Best software for making an image of hard drive

[ingeborgdot]

I want to make an image of the hard drive so that if something goes wrong I can just put in the disc and restore it to like new.  What do you recommend?  Or is there such a thing?

[Buffalo2102]

If you have a lot of data then it won't just fit on a CD or DVD.  Most applications that do this rely on you having the backup on a spare internal or external hard drive, or some other backup medium.  You then boot from a floppy disk or CD to locate and restore the backup image.
There are a number of commercial programmes that will do this, such as Acronis True Image.  They provide a trial version if you think you'd like to try it.

http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/download/

If you don't fancy paying for it, then check out DriveImageXML.

http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm

If you want to do a complete disk restore you need to create a WinPE boot CD but full instructions are given and it's not too difficult.  I have been using it for a while now and have had no problems, although I haven't had reason to try the full disk restore option yet.  Things I like about it -

It's free  ;D
Easy to use interface
Backups are pretty fast (to a spare hard drive)
Backups are in XML and so can be read by other applications
You can choose exactly what to backup/restore, down to the single file level
Although it is Freeware and unsupported, the FAQ and documentation are pretty good.
It's free

There may be other options out there but these are the ones I am aware of.

Buff

[ingeborgdot]

We have many computers with many users.  Most of the users are very computer illiterate.  We are using this if (or when) they mess up the computer.  We don't want to reinstall the os and then all the apps etc.  We just want an image ready so we can just do a quick fix.  Does this sound like it's possible?

[Buffalo2102]

It is certainly possible but how you do it depends somewhat on the size of the image you want to restore.

The application to restore an image is usually very small but, obviously, if your average user's used disk space is too much to fit on a DVD then you will need to store it on a hard disk or other backup medium (e.g. tape).  Either that or you will need to find an application that will span the backup image across a number of CDs/DVDs.  Laptop manufacturers do this all the time and the backup image is often stored on a separate partition on the primary hard drive, or on DVD or CDs

If the image to restore is small enough to fit on a DVD (or can be spanned across CDs/DVDs) then it is certainly possible to make a bootable DVD that contains both the restore application and the disk image.  This would make it very simple to restore a system to it's original state.

You need something that will clone a partition and restore it, such as this

http://www.bootandrescuecd.com/?tid=RD50

The above isn't a recommendation, just an example of what you can find with a quick search.  If I were you, I would start looking for trial versions that you can test before you buy, or some recommendations for similar applications.

Hope this helps.

Buff

[Hoot]

The best way to do this IMO is to get the full version of Acronis and use an external USB drive to store your complete OS and partition backups. Simple, easy, and totally effective.

[scuzzy]

I agree with Hoot. Acronis is at version 11 and it will do exactly what you need, and it will do it very well.

[tremmor]

I agree........acronis true image.
hands down barred none works fine.

I forgot.
i always liked symanec ghost that worked well
but at the time i was a dos person. even the
windows ver works well. i tried them both and
have no complaints but supporting others Acronis
has done well.

[Softix]

I have been using Acronis True Image and an external hard drive. It will be hard to beat.