sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Computers & Programming Computers, Software, Accessories free cloning programs

clonezilla is pretty straight forward and Hiren's or UBCD (I use UBCD4WIN) have clone tools built in. IIRC Hiren's is a downloadable ISO, whereas UBCD4WIN allows you to customize your boot disk and slipstream alot of the tools with updated versions for AV and anti malware. UBCD takes some getting used to but you can build a super sick Portable Environment.

If you're going the PE route anyway, why not just grab a live copy of ubuntu, there's plenty of linux apps for cloning...and they're about as free as it's gonna get


PartImage:
https://www.debianadmin.com/backup-an...partimage.html

Gparted:
https://gparted.sourceforge.net/

Mkcdrec:
https://www.improvedsource.com/view.php/Linux-System/18/

Sysresccd:
https://www.sysresccd.org/Sysresccd-m...n_an_USB-stick

Clonezilla:
https://clonezilla.sourceforge.net/

Since I've written a linux install CD for my software I don't use cloning tools much. Clonezilla was all I used before then. The one nice thing about clonezilla is it allowed me to image 100 computers in about 20 minutes.

Just all depends upon the tool you need and your comfort level.

If this is a one time operation, Symantec BackupExec System Recovery Desktop Edition has a free 30 day trial. It allows you to snapshot the computer to an external drive plus it has a restore to different hardware option that lets you boot a recovery CD on a new machine and restore the image there. Here is a link to the page.

Two things to watch out for: First, make sure you get both the program and the restore CD when downloading the trial. Second, be sure to get BESR and not plain BackupExec. BackupExec 12.5 is for backing up every server on a network and is way more complex than what you are looking for.

Most drive manufactures have a free utility to clone your hd to the new one. They usually use a modified version Acronis that checks to make sure you're using their drive to clone to. Works great.