best drive image (ghost) backup freeware?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Char1ie
  • Start date Start date
C

Char1ie

I've found quite a few of these listed but would like suggestions from those
who have found a satisfactory software for their own use. That seems the
best way. Otherwise it often takes a lot of work to locate a good version.

I specifically need one for a W98se box, and one for a XP box. It would be
nice if they were the same.

Thanks.
 
char@ said:
I've found quite a few of these listed but would like suggestions from those
who have found a satisfactory software for their own use. That seems the
best way. Otherwise it often takes a lot of work to locate a good version.

I specifically need one for a W98se box, and one for a XP box. It would be
nice if they were the same.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
============

A much discussed subject. To my knowledge the few programs which deal
with IMAGES (as you requested) are not free .. except Partition Saving.
I've tried Partition Saving, and found it appreciably slower than the
other popular few, but it is FREE. The other three most popular are
commercial offers; Acronis for Windows but provides a proprietary method
for BOOTCD replacement of the image; Ghost for both Windows and DOS,
TeraByte for both Windows and DOS. Ghost and TeraByte DOS programs will
replace their images to harddrive with ease. In my estimation, TeraByte
is by far lightning speed compared to the others. There are, of course,
other freeware so-called backup schemes, but they are mostly file-
copying schemes, some with compression capabilities to take up less
room; XXCOPY being well-known, but doesn't compress.
 
Lord said:
A much discussed subject. To my knowledge the few programs which deal
with IMAGES (as you requested) are not free .. except Partition Saving.
I've tried Partition Saving, and found it appreciably slower than the
other popular few, but it is FREE.
Click to expand...

I have used PS (Partition Saving), DI (Drive Image) and Ghost and
compared them, and I found that PS is the slightly faster of them.
I always save only used sectors and choose the lowest compression,
which reduces the size to approximately 50% in all three programs.
In my estimation, TeraByte
is by far lightning speed compared to the others.
Click to expand...

I just tried Terabyte trial shareware. It was very crappy software, no
back button, no stop button, no compression, no check for file space,
no choice of saving only used sectors, a bit faster faster than the
other three but not by much.

The first time it froze the computer, the other time it seemed to work
but the file would be bigger than the available space so it stopped
with an error msg.

I cannot believe anybody would use this software when there is a very
good freeware altenative like PS. If you chose it because of speed you
must have very full hard disks, or you are saving a lot of empty space,
the higher speed is eaten up by saving empty sectors. No compression
means you need a lot of space to store the image. I am just happy it
didn't destroy anything, it had me worried a couple of times during
that short test run.

User friendlyness very low, technical level low, overall judgement:
somewhere between dangerously bad and maybe usable in certain
situations, with some luck.

And on top of that it is shareware! Must pay for use after 30 days.
 
Lord said:
In my estimation, TeraByte
is by far lightning speed compared to the others.
Click to expand...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have you compared TeraByte to Acronis for speed? Acronis compresses and
images my 3.5 GB of data in under two minutes.

Yes, I know they are not freeware, but the issue arose here and that's
why I'm asking here. Freeware cops go away.

Mr Bill
 
R-Drive Image is a very good one, Not freeware but works very good and
creates boot up disk.
I found it much better compare to ghost
 
I've found quite a few of these listed but would like suggestions from
those who have found a satisfactory software for their own use. That
seems the best way. Otherwise it often takes a lot of work to locate a
good version.

I specifically need one for a W98se box, and one for a XP box. It
would be nice if they were the same.
Click to expand...

I use both of these progams although DriveImage XML will only work with
WinXP-

Partition Saving

http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/2006/PL2006SYSTEMUTILITIES.php#0547-PW

It's a DOS program so I run it from a boot cd, namely this one-

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

DriveImage XML

http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm

Program can be run from within Windows XP (hot image)
Image can be browsed and files can be extracted
Plugin available so the program can be run from a boot cd-

http://www.ubcd4win.com/
 
Hello,
When I was using Win98SE I used the Ghost that came as part of Norton
SystemWorks 2002 which always worked well for me. After I switched to XP Pro
SP2 I decided not to use Norton SystemWorks anymore but just to see what
would happen I used the same Ghost boot floppy I had made when using Win98SE
and as long as I created a FAT partition, on my slave drive, to image to it
worked just as well as it did when I was using Win98SE. Am still using it
and have never had a problem with it.
 
JimBob said:
When I was using Win98SE I used the Ghost that came as part of Norton
SystemWorks 2002 which always worked well for me. After I switched to XP Pro
SP2 I decided not to use Norton SystemWorks anymore but just to see what
would happen I used the same Ghost boot floppy I had made when using Win98SE
and as long as I created a FAT partition, on my slave drive, to image to it
Click to expand...

The freeware "Partition Saving" does not need a FAT partition, it can
save images on NTFS drives.

(You have to use a special trick though, for creating small files on
the NTFS drive first, which the program can use and resize later when
run from DOS. Run the program under Windows first, to create those
files.
The reason why saving images to NTFS drives is tricky that
documentation of NTFS is not freely available, so it is impossible for
other programmers to create files but files can be changed and resized)

PS works well for saving images for Win98se as well as for other
operating systems.
It doesn't care about what the operating system it saves from, it just
copies used sectors.

http://www.partition-saving.com/
 
char@
1ie.ksi3 says...
============

A much discussed subject. To my knowledge the few programs which
deal
with IMAGES (as you requested) are not free .. except Partition
Saving.
I've tried Partition Saving, and found it appreciably slower than
the
Click to expand...


Keep your *IGNORANCE* to *YOURSELF* The best ones are found on the
various *FREE* Linux-based live rescue systems that can be booted from
cdrom or USB Flash drives.


They tend to support backup and restore operations for partitions of
multiple operating systems along with including software that can repair
and restore damaged filesystems along with tools for acessing the internet
so you can download files if needed to repair a system that won't boot from a
trashed harddrive.
 
Chris said:
Keep your *IGNORANCE* to *YOURSELF* The best ones are found on the
various *FREE* Linux-based live rescue systems that can be booted from
cdrom or USB Flash drives.


They tend to support backup and restore operations for partitions of
multiple operating systems along with including software that can repair
and restore damaged filesystems along with tools for acessing the internet
so you can download files if needed to repair a system that won't boot from a
trashed harddrive.
Click to expand...

Have a URL or two??

Lou
 
clee2 said:
Keep your *IGNORANCE* to *YOURSELF* The best ones are found on the
various *FREE* Linux-based live rescue systems that can be booted from
cdrom or USB Flash drives.


They tend to support backup and restore operations for partitions of
multiple operating systems along with including software that can repair
and restore damaged filesystems along with tools for acessing the internet
so you can download files if needed to repair a system that won't boot from a
trashed harddrive.
Click to expand...
======

Wow ... a veritable fount of information! Your zeal and screaming
tantrums will surely convince a reading public to accept your every
syllable as manna from heaven.
 
Wow ... a veritable fount of information! Your zeal and screaming
tantrums will surely convince a reading public to accept your every
syllable as manna from heaven.
Click to expand...


well put! I thought the sharing of information was done by those who are
able to move past "I know something you don't know" and goes directly
into, "I'd be happy to assist you in improving your knowledge."

C
 
CJ Jones said:
well put! I thought the sharing of information was done by those who are
able to move past "I know something you don't know" and goes directly
into, "I'd be happy to assist you in improving your knowledge."

C
Click to expand...
Sadly `Penguin Pushers` for some obscure reason can`t act like
ordinary folk.
They have to keep ramming their 300 hundred distros down
everyones throat <G>. (I bet that`ll get him going !!).
 
well put! I thought the sharing of information was done by those who
are
able to move past "I know something you don't know" and goes
directly
into, "I'd be happy to assist you in improving your knowledge."

C
Click to expand...

Get a clue moron. The *ONLY* thing that "Lord Possum" was interested in
doing was peddling shareware and comerical software for Windows.

The Linux based rescue live cd's and USB drives are pretty well known
and have been for a number of years.
 
Chris said:
Keep your *IGNORANCE* to *YOURSELF* The best ones are found on the
various *FREE* Linux-based live rescue systems that can be booted from
cdrom or USB Flash drives.
Click to expand...

Chris,

Please engage your superego before you hit your <send> button!

Richard
 
Chris said:
Get a clue moron. The *ONLY* thing that "Lord Possum" was interested in
doing was peddling shareware and comerical software for Windows.

The Linux based rescue live cd's and USB drives are pretty well known
and have been for a number of years.
Click to expand...

Your basic premise about the software is correct, Mr. Lee.
All the successful routines for backing up Windows systems that I've
seen run in non-Windows operating systems.

Your accusation of OP is belligerant and stupid, Chris. And uncivilized.

Your arrogant intolerant manners are offensive.
"Get a clue moron:" wash out your hands with soap before appearing in
public. Hopefully, when you behave this way here, people will call you
on your behavior. Maybe, in time, you'll "get it."

Richard
 
Your basic premise about the software is correct, Mr. Lee.
All the successful routines for backing up Windows systems that I've
seen run in non-Windows operating systems.
Click to expand...

That's because they *RAN* on/in non-Windows Operating Systems *FIRST*.

100% of the routines for backing up Windows systems can be traced back
their origins on 8-bit Atari,Commodore and Apple computers.
 
Chris Lee wrote:
[SNIP]
That's because they *RAN* on/in non-Windows Operating Systems *FIRST*.

100% of the routines for backing up Windows systems can be traced back
their origins on 8-bit Atari,Commodore and Apple computers.
Click to expand...
Apart from the ones that ran on PDP-8, PDP-11, DEC-10, DEC-20, VAXen,
Burroughs, Data General, IBM, HP, CDC, Honeywell, etcetera, etcetera,
et-bloody-cetera.

Long before peecees existed.

My preferred disk-imager is "Ghost for UNIX"
<http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/>, based on NetBSD, so therefore has
antecedents that well pre-date the peecee.

Cheers,
Gary B-)
 
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