Lastest (hoprfully cheap) Image Maker programs

Computer Help and Discussions The Lounge
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I have read several "Best Lists" for various programs, and it is obvious that things are changing so rapidly that a

"Fair " program today may become Best Available next week. Ever mindful of that, I'm interested in which program(s) that VISTA owners have actually used to create an image of their C and D drives.

Part of my reason is that HP claims my HD is failing, so a prerequisite is that the Image(s) be stored on Diskettes, not on the HD itself, nor on an external HD....don't have one. I have tried several, but find them very confusing, and in one case it froze my computer back to boot disk.

TIA Willard

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An Image Backup program used by a few forum members is Macrium Reflect, which is also Freeware:

Macrium Reflect: (Home Edition)

It isn't too complicated, and most important, I can say from personal experience, it's reliable. It can also save the Image in DVD sized chunks to store on DVD.

It's been the subject of discussion quite a few times, but by far the best tutorial I've seen on it is this one:

Ghost Windows for Free with Macrium Reflect (A Visual Guide):

The one thing I would emphasize about making an Image Backup is not to take any shortcuts to save time. In other words "Verify" the image after creating it, and if you ever need to restore it, "Verify" before restoring.

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Still more information, easy to understand, from the ever modest DennisD:

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=19336

http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showto...mp;#entry147230

FYI, I found them all confusing too. Had to just "gut it out" and make the partitions and images and hope for the best. And it worked!! :lol:

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You can get the OEM version of Acronis True Image for $20

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16832200010

You can make "restore discs" on hp computers. Hp saves your windows recover disc on the hard drive but if you look in the start menu in one of those hp utility folders there should be a program that will allow you to make recovery discs. This will not save your data, just allow you to make a new install of windows.

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First for rridgely: I have an Hp computer running VISTA, and have tried to follow your advice, but cannot seem to find any HP utility file that has anything apparently useful in making image recovery disks. Could you please be a bit more specific, because if my system can do it, it's the ideal answer......no 3rd party hassles.

Secondly, I have spent the better part of two days reading various reviews of 3rd party image makers. Following are my impressions.

1. Making an image of the OS is not to be taken lightly, some serious troubles have been reported with each program.

2. GHOST was a runaway leader until their buy out by Systematic....now no one recommends it.

3. The two remaining contenders are ACRONIS and MAXIUM. Both have their advocates and both caused serious problems for others. Some of the verbiage is far beyond my competance to judge.

4. Overall, if I had to pick a winner it would be ACRONIS by a nose. Bear in mind that all reviews were based on the 2009 version, not the just released 2010 version.

Confession: My own bias is strongly against Maxium, because I have tried the free version, which worked excellently on the making, but blew my system apart on the recovery. It even caused two errors I remember as BIOD-8, which HP and others said that it meant a failing or failed hard drive. In my one and only sucess with offshore customer "service" centers, a chap I believed to be in India suggested two tests that would determine if it was indeed the HD or a software error. Fortunately for me, it was a software error that was corrected by rebooting and a system recovery. (Note, the problem may have been due to one of VISTA's many quirks, not MAXIUM).

FWIW, some stores here in CO are now advertising a bundle of WIN 7 and ACRONIS (09 or 10 ver is unsaid). Does this imply any stamp of approval by MS??......used to be any bundling was with SYSTEMATIC.

PS: EBAY has scads of 09 Acronis for sale at $20........a lower bid might even win one.

All for now, any other views welcome

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What I'm talking about isn't going to create an exact copy of your windows install, it just gets you a version of windows vista on a disc so that you can put in a new hard drive.(downside is that its going to be like it was when you opened your computer for the first time, with all that trial software.)

Your computer should have a recovery partition, you should see it listed in "my computer" if you see it listed there your computer should come with a utility to basically put that partition onto a dvd so you can get a new drive. This will not back up your data, so you need to do that seperately.

Create a set of operating system recovery discs

HP Recovery Manager allows you to create a personal set of recovery discs. When you select the Recovery disc creation process, the HP Recovery Manager examines the PC and determines how many blank DVD discs will be required. Depending on the model, you will need up to ten or more CD-R or CD+R discs, or up to three DVD-R or DVD+R discs. The creation process can take up to an hour or more. Do not interrupt the creation process.

CAUTION: The discs must be either CD-R, DVD-R, or DVD+R. Do not use CD-R/W or DVD-R/W read/write type discs because the creation process will fail.

Create a set of operating system recovery discs by following the steps below.

1.

Click Start and enter Recovery in the search field. Select Recovery Manager from the list to open the HP Recovery Manager window. Allow the action to continue, if prompted.

Alternately, click Start , All Programs , Recovery Manager , and then Recovery Manager . Allow the action to continue, if prompted.

2.

Click Advanced options , Recovery disc creation , and then click Next .

The program will appear to pause for about ten minutes while it examines the computer and calculates how many DVD-R or DVD+R discs are needed.

3.

When prompted, put a blank disc in the optical disc drive and follow the on-screen instructions to create the recovery discs.

After all of the recovery discs are created, label the discs and store them in a safe place.

NOTE: If the recovery discs fail during the creation or become corrupted, you can order replacement recovery discs from HP.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/documen...8703#WhenCreate

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You can get acronis true image that I listed on newegg with a new hard drive basically for free sometimes.

When you actually update look at the combo deal on hard drives there, they often bundle it in for $2

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For what its worth, last month I used Acronis version 11.0 to migrate the entire OS and owner's files to a new, bigger & faster HD. Worked like a charm. Also used the Disk Director Suite to partition the bigger hard drive, worked well also. Do not have a disk partitioner function in Acronis True Image. Hate to say it since it costs money, but that Disk Director app is very handy. Maybe someone on here knows of a good free one other than the native windows.

edit: Duhh, maybe here

OS was WXP, hard drives were IDE to EIDE, slaved'em up and away we went. Had nothing to lose, the old HD was 5400 rpm, too small to defrag, slooooow. New setup is noticeably faster, much more room, of course.

Paragon features: here

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To Rridgely.....thanks for the info. Actually I have 2 sets of the disk type you mentioned: one from HP, and one from the Geeks. The latter did a "clever" thing: they made their disks from my computer as it came from the factory THEN wiped out VISTA and replaced it with XP......all w/o any info to me (and I never considered this). I'm sure they did it to add programs and up their tab.

I liked my system (which now I know was XP) and was really confused and p.....d off when a full system restore wiped out XP and I had the real original Vista. Since the Geek disks looked at first to be coded (they weren't) and I hoped for some improvement, so I bought HP's3 disks for $16. They are more complex to install (have to switch disks 5 or 6 times) but IMO seem to do a better job than the "free" Geek disks.

Others will have to answer the merits of making your own disks as per described or buying a set from HP.

End of my thoughts on this topic