DaBeach Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 What imaging software do you use and why do you like it vs. another brand. EXA: DriveSnapShot, Acronis etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparda Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 dd, because I don't need any thing else. At a place I used to work I used Norton Ghost with the ghost server, it worked well, but to use it on machines you had to use WinPE disk which was awkward when you had new machines with different network cards. Norton also some times threw a wobble when doing stuff with 'non-standard' disks. With DD, if you can load DSL in console mode, you can get it done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H@L0_F00 Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 I like CloneZilla because it can clone only used blocks (of supported filesystems), so space/time is saved not copying the unused blocks of a drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaBeach Posted July 21, 2010 Author Share Posted July 21, 2010 I like CloneZilla because it can clone only used blocks (of supported filesystems), so space/time is saved not copying the unused blocks of a drive. Have you used Acronis at all? And if so what is your experience with this in comparison to CloneZilla? I have been using DriveSnapSHot for years with no issues other than having to create a WIN boot CD in order to run it from a USB stick, which was not impossible it just turned out to be a pain as the boot system I was using (I believe BART) placed the files in a RAM drive and the drive was different every time so I had to go digging to find it. I have started testing Acronis and it will create a boot USB or ISO of itself, and it boots fast compared to my other CD. Acronis offers the ability to clone a drive to another or image/restore a partition and allows the ability to pull a single file out of the archive. I am hoping that Acronis allows for some scripting or command lines so I can create a boot USB that will load and restore a particular image to a particular drive and then power down or reboot the system so I can perform a restore without having to touch a key. In case anyone is unaware of this: It seems that Western Digital and Seagate drives include or have available a free version of Acronis that when operated from a USB show as full versions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr-Protocol Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Depends on what I need the image for. OS Install backup - Clonezilla Forensic Imaging: FTK Imager, EnCase Imager (LinEn), Hardware Disk Cloners Both: dc3dd, dd http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/Category:Disk_Imaging Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Netshroud Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 For Windows installations, I use ImageX from the WAIK/OPK. For anything else.. well, I haven't really needed to. I've dd'ed a few thumb drives though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H@L0_F00 Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 Have you used Acronis at all? And if so what is your experience with this in comparison to CloneZilla? I have been using DriveSnapSHot for years with no issues other than having to create a WIN boot CD in order to run it from a USB stick, which was not impossible it just turned out to be a pain as the boot system I was using (I believe BART) placed the files in a RAM drive and the drive was different every time so I had to go digging to find it. I have started testing Acronis and it will create a boot USB or ISO of itself, and it boots fast compared to my other CD. Acronis offers the ability to clone a drive to another or image/restore a partition and allows the ability to pull a single file out of the archive. I am hoping that Acronis allows for some scripting or command lines so I can create a boot USB that will load and restore a particular image to a particular drive and then power down or reboot the system so I can perform a restore without having to touch a key. In case anyone is unaware of this: It seems that Western Digital and Seagate drives include or have available a free version of Acronis that when operated from a USB show as full versions. I used Acronis once, when I bought a new hdd for my laptop. I only performed a direct drive-to-drive image though, so I'm not too familiar with it. I've used Clonezilla a few times, and it's always been up to par. Like I said though, the main reason I like it is because no time/space is wasted imaging the unused blocks on the drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaBeach Posted July 21, 2010 Author Share Posted July 21, 2010 I used Acronis once, when I bought a new hdd for my laptop. I only performed a direct drive-to-drive image though, so I'm not too familiar with it. I've used Clonezilla a few times, and it's always been up to par. Like I said though, the main reason I like it is because no time/space is wasted imaging the unused blocks on the drive. I know that the Acronis I used WD edition does infact allow for imaging of just the blocks that have data and can also image the used/unused blocks as well. DriveSnapShot I am not sure, I know in my use that it will image only used blocks not sure if there is an option for unused. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eovnu87435ds Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 for mac, nothing beats the free carbon copy cloner. Sure, it's mac only and only works with a mac-formatted source and target volume, but it can clone your disk while still letting you use your computer, which can be convenient. When I upgraded from my nearly full 160gb drive to a 640, it took about 2 hours Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKo Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 WDS - Windows Deployment Services, its free as part of Server 2008/2008 R2 and integrates brilliantly with a domain. Microsoft Deployment Toolkit is a great addon for this service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sprouty Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 I normally use dd, and then a combination to compress, or transfer the image. On a side note, Could someone recommend a program to do full backup HD backup with bad sectors (there a re a few different windows partition on there.). Everytime i've tried use dd on this box it failed! Many Thanks, Sprouty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparda Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 dd has a conv option that allows you to specify what to do when errors are encountered, you can set it to 'noerror' and it will just leave a blank space for every error encountered. http://linux.die.net/man/1/dd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manuel Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 I use a FOG server (Linux install - web-based cloning software ) www.fogproject.org We re-image computers at least 2 times a year here and this makes the job so much easier. In May, they were interviewed by the tightwad tech podcast, http://www.thetightwadtech.com/podcast/?p=...__episode_4.mp3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barry99705 Posted July 21, 2010 Share Posted July 21, 2010 WDS - Windows Deployment Services, its free as part of Server 2008/2008 R2 and integrates brilliantly with a domain. Microsoft Deployment Toolkit is a great addon for this service. That's what we use as well. I'm also running a deploy studio server in our training network to image the Intel iMacs in the classroom. It is also our backup pc imaging system when the main WDS server in HQ shits itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADL Posted July 27, 2010 Share Posted July 27, 2010 Hi, I use Active Disk, have been for a couple years now and find it very good, it has a multitude of other Programs within that are also very useful, you can make bootable usb flash drives or cd roms, and built in LAN network support for pulling across an image from a server or storage box within the local Intranet, only slight downside is its not free, but a serious contender to Acronis. I find it so easy to use with a user friendly GUI, it also has many built in tools like Active Partition recovery, Active Partition Manager, OS Password Changer, Active Kill disk etc etc . http://www.disk-image.net/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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