How do I back up and restore my entire hard drive?

[Guest]

My C drive is very fragmented and defragmenting is only moderately
successful. Is there a way to back up and restore my entire hard drive?

Is there a utility that would allow me to:

1- Save an image of my C drive to my D drive
2- Reformat my C drive to defragment
3- Restore the contents in the disc image back to the C drive so my computer
is exactly the way it was?

Is there a better way to resolve my fragmentation issue?

Thanks!

Greg

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

My C drive is very fragmented and defragmenting is only moderately
successful. Is there a way to back up and restore my entire hard
drive?

Is there a utility that would allow me to:

1- Save an image of my C drive to my D drive
2- Reformat my C drive to defragment
3- Restore the contents in the disc image back to the C drive so my
computer is exactly the way it was?

Is there a better way to resolve my fragmentation issue?

Use a third-party defragmentation tool. I like PerfectDisk.

 

[R. McCarty]

An Image would be an "Exact" copy of the existing partition. If
you restore it to your drive it retains formatting and other disk
states.

XP's native Defrag requires around 15% free working space, so
it move and rearrange data. I use and recommend a product from
Raxco called Perfect Disk. They offer a free 30-day trial version.
To get the most benefit from PDisk you need to do a Offline type
of defrag 1st, followed by a GUI session from Windows. They
(Raxco) also has a subscription model for PDisk that runs around
~$20 per year, instead of the ~$40+ for the stand alone program

Trial sign up here:
http://www.raxco.com/products/downloadit/perfectdisk2000_download.cfm

 

[papapitufo]

Norton Ghost is the best way.

 

[Donny Broome]

With a large NTFS drive, here's my prediction: You won't notice any
difference once the drive is defragmented to your liking.

 

[Vagabond Software]

My C drive is very fragmented and defragmenting is only moderately
successful. Is there a way to back up and restore my entire hard drive?

Is there a utility that would allow me to:

1- Save an image of my C drive to my D drive
2- Reformat my C drive to defragment
3- Restore the contents in the disc image back to the C drive so my
computer
is exactly the way it was?

Is there a better way to resolve my fragmentation issue?

Thanks!

Greg

I also like the suggestions of Perfect Disk by Raxco. It is wonderful for
NTFS partitions. I also agree with Donny in that I doubt you are going to
see any performance increases with a perfectly linear defragmentation, which
even Perfect Disk does not attempt to maintain.

Things you can do to improve responsiveness of hard drive reads and writes
would be to setup a RAID-0 configuration and stick to an appropriate Backup
regimen. The other thing you can do is disable real-time file monitoring in
your anti-virus program and simply perform a nightly (or weekly) system
scan. Of course, make sure your computing habits are appropriate for this
configuration. Finally, start disabling other real-time file/registry
monitoring that may be happening on your system.

carl

 

[Gary]

My C drive is very fragmented and defragmenting is only moderately
successful. Is there a way to back up and restore my entire hard drive?

Is there a utility that would allow me to:

1- Save an image of my C drive to my D drive
2- Reformat my C drive to defragment
3- Restore the contents in the disc image back to the C drive so my
computer
is exactly the way it was?

Is there a better way to resolve my fragmentation issue?

Thanks!

Greg

For backing up or cloning a drive Acronis True Image is the best in my
opinion. I have used the clone and the image backup feature and it has never
failed me.

http://www.acronis.com/

 

[Guest]

Wow! Thanks all for the feedback. Very useful information. Since I posted I
have run Perfect Disk in both regular and offline modes. Unfortunately, It
didn't make a big difference and the report I get says I should still
defrayment the drive. So, other than trying another utility like Norton,
would the best strategy be to clean format the hard disk, and reinstall the
OS, software, drivers, etc? Other thoughts?

Thanks Again,

Greg