a bootable CD/USB to run things from? (I'm just thinking in case the OS gets riddled with viruses that won't let me activate the restore or worse still, the drive dies all together!)
 
Macrium Reflect Free

Create a bootable CD in the software.


Now setup your machine as you want it.

Boot from the CD.

Create image of C:\ onto another hard drive.



In the future, boot from CD, restore that image.
 
Just a quick note to say I ended up using Macrium Reflect and it was spot on!

Easy and quick to make the image and boot CD and dead straightforward for my dad to restore should he need to!

Thanks for all the suggestions guys....
 
I don't use any of the pro features, but I bought a pro licence for it becuase it's so damn handy.

UK based company too :)
 
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