best method(s) for imaging a hdd, quickly to mem sticks/cards?

[vhelp]

share your best method(s) for imaging a hdd, quickly ?
(post your software recommendations and the steps to achieve)

i.e, windows xp home

then, what would you recommend for imaging a netbook w/ win xp home

onto 8gig usb memory stick, or
onto 2/4/8gig memory cards for card reader built into netbook
(preferably to image into compressed for smaller size cards)

later, when i feel its time, i'd like to pop in the card into
the netbook and re-fresh it with an already imaged hdd..should be faster than writing the image.

[TreeTops]

"should be faster than writing the image" (from a Hard Drive) I don't think so.

[vhelp]

Sorry, I ment, in comparson to the initial writing/compressing to destination (ie, mem stick or card stick) vs putting reading the image from stick to hdd. Though, it may not be sup fast, but faster.

[Moontrash]

if u have the ability...maybe a simpler way would be to take out the HDD in the netbook and sticking it in a external enclosure and plug it into a desktop usb and running hdclone or clonezilla...since its xp and if there's not a lot of stuff on the drive, you could just create the image files and drag them over to the mem stix or cards..i doubt there'll be anything close to 8gb's on a bare xp drive

these apps can also be used running them from those stix/cards...shouldn't be too hard

[vhelp]

I miss the old days of imaging win 98, even from a 2x speed cd-r only took me roughly 35 min to write the initial image.

Then, all I did was pop in the disc to re-image to fresh state, that only took 10 to 12 min to do though I did not do often, I remember that part was the fastest. I always though that one day I will do bootable USB version for even faster process.

Now I have faster pc and usb2, speed should be a little better--I hope.

But I would pref using a card reader since it built in.

I read clonezila but found that is a Linux /bonto type app.

I need windows ver only. And if posible, simple cmd line or GUI.

[lordsmurf]

Paragon DriveCopy to clone drive.

Many netbooks lack a hard drive, FYI. Those are using small and cheap flash memory, too.
Depends on model.

[Bjs]

Macurium reflect.

[dragonkeeper]

Go to the following web site and follow the onscreen instructions to create a bootable USB device using Yumi.
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/

Install clonezilla and your in business.

[stiltman]

BartPE and ghost32 on a 16gb USB stick
boot and ghost to the usb stick

[sanlyn]

I still use DriveImage 2002 for most of this imaging and backup stuff -- In XP. It won't run in Vista/W7, but it might work if booted from a floppy drive (remember those?). Memory sticks are slow. Period. Best to get a fan-equipped external box and back up to more reliable and faster hard drives.

[vhelp]

thanks for all the suggestions. unfortunately, they are all too complicated to setup and run. its just not that simple. all i want to do is image my current netbook to an 8gig class(10) (the 4's are very slow, around 4mb/s vs 20mb/s) card and be done with it. then, just pop it in whenever i feel like something going wrong with my pc or if i'm tinkering with new device/software/driver installs, i can just pop in the card, 1-2-3 my system restored back to the image. i'm not so worried about how long it might take to restore the image as that should be faster than first creating/writing it. i want the option to compress the (files) being imaged to the card, like ghost does.

the way i currently have the 160 gig netbook layed out:
10 gig for root drive, windows xp home
50 gig for softare and other stuff
100 gig for avi captures or edit/encode projects, but i mainly use an 1TB externan usb drive.

i just want to image the 10 gig partition because that is where window xp is.

[sanlyn]

No USB flash drive is as fast as a hard drive. External enclosures are faster, but not as efficient as onboard drives. Your best bet is an external drive and software specifically designed to back up complete partition images. That's a popular (and probably easiest and most reliable) way to get there. I've done it that way for many years.

Another prob with flash drives: many are formatted as FAT32. Likely your backup software won't read it if the backup exceeds 4GB. Check first.

[ranchhand]

1-2-3 my system restored back to the image

I'm not trying to be a downer, but that "1-2-3" quick thing ain't going to happen, especially with any HD over 250 gigs (as all are now) and double-especially using a flash drive. I use one of the fastest out there, Redo, and my 1 TB drive takes two hours to backup, 45 minutes for a restore. That's HD to HD backup/restore and that's the fastest setup available.

[dragonkeeper]

The software link below offers one of the easiest methods, but @ $50, in my opinion its a little pricey since there are free options that work just as well.

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

[pcspeak]

I agree, in part, with Stiltman.
Have BartPE on a stick with DriveImage XML. Free for private use.
I boot from the stick and run my batch file.
If you wish you can forget the batch file and just run DriveImage XML.
If you use the batch file you will need to check/change drive letters/paths.
Compression is approx. 50%
DriveImage is here. http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm
The BartPE plugin here. http://www.runtime.org/peb.htm

@echo off
:: *** Create backup root folder ***
if not exist d:\backups md d:\backups

:: *** Create env.var %date% with today's date. ***
date/t > tmp
for /F "tokens=4,3,2 delims=/ " %%a in (tmp) do set date=%%c-%%b-%%a
del tmp

:: *** Create env.var %number% for the next backup. Maximum of 5 per day. ***
set number=0
for /L %%x in (5,-1,1) do if not exist "d:\backups\XP%date%-%%x.xml" set number=%%x
if %number%==0 goto ErrMsg01

"x:\Programs\dixml\dixml.exe" /bC /t"d:\backups\XP%date%-%number%" /c2 /l /s-
goto end

:ErrMsg01
echo Could not create output file. Path to backup drive correct? &pause
goto end

:end