disk cloning freeware

[MXM]

Hello everyone

Because of reasons apart from me i cant use shareware at this moment and even thou i could work around on this , i thought i'd look for a reliable alternative. After reading many reviews i cant come to a certain conclussion and i cant try em all out, so i thought coming here and ask to the BCN experts their opinions on this.

i have been looking for alternatives to both norton ghost and acronis true image. they both seem to be pretty good and easy to use, imo.

The scenerio is pretty basic: i have the need to clone a whole drive, i have used the mentioned options and like their method (live booting, then option 'create'(or 'back up') to get the image and 'restore' to place it) for the task.* This time is going to be Clone*800+ computers.

The following links are some of the ones i have been found/read.

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best...election_Guide
http://www.winvistaclub.com/d75.html
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-...ur-hard-drive/
http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilit...andimage.shtml
http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/67...is-true-image/

so far my choice goes to macrium reflect cause from what ive read it seems to work in the same way and is win7 compatible. (and of course is free)

on second place i have placed paragon back up & restore free, but on its reviews on many sites ive read of issues regarding the bootable disc and such.

then i have considered clonezilla, but it just does not seem to be easy of use.

i have also checked discwizard from seagate but from what ive read it only works for seagate-maxtor disks (no good to me then) ive also read a work around on this but then im not sure it will work.

* The reason why Im looking for an easy way of cloning is because i may have to get others to clone, and those others may not really be IT specialist or not even related, so im thinking on handing em the bootable disk, the disk(s) with the image(s) and some quick instructions...

Any advise, idea or review is appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

peace

[Toasty]

Re: disk cloning freeware

I use Acronis True Image off a bootable CD. Has worked well and will allow image to a network drive.

Makes a bootable CD for you and just pick the file.

Toast

[NxB]

Re: disk cloning freeware

+1 for acronis.

You can try some of the programs off the hiren's boot cd. They are "freeware".

[smason]

Re: disk cloning freeware

I use Macrium Reflect, but have heard good things about Acronis.

I also use Imagex which is quite free and very Windows compatible.

[toastygoodness]

Re: disk cloning freeware

+1 for acronis.

otherwise, boot linux from network ROM and tftp. use DD, it is an exact copy.

[goodpsusearch]

Re: disk cloning freeware

Acronis is the best!

[gerg]

Re: disk cloning freeware

i thought hirens was "stealware"

ultimate boot cd on the other hand is all legal software

i use clonezilla...

[toastygoodness]

Re: disk cloning freeware

i use clonezilla...

ahh forgot about that one.... super +1 for clonezilla, it can use TFTP too for a network image.

[NxB]

Re: disk cloning freeware

It pops a warning now on non-free software. Either way it does the job. I bet the "victims" are getting huge sales from the free advertising hiren's did for them.

If you want windows and stand alone acronis you have to go to them and hopefully buy it. Diagnostics is one thing but you can't install pirated software on company computers. Same goes for the other utilities.

[Toasty]

Re: disk cloning freeware

As some one said before: There are isolated torrents of information out there...