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Best Free Drive Imaging Program
Acronis True Image has just been released as freeware, in the form of the older 8.0 version. It is the class leader, in the opinion of most who have used these imaging applications for a while. I've used four or five commercial apps and wouldn't use anything other than Acronis TI. Previously it was only available as a commercial version, but now that has changed, and they have issued an obsolete version as freeware. There are a couple of drawbacks:
However, considering the benefits, many will choose to go this route. See our guide on how to obtain it, lower down the page here. It's recommended to try Acronis, the only drawback possibly being its initial complexity. Create the first part of an image on CDs; duplicate that to a USB disk (to ensure redundancy, and to give a range of reinstallation options); and finally, run incremental backups on to the USB disk. Incremental backups are additional small backups, where the application checks what has changed on the disk and adds this data to the existing backup files, in the form of smaller additional files. With an Acronis image, you can even 'plug the image': connect to your USB disk image and explore it exactly as if it were another drive. That means you can extract data from it, if you lost it from the original drive - you don't have to rebuild a drive in order to access that data. We think ATI v8 will suit many users, and the fact it's an old version makes no difference at all. On the right you can see the initial program interface when Acronis fires up. You can choose from Backup, Recovery, Clone Disk, Add New Disk, or Plug Image. However, the freebies will still do the job, and of course, like many freeware applications, they can often do it as well as or sometimes better than their commercial rivals. There's not too much wrong with Firefox, you'd have to agree. Commercial programs normally have a better feature list though; but now that Acronis TI is available as freeware, even that distiction has gone, in this software category. Some of the freeware drive imaging programs work by booting from a diskette or CD, loading a lightweight Linux environment, and then executing a command. This limits their use to offline imaging - only meaning that they cannot be used within Windows while it is running. However, these programs are small and fast, and while they might not offer the entire suite of features that the commercial programs boast, they do perform the core drive imaging tasks quite well. HDClone Free Edition is the one if you aren't a dyed-in-the-wool techie. It's straightforward - unlike many of the alternatives - and acts via a GUI, unlike some. Just in case you aren't clear what that means exactly, it refers to the fact that it runs just like any other modern Windows program, and not like a DOS text / keyboard-only program from 15 years ago (or a substantial number of Linux operations today). It's worth a look if the only functionality that's needed is to clone one disk to another larger disk. It is a relatively small download, can be run from either a diskette or CD, and has a graphical user interface that makes it super-easy to use. HDClone requires no command line interaction and is perfect for upgrading from one hard drive to another. However, the Free Edition of HDClone is not capable of cloning from a larger disk to a smaller disk, working with individual disk partitions, or creating or restoring image files (locally or otherwise). g4u - Ghost for Unix has a more comprehensive set of advanced features, and is many people's preferred solution at present. G4u is a very small program that can be downloaded in either boot diskette or CD format and offers a lot of features. Not only can it clone disk to disk (any size) and copy disk partitions, it can also create and restore image files both locally and from an FTP site, if the workstation is connected to a wired network with a DCHP service. This feature is great for backing up a workstation directly to an image file stored on another computer for either safekeeping, or for deployment to multiple workstations on the network. The various features of g4u are implemented by executing commands via the console, but a reference of the simple commands is displayed immediately after booting using the g4u boot media. DriveImage XML will suit users running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 needing an online disk imaging solution. It uses the Volume Shadow Copy Service to backup drive and partitions to image files, or will clone drive to drive while Windows is running. Because of this, a Windows task can also be created and scheduled to automatically create backup images. While this program can perform the tasks it promises, backups do take longer than using one of the offline programs previously mentioned. However, because it can create scheduled backup images while Windows is running, it's great for making the incremental backup images you'll need, between full offline backups. With its attractive GUI interface, it will be an easy first choice for many XP users. It's easy to use and reliable, and the use of XML means the image has more repurposing options than usual. Note 1: By convention, fixed disks such as a hard drive are spelt DISK, and removable ones like a CD are spelt DISC.
Product Specifications: g4u DriveImage XML Acronis True Image 8.0 Note 2: if you are using a new Maxtor or Seagate drive to back up to, the free downloadable Maxtor or Seagate utilities has a limited version of Acronis that works with Vista. This free offer was initiated by PC Pro magazine in the UK, and it is possible that the procedure (which involves form-filling and emailing back and forth) may be easier in the UK, for that reason. You may also find the download link works better in Firefox rather than Internet Explorer. If you experience problems, then I recommend you read the comments at the foot of this page in full. Some people report they were fully successful in 20 minutes, others that the entire procedure took nearly a week; and also that the download link did not view correctly in IE. However, we think you should try it out - assuming you don't mind jumping through a few hoops - as Acronis TI is the king of drive imaging applications, and an older version (v8, from 2004) is no great handicap. I used it extensively and compiled a report in 2005/6, which you can read (see just a bit lower down). Of course Acronis want something out of this (nothing's for nothing), and you will no doubt receive a few reminders about upgrading and so forth. In fact there is a substantial discount on upgrading to the latest version, as against purchasing it directly (something of the order of 50%), so you may well find that it then becomes an attractive proposition to buy it. I think this is a sensible option. Most of the best software allows a trial period before purchase as this can expose system incompatibilities and so forth; and Acronis are good people to deal with. Here is an approximate run-through for this procedure: As stated, I used ATI 8.0 for a substantial time and found no problems with it whatsoever, apart from some default imaging parameter settings that were incorrect in my view, and were partly corrected in later versions from v9.0 onward. If you use ATI v8 (or even the later versions) I recommend you read my full step by step guide, as this is not a simple application to use at first - it's the full monty after all. This guide is hosted on my business website since here is not an appropriate place - it's my usual extended treatment and 6,000 words-plus in length...
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