Disk Image software that works with Windows 7

S

SideShowBob

Does anyone know of disk image software that works with Windows 7? Norton Ghost can't snapshot half my drives, I tried "Active Disk Image" which claimed to be Windows 7 compatible, that can't snapshot and also crashes.

Anything else out there that works?
 
Acronis has a beta version of it's next gen software available on their site. Maybe you might want to give that a try and see.

Also, Acronis 9.0 works with Vista, so being that Win7 is based on Vista, shouldn't that work with it?

I have multi XP, 2K3, and Vista drives/partitions on my system and what I do is make clones from XP platform. Makes a perfect copy into another drive if that's what you are looking to do.
 
Well, acronis was actually my next step, but I got a slightly different message this morning and when I googled that I found a thread on fixing ghost on symantec's site (not fixing it for windows 7 but for XP or Vista).

Anyway basically for whatever reason the symantec snapshot service (64 bit version since this is Windows 7 x64) was not set up properly (I had to reinstall Ghost since the windows 7 upgrade from Vista uninstalled it). Somehow it didn't install properly. By getting that service running (SynSnapServicex64.exe) as a service it now is up and running.

I can provide more info on the fix if needed by anyone.....
 
Best is to use a product that you do NOT run from within the operating system you are trying to backup. In that case, you do not care what o/s you are using, but only the type of the file system.

I use and recommend clonezilla.org/. Download it, burn it to a CD and boot from it. Easiest is to pre-partition your HDD or save the backup in a separate HDD. If you have one HDD, first split it in 2, and use a file system like ext2 on the second partition so that windows don't even recognize it. Then install your o/s in first partition, and periodically back it up to the second partition. Of course, a second HDD would make it simpler.

If you are so inclined, you can also save the backup over the network (over ssh or windows network) - this is what I do.
 
Any reasons you guy look for something that is external to the OS?

Partition backup technology is part of Windows since Vista - it started there with ImageX. It works file based (i.e. it makes not a dump image but actually creates like a zip file - in fact, the whole Vista upward installation approach works with those ".WIM" files.

No need to pay.

Just read your manuals and learn your tools.

http://4sysops.com/archives/imagex-for-windows-7-new-features/ is a decent start.

That being said, with Windows 7 it may make sense to install into a VHD file, not on a raw disc ;)
 
Quote from DarthSidious:

Best is to use a product that you do NOT run from within the operating system you are trying to backup.
More...

Only primitive, dated clone programs cannot run in the background...
And force users to jump through flaming hoops of fire.

I've been using Casper for > 3 years with 100% reliability...
On all my PCs.

http://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/

A good, simple solution is:

(1) every PC has 2 drives, call them c: and e:

(2) clone c: to e: every few days

(3) both drives are identical and bootable

(4) if something goes wrong with c:
just open up the case and swap SATA cables... takes about 30 seconds.
 
Quote from DeeDeeTwo:

Only primitive, dated clone programs cannot run in the background...
And force users to jump through flaming hoops of fire.

I've been using Casper for > 3 years with 100% reliability...
On all my PCs.

http://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/

A good, simple solution is:

(1) every PC has 2 drives, call them c: and e:

(2) clone c: to e: every few days

(3) both drives are identical and bootable

(4) if something goes wrong with c:
just open up the case and swap SATA cables... takes about 30 seconds.
More...

With Casper's "incremental clone" feature, could update your clone drive daily... takes only about 1 minute.
 
How reliable is Casper? I'm currently using Acronis True Image (Vista Home 64-Bit) and have several gripes with it:

Usually I make an incremental backup every evening, including a verify, and have checked the option to shut down the computer after this operation.

When there has been an error - verify not ok - Acronis does not shut down the computer. There is not even a message in the log file, I have to close Acronis and reopen it to see some cryptic stuff I cannot make sense off.

When I want to look up just the log file, no backup disk attached, Acronis takes forever to start. Browsing through the log file is next to impossible, clicking on a date takes about 15 seconds to produce a reaction by Acronis.

Making an incremental backup (maybe 4 GB) takes about 30(!) minutes. The backup needs about 4 minutes, the verify alone lasts almost 30 minutes. I guess they verify all of the backup, instead just the increment.

There are some bugs in the UI: recently I made an error and instead of opting for a proper backup file name I left it at the default "MyBackup". I noticed this, scrolled back through the dialogues and changed the file name: everything looked fine. Acronis started the backup but the verify step failed because Acronis did not find the file "MyBackup".

Aside from that it seems to work properly: I make a backup every day and have made several restores, all were ok.
 
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