Are there any good free alternatives for Norton Ghost?

[anandsharma]

Hello,

I have a Toshiba laptop with which they haven't supplied a Windows XP Home CD, just a recovery DVD. So the only option I have is to install with the DVD, which creates a single partition on the hard drive and installs loads of crap programs that came pre-installed. Everytime I reinstall my laptop, I have to first uninstall all the unwanted programs, then install my softwares and yes, also partition my hard drive as I like to keep the system files and my data on separate partitions.

Instead of going through this hell everytime, I was thinking how simple it would be if I could just create a Ghost image of the system as I want it and just restore the image when required. However, there is one glitch in this. I don't own a Norton Ghost license and don't intend to purchase if I can help it. Could anyone suggest any good free alternatives for Norton Ghost?

Regards,
Anand.

[Raymond]

Try Macrium Reflect.
http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2008/06/17/how-to-create-full-windows-backup-by-imaging-without-using-norton-ghost/

[skism]

Also try Easeus todo backup.
http://www.todo-backup.com/

[hellnoire]

Clonezilla, which I linked you, should also do the trick. All of the programs listed are free and easy to understand btw.

[anandsharma]

Thanks a lot all for the quick reply.

@Raymond - I installed Macrium Reflect and tried making an image of the C drive of a test PC with it. It went on smoothly. Then I tried to restore the image on the partition, selected the option to replace MBR with the one on the image. After restoration the PC won't go beyond POST. It just shows a blinking cursor on the top left corner of the screen. Then I reinstalled the PC, reimaged the partition and this time while restoring the image selected the option to replace MBR with standard XP MBR, again with the same result. Then again I reinstalled the PC, reimaged the C partition and tried to restore it with the option to leave MBR alone and guess what - I am still stuck with a system that won't go beyond the POST. Is there anything that I am missing?

@skism - I will try this and let you know how it fares.

@hellnoire - I will try this and let you know how it fares.

@all - In the meanwhile, I signed up for beta testing for Acronis TrueImage Home 2010 and got the beta version of that. It works wonderfully, but is not a freeware and although I got this one for free, it is a beta (though I have to admit that I haven't come across any bugs yet).

[Raymond]

That's weird. I know that Macrium automatically backs up the MBR when you create an image.
I've backed up and restore using Macrium many times and didn't encounter such problem. Maybe it's because I never selected to replace the MBR.

[anandsharma]

Hi Raymond,

I tried it with Macrium Reflect on a different machine and it worked this time with all the options (i.e., (1) do not replace MBR, (2) replace MBR with the one from image and (3) replace MBR with the standard XP MBR). Could have been a problem the earlier laptop.

Thanks a lot for your help

Regards,
Anand.

[Raymond]

I am in the midst of testing EASEUS Todo Backup. Quite similar to Macrium but it "felt" like Macrium was better.

[anandsharma]

I tried clonezilla as well and that too works great. In fact with clonezilla we don't have to install anything on Windows at all. So we just have the OS and the softwares that we need, not even the backup/disk imaging software.

[sacrificial1]

click on the link below for free paragon drive backup 9 pro

http://www.v3.co.uk/vnunet/downloads/2158058/paragon-drive-backup