Image Backup suggestions...

[ranchhand]

Sorry gang, I know this question has been asked ad-nauseum, but I just got my daughter a new laptop and after flushing all the crapware that came on it, it is running really good now. I had a an external drive case and put an old 250gig HD in it for backups so now all I need is a simple image backup utility. I understand that W7 Home will do it if I use VM, but I need it more simple than that. I bought & tried Acronis 11 once and it made a beautiful image but failed miserably to re-image onto a corrupted hard drive so I don't trust it. I would like suggestions from folks who actually have used a proggie to reimage in real-time, not just create images. Creating an image is easy, any proggie can do it; restoring an image to a corrupted drive separates the men from the boys. Any suggestions?

Thanx in advance.

[Poppa_Meth]

One of the easiest I've used is Image for Windows. But it will cost you. Paragon and Macrium are also good and have free versions.

[usta]

I've used Acronis with success in the past. Currently using Macrium and I'm happy with its reliability.

[Donaldsolsen]

Use Easeus Backup and Restore. It is good, let's you make a bootable rescue CD and best of all it's free.

[ranchhand]

Thanks guys, I will try Macrium and Easus. I appreciate the input!

[TwistEdFish]

I personally use the WIN 7 built in Backup and Restore utility.

I've had no problems restoring to a corrupted HDD as long as I create and use a Bootable System Repair Disc which the utility offers to create when you make a HD Disc Image.

[ranchhand]

Thanks for the reply Twisted... my daughter is running W7 Home and my wife likes her XP on her machine, so that excludes them from using the W7 backup which is available only in the advanced versions of W7 such as Ultra. That brings up another question: I am concerned about partition restoration; is the exact size partition restored as well as the image of the system? For example, if I have a 500 gig HD in my computer and a 300 gig external backup drive, upon restoration will the software create a 300 gig partition on my 500gig drive and restore into it? That would be a bummer! What do I do with the rest of the extra space? I would guess that it is best to have a backup drive the same size as the main HD. Make sense?

[TwistEdFish]

Actually all of my 5 computers HDD image's are stored on the same 1TB external HDD which is a networked drive here at my home it covers My Wifes laptop, My sons Laptop and desktop, And my own Laptop and desktop.

The images created lets say for this desktop average about 20g when restored its puts the HDD in this system back to exactly what it was when the Image was created, Partition size or sizes for multiple partitions, All installed programs and even network connections and settings. Simply put it is a ghost of the original.

Basically the image created is the same as having 2 identical HDD's with Identical size and info in 1 Computer with a hot swap to jump between them. except that 1 of those HDD's is a safe, stored away version.

I hope i havent gone to far in explaining this as i tend to do that a lot since I am not usually dealing with those who have much computer knowledge as is not the case in this forum.

[ranchhand]

Hey, Twisted, thanks - that was exactly what I was looking for. I had a gosh-awful time with Acronis 11 when my wife's computer crashed, it totally would not restore the image to her corrupted drive. It would get to the point of restore, the screen would go black and that was it. I went to the Acronis forum and found lots of similar complaints there, and Acronis was totally silent on the issue. I had to remove the drive and mount it in my computer, then use UBCD to pull all her data off of it, and then use a 3rd party utility to burn the image to a CD then restore from that CD. What a mess. THEN I discovered that I had an 300 Gig partition with the restored image on her 500gig hard drive. What a nightmare. Ended up simply reformatting and spending another full day reinstalling her programs, transferring her email addresses, etc. etc. Thanks a lot, now I got some idea of what is going on. And don't be shy about explaining in full... I had all the hot air kicked out of me a long time ago and I am not afraid in the least to say that I don't know something. :0)