Imaging Software

[Pilgrim]

I have been looking into the issue of moving a system partition to a different hard drive and come up with a couple of questions which I thought someone on here might be able to answer.

OS: XP-SP3. 2 hard drives of the same make and version number, 1 x 200GB (HD1), 1 x 400GB (HD2), both divided into 100GB partitions.
At the moment the system partition (C) is the first partition on HD1, the question is how to move it to the first partition on HD2. Partition letters would then be changed to suit before booting into the OS.

Part 1:
I use Acronis True Image Home v11.0 (build 8,101) and my first thought was to simply recover a partition image from HD1 and put it on HD2. What I have not been able to find out is if that will work. I know that it will restore an image to wherever I want but the question is whether it will boot? The option to recover the boot sector with an image does exist but there is no specific information in the help file about recovering the system partition to different hardware.

Part2:
I know that EaseUS ToDo Backup will allow me to do what I want but with the free version you need to create a WinPE Rescue Disk. To do that you need to install Windows AIK, according to the illustrated instructions on the EaseUS website it needs to be v3 which is the latest. The problem with that is that I cannot find out if v3 works with XP? Microsoft shows v3 as being for Windows7 and Vista, no mention of XP. On the other hand Softpedia who also host the v3 download do list XP although they show a very different file size.

So, 2 questions:
1. Will the version of TI that I have do the job?
2. Will WAIK v3 work with XP?

[Raymond]

Question: Is HD2 empty? May I know further why do you want to move the HD1 system partition to HD2?

[Pilgrim]

Question: Is HD2 empty? May I know further why do you want to move the HD1 system partition to HD2?

Hi Raymond,

All the partitions on both hard disks are in use which is why I have not considered the cloning option with TI as it would remove both the data and the partitions from HD2. The first two partitions on HD2 are only used for backup images which I can save elsewhere in future, my idea is to replace them with the two partitions from HD1, the first by imaging, the second by copying. The other two partitions both contain data that I do not wish to move.

There are a couple of reasons for my wishing to find out if this will work, in the short term I want to remove HD1, possibly replacing it at a later date with a larger hard drive for data only. In the longer term I am thinking about the possibility of HD1 failing and what I might be able to do without a complete reinstall, something which would be almost impossible in terms of getting the system back to where it is now.

[Raymond]

I am quite familiar with Symantec Ghost and it can "clone partitions".
For example, your HD1 partition1 can be cloned to HD2 partition1 and even giving you the option to resize the new partition.
So all you need to do is move the backup images from HD2 partition1 to somewhere else so that the partition1 will be empty and then clone HD1 partition1 to HD2 partition2.

The only thing you need to be very careful is make sure you are cloning to the correct partition or else you will be wiping the data from your computer.

As for True Image, you cannot clone partitions. So you will have to create a backup image, and restore the partition with MBR so that the new hard drive can be booted up.

As for EaseUS ToDo Backup, the last time I tested it was quite buggy. You can read my review below. Honestly I wouldn't trust using a buggy software for backup imaging.
http://www.raymond.cc/blog/easeus-todo-backup-free-3-5-review/
You can give it a try though because it has "Partition Clone" that would simplify the process.


http://www.todo-backup.com/products/reviews-testimonials/
There are a quite lot of good reviews on them, but those honest and unbiased reviews are obviously not included on that page :P

[Bearcat]

I found your comments about Easeus Todo Backup being buggy interesting Raymond, because I have used it on 3 different computers, two with Win 7 and the other with XP, and have never experienced the problems you had. I am just curious why I haven't had any problems.

[Pilgrim]

I am quite familiar with Symantec Ghost and it can "clone partitions".

Any idea how far back that went because I still have a valid copy of NG10 including the CD?

I have just read your review on EaseUS ToDo Backup, the only thoughts I have are that v4 is supposed to be better than previous versions. Since I got your reply I have also been looking through their forums. It seems that WAIK v3 will work with XP as someone posting on there had done it. It also seems that the problems that people have had seem to be related more to entire disk use rather than partition use.

Taking into account your comments and unless anyone else who reads this has personal experience I think it should be safe to give it a try. The first 2 partitions on HD2 each hold one month's backups so the images are deleted after that anyway. If I wait till I am due to empty the first partition I can try copying an image using TI, I originally created all the partitions the same size with the possibility of this in mind so there is no question of resizing and even if there was the Acronis Recovery CD that I created also contains Disk Director Suite 10. In the event that does not work I can try EaseUS.
This will hopefully be a one off job anyway as TI has never let me down for normal backups.

Barry,
I just caught the notification of your post. What version of EaseUS are you using?

[Bearcat]

I just caught the notification of your post. What version of EaseUS are you using?

I have used Easeus Todo Backup since it first came out a few years ago and usually install the updated versions when they come out. With each new version I have created Linux boot disks with no problems and have used them to re-install my OS images successfully. Right now I am using Easeus Todo 3.0 Workstation, which I won in a give away posted on this forum last year. Workstation lets me create a Win PE bootable disk, without having to install WAIK on my PC. Workstation also allows me to re-install images that were created with previous versions. I have recommended Easeus Todo Backup to other people, because I have had good success with it, so that is why I asked about the problems Raymond wrote about. I don't want to recommend something that might be buggy on other people's computers.

[FunkY]

In my opinion from Free imaging softwares the best is Macrium Reflect Free. I think i have try all the available FREE programs which just could do a whole system backup and found that everything work's best at Macrium

My final score is not based only at backup process. I have keep an eye also example how much time takes that whole system backup process is complete, how big is final size from whole system backup image at normal or high compression, and most of all and especially how much resources that program eat at background. I have found EaseUS Free promising but not as good as Macrium Free.

[Ceyfer √]

I found your comments about Easeus Todo Backup being buggy interesting Raymond, because I have used it on 3 different computers, two with Win 7 and the other with XP, and have never experienced the problems you had. I am just curious why I haven't had any problems.

I also ditched Easeus Todo Backup due to that very reason. It didn't work that effectively on my older Windows Xp machine, but that issue alone, belong to the old version of Easeus client. Well, I still prefer the paid ( basic imaging solution like ) Acronis Home for this matter. I have never tried other freeware imaging solution then.

Acronis Recovery CD that I created also contains Disk Director Suite 10.

Oh, I think you already got the right Acronis client. The Disk Director is specially designed for that, but I personally never tested how good it is on multiple systems yet. Anyhow, hope both of your options work. Good Luck!

[Raymond]

I found your comments about Easeus Todo Backup being buggy interesting Raymond, because I have used it on 3 different computers, two with Win 7 and the other with XP, and have never experienced the problems you had. I am just curious why I haven't had any problems.

I have also noticed that you recommended EaseUS ToDo backup which I am sure it worked perfectly on your side. Not sure why it didn't work on my side as I tested it on a clean Windows 7 32-bit. I would also like to know what version of EaseUS ToDo are you using?

@Pilgrim: I've only used Symantec Ghost which is the enterprise version and boot it up via Hiren's BootCD. Yeah you can give it a try with TI as it doesn't seemed to be very complicated since the sizes of the partition are the same and the contents in HD2 are just backup images which can be relocated to another partition.