Best program for images.

[Jam3s-Zer0]

Hi,
Can anyone recommend me the best software to create an image of my hard drive which I can burn onto a Dvd disk then when I format my hard drive, I can restore the image direct from the disk without needing any other software?

Thanks
James

 

[Meithan]

Are you aware that a DVD can only hold 4.7GB, while HDDs hold usually above 50GB?

 

[Jam3s-Zer0]

Yes I am, I obviously only want to create a image of the data on the hard drive not the 50+gb free space

Since the clean installation of windows + tweaks + program + files that will be on the Hard drive will only take up ~1Gb its ok.

 

[Meithan]

Ah, that's a different story then. Are you looking to backup only data or also the OS and installed apps? When you say "image" I imagine you mean that you want to put the DVD back in after formatting and recover your system and configs as they were before.

 

[Jam3s-Zer0]

Ah kk, I guess I should of explained it better. Looking to backup the whole OS + apps and ye after formatting put the disk in and recove the system exactly how it was.

Thanks.

 

[Osiris]

Use Acronis or Norton Ghost, you will need to have them compressed to the highest level, then spanned across several dvds

 

[Jam3s-Zer0]

but fresh installation of Windows + all my files + programs only is about 1GB so won't the image be ~1gb?

Also is it possible to restore the image from a disk when the hard drive will be completely formatted?

 

[Osiris]

but fresh installation of Windows + all my files + programs only is about 1GB so won't the image be ~1gb? = It will be more than a gig unless you compress it, which will make it very small

Also is it possible to restore the image from a disk when the hard drive will be completely formatted? = Yes, its called image restore

 

[Jam3s-Zer0]

Ok thanks mate.

So what do you recommend, True Image or Ghost and they both have image restore?

 

[superdave1984]

Alcohol 120% works great for burning ISO's.