Clone software advice?

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nick09

nick09

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I've had very little experience with using cloning software and I'm nervous about using cloning software on my own machines. My laptop's hard drive is failing(Raw Read Error Rate is below the limits) and so I need to replace the hard drive and I want to copy three partitions I have on my laptop to another hard drive.

I'm looking for software that is fairly user friendly and that can move the partitions(I'm also looking at getting a larger hard drive and it'd be great if I can expand my partitions to the size of the new hard drive so I don't need to make a new partition to make use of the space) all at once.
 
I've heard good things about paragon when I looked into it before, but in the end I just grabbed what I needed and reinstalled so I can't tell you what it's like from personal experience unfortunately.
 
You have a wide array of options at your disposal. I've used a ton of different cloning software and I'd highly recommend/strongly suggest trying out Clonezilla or G-Parted. If you can boot into windows and are using Windows 7 you can try the built in Image Backup program in the Control Panel (maybe Vista has this option too?)

You can boot from a CD or USB drive with both. Clonezilla is more of a step by step process to copy your hard drive. You would want to choose the option of 'savedisk' (which saves all the partition tables on the drive) and save it to a 'local device' (your other hard drive connected via USB, Sata, eSata, etc.). You can find instructions and see what it looks like here: http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/free_imaging_software.html

And the website can be found here: http://www.clonezilla.org This method could pay off later if you wanted to make a complete image backup to restore to later on, which is my recommendation to be ready for when it happens again, not if it happens again.

Option B, G-Parted. This is more of a visual GUI program with options to resize, copy, delete, format partitions, etc. This option, will let you essentially copy and paste partitions between the drives. I'm not certain, but you may first need to create the partitions on the new drive with the exact same size before trying to copy them over. This may be a better option if you aren't as familiar with computers and backups. HTH.


Jerome
 
Jump_Ace
If you can boot into windows and are using Windows 7 you can try the built in Image Backup program in the Control Panel (maybe Vista has this option too?)

And the website can be found here: http://www.clonezilla.org This method could pay off later if you wanted to make a complete image backup to restore to later on, which is my recommendation to be ready for when it happens again, not if it happens again.
Click to expand...

I kinda already said that...

The thing about Gparted is that you WILL have to sacrifice a CD/DVD (OH NOES!) to run a live disk to do the job.
 
NissanSkylineN1
I kinda already said that...

The thing about Gparted is that you WILL have to sacrifice a CD/DVD (OH NOES!) to run a live disk to do the job.
Click to expand...

An Linux live CD and GParted can be put on a flash drive(5 secs to find out on Google). I've got about 289GB of data on my laptop's 320GB hard drive so I can't really fit that on a DVD disc.;)

Though I like the looks of that paragon software(Has that Drive to Drive feature and supports Linux partitions along with windows) and I'm thinking of using the GParted software to expand my partitions to take the free space on a larger hard drive.

Edit: I've ordered a new hard drive that is the same size as my laptop's. I plan on using the Drive to Drive feature of the Paragon software to copy the partitions(It also includes the MBR which allows me to boot from windows and Linux, which is a plus in my book!).
 
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Acronis Disk Director suite is pretty easy to use and can do everything you want. You'd have to buy a copy but its always a nice thing to have around.

The other obvious one would be Norton Ghost, but I assume you're probably looking for freeware.
 
Download the Ultimate Boot CD.

It has a few disk cloning tools on it.

I have never tested them.
 
dchPSUone
The other obvious one would be Norton Ghost, but I assume you're probably looking for freeware.
Click to expand...

I have used Norton before but that was when the teacher told me how and it was a bit confusing(plus we did have problems with some of the Dell's in class over the network). I'm using the paragon 2010 software that was linked here for my friend's hard drive(it's gonna die pretty soon and need to get it replaced by Dell) and I love how it can clone the entire hard drive including the MBR and several other partitions(it supports linux partitions which is good for me). So I think I will also make a DVD backup for my small desktop(64GB SSD and I should be able to fit 28GB of data compressed onto 3-4 DVD's).

It has a pretty simple interface with the backup option and describes the different backup media that you can use very well. In fact I think I will install Blu-Ray on my desktop and then make a backup through the software.
 
Whatever you do: avoid Norton Ghost. It never worked for me and Norton support told me it's because it doesn't support anything but Windows compatible partitions. Great...seeing that I have Linux on all my machines as well.

It might say "Supports Linux" but keep in mind that it *will* cause trouble if your GRUB or LILO is even slightly modified.
 
Making an update. Got my new hard drive in the mail and verified that it works. I messed up and thought that the paragon software had the drive to drive feature but it was a different program that could not copy an entire hard drive(including all partitions and MBR). So I'm making a backup onto an 640GB external I have here and will then restore that backup to the new hard drive and see how it works out. 👍
 

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