coldshot47
New Member
what program should i use to clone my HDD? and how do i get it onto a usb stick and make it bootable to run the program?
Clone HDD
- Thread starter coldshot47
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Calibretto
VIP Member
Seagate's DiskWizard is a good tool to clone HDDs. It has an option to make a bootable disc.
tlarkin
VIP Member
Are you looking for free ones or are you willing to pay? Norton ghost can boot from the CD, and create images that can be dumped to, external HDs, burned to DVDs (multiple if needed), or to a mapped network drive.
It has a very easy to use interface. Well worth the money, I think one license is like $40 or around there.
If you are looking for free ones I am not too familiar with any open source imaging solutions other than DRBL and that is complicated to set up.
It has a very easy to use interface. Well worth the money, I think one license is like $40 or around there.
If you are looking for free ones I am not too familiar with any open source imaging solutions other than DRBL and that is complicated to set up.
Calibretto
VIP Member
Hard Drive manufacturers make their own free hard drive tools and will do most of what Norton Ghost does.
tlarkin
VIP Member
Norton Ghost boots into a PE and can copy from a series of devices, where as most built in tools lack driver support for RAID controllers, certain chip sets, specific ATA and SATA controllers, so on and so forth. They also won't image directory to multiple DVDs and span the image if need be. Ghost does a LOT more than most free tools which is why you have to pay for it, well that and mostly because Symantec charges for it.
tlarkin
VIP Member
I am not a huge fan of symantec, but Ghost is a solid product and it is very easy to use. I could tell you how to set up a netboot server and use open source software to create and image your own machines off your own network, but then I would have to support you doing it, and I would have to tell that a driver update could break it and you would be forced to wait until the developer fixes it for the new driver, or firmware or whatever.
For an end user product, Ghost is easy to use and very robust, that is why I suggested it. I am not going to suggest some command line utility or some utility that only does drive to drive cloning or anything like that. I am going to recommend the simplest product to use for the person, unless they specify they want something else.
Free ones can't touch True Image or Ghost, if they could no one would buy either of those products.
For an end user product, Ghost is easy to use and very robust, that is why I suggested it. I am not going to suggest some command line utility or some utility that only does drive to drive cloning or anything like that. I am going to recommend the simplest product to use for the person, unless they specify they want something else.
Free ones can't touch True Image or Ghost, if they could no one would buy either of those products.