Hey all, what would be the best software to make an exact image of my HDD as it is right now so on DVD that I could use the DVD to install windows XP with all my drivers, etc. on a fresh install in case my HDD goes kaput one of these days? I ask because I've spent the better part of the last two days on my new laptop, uninstalling Vista, and locating near impossible to find drivers for Win XP, and I don't want to go through the hassle again if I can just make a restore DVD. I think Norton's Ghost Drive will do this, but I wanted your input as to what the best program would be. Thanks -J
if im not mistaken then if u set a split up rar to "archive" compression then u could get the stuff onto the dvds pretty easily without much of a hassle.
I'm looking for an option that lets me create a bootable restore image of my hard drive in its current state,much like what Norton's Ghost allows you to do. I guess I'll just use Ghost then.
I use acronis true image version 9.0 (it's up to version 11.0 now). But I always keep my c: drive very small loading only important programs there. My partition hard drive is 20gb (7gb in use). When I back it up, it takes less than 5 minutes and with normal compression it produces a 3.5gb file. Then I use ultraISO (but any iso editing program will work) to open up the true image boot cd and add my backup file into it, next I burn it to a blank dvd. This gives me my homemade recovery dvd, that works pretty good. When I bootup with the dvd, I get the true image recovery console, then I just browse to the recovery backup image on the same dvd and restore it. One thing about backing up and restoring hard drives is that it's very complicated for people who have never done it. I had to do several backups and restores to finally learn the proper procedures and how fix any problems I run into. Currently I can restore any hard drive whether vista or xp everytime only because I have plenty of practice. If your using windows xp, you might also want to consider "paragon drive backup 8.5" I would recommend that over ghost. Paragon is the only one of the backup software that has a bootcd that has built-in utilitys that can change drive letters and edit the boot.ini files (very common problem when restoring windows xp). The only drawback of paragon is that it's slower than acronis true image. True image has a very good forum with knowlegeble people there that know the program inside and out. If I have problems, I find answers there. If done right, backing up a harddrive and restoring it will save you hours if not days of reinstalling everything. Recovering from a dvd usually takes about 20 minutes, if you recover from an internal/external hard drive can take 5 to 10 minutes. hard drive backup side by side features http://disk-imaging-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ good forum dealing with backup http://www.wilderssecurity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=65
jony218, thank you so much, really. I'll probably end up using both acronis and paragon as well as ghost. Can't hurt to use all three I figure.
