Hard Drive Imaging

[HalcyonSpirit]

I require recommendations for programs that will allow me to make a complete copy of my current hard drive, Windows and all, and be able to put it on new drive. It would be nice if the program is free as well, since I probably won't be using it after this one time.

Essentially, what happened is this: I called up Dell tech support to tell them that there is a likely short in the connection between my headphone jack and the motherboard on my laptop. Although I had already established that the motherboard needed to be replaced, I'm sure the tech guy had to go through normal procedure and run a startup diagnostic on my laptop. Well, as it turns out, that was a good thing, as it caught an error with my hard drive. So long story short, they're replacing both my motherboard and hard drive in one go about a week from now.

I obviously need to backup my files, but I would like to do without the hassle of reinstalling everything back onto my laptop. Imaging the drive seems like the obvious choice for that, though if anyone has other suggestions or advice, it would be appreciated.

[Moseph]

Can't help you with the hard drive, but I would like to chime in that the headphone short is exactly what happened to my Dell laptop. My next computer is so not going to be a Dell.

[phill]

you can use a linux bootable cd and use the dd command to do what you need.

I think it would be something like "dd if=/dev/hdb | gzip >/mnt/hda3/system_drive_backup.img.gz" to make the image and "gunzip </mnt/hda3/system_drive_backup.img.gz | dd of=/dev/hdb" to put it back on to the drive. Replacing hdb and hda3 with the correct drive of course

[Super-Duper Sombrero]

I tried to do that a while ago when my drive stopped booting. Unfortunately, all the programs that I found required you to have both hard drives with you or even to be in separate computers.

It's best to burn stuff you can't re-install onto a disc, then write down a list of things you want to reinstall.

[phill]

required you to have both hard drives with you or even to be in separate computers.QUOTE]

Maybe I am reading that wrong, but does the first half of that contradict the second half? At any rate, all programs and commands I have used or seen will allow you to create/restore disk backup to local drives OR to network drives

[HalcyonSpirit]

Maybe I am reading that wrong, but does the first half of that contradict the second half? At any rate, all programs and commands I have used or seen will allow you to create/restore disk backup to local drives OR to network drives

I think what he means is that you either have to have both HDs in the same computer or in separate computers; in other words, have access to both drives at the same time to do the copy. Which, unfortunately, can't be done when dealing with Dell tech support. They take the old parts with them when they leave, and they won't stick around for you to do the copy while they're there. Besides which, my laptop only has room for one drive at a time and I don't have any other computers to use here, so that's out of the question.

I do know that there are programs that allow you to make an image file you can store like any other file on a drive and restore it whenever you like, but all the ones I've found so far aren't free (or are of not-so-good reliability).

Phill, your Linux method would probably work. However, I don't have any experience with Linux, and I'd rather not have a crash course in it when trying to save my computer's information in one piece.

By the way, tech support called back; they're coming on Monday. So I don't have a whole lot of time left.