Backup complete hard drive

Can anyone point me in the right direction? I just bought a new computer running windows 7 Home Edition and I would like to make an image of the entire hard drive including the recovery partition, Then I would like to recover it to a new hard drive that I just bought and have in case my hard drive fails, I could then install it in my computer with all systems go.
Can any of the Paragon Free program do this or do I have to buy the Paragon Pro? Your help would be greatly appreaciated.
Carl

 

Yes, backup and recovery free 2012 will do the job.

 

Thank you SIW2 I will do just that
carl

 

Or you could use the integrated imaging program in Windows 7.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/4241/how-to-create-a-system-image-in-windows-7/

 

Win7 does have a built in imaging program. It has been deprecated in win8. That means MS will dump it as soon as they can.

Unfortunately, it is not very flexible - not entirely reliable either.

3rd party solutions are better - even some of the free versions.

 

Yes, it is limited and I couldn't decide if the Win 8 version did anything more than backup changed files. It wasn't obvious if it did an image and I didn't bother investigating it further.

In spite of Matt's explanation and Paragon's assurance that a patch is coming, it is unfortunate (to be polite) they are so far behind on a Win 8 product. Acronis, Macrium, Easus and perhaps others, all have Win 8 versions available.

 

I tried to restore a W7 backup and it failed.

 

The BR 2012 free does support win8.

It doesn't include mount function, though. It is not strictly necessary, as you can retrieve individual files from a backup image using File Transfer Wizard.

However, people like to mount - so they need to make drivers which will work on win8, that is what they are working on mainly.

The other issue is getting rescue media to boot with this irritating secure boot thing going on.

I believe one or two of the Linux communities have caved in and are paying MS to get signed. Not all, though.

You should be able to disable it in settings - but it is an extra step - not always easy to get at in some oem machines - and very confusing for the average user.

 

I totally agree. Based on the OP's question, I assumed (he) was unaware of that feature in W-7.
That's why I posted.
For Windows 7, the freeware versions Paragon or Macrium are great choices.

 

Don't have W8 but did get an email today that SP2 is out for W8 plus enhancements for 64 bit PCs and uefi BIOS PCs. Just sayin!