Best Drive Imaging solution

Question

Level 1

7 points

Best Drive Imaging solution

Hello:

I am looking for a robust drive imaging solution. Like Acronis for Windows, I want to be able to take an image of my system and restore it to any drive as needed. My requirements include imaging the Windows partition in Boot Camp. I don't know if one solution exists or if I need two tools.

Also, I have used the free copy of SuperDuper, loved it. My question is, can the Drive tools in OS X do the same thing (image my Mac disk for quick restore of OS/Apps and data in the event of a hard crash?

Thanks,

Kevin

MBP 2.8ghz i7, 17" Hi-Res/AG, Mac OS X (10.6.7), SSD + 750gb WD Scorpio Black - 10 second boot

Posted on Apr 23, 2011 4:27 PM

Reply

Answer 1

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Apr 23, 2011 5:11 PM in response to Brumey

AFAIK, nothing allows Mac and windoze imaging. SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner are your best bets, IMO. BTW, bootable backups/clones are superior to images.

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Answer 2

Brumey Author

Level 1

7 points

Apr 27, 2011 2:23 PM in response to baltwo

I can't beleive there is no Windows boot camp imaging/clone tool available. Anyone?

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Answer 3

dwb

Level 7

32,920 points

Apr 27, 2011 2:56 PM in response to Brumey

WinClone will image the BootCamp partition but there's nothing that will image the entire drive at once. I agree with baltwo that a bootable clone performed with SuperDuper! is the way to go - along with TimeMachine. If one application/file/folder gets fouled up TM is a fast way to restore. If the entire drive goes south the bootable clone is a fast way to get back to work immediately, not a couple hours later after the image has been restored to the new drive.

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Answer 4

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

Apr 27, 2011 3:04 PM in response to Brumey

Gets asked - and answered to some extent more so than you got here - over on Boot Camp forums.

Trouble is support for EFI and GPT using a number of Windows products is limited or non-existent.

WinClone was always one way but iffy.

With OS X there are a number of good tools to image/clone or backup and restore.

CCC, SuperDuper, and half a dozen others.

To clone Windows partition to another drive, your best bet is probably Paragon Software that has 3-4 tools, suites and programs. I use Clone OS to SSD to move Windows to a new drive.

Have not used CopyCatX or Clonzilla but they are reported to do mixed full drive clone of both OS X and Windows.

Boot Camp

Paragon-Software

The one I use (on PCs and Mac Pro)

Paragon Hard Disk Manager 2011 Suite

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Answer 5

Mar 4, 2014 1:15 PM in response to Brumey

Best software ever is Deploy Studio. If you get it configured right, it will do what you need it to do.

http://www.deploystudio.com/

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Answer 6

Kurt Lang

Level 9

57,822 points

Mar 4, 2014 2:10 PM in response to Brumey

WinClone is the best Mac tool I've found for Windows partitions. Backs up and restores them while booted into OS X.

I tried CopyCat X, but despite how their site reads, the only way it creates a Windows disk image is to copy every single sector of the drive, whether there's data on it or not. So a 500 GB partition creates a 500 GB image, even if there's only 45 GB of live data.

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