Backup and restore

[Steve Rimar]

I just installed Windows 7 on a new build. Will the Windows 7 Backup and Restore be able to clone the entire hard drive to another hard drive?
I used to use Acronis Backup and Restore on my old system and it would clone the entire hard drive. I could then restore the hard drive to a new one if it crashed. I could also restore a single file if needed. Acronis is nice but if I don't need to purchase new software it would be even better.

 

[RebateMonger]

I just installed Windows 7 on a new build. Will the Windows 7 Backup and Restore be able to clone the entire hard drive to another hard drive?

Yes, if you use the System Image portion of the backup.

Note that the System Image backup doesn't directly allow the restore of single files. It's made to restore entire volumes. But you can mount the .VHD backup file in Win7 as a virtual disk and drag-and-drop files/folders that you want to restore.

 

[Gillbot]

Many drive manufacturers provide a free version of Acronis as well. I use the WD edition for migrating my drive.

 

[Steltek]

Western Digital: Acronis True Image WD Edition
http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=en

Seagate: DiscWizard (Seagate OEM version of Acronis True image)
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=d9fd4a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

Don't know if this still works, but there used to be a workaround which allowed you to use DiscWizard on a system that doesn't contain a Seagate/Maxtor drive:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22732109-Seagate-Disc-Wizard-Workaround

Though it doesn't apply in this case, you have to be careful using Acronis (or any other cloning software, including Ghost) to clone the contents of any OEM hard drives (i.e. Dell or HP) that have a host protected area like Dell's MediaDirect partitions on certain models. Anyone thinking of doing this should Google Acronis and HPA for more info before making the attempt as it won't work and it can be a pain to fix resulting mess on the new cloned drive.

 

[Steve Rimar]

Great information guys....:thumbsup:

 

[grandosegood]

you can also use a boot cd such as ultimate boot cd or hiren's boot cd and to a disc to disc clone with your old hard drive connected and a new hard drive connected as well.

 

[CU]

Is the backup image Win7 makes compressed, or will 200gigs of files on C: make a 200gig backup image of C:?

 

[Gooberlx2]

Pretty sure it's compressed.

 

[bruceb]

How to fix the HPA problem (from this link)
It looks like this issue is caused by use of hidden restore partitions on hard drives.
Mods may want to make a sticky with this information so it can be found again easily.

http://www.acronis.com/r/support/en/kb/907/Removing_HPA.txt

To restore the drive to its original capacity you need to remove HPA on the target drive:
1. Download ISO image from http://www.hitachigst.com/ under Downloads & Utilities -> Feature Tool -> CD Image;
2. Burn the ISO image to a CD according to the rules described at http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm
3. Boot your computer from the created CD;
4. You will get the "Drive list" window after the boot process is finished. Select the necessary ("broken") hard drive from the list using your mouse or arrow keys;
5. Click on the "Features" menu or press Alt-F keys and select "Change Capacity";
6. You should see "Manufacturing values" and "Current values" on the appeared window;
7. Click "Options" and choose "Maximum Capacity" from the list. The appropriate value will be automatically entered in the "New Capacity" field;
8. Click OK.