Easiest Way To Create Hard Drive Image

[iamloco724]

i would like to replace my main hard drive that my os is on im running windows xp sp3

what is the easiest software to use to create an image of my hard drive so my files and programs are all good to go on the new drive

also i dont know much about hard drive images but is there a way to compress them i would like it to take as little space as possible the image file that is

any input and info on this would be great thanks

 

[DBB2010]

what exactly are you trying to do?

you could use ghost to make a backup file of your entire drive. if you're trying to replace the hard drive, this would require you to reinstall windows on the new drive and then extract the data you need to access from the ghost image.

you could use acronis to make an exact copy of your current drive to a larger drive. this would make it so that everything would run exactly like it is now, the only difference being that you would have more space.

 

[iamloco724]

basically i think my main drive is running towards the end of its lifespan and would like to get a new drive and instead of copying data and reinstalling stuff over i want to be able to make an image of my current drive to use when i get the new drive

 

[KSoD]

FOG, CloneZilla, Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image

What is the size of the drive now? There is some compression methods, but frankly it isnt like your going to make a 80GB hard drive into a DVD sized image.

 

[DBB2010]

WD Support

i haven't used that free version of acronis but i remember seeing it available for download. acronis is probably the easiest way to do what you want to do, it's extremely simple.

 

[iamloco724]

the drive is 250 gig with about 70 gig free

 

[KSoD]

How much compression are you looking to do? With having roughly 180GB used and wanting to take it all your not looking at getting that much under 150GB or so.

 

[iamloco724]

im not looking to get a certain amount..just as much as i can squeeze it down to really

is this correct cloning a drive it actually doesnt go into one file but basically mirrors it right away where imagining puts it into one file and you have to restore that image to a drive then you have the drives contents?

and with both of these is pc settings and applications guaranteed to work after the process?

 

[DBB2010]

im not looking to get a certain amount..just as much as i can squeeze it down to really

is this correct cloning a drive it actually doesnt go into one file but basically mirrors it right away where imagining puts it into one file and you have to restore that image to a drive then you have the drives contents?

and with both of these is pc settings and applications guaranteed to work after the process?

for the most part, you've got it.

i have seen the compression with ghost corrupt files a hand full of times though.

 

[iamloco724]

so if i have room to store the image file i shouldnt compress it its not worth the risk?