Hard drive cloning and imaging
 

We have been recommending Acronis True Image as a utility to clone and image (backup) hard drives. The 2 big HDD manufacturers (Seagate and Western Digital) now have a free custom version of Acronis available that will work only with their drives, but is fully featured.

Acronis True Image WD Edition
Seagate DiscWizard

Download them from each manufacturer's support site. Sorry, but Hitachi and Samsung users do not have similar tools available.

If I'm already using the latest ATI....would downloading the one specifically for WD (which I do use) have any kind of benefits? Or is this more just for people who don't use ATI yet?

No benefit if you already have the retail ATI.

I've been using DiscWizard for a good 9 months now. Haven't had to restore from it, but it appears to be solid and causes no issues with the system.

Regarding the free versions of this program:

If I'm copying from a Seagate drive to a WD drive (or vice versa), which program would I use -- the Seagate version or the WD version? (Or would neither program work?)

After the cloning process is complete, will the program verify that the copied files match the original files and that they are not corrupt? In the past when I've copied files from an old drive to a new drive, I've had problems with the copied files being corrupt, and I'd love to find a way to avoid that.

Can the program be configured to selectively copy certain files, or is it only capable of doing a clone of the entire drive from beginning to end?

Thanks!

I believe if you have one of each drive, either version will work.

Links to the manuals:

http://www.wdc.com/WDProducts/Librar.../acronisum.pdf
http://www.seagate.com/support/discwizard/dw_ug.en.pdf

These should answer your questions.

Maxtor also do the same thing. Their program is called Maxblast. I have used it and it is very easy to use.

Ray_S

Maxblast has been replaced by DiscWizard - Seagate bought out Maxtor a few years ago. Maxblast was also not a version of Acronis.

Hello,
I am using the program Acronis True Image 9 for my back up and it works fine. I am using this program since long and also restore from the image many times and works fine. The best thing about this software is the software support with the bios restore point, so in any case the system gets corrupted from the bios we can restore it. We did not need to load the system and the compression is also good. I am using this program in Windows XP sp2. I will try some other later. Thanks for providing link and names of other programs.

It is now glc...I just DL'd Maxblast yesterday, & it appears to be the same as DiskWizard, with the Maxtor name inserted for Seagate, both are versions of Acronis.

I have a problem, that Seagate does not seem to have an answer for through 2 chat sessions.

I presently have 2 Maxtor drives installed, with another Seagate drive on the way to replace one of the Maxtors, so I DL'd Seageates DiskWizard in preparation. I read through the tutorials linked above. It certainly looked just like Acronis True Image, which I already have installed.

When I installed DiskWizard, I get this error:
There is an option to "ignore", which I did. The GUI would open, but there is no program funcionality, except "help". I uninstalled DW, and was prompted to delete a "Acronis Secrue Zone" partition, which, sadly I did. I reinstalled DW, & had the same error.

I opened a Seagate support chat session. They advised me to uninstall & reinstall again. I did that, but this time I DL'd a fresh copy from their website...thinking I may have had a corrupt DL the first time. Same error.

I opened a 2nd chat session. This time they told me to DL Maxblast, because DW was not seeing the Maxtor drive. They also told me that my Windows Installer should be updated to v.4.5. I have looked for the version #, but can't find it. I see the "windows installer" folder, click properties, but it does not show version#, but the file was created in Nov 09, so I believe it is up to date, since I have not experenced ANY install problems with other programs.

Maxblast has the same error, with NO program functionality. I opened Acronis, & now it says it needs to be reinstalled. Apparently, when DW prompted me to delete the Acronis secure zone, it rendered that program useless. I can't find my Acronis disk to reinstall.

So now I have 3 programs that are ALL useless...and all 3 are based on the Acronis platform. I suspect that there is a compatability issue with DiskWizard\Maxblast, when you have Acronis installed. I have not uninstalled Acronis yet since I don't have the disk, but maybe removing Acronis, would cure the problem, & DW would work.

Here's a thread on Seagate's forum, with the same problem, but no solution (Viewed 1,743 times):
http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/...&thread.id=164

With any of the Acronis-based utilities, I highly recommend that you use the bootable media instead of running the program in Windows. Yes, you have to install it in order to create the bootable media unless you get the software on CD, but if you get an installation error due to a conflict with another version, use a different computer to create the media.

Update:

I bit the bullet, & removed Acronis TI. I then installed Seagate's DiscWizard without any errors. It appears to me, that having a previous version of Acronis installed, will cause DiscWizard (and Maxtor's MaxBlast) to error. It would be nice if Seagate\Acronis would give a warning about that...or better yet, do a "previous software installed" check.


DiscWizard (version 11) is powered by Acronis, and appears to be the identical program of Acronis, with the exception of the name. It does not ask for a drive serial#, and I was able to use DiscWizard on my 2 Maxtor drives (I have a new Seagate drive coming today).

Thanks for the heads up glc...I will be using the bootable media to perform my task.

I have some other specific questions, but I will start a new thread for that.

Just curious here, how much space does a HDD clone take? I imagine it is smaller than the actual HDD since its not a backup :P

I imaged 130 gig with Acronis and if I remember correctly it compressed to about 59 gig.
Jim

A clone is an exact clone - identical in all respects. An image is compressed.

Yes, then a clone will be identical in size to the source disk. Right?
Jim

ok, thanks

Hi, I am attempting to clone an old IDE hard drive using Norton Ghost 2001. I followed PCmech's instructions on how to connect the IDE cables, jumper settings, and hard drive placement. However, when I boot up my PC and enter Norton Ghost, it only recognizes one hard drive at a time. It thinks that the Primary slave (the new and empty IDE hard drive) is the primary master and vice versa. Therefore, Norton Ghost refuses to clone because the old hard drive is recognized as the slave with little available space to clone to. I checked everything and even switched the jumper settings, nothing works! Please help me with cloning my hard drive!

A sticky thread is a reference thread. Please start a new thread for assistance. Thank you. Please provide system details when you do.

I used
 

Easeus ToDo Backup available at Easeus Todo Backup Home - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com
It's free & worked perfectly when I moved from an old Intel Dell with a small HD to a new build 1T AMD. Only hiccups were the need to regedit to eliminate a boot hangup because of the CPU change and, of course, getting M/S to switch the XP registration.