Hard Drive Imaging Freeware

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by TheKid7, Nov 1, 2009.

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  1. Sully

    Sully Registered Member

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    That is one way, but the easiest way that I know of is to use a script called makebs.cmd by Jaclaz (an awsomely knowledgable fellow) that is incorporated into a project located here (called now U-XP-Set) by a fellow named Wimb.
    http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?showtopic=21883

    In there is a tool called Boot_Img. It is supremely easy to use. Create your BartPE .iso file, rename the extension to .img instead of .iso. House it in the root of c: . Run Boot_Img, with the required ramdisk.sys and setupldr.bin into the proper directory (it will tell you where). Then you point Boot_Img to your .img file. Seconds later you have a few new files in your root, and a modified boot.ini file with a value to let you boot into BartPE. BartPE is read from the .img file, and read into RAM where the BartPE OS is executed from. I average a shade under 30 seconds boot time if I don't do any network driver installations etc.

    If you already have a working BartPE image file for your hardware, you are done other than locating the ramdisk and setupldr files. They used to be included, but maybe they have been removed due to copyright or something.

    Sul.
     
  2. layman

    layman Registered Member

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    I'm a Macrium user (switched from Acronis) who thought Windows PE would solve some of the problems I'd had with unsupported hardware in Acronis recovery disks. To my surprise, I've found that Macrium's Linux-based disks sometimes provide more up-to-date driver support than WinPE! On a Vostro machine I recently purchased, only the Linux disk works.

    One great thing about Macrium Reflect is that the boot disks update independent of the product. You can get an up-to-date bootstuff without buying a new version of the basic imaging product. With Acronis, it was like pulling teeth to get anything other than what was shipped up front.
     
  3. rolarocka

    rolarocka Guest

    Thx. I did these steps:
    Inside Windows copy the contents of "System Reserved" from an Image made previously to the "Win" partition (to C:\). After that, reboot with BING CD and set the "Win" partition to Active and delete the "System Reserved" partition. Bingo! It boots without errors.
    I think the same is possible if you unhide the SRP and copy the contents to C: like above.
    Now i only need to merge the 100mb to the main partition.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 11, 2009
  4. aigle

    aigle Registered Member

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    Only big drwaback with Marcium reflect is that u can,t restore to a smaller partition. To me, it,s a very significant drawback.
     
  5. Sully

    Sully Registered Member

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    Indeed Aigle, that is somewhat of an issue. I have been toying with thier tool to circumvent this problem called Roborestore. I have to say it works pretty slick. I don't make images of anything but the raw tweaked OS, so my images are very small. I just resized my drive to around 20gb, and made in image of that. This way I can restore to the full 750gb or anywhere inbetween if I want. For those imaging 40gb worth of drive, I don't envy that size at all.

    I also find BartPE to be better than LiveXP or WinPE. Overall, BartPE offers me the best success rate when concerning drivers than even Linux CD. But then, everyones mileage will vary I am sure.

    Sul.
     
  6. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Nice. I hadn't thought of that. It is easier than using a VistaPE CD. I'll make that Method #1, out of three.
     
  7. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Correct again. My SRP had a drive letter. In Folder options I chose "Show hidden files, folders, and drives". I removed the tick from "Hide protected OS files". Now the contents of the SRP are visible. A new Method #1.


    Edit..... This method doesn't work because BCD is in use by the System and can't be copied to the C: drive.
     
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2009
  8. aigle

    aigle Registered Member

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    Can you use Roborestore with linux restore CD or BartPE?
     
  9. Sully

    Sully Registered Member

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    BartPE. I am not sure if it even works on linux at all as it uses robocopy to do the work, it is just able to peer into a macrium image file to get the source from. I have ran it a couple times now, and it seems straight forward. I will be giving it a much more in-depth run-down in the coming week or two hopefully.

    Sul.
     
  10. TerryWood

    TerryWood Registered Member

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    Hi All

    One for for the brainboxes.

    I have never been able to restore from DriveImage XML (Win XPSP3) because at the last bit of the restore process in that the following has to be typed in

    DIX1#1

    For some reason on my machine (using a UK keyboard) the hash (#) symbol is replaced by a backslash (\) when typing in the DriveImage codebox.

    I should say that in all other operations that I am aware of such as this post the hash symbol is represented correctly.

    Yesterday I had another go with DriveImage and same problem, however I was lucky to find some information on the internet that shows if you press ALT 35 this will also input the hash symbol. This time it works, messy but it works.

    Can any one explain the apparent disparity wherebye the hash symbol is displayed correctly under most operations, but when typing within DriveImage it does not?

    Also, is there a way to get the hash key to type correctly in DriveImage?

    Thanks

    Terry
     
  11. aigle

    aigle Registered Member

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    Hmm.. I read and Ia m almost sure that roborestore will not work except with windows images.
     
  12. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    I have nothing against Linux. I was referring to the Paragon Linux based recovery option only, or more accurately the difference between the Paragon WinPE based recovery environment and the Paragon Linux based recovery environment. Paragon Linux based recovery environment is limited. It even says in the help file that certain advanced options can only be used from the WinPE based recovery environment.

    Perhaps folks at Macrium prefer linux, so they have designed a comprehensive linux based recovery environment.
     
  13. JAH

    JAH Registered Member

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    Has anyone been able to test out Macrium in Virtual PC 2007? VM has two partitions. It makes an image to 2nd partition, but the recovery CD will not allow me to select the folder where the image is stored on the 2nd partition.

    JAH
     
  14. rolarocka

    rolarocka Guest

    Hi you can copy locked files with this:
    http://www.runtime.org/shadow-copy.htm
    and it works btw.
    But its getting too off topic :)
     
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