Need Program To Clone Boot Drive

I'm hoping this is the right forum for general PC discussion... if not, perhaps someone can direct me to a more appropriate site.

I recently bought a new Maxtor HD and hoped to use it as my new boot drive. But after three tries with the included MaxBlast software every copy has failed. Maxtor is of no help saying that sometimes one can't copy a drive.

I would try Norton's Ghost but the 15-day trial software I downloaded came pre-expired and was possibly counterfeit WTF!!! It came from the Symantec site! I'm sure I've never tried it before in the past and, no, I wasn't playing around with the system calander. Since Ghost looks like an intriguing backup package I'd like to get it to work, so if anyone has any ideas on fixing that, it'd be appreciated.

If Ghost is a lost cause what other programs are out there that can clone a boot drives?

Thanks!

 

Free hard disk imaging and cloning software

 

Thanks!! I'll check out the list! ;-) Just hope they are better than the utility that came with the Hard Drive. When in Windows it would not even recognize that I had a Maxtor drive and when using it in DOS failed 3 times to clone the boot drive. That raises questions in itself. What can interfer with a DOS program? I did a defrag, uncompressed all NTFS files, got rid of all files with abnormally long names, made sure there were no encrypted files, did a checkdisk, an XP repair off the XP disk... and still no luck. But the last try did get to 100% while the first seemed to quit at about 80% done.

 

I recently had to do the same thing, [replacing an old Seagate with a WD], and I used Acronis Migrate Easy/Acronis True Image. Migrate Easy did the job very well. I was impressed with the ease of use. Point, click, accept.

Trials are available so you can see for yourself.

 

Terabyte's CopyWipe might be the ticket for you. http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.html It's free and from a company that makes very reliable software.