Imaging Hard Disk
pca_Grampa_Bill - 10 September 2008 - 4:29pm
Hi,
I'm looking for a Disk Imaging program which will allow me to create a raw image of a partition on my Hard Disk, to a DVD or DVDs, with the DVD (or 1st DVD) being bootable.
I already have Acronis True Image 9.0, but it seems to be only capable of providing an image on a second Hard Disk drive, rather than a DVD................
Any suggestions would be very welcome 
Thanks
OS : Windows XP with all service packs and updates.
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Drive Image certainly writes
pca_AnnaDyne - 13 September 2008 - 4:25pmDrive Image certainly writes to removable media, though I don't know about the "raw data" part of your query.
Have you considered an external hard drive? This would be a quicker method, and doesn't run the risk of writing unverified images to disk - I wasted numerous CDR's when I used to use Norton Ghost (2002).
I think DI is very easy to use. You have to use the DI disk to boot if you want to restore your Windows drive, but you can start the process while still in Windows (if it is usable!) and the program takes it from there.
HTH
Anodyne humour
Can I find the Aspirin in the jungle? No, you'll find the Parrots ate 'em all.
*Anna* )
John I use Acronis TI 8 and
pca_st-clares - 14 September 2008 - 2:19pmJohn
I use Acronis TI 8 and I believe you are correct it will not backup to DVDs. If it was possible to backup to DVDs I hate to hazard a guess on how many would be required even if you compress the files.
I backup my system and program files to an external HD on a regular basis. Data, video etc is always kept in separate folders on the external HD. I have done this for many years so that if I really cock things up I can restore my latest backup in about an hour. In fact I have on many occasions chosen to restore the backup rather than trace what has gone wrong. Of course it couldn't have been my fault.??????
Also when I bought my PC I made a backup of the Vista system plus some basic software i.e. Firefox, AVG, Printer etc.so I can install a clean system at some later date.
I use a program called Image
29thcentury - 27 October 2008 - 4:43pmI use a program called Image For Windows, in combo with DrvImagerXP. This allows you to image to DVD, but only one DVD i think. So I've only used it once where I made a clean install of windows XP, installed my antivirus and broadband software and some other essential stuff and then did an Image.
So the contents on the harddrive at the time was less than a full DVD, so all fitted on. When the system messes up or wont start, you can then put the dvd in and it will revert to the clean install of windows with just the few programs. But to get around this, I have a second drive with all my documents on, so they wont get lost.
To make an image of a harddrive with more data on it than a dvd (a system thats been used a while) I'm not sure Image For Windows would spread it across multiple dvds or not.
The way I'm doing it though, you lose all your windows updates if you revert to image. Only way I've thought of getting around this is uninstalling all the games and things on the system hard drive, and getting it down to a dvd size again then doing another back up. But then I think you would lose alot of the speed you get by doing a fresh install. Best way would be to install windows, get all the updates, then do an image, then start installing games and other programs.
Having used both methods to
inkdrop - 31 October 2008 - 9:05amHaving used both methods to back up data from my PC , I've found the external hard drive the easiest method of storage.
Backing your data up on CD is fine if you have a finished article or have lots of the same stuff (Ie Images), but when you are doing a full system backup you have to remember the limitations of the media you're using....standard CDRs take upto 700MB of Data, and even DVD-Rs have a limit of 4.7 GB (and these cost)
Recently i went onto Amazon and purchased an external Mybook Drive from Western Digital - this has a program much like i-tunes, which allows you to synchronise your programs/documents/et al to the hard drive. capacity is 160 GB but you can request more for more cash.
Once you have stored your files you just disconnect the drive and keep it safe for the next time you need it.
I have perhaps become
John Baxter - 23 November 2008 - 1:58pmI have perhaps become slightly neurotic about backing up...
I have both Paragon HD Manager 8.5 & Acronis 11. My laptop & desktop are used for business and I know from past experience time costs a lot more than the parts + software.
I purchased a HD that was compatible with my PC and larger capacity than the one in my PC. I put it in a caddy and cloned the entire HD to the caddy drive. Both Acronis & Paragon will re-size the partitions in the caddy proportionately. Now if the HD fails or a virus strikes I can just swap the hard drives or restore from another complete backup I have on yet another HD.
Paragon Drive Backup 9.0 will also backup the entire HD or files. It can also backup the drive including boot sectors etc. to DVDs. Very reasonably priced as well. With DVDs being so unreliable I wouldn't bother unless it is a newly installed system without to much clutter.