Cloning a hard drive using freeware?

[Chrissy Cruiser]

I just tried this on my Win 2K Pro machine, and it worked fine. It
created a bootable cloned drive in a very short time. I disabled
the main drive and I'm running right now from the clone ... a
secondary master.

Why is it I can't see you? Helloooooooooooooooooo..........

 

[J. Yazel]

I find it easier to take a fresh HDD and install the OS on it. Then I
perform all current updates. THEN I image the drive BEFORE anything else
is installed. That way I always have a good clean image to work from.
Re-installing apps is not that time consuming.

ozzy

=========================

Good idea. I wish that I had done that.

Jack

 

[Chrissy Cruiser]

I find it easier to take a fresh HDD and install the OS on it. Then I
perform all current updates.
ozzy

Make sure you do that before you reconnect to the Internet.

 

[John Corliss]

I don't always use my own advice. I clone HDD's fairly often, but they're
usually pretty clean Windows installs. If someone has a dozen programs
installed for which they can't find the install disks or serial numbers, I
throw up my hands and say "What the hell" and just clone the drive. It's
the coward's way out.

I just finished working on a computer my ex-sister-in-law (she's still
part of the family and we all love her) owns. Wish I *could* have taken
the cowards way out, but her hard drive was thrashed and I had to
install a new one (Seagate 120 gb). I partioned the new hard drive in
half. Reinstalled the OS then put Kerio, AVG, OOo, Photofiltre, etc. on
it. Used XXCopy to clone C:\ to D:\ after I got the system tweaked and
at a good point. Told her she'll need to get another hard drive,
preferably external, for a more reliable backup.

 

[Wayne Boatwright]

Thanks Wayne! Someone else has suggested it too so I hope to have time
to look at it at the weekend!

Sorry, I didn't see the other post.

--
Wayne Boatwright *¿*
____________________________________________

Give me a smart idiot over a stupid genius any day.
Sam Goldwyn, 1882-1974


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[Chris Lee]

I have never found a real need to clone an entire HDD. In fact, I
recommend
against it for personal use. You tend to copy a lot of unneeded junk
and
past mistakes.

Get a clue. The reason you "clone" a harddrive is to have a *EXACT*
copy of contents of the drive at the time you backed it up/cloned it.

Restoring the backup created by the "cloning" process is a *LOT* faster
and easier than using the traditional backup methods and if you're using
the tools found on the bootable Linux rescue cdroms it doesn't matter if the
hard drive the system boots from is totally trashed or fried because you can
restore the cloned disk image to a new hardrive and boot from it like nothing
happened.

 

[Art]

Get a clue. The reason you "clone" a harddrive is to have a *EXACT*
copy of contents of the drive at the time you backed it up/cloned it.

Restoring the backup created by the "cloning" process is a *LOT* faster
and easier than using the traditional backup methods and if you're using
the tools found on the bootable Linux rescue cdroms it doesn't matter if the
hard drive the system boots from is totally trashed or fried because you can
restore the cloned disk image to a new hardrive and boot from it like nothing
happened.

Right on. And the trick is to clone when you KNOW everything is cool.
That's where average users don't have a clue. They will,
unfortunately, clone spyware and malware without even knowing
their machines are infested.

Art

http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg

 

[M.L.]

Those words make it harder to find a way that will be easy for you to
use.

This way you slave it to another hard drive / comp ( no need to bolt
it in, just cable it & leave it outside the case ) & copy
your stuff onto the other HD.
You may have a choice of jumper settings on the master HD, such as
master with slave or MS.

Here is a free program & this is what you copy & paste into
the Command Prompt, then hit Enter.
Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt.
XXCOPY C:\ D:\ /CLONE

xxcopy ( freeware ) from ,
http://www.xxcopy.com/

I purchased two identical WinXP computers but have set up only one of
them. I'd like to XXCOPY a clone from one to the other as above. If I
remove the hard drive from my non-setup computer and place it into a
USB2/firewire enclosure and attach it to the computer I want to clone
from (after setting the appropriate jumper), will I need to format the
non-setup hard drive first, or will the cloning process take care of
all that?

Since the setup hard drive has four NTFS partitions (C,D, E, F), how
can I clone all the partitions to the new hard drive (using the same
drive letters)?

Finally, will the cloning process delete everything from the non-setup
hard drive before cloning? I'd prefer that the hard drives be exactly
the same afterwards, with no debris from the manufacturer left on the
newly cloned hard drive. Thanks.

 

[Art]

I purchased two identical WinXP computers but have set up only one of
them. I'd like to XXCOPY a clone from one to the other as above.

Don't use XXCOPY on Win XP. Use XXCLONE:

http://www.xxclone.com/

If I
remove the hard drive from my non-setup computer and place it into a
USB2/firewire enclosure and attach it to the computer I want to clone
from (after setting the appropriate jumper), will I need to format the
non-setup hard drive first, or will the cloning process take care of
all that?

The destination drive should be formatted (and partitioned).

Since the setup hard drive has four NTFS partitions (C,D, E, F), how
can I clone all the partitions to the new hard drive (using the same
drive letters)?

You would clone them individually after partitioning the destination
drive the same as the source drive. Be very careful to keep track of
what is what since you will have many drive letters assigned. XXCLONE
will be helpful in this regard though.

Finally, will the cloning process delete everything from the non-setup
hard drive before cloning?

Yes. That's the _meaning_ of cloning. Any files/folders on the
destination that aren't on the source get deleted.

I'd prefer that the hard drives be exactly
the same afterwards, with no debris from the manufacturer left on the
newly cloned hard drive. Thanks.

Well, you should get a "good clone" using XXCLONE but it depends on
what you mean by "debris". The first time you use the cloned drive
you'll see a pop up screen from XXCLONE saying "Congratulations"
along with some other messages.

Art

http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg

 

[John Latter]

Sorry, I didn't see the other post.

I'm glad you did post Wayne - I had the impression that some people
didn't realize it is the hidden XP files I'm primarily interrested in.
If I can clone them then I may be able to recreare my system using a
recovery disk.

--

John Latter

Model of an Internal Evolutionary Mechanism (based on an extension to homeostasis) linking Stationary-Phase Mutations to the Baldwin Effect.
http://members.aol.com/jorolat/TEM.html

'Where Darwin meets Lamarck?' Discussion Egroup
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evomech

 

[lugnut]

I purchased two identical WinXP computers but have set up only one of
them. I'd like to XXCOPY a clone from one to the other as above. If I
remove the hard drive from my non-setup computer and place it into a
USB2/firewire enclosure and attach it to the computer I want to clone
from (after setting the appropriate jumper), will I need to format the
non-setup hard drive first, or will the cloning process take care of
all that?

Since the setup hard drive has four NTFS partitions (C,D, E, F), how
can I clone all the partitions to the new hard drive (using the same
drive letters)?

Finally, will the cloning process delete everything from the non-setup
hard drive before cloning? I'd prefer that the hard drives be exactly
the same afterwards, with no debris from the manufacturer left on the
newly cloned hard drive. Thanks.

For what you want to do, d/l a free (reduced features trial)
copy of CasperXP from Future System Solutions. This product
may be OT here but, for a one off project, it is the way to
go especially for a novice. You should be able to install a
drive into your system to use this. If you cannot (or
won't) install the drive into the system, then stop now -
read no further. Install the drive you want to be cloned
into the slave position of the machine that is already
setup. Boot into Windows and run CasperXP. The drive will
be an exact replica of your original. Any data or
partitions on the clone drive will be removed as the clone
drive is repartitioned and formatted to match your original.
Remove the drive and set the jumpers to master and install
it into the destination machine. If the destination machine
is in fact identical, Windows XP will never know it has been
moved and it should boot and run immediately. I liked the
limited free version so much that I went back and bought the
pro version since I am frequently cloning a drive for backup
purposes. I do not know offhand if it will run with USB or
firewire. I do observe transfer rates in my system far
faster than any external option. I my system, I can
replicate a 160G HD with about 120GB data in about 1hr
15min. I have my cloned drive in a removeable bay which
allows quick backup and I can store the backup drive in the
safe with the company data. In the event of a HD failure, I
can either boot from the clone drive and restore or
physically replace the failed drive if need be to quickly
return the machine to work.

You can find it here.

http://www.fssdev.com/products/free/

Lugnut

 

[Mel]

You can find it here.

http://www.fssdev.com/products/free/

$49.95

 

[Mike Campbell]

$49.95

I've been reading this thread but have not seen anyone mention the G4U
program yet. G4U="Ghost for Unix" and I have used it very successfully
here. It makes a block by block copy of the entire harddisk and then
saves it in a gzip file that can then be restored. The backup process is
rather slow in my opinion but the restore is fairly quick.

From the website:
g4u ("ghost for unix") is a NetBSD-based bootfloppy/CD-ROM that allows
easy cloning of PC harddisks to deploy a common setup on a number of PCs
using FTP. The floppy/CD offers two functions. The first is to upload
the compressed image of a local harddisk to a FTP server, the other is
to restore that image via FTP, uncompress it and write it back to disk.
Network configuration is fetched via DHCP. As the harddisk is processed
as an image, any filesystem and operating system can be deployed using
g4u. Easy cloning of local disks as well as partitions is also supported.

You can find it at http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/

 

[John Latter]

For what you want to do, d/l a free (reduced features trial)
copy of CasperXP from Future System Solutions. This product
may be OT here but, for a one off project, it is the way to
go especially for a novice. You should be able to install a
drive into your system to use this. If you cannot (or
won't) install the drive into the system, then stop now -
read no further. Install the drive you want to be cloned
into the slave position of the machine that is already
setup. Boot into Windows and run CasperXP. The drive will
be an exact replica of your original. Any data or
partitions on the clone drive will be removed as the clone
drive is repartitioned and formatted to match your original.
Remove the drive and set the jumpers to master and install
it into the destination machine. If the destination machine
is in fact identical, Windows XP will never know it has been
moved and it should boot and run immediately. I liked the
limited free version so much that I went back and bought the
pro version since I am frequently cloning a drive for backup
purposes. I do not know offhand if it will run with USB or
firewire. I do observe transfer rates in my system far
faster than any external option. I my system, I can
replicate a 160G HD with about 120GB data in about 1hr
15min. I have my cloned drive in a removeable bay which
allows quick backup and I can store the backup drive in the
safe with the company data. In the event of a HD failure, I
can either boot from the clone drive and restore or
physically replace the failed drive if need be to quickly
return the machine to work.

You can find it here.

http://www.fssdev.com/products/free/

Lugnut

Thankyou Lugnut!

I'm happy enough physically installing the drive & setting
master/slave jumpers etc but I'm not sure what you mean by "boot into
windows & run CasperXP" - do you mean go into setup? I'm sure the
program will tell me but I won't have any spare time until tomorrow pm
at the earliest. I'm just online for emails/newsgroups etc at the
moment - and a couple of other emergencies

--

John Latter

Model of an Internal Evolutionary Mechanism (based on an extension to homeostasis) linking Stationary-Phase Mutations to the Baldwin Effect.
http://members.aol.com/jorolat/TEM.html

'Where Darwin meets Lamarck?' Discussion Egroup
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evomech

 

[John Latter]

I've been reading this thread but have not seen anyone mention the G4U
program yet. G4U="Ghost for Unix" and I have used it very successfully
here. It makes a block by block copy of the entire harddisk and then
saves it in a gzip file that can then be restored. The backup process is
rather slow in my opinion but the restore is fairly quick.

From the website:
g4u ("ghost for unix") is a NetBSD-based bootfloppy/CD-ROM that allows
easy cloning of PC harddisks to deploy a common setup on a number of PCs
using FTP. The floppy/CD offers two functions. The first is to upload
the compressed image of a local harddisk to a FTP server, the other is
to restore that image via FTP, uncompress it and write it back to disk.
Network configuration is fetched via DHCP. As the harddisk is processed
as an image, any filesystem and operating system can be deployed using
g4u. Easy cloning of local disks as well as partitions is also supported.

You can find it at http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/

Thanks for the link Mike, I'll start looking at all the suggestions
which have been made tomorrow (I hope anyway!)

--

John Latter

Model of an Internal Evolutionary Mechanism (based on an extension to homeostasis) linking Stationary-Phase Mutations to the Baldwin Effect.
http://members.aol.com/jorolat/TEM.html

'Where Darwin meets Lamarck?' Discussion Egroup
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evomech

 

[lugnut]

$49.95

I think I mentioned that this is a one off limited feature
free trial. It will do his job legitimately for free. If
he wants to buy the unlimited Pro version as I did, he is
also free to do that.

Lugnut

 

[lugnut]

Thankyou Lugnut!

I'm happy enough physically installing the drive & setting
master/slave jumpers etc but I'm not sure what you mean by "boot into
windows & run CasperXP" - do you mean go into setup? I'm sure the
program will tell me but I won't have any spare time until tomorrow pm
at the earliest. I'm just online for emails/newsgroups etc at the
moment - and a couple of other emergencies

CasperXP runs inside Windows just like any other
application. There is no special boot procedure to run
CasperXP. It will require complete control of the machine
once you start the actual clone process until it is
completed. Keep in mind that the free version will only
replicate a HDD - it will not allow resizing of partitions
as the retail Pro version. To my knowledge, it is only
crippled in that it does not allow partition resizing. All
other features work. Also, IIRC, the free trial version
does not have an expiration date like many other trial
versions. That is why I say it will clone your drive for
your purposes. Whether it is called cripple ware or some
other term, it just won't get any easier or cheaper than
d/l'ing this one for what you describe. At only 3mb, it
will not overwork a dial-up connection.

Lugnut

 

[Wayne Boatwright]

I'm glad you did post Wayne - I had the impression that some people
didn't realize it is the hidden XP files I'm primarily interrested in.
If I can clone them then I may be able to recreare my system using a
recovery disk.

Then you'll be glad to know this, John. I ran a test on a spare PC we have
that has 2 40MG hard drives. I cloned the primary drive to the secondary
drive. Then physically changed the drives. The system booted without
incident and you couldn't tell it was running from the clone.

The clone program is small enough to fit on a floppy or, alternatively, you
can burn an .iso image on a cd if your PC can boot from your cd drive.
When ready to clone the drive, you simply boot from the floppy or cd and
follow the prompts. The entire process runs outside of Windows.

--
Wayne Boatwright *¿*
____________________________________________

Give me a smart idiot over a stupid genius any day.
Sam Goldwyn, 1882-1974


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Tested on: 7/1/2005 6:24:53 PM
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2005 ALWIL Software.
http://www.avast.com

 

[John Latter]

Then you'll be glad to know this, John. I ran a test on a spare PC we have
that has 2 40MG hard drives. I cloned the primary drive to the secondary
drive. Then physically changed the drives. The system booted without
incident and you couldn't tell it was running from the clone.

The clone program is small enough to fit on a floppy or, alternatively, you
can burn an .iso image on a cd if your PC can boot from your cd drive.
When ready to clone the drive, you simply boot from the floppy or cd and
follow the prompts. The entire process runs outside of Windows.

Brilliant Wayne - thanks very much indeed!

--

John Latter

Model of an Internal Evolutionary Mechanism (based on an extension to homeostasis) linking Stationary-Phase Mutations to the Baldwin Effect.
http://members.aol.com/jorolat/TEM.html

'Where Darwin meets Lamarck?' Discussion Egroup
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evomech

 

[M.L.]

Don't use XXCOPY on Win XP. Use XXCLONE:

http://www.xxclone.com/

Thanks for the correction.

The destination drive should be formatted (and partitioned).


You would clone them individually after partitioning the destination
drive the same as the source drive. Be very careful to keep track of
what is what since you will have many drive letters assigned. XXCLONE
will be helpful in this regard though.

I would prefer cloning the entire hard drive.

Yes. That's the _meaning_ of cloning. Any files/folders on the
destination that aren't on the source get deleted.

That's what I expected, and feel more confident since you confirmed
it.

Well, you should get a "good clone" using XXCLONE but it depends on
what you mean by "debris". The first time you use the cloned drive
you'll see a pop up screen from XXCLONE saying "Congratulations"
along with some other messages.

Art

http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg

Thanks for the advice and info. Before trying XXClone I'll look
further for a solution that will clone the entire hard drive.