Any disk imaging free software that it will boot?-not like BartPE or Paragon Recovery

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by Vera22, Oct 3, 2010.

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  1. Vera22

    Vera22 Registered Member

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    Any suggestion of a free imaging program that will really work from the "box"?
    I want to get the HD image and be able to recover/replace the system back instead to re-install from scratch.

    I tried Macrium free; the emergency/recovery cd did not boot

    Now I am still trying (awaiting a fix from Paragon) Backup and
    Recovery 2010; the Recovery CD won't boot or when it did, when trying to access the backup archive, the program will just hang.


    Thank you.

    Vera
     
  2. Dundertaker

    Dundertaker Registered Member

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    If your hdd is a WD or a Seagate you can try the downgraded Acronis True Image 9 for WD or DiscWizard for Seagate. You can download it at their respective websites.

    Easeus Drive Copy might be of use to you. DriveXML also is one. But both I have not tried so you have to ask further on this. I have tried ATI Home 11, Macrium free and Paragon paid and free...but I have never encountered what you had though.

    Goodluck!
     
  3. tgell

    tgell Registered Member

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    Easeus also has Todo backup which is very similar to Macrium free. It lets you do backup and recovery. It also has the ability to mount images. I have had better luck with the Boot CD from Todo than Macrium free. Also there is a new image program called Redo backup that is a GUI front end of partclone. You may also want to check out Clonezilla.
     
  4. wat0114

    wat0114 Guest

    Two different boot disks that don't work on your machine leads me to believe something's wrong with it. Or maybe try Clonezilla live, and if that doesn't boot then I'd really suspect a hardware issue.
     
  5. Vera22

    Vera22 Registered Member

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    I don't know what to say. Other bootable work, like the xp set up, DBAN, Active Kill, Seagate discwizard. I have a Dell Inspiron 1100 which i wipped out with DBAN and active kill. After that nothing would boot, until I used Mini Tool partition wizard to partition and re-format the hd which is Hitachi. Only after that I was able to install xp home edition sp2, updated everything (drivers, SP3) and now I try to find a reliable imaging program.

    I am trying now Macrium free. I created the recovery cd and when i booted it, i got an error saying "undefined video mode number 314". I don't know what it is, I checked the grafic driver using the Intel website tool which found that they have a newer version but mine is customized by the manufacturer (Dell) and they don't recommend to replace it. After the error, Macrium emergency booted successfully. Go figure from all this mess.

    I also was able to make bootable Discwizard, even if the HD is not Seagate. I will test these two (I am creating backups now) and see if any will work to the end.

    Thank you so much for your help.
     
  6. wat0114

    wat0114 Guest

    Can you try the boot disks on another pc to see if they boot?
     
  7. Vera22

    Vera22 Registered Member

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    On other forum somebody suggested to change Virtual Memory to be handled by the system. I did that and no change, doesn't work. A new clue, I just re-installed Backup& recovery, burned a Recovery CD, verified it and was ok, as per Paragon software, try to boot from it...noap it did not work. I tried to use it on another laptop (lenovo) and only when I inserted it, it gave error D:\is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable. That is a Sony CD-RW, which before burning with Paragon, I tested it burning Recovery CD bootable using Discwizard and it worked on both laptops, so the CD is good. What is not good is the image or the burning which Paragon Backup & Recovery 2010 Free Advance (my foot) does. It is clear, for me this software is of no use, I will go with Discwizard or Macrium; now it seems that both work .

    Thank you.
     
  8. Vera22

    Vera22 Registered Member

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    wat0114, I created the recovery cd as emulator, burned it on the other laptop (lenovo) with Roxio (I checked the cd before when i booted from it having Discwizard, so the CD RW is ok), put back in Dell which i want to image, checked with Paragon B&R; it said that the cd is not good, not bootable. I moved back the cd to lenovo, clicked on D, and windows says "D is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable". On lenovo i am running xp pro sp3 and on dell xp HE sp3. I booted the cd on lenovo and surprise, the recovery started up. Moved back on Dell, and again the same error message starting with ...ancient bootloader... undefined video mode number 314 and ...tmp/wizard.txt.

    I think there are two issues here
    1-an incompatibility between my Dells video hardware and Paragon image.iso
    2-Paragon image.iso is messed up, because even on lenovo, a 2 year old machine with 2.16 GHz, 4GB RAM, 225 HD, it gives errors.

    Conclusion, I will check the forum every 6 months maybe Paragon will be capable to come out with a workable software.

    Thank you so much.


    PS; what is frustrating is that my dell has only cdrw, so in order to burn the backup, I will need about 8 cdrw, which is kind of nuisance. That's why I stored the image on the other laptop (home network). When I tested Macrium, it couldn't see the network, what ever I tried. So another one which I cannot use. Thank God that my old Seagate Discwizard worked like a charm, booted with no problem, found the network right away and restored the system in about 25 min.
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2010
  9. wat0114

    wat0114 Guest

    Nice detective work, Vera :thumb: Something seems incompatible, whether hardware, software or a combination of the two. Hope you get the issue resolved soon.
     
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