November 12, 201213 yr I figured I would ask here and other favorite forums. I installed Windows 8 and my primary programs I will always need and use. Since I'm always reformatting my computer and reinstalling the OS all the time I figured I would try and cut down on the time it takes. What programs are out there that would enable me to create an entire image of my hard drive and then let me boot from a CD and re-image my hard drive back? I'm using Windows 8 and checking to see if Windows 8 has anything built in that does that. Something free of course. Its not that important to where I need to spend any money on it. What I would like even better would be to keep the image on a network share and then load that image on my hard drive across the network. Boot from a USB flash device and load up network drivers and a small GUI then select what ISO/image to load on the hard drive. Kind of like GHOST back in the days. Hell, maybe I should look into using GHOST. I know there must be other newer programs out there that allows all this across the LAN, right? Well thanks...and I'll keep looking myself. See ya.
November 12, 201213 yr Clonezilla Easeus Todo Backup Drive Snapshot And Windows System Image is built into Windows.
November 12, 201213 yr Does your machine use EFI? If so I strongly suggest testing a recovery on a spare drive. I had to do exactly what you're doing in a lab situation with HP machines that used EFI. Our older Acronis software wouldn't even see the disk. Clonezilla could see it but restoration failed. A new version of Acronis backed up and restored but I think only XP booted. Old versions of Linux refused to even install and newer versions tweaked the EFI and refused to recover. I actually got a Windows screen offering safe boot and when I selected continue normally it booted the Linux distro I'd installed! I was seeing entries in the BIOS listing various OS, not having used EFI much this was a surprise and not something I've seen on my own machines. I worked on this for awhile before simply yanking all of the new updated hardware in favor of our previous non-EFI machines. it was more cost effective than burning hours trying to solve this. At least Acronis 2012 appeared EFI aware. Clonezilla was fine for making images but they refused to boot and even Acronis restores warned me I'd have to rerun Grub when working with Linux. Since I'd been the one to spec the new "improved" replacement machines it was pretty embarrassing to have to revert! I'd be interested to hear if others have encountered this. It's been a few months so I cannot give exact errors or steps but it sure sucked. Acronis, Clonezilla (much less friendly), and something called FOG, all looked interesting to me although FOG says Windows only (bummer). I too have a need to backup/restore on bare metal often and into different drives except I need support for Linux, desktop Windows, and server Windows. You'd think server and desktop Windows would act much the same but I didn't always find that to be the case (sigh)... P.S. I even tried pulling a drive and cloning it on another non-EFI machine, bizarre results and a failed boot. Think that was the one that acted like Windows before booting Linux. This was not bit for bit copy, I often vary drive sizing too.
November 12, 201213 yr Win7 has the ability to image the disk and restore it built-in. Doesn't Win8 have this ability? Here's an example of how to recover in W7. http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/use-windows-7-system-image-recovery-to-restore-a-hard-disk/4644
November 12, 201213 yr Acronis TrueImage for me... Even though I have a very old version, it has worked perfectly in migrating disks and making backups.
November 12, 201213 yr Overall Acronis has been good for me and I've only ever updated when my hardware wasn't supported but this EFI has really been a pita. I had tried their trial first and when it saw and backed up the disk I thought I was golden but the new trial wouldn't do a restore so I put in a PO for the new software only to find restores failed anyway (sigh).
November 18, 201213 yr i use macrium reflect. the paid one (which i use) allows for scheduled backups Every week, my machine (c drive) gets a full backup to unraid Every month the flash drive (for unraid) gets a copy to my hard drive. Also cache disk gets a copy (sabnzbd etc) once a month to the hard drive. the free on doesnt i think allow for scheduled backups, but if your windows right click on the drive and away it goes.
November 21, 201213 yr Acronis TrueImage for me... Even though I have a very old version, it has worked perfectly in migrating disks and making backups. Same Here
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