Help me find the best easy to use hard drive cloning software \ VOGONS

Help me find the best easy to use hard drive cloning software

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First post, by computergeek92

Posted on 2016-09-11, 06:51

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I have some of my family’s old computers with heapleads of files scattered throughout. It would be easier for me to find good cloning software because some of the drives have bad sectors and I don't want them to fail while I take off the files. Can you help me find an easy to use cloning software please? The machines are from various computing eras, so something that works even on old DOS machines would be great! Thanks for any help.

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Reply 1 of 10, by Jade Falcon

Posted on 2016-09-11, 13:02

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UNIX live cd and dd command.

Reply 2 of 10, by Jo22

Posted on 2016-09-11, 14:50

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Or this one. http://damien.guibouret.free.fr/en/index.html

Older versions of True Image may also work (7.x,9.x and maybe later ones, too).
As far as I know, their "safe mode" found on the live media is based on DOS.

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Reply 3 of 10, by Zup

Posted on 2016-09-11, 15:23

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My favourite tool is Acronis True Image, and/or Clonezilla. Clonezilla can run on every computer (they have ISOs that only need a 386).

Keep in mind that those programs are imaging tools (as you requested), so getting a given file from an image will need special tools.

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Reply 4 of 10, by Jorpho

Posted on 2016-09-11, 16:28

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computergeek92 wrote:
It would be easier for me to find good cloning software because some of the drives have bad sectors and I don't want them to fail while I take off the files.

I don't follow the logic here. Cloning is a more intensive process and probably more likely to cause a drive to fail than "taking off the files".

I had a recent experience in which I learned that pretty much all drive-cloning programs are likely to give up immediately upon encountering an unreadable sector.

Anyway, for something that will work on older systems, http://ping.windowsdream.com/ would probably be the way to go.

Reply 5 of 10, by Jade Falcon

Posted on 2016-09-11, 16:59

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Jorpho wrote:
I don't follow the logic here. Cloning is a more intensive process and probably more likely to cause a drive to fail than "taki […]
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computergeek92 wrote:
It would be easier for me to find good cloning software because some of the drives have bad sectors and I don't want them to fail while I take off the files.
I don't follow the logic here. Cloning is a more intensive process and probably more likely to cause a drive to fail than "taking off the files".

I had a recent experience in which I learned that pretty much all drive-cloning programs are likely to give up immediately upon encountering an unreadable sector.

Anyway, for something that will work on older systems, http://ping.windowsdream.com/ would probably be the way to go.

This is why I recommend dd. Lot of options there. Copy the files or the file system.

Reply 6 of 10, by luckybob

Posted on 2016-09-11, 19:35

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I just use winimage. Even works for non-windows backups. never had an issue.

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

Reply 7 of 10, by lolo799

Posted on 2016-09-11, 21:27

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I've been using http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/ for a while, great for dumping and deploying hdd from a ftp server.

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Reply 8 of 10, by leileilol

Posted on 2016-09-11, 22:58

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luckybob wrote:
I just use winimage. Even works for non-windows backups. never had an issue.

Manually skipping makes that a pain for any mass imaging use though

long live PCem

Reply 9 of 10, by luckybob

Posted on 2016-09-12, 00:48

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I dont image often. Maybe 5 times this year.

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

Reply 10 of 10, by Jo22

Posted on 2016-09-12, 05:46

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That's as often as I do take a shower.

(Edit: That was a joke..)

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