Which Disk-Imaging Software Does This?

I do all of my computing on a Notebook PC. Without arguing the wisdom (or lack thereof) of using a notebook as compared to a desktop, I'm looking for a good backup program not only to create/restore an image of my notebook's hard drive, but one that will also allow me to restore an image that was created on my notebook onto a new notebook (in the event mine gets stolen, damaged, or whatever).

While I already have an external USB hard drive to hold my backup images, as of yet I haven't found the backup software I'm looking for ....and from what I've read in various threads in this forum, as well as in the Acronis True Image forum on Wilders, the latter task (underlined above) is very difficult to assure! As 'my life' is on my notebook, I must be able to do that kind of restore (without any uncertaintly), so if any of you use or know of a backup program that can definitely do this, please let me know which software it is.

Thanks very much.

 

Basically, your notebooks would have to be identical hardware-wise. In that case, there would be no problems as this is done all the time in corporate environments. Unless there is something I don't know about - which is entirely possible - your search for imaging that will image on one system on restore (and everything work properly) on a completely different system will prove frustratingly fruitless.

 

I had dealt with this before.
The software was Acronis True Image.
The laptop was Acer's flagship TM8204. It had to be sent in because the bluetooth hardware was not functioning properly on arrival. They sent me back a brand new laptop. I restored the image to it AFTER all the driver updates. Still crusing along.
There is really no 100% guarantee in this type of thing. You should get used to reinstalling all the programs and backing up your data. That's the only guarantee.

 

Thanks for the reply, but since my notebook is now two years old and there's no telling when I will need to replace it, there's no chance it will be the same exact brand and model.

 

That echoes the same bad news I've already read in other threads - what a bummer!

 

You guys shouldn't be so quick to cast doubt on doing this sort of thing. Acronis claims that their Corporate versions of True Image with their Universal Restore plugin does exactly what appster wants to do!

I'm not suggesting that Acronis True Image (Corp Versions) are the only disk imaging programs with that capability (it just happens to be one that I'm quite familiar with).

Jo Ann

 

Well, 2 years ago I made an image of my C partition, an some months later I had to migrate that image to a new hardware and it worked, when I reinstalled that image it only asked me to reboot because the software had found new hardware, and after the reboot every thing went on smoothly until nowdays. I am writing this post in that new hardware with that old image, I made it with IMAGE FOR DOS, as you know it never fails!!!

 

That was a good great result: which OS?, what HW out of interest.
You might not be able to count on that being so easy all the time.

@appster:
there is a very detailed paper here:
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=302
and you could ask in their news group if you wanted more info.

AS per Peter, Shadow protect HIR may come to be the least fiddly option: when it gets here.

PS: you've obviously given a lot of thought to this:

As noted there may be no guarantee but there is hope if there really is a catastrophic hw bork: you may just have to reinstall an OS and go from there.

My office HD failed out of the blue on first morning boot a couple of months ago: I had to get new HD, put XP and fdisr back on an hd from same m'facturer in same box and was able to completely recover with FDISR arx file from the day before: realistically lost nothing. ( also have secondary daily data back up on USB) Did not have Terabyte tools on that box: was just about to put them on

Made me take a deep breath and think very carefully re strategy.

Obviously Laptops a bit trickier . HDiscs alone can be replaced with similar and then boot from recovery and restore.

If you had to get all new HW then it really is an opportunity to 'redo" software set-up, and it might be the best path to follow rather than try and force an image onto new hw.

Just have to have good back-up strategy with file syncing +/- imaging +/-FDISR depending on paranoia levels. Make sure that whatever imaging you use will mount the files for recovery if req.
That should cover most eventualities : software and or hw flame out.

Heh: buy 2 laptops at a time

tell us what you go for.