Best program for Cloning hard drive?

F

Forrest

I'm using an IBM 80 gig drive that is ATA 100 and just bought a new Maxtor
80 gig that's ATA 133. I want to clone the, now in use, IBM to the Maxtor
and then format the IBM and use it as a storage slave. I've never done the
"clone bit". I have Ghost, Drive Image and Partition Magic. Which would be
the easiest to use? I'm using Win XP Pro on the C: drive and have it
partitioned into two 40 gigs. I'm going to partition the slave the same way.
Thanks for any advice or tips.
 
J

John Smith

Ghost and Drive Image are fine.

I personally prefer Drive Image and find it easier to use than Ghost. Drive
Image also allows you to do a straight drive/partition to drive/partition
copy. Just create the two floppies and away you go.

I was not aware Partition Magic allowed you to copy drives/partitions? Isn't
Ghost part of PM?


J.
 
A

Allen_L

Ghost is a separate program very similar to Drive Image. Ghost is made by
Symantec (Norton).

....Allen
 
T

tHEaNTImIKE

I'm using an IBM 80 gig drive that is ATA 100 and just bought a new
Maxtor 80 gig that's ATA 133. I want to clone the, now in use, IBM to
the Maxtor and then format the IBM and use it as a storage slave. I've
never done the "clone bit". I have Ghost, Drive Image and Partition
Magic. Which would be the easiest to use? I'm using Win XP Pro on the
C: drive and have it partitioned into two 40 gigs. I'm going to
partition the slave the same way. Thanks for any advice or tips.

Acronis True Image is an excellent disk cloner that is very user friendly.
Can also do backup disk images from within windows. Can't beat it.
 
A

Art

tHEaNTImIKE said:
Acronis True Image is an excellent disk cloner that is very user friendly.
Can also do backup disk images from within windows. Can't beat it.

Forrest:
Of the three programs you mention, Symantec's Norton Ghost program (I assume
it's the 2003 version) would probably be best to perform the cloning
operation. You also could use the disk cloning utility that's included in
the retail boxed version of the Maxtor HD, or download this utility from
Maxtor's site in case you purchased Maxtor's OEM version. The only negative
with respect to the Maxtor utility is that it's very, very slow when
performing the cloning operation. But since this will be a one-time
operation, that might be of small import to you. Incidentally, after you've
successfully cloned the new drive and installed the old IBM drive as a
secondary drive, you can simply reformat its current two partitions from
within XP's Disk Management utility. There's no need, of course, to
repartition that disk if you plan on retaining the same two partitions.

If you would rather use the Ghost program (my preference) to undertake the
cloning process and need basic instructions, please indicate this and I'll
be glad to furnish them.

Art
 
T

tomcas

tHEaNTImIKE said:
Acronis True Image is an excellent disk cloner that is very user friendly.
Can also do backup disk images from within windows. Can't beat it.
I'd use either the Maxtor or IBM utilities. Yes they are slow, but they
work flawlessly, at least in windows 2k.
 
T

tom418

Like Art said, the software included with Maxtor's drive (Maxblast) does a
good job of copying one drive to another. It worked well for me, in copying
from an IBM Deskstar 20GB, to a Maxtor 6E040L0 40GB. I had an OEM Maxtor, so
I downloaded Maxblast off their website.
 
J

JS

I recently tried both Norton Ghost and Drive Image. After several tries
Ghost would not work. Drive Image worked first try without a hitch. Others
here have echoed my results in the very recent past. Drive Image was also
much easier to use as it did not require re-booting to DOS and Ghost does
require re-booting to DOS. The required DOS re-boot in Ghost was the source
of many problems. The system was an XP system. I recommend using the
'clone' feature of whatever software you select. Copy the entire source
drive the destination drive, not just the parts with data. XP is gonna be
finicky if you do not make an exact copy of the entire source drive. XP has
registration/activation data hidden that must be transferred during the
cloning process. That hidden data will not be transferred if you do a
simple drive copy operation.

Good Luck
 
A

Art

JS said:
I recently tried both Norton Ghost and Drive Image. After several tries
Ghost would not work. Drive Image worked first try without a hitch. Others
here have echoed my results in the very recent past. Drive Image was also
much easier to use as it did not require re-booting to DOS and Ghost does
require re-booting to DOS. The required DOS re-boot in Ghost was the
source
of many problems. The system was an XP system. I recommend using the
'clone' feature of whatever software you select. Copy the entire source
drive the destination drive, not just the parts with data. XP is gonna be
finicky if you do not make an exact copy of the entire source drive. XP
has
registration/activation data hidden that must be transferred during the
cloning process. That hidden data will not be transferred if you do a
simple drive copy operation.

Good Luck

Just so others may understand what is going on here, the OP planned to clone
his current HD to a new 80 GB Maxtor HD. I (and I believe others) informed
him that he could use the disk cloning utility that's included with the
retail, boxed version of Maxtor drives. If he purchased an OEM version of
the Maxtor drive, he could obtain the disk cloning utility from Maxtor's
site. I informed him that while that utility would do the job, it's very
slow to carry out the cloning operation in comparison to disk imaging
programs such as Ghost. But since this will be a one-time affair, he could
consider using Maxtor's utility.

I further stated that in my opinion Symantec's Norton Ghost program (2003
version) would probably be best to perform the cloning operation. Since the
OP indicated he has this program, I recommended that he use it.

To use the Ghost cloning program from a floppy disk (as I do), you simply
create the Ghost bootable floppy from the Ghost program.. With your source
and destination disks connected, you simply boot with the Ghost floppy and a
half a dozen or so keyclicks later the cloning process begins. It's simple,
relatively quick, and most important of all, effective. You can just as
easily create a Ghost bootable CD and undertake your cloning operation
through that
means.

I have often remarked that I wish every software program I use was as
simple, straightforward, and effective as Symantec's Norton Ghost program.
Let me state at the outset that I use Ghost for one and only one purpose -
to clone the contents of one hard drive to another. By making a bit-for-bit
copy (not technically precise perhaps, but correct for all practical
purposes) of one's
working hard drive, you have, what seems to me, the ultimate backup system.

I have used various versions of Ghost over the years, up through the present
2003 version. During that time I estimate I've cloned various hard drives
more than a thousand times. And done so with nary a hiccup. Whatever
problems I've encountered with this program were due to user error
(frequently mine!) or defective drives or corrupted system files on the
source disk. If you clone garbage, garbage is what you'll get. As far as I'm
concerned, Ghost's ease of use together with its reasonable speed make it a
joy to use.

Art
 
G

Glenn M

Acronis True Image is an excellent disk cloner that is very user friendly.
Can also do backup disk images from within windows. Can't beat it.

I found Acronis True Image to be the best for me also... I tried Ghost
2003 and had problems... most of the troubles seemed to be Ghosts
going into DOS... I found True Image to be easy to use and reliable..
Glenn M
 
A

Art

I found Acronis True Image to be the best for me also... I tried Ghost
2003 and had problems... most of the troubles seemed to be Ghosts
going into DOS... I found True Image to be easy to use and reliable..
Glenn M


Forrest:
Since you already have the Ghost program (I assume it's the 2003 version),
you can use that program to clone your IBM HD to your new Maxtor HD. I have
used various versions of Ghost over the years, up through the present 2003
version. During that time I estimate I've cloned various hard drives more
than a thousand times. And done so with nary a hiccup. Whatever problems
I've encountered with this program were due to user error (frequently mine!)
or defective drives or corrupted system files on the source disk. If you
clone garbage, garbage is what you'll get. As far as I'm concerned, Ghost's
ease of use together with its reasonable speed make it a joy to use.

To use the Ghost cloning program from a floppy disk (as I do), you simply
create the Ghost bootable floppy from the Ghost program.. With your source
and destination disks connected, you simply boot with the Ghost floppy and a
half a dozen or so keyclicks later the cloning process begins. It's simple,
relatively quick, and most important of all, effective. You can just as
easily create a Ghost bootable CD and undertake your cloning operation
through that
means should you prefer. You can, of course, also use Ghost's GUI to perform
the cloning operation as well. Many users even prefer that alternative. I
prefer using the bootable floppy because of its simplicity,
straightforwardness, and portability.

You need not partition and format your new drive if you're going to clone
the old drive to the new one. Assuming you're doing a disk-to-disk clone,
the cloning process will establish the partitions without your intervention.

BTW, there is another alternative. If you purchased a retail, boxed version
of your Maxtor drive, it comes with a utility program that includes a
cloning program. (You can also download the program from Maxtor's site in
case you purchased the OEM version of the HD). It (generally) works fine,
except that it's extremely slow. But if this is to be a one-time operation
you could consider it.

Art
 
D

Darkling

Art said:
Forrest:
Since you already have the Ghost program (I assume it's the 2003
version), you can use that program to clone your IBM HD to your new
Maxtor HD. I have used various versions of Ghost over the years, up
through the present 2003 version. During that time I estimate I've
cloned various hard drives more than a thousand times. And done so
with nary a hiccup. Whatever problems I've encountered with this
program were due to user error (frequently mine!) or defective drives
or corrupted system files on the source disk. If you clone garbage,
garbage is what you'll get. As far as I'm concerned, Ghost's ease of
use together with its reasonable speed make it a joy to use.

To use the Ghost cloning program from a floppy disk (as I do), you
simply create the Ghost bootable floppy from the Ghost program.. With
your source and destination disks connected, you simply boot with the
Ghost floppy and a half a dozen or so keyclicks later the cloning
process begins. It's simple, relatively quick, and most important of
all, effective. You can just as easily create a Ghost bootable CD and
undertake your cloning operation through that
means should you prefer. You can, of course, also use Ghost's GUI to
perform the cloning operation as well. Many users even prefer that
alternative. I prefer using the bootable floppy because of its
simplicity, straightforwardness, and portability.

You need not partition and format your new drive if you're going to
clone the old drive to the new one. Assuming you're doing a
disk-to-disk clone, the cloning process will establish the partitions
without your intervention.

BTW, there is another alternative. If you purchased a retail, boxed
version of your Maxtor drive, it comes with a utility program that
includes a cloning program. (You can also download the program from
Maxtor's site in case you purchased the OEM version of the HD). It
(generally) works fine, except that it's extremely slow. But if this
is to be a one-time operation you could consider it.

Art

Cloning usually makes a sector-to-sector copy of the first drive. Will any
of these programs copy/clone from a Fat32 partition to an NTFS partition and
preserve the NTFS structure on the second drive?
Darkling
 
A

Art

Darkling said:
Cloning usually makes a sector-to-sector copy of the first drive. Will
any
of these programs copy/clone from a Fat32 partition to an NTFS partition
and
preserve the NTFS structure on the second drive?
Darkling

A clone is a clone is a clone -- at least when you're using Ghost to make a
disk-to-disk clone. It's of no import what file system is on the destination
drive. If you clone a FAT32 partition to a destination disk that has a NTFS
partition, the FAT32 partition on the source disk will replace it.
 

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