Best free imaging software?

Best free imaging software? preferably open source.
Recommendations? thank you.

 

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-drive-cloning-software.htm

 

"cloning" ist not "imaging", but if this options is also included - vice versa...!?

Aomei Backuper is an imaging program, not for cloning - i would go PRO to receive a LinPE or WinPE ISO for working offline (bootable ISO).

i use Acronis for the last years now, but O&O Drive Copy is also nice, Macrium rises with the free version. at least there is "no best" (same as antivirus) - there is only one which fits your needs at its best.

Cheers.

 

It does cloning too. I really like that the free versions of their software can be used for commercial use.

 

Personally I like Macrium free the best. Though it's not open source...

 

What's the difference?

 

Another vote for Macrium, although it is the only one I know after ShadowProtect which has no free version.

 

Drive imaging/cloning:
Subsections follow.
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/free-windows-desktop-software-security-list-backup.htm

 

Macrium Reflect FREE is available, just not full featured.

 

http://www.whatsabyte.com/P1/Image_or_Clone.html

 

For freeware I would recommend Clonezilla because unlike Macrium (even the paid versions). You can also use Clonezilla to create images of not only hard drives but satnavs, mobile phones, usb sticks, sd cards, ipods etc.

 

Macrium free edition is solid, the bootable usb is also great and very handy.

You can even put just about any image on any new or old hdd, the macrium reflect usb boot software has a nice feature to fix MBR and bootloader allowing it to load correctly and in rare occasions where it may not work you can just use windows iso or cd to fix any issues.

I block macrium exe and any other instances in my firewall too just incase.

 

So Macrium free version doesn't do USB's sticks.

 

Yes it does. The paid version is very fast, but even the free one can restore 50 GB image in around 10-12 minutes on a USB 3 connection.

 

The Count,

Regarding imaging of UFDs...

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/ufds-and-imaging-apps.370382/

 

If the USB stick (or anything else) comes under as an "removable drive" in Windows then Macrium can not create an image of it.

Which people on here will claim its not a big deal but creating "backups" to cover your ****if your usb stick, sd cards suddenly fail is actually a very good thing and why the hell should you have to use alternative software? The imaging software should be able to image whatever storage device is plugged into the computer.

 

I have a USB stick in Raw format, it contains files I can't access due to the usb changing into raw format mysteriously; my intention is to copy it before I do any data recovery on it. What do you recommend, should I image or clone it first before I commence data recovery on it? Thanks in advance.

 

I also used Acronis for many years, now I prefer Aomei Backuper, faster and lighter. I would like that it had also, as Acronis has, something like Acronis Secure zone - to launch the restore directly from the HD - and " Try & Decide ": I could pay to have this features in Aomei.

 

SharewareonSale has a free license for Qiling Disk Master Professional 3.9.2 for another 19 hours.
I decided to give the program a try to use it as a second backup program. The install program is pretty small (17MB) and so far, the full backup and incremental backup times are equal to or even less then Macrium Home, so pretty impressive.
It also has a Pre-OS boot function or you can create a USB bootstick.

Has anybody else some experiences with this program? The reviews I've seen are positive.

Dick

 

Well, I got it for free and it does what I need it for. On top of that, the footprint is very tiny compared to Acronis or Paragon..

 

I'd be very wary of this app. Qiling Disk Master Professional 3.9.2. I ran my standard test to see if an entire drive image of HD0 in a UEFI system could be restored to a new, empty HD. This simulates a failed HD situation. The recovery UFD could see the image backup and all my partitions but it couldn't see the new, empty HD. So a restore wasn't possible.

 

Ooops...I haven't tested it that far yet but your experiences do not give me a warm feeling..... Might be better to drop it now..

 

cloggy49,

It's better forgotten. It works for partition restores but if your HD fails, it can't help.

 

When creating an image using Clonezille use "expert mode" and select "Priority: Only dd" to create a raw image.