Ghosting, copying windows OS from one drive to another

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Zana

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I am wondering which is the best software to use to copy the contents of one hard drive to another, "ghosting" it..

Since I do not have time to reinstall windows, and everything be the same as if I were using the same hard drive, since I wish to move the OS from the small older slower hard drive to the newer faster larger hard drive without any hassels.
I discovered clonezilla but the iso download is 115Mbs in size

clonezilla-live-20090912-karmic.zip 115.5

and this is a no no for limited bandwdith usage, is there any local places i can download ?

Yes the two drives are in the same machine, and will stay in the same machine.

Lotsa Love
;)
 
I don't really know of any smaller cloning systems, unless you want to try your luck and find a Symantec Ghost stiffy set somewhere. Fits on 2 disks and can clone your system, if it picks up the hard drives.

Clonezilla is very good, though the interface is a bit scary.
 
I believe DriveImage XML should fit the bill. It's only a 1.78 MB download.
DriveImage XML is an easy to use and reliable program for imaging and backing up partitions and logical drives.

Image creation uses Microsoft's Volume Shadow Services (VSS), allowing you to create safe "hot images" even from drives currently in use. Images are stored in XML files, allowing you to process them with 3rd party tools. Never again be stuck with a useless backup! Restore images to drives without having to reboot. DriveImage XML is now faster than ever, offering two different compression levels.

DriveImage XML runs under Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Vista only. The program will backup, image and restore drives formatted with FAT 12, 16, 32 and NTFS.
Click to expand...
 
Let me know if it works :D

I would be keen to get some ghosting software up and running as well.

Stupid PC is giving me endless headaches.
 
Zana said:
Thank you, looks like this would do the job, small download and task to be done... not formatting original drive unless it was 100% sucessfull.
Lotsa Love
((^_^))
and thank you :)
Click to expand...

Its a pleasure man. Glad I could help. :)
 
haha funny you mention this...

im so sick of reinstalling windows, so I made a 150GB partition and started (not finished yet) setting up windows yesterday

so i basically wanna do the same thing, just make an image of that drive and try squeeze it on a DVD or something.

I have access to bandwidth, so what are the more "popular" programs that work WELL ?

thank you for the help

edit: not to worry, I found this thread...

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=187131&highlight=ghost
 
Last edited:
anyone here used Casper? I think Im gonna give it a try, but one thing Im not sure on

Ive got a 1TB drive, with two partitions. The partition used for windows isnt gonna be the full 150GB... so can I create a image of only the space used for THAT partion, or do I have to make an image of the whole DISK?

thanks
 
Here's my list....

Disk Cloning is in the news...
http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?iArticleId=4308383

that article is recommending Clonezilla...
http://clonezilla.sourceforge.net/

But here is another article looking at the best of the disk cloning tools...
(Clonezilla is top of their list too)...
http://packratstudios.com/index.php...ghost-who-a-list-of-open-source-alternatives/

They are as follows...
Ping...
http://ping.windowsdream.com/
PartImage...
http://www.partimage.org/Main_Page
g4u...
http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/
linbox...
http://lrs.linbox.org/
and FOG...
http://freeghost.no-ip.org/

Free Disk Imaging/Cloning Software...
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp
http://www.clonezilla.org/
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/xxclone.html
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/download.html
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm
 
ok so last night I tried out that DriveImageXML..

its is very simple, but effective and fast.

I created an image which I will easily be able to fit onto a DVD.

I want to be able to boot off a CD (BartPE??) with my hard (formatted) connected so its picked up. Then I will have to install this DriveImageXML and then dump the image from the DVD onto my HDD

this gonna be possible? :confused:

lot of hassle... but Im just so so sick of installing windows all the time :sick:
 
DriveImage XML woes

can someone please help me with this?

Ive tried everything now, and I cant seem to get this flippin image to boot. I keep getting a ntldr.dll is missing error :confused:

My PC has a 1TB drive with a 150GB partition (C:\) and the rest a 2nd partion (D:\). If I go into disk management, it says my 150GB is "healthy, BOOT"

I also have another 500GB (F:\) which Im using to restore to, to test this whole thing out

I made an image of that 150GB partition while the drive was connected to another machine. It was drive F when it was connected.

Now I boot using BartPE and that works 100% and I can restore the image to my 500GB no problem. This is AFTER formatting the drive and making sure its all ONE partition and that its marked active. I even went as much to "change the ID" of the drive using driveimagexml as apparently sometimes drives hang onto their old details...

I've even swapped the cables making sure when I restored, the 500GB was the Disk0Device0... that didnt work either!!

help please! :o
 
Ok Im posting from the spare drive but its a mess! :sick:

I found the below on a forum, and ran all the commands in the recovery console after booting off my XP SP3 disk..

1. "fixmbr c:"
2. "fixboot c:"
3. "copy d:\i386\ntldr c:\"
4. "copy d:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\"
5. "bootcfg /rebuild"

So I can boot now, but Im still getting an "invalid boot.ini" when windows starts up...

:eek: :confused: :confused:
 
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