Re: XP Backup Utility vs. Disk Imaging?

Thank you for your response. After spending a little time here:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=65, and especially
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=151380&highlight=SATA, I
think I'll take my chances with HDClone 3.1.

"Ronnie Vernon MVP" wrote:

Amy

FYI, Acronis is offering version 7 of TrueImage for free, as a marketing tool for
low-cost upgrade paths to version 10....but version 7 works great too:
http://www.acronis.com/mag/vnu-ati7

Fill in the form, receive a version 7 serial number via email, then log on and
download:
https://www.acronis.com/my/download/?trueimage7.0.638_s_en.exe

I have used Acronis products for years, on a wide variety of different systems and never had any problems.

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


"AmyM" <AmyM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:803F4829-C632-40F2-A2DD-83E55C07F126@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
That majorgeeks site looks like it has every backup utility known to mankind!
I think I am going to try the Basic edition of HDClone 3.1, which looks
interesting. It installs its own operating system so it runs independently of
everything else on the computer. All I have to lose at this point is time, so
the worst that could happen is I have to reconfigure my system again. Thanks
so much to everyone for all of your insights.

"Bob Harris" wrote:

I also vote for disk imaging software. I have actually had good luck with
both GHOST and True Image. However, when I first built my PC, SATA disks
were new and I had to wait a bit before the vendors of image software caught
up. Today SATA disks should not be a problem.

That said, I would suggest testing any imaging software you may get. Making
an image is usually not the hard part. It is the recovery. I have learned
that if the recovery software, can "see" the image and also "see" the target
partition onto which you would recover it, then the odds are good the
recovery will work. To "see" this stuff you need to pretend to be doing a
restore, but stop just before pressing the final "OK" button. When I had
problems with GHOST and TrueImage, this simple test was enough to tell me
that I needed to upgrade or contact their support group. TI8 support was
helpful, but took a while to fix my problem; GHOST support pointed me to a
pre-canned answer that translated to we don't support that type of hard
drive.

I am not a fan of tricky software that you start in Windows, then jumps to
DOS, then back again (e.g., GHOST 2003). Such software often utilizes a
hidden partition, and thus needs to plays games with the partition table.
If something goes wrong the PC may be left unbootable.

Making an image from within Windows seems safe, at least it works for
TrueImage. But, common sense dictate that you should close all user
processes while making an image.

For restoring the image, look for something that runs outside of windows, in
case windows won't boot. Also, look for something that runs without your
hard drive, since you might need to recover to a new (clean) hard drive, in
case of a physically damaged drive. Most modern backup software will
provide some option to boot from CD. A few might still use floppies.

All this said, there are many possible backup programs, and some are even
free. Start looking at Major Geeks, category backup:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads3.html. Also try Google searches on
"backup software" or similar.

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