Best free hard drive backup/image software

[Fardringle]

I've used many different imaging programs over the years to back up hard drives prior to replacement, but it has been quite some time since I last needed to do that and I'm not sure what options are available now. I need to make an image of a failing (but not quite dead yet) hard drive in a Windows 7 Pro laptop on a domain. I can save the image to a network drive or to a 2TB USB hard drive that I have on hand.

The primary concerns/requirements I can think of are:

The drive is encrypted with bitlocker, so some bootable image programs might not be able to read the drive, and with the drive failing I'd prefer not to put more stress on it by unencrypting everything if it's possible to make the backup without having to do that.

The temporary destination for the image has other important data so the image program needs to be able to save the image as a distinct file (maybe .iso?) or folder that won't interfere with the other data on the drive.

 

[lxskllr]

Clonezilla should be able to do it. I use it via PartedMagic.

 

[Bryf50]

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Very nice software for free and should be able to do what you're saying.

 

[BlueWeasel]

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Very nice software for free and should be able to do what you're saying.

Macrium is my imaging software of choice. :thumbsup:

 

[Fardringle]

Thank you for the suggestions. Unfortunately, Macrium apparently requires the Bitlocker key in order to back up the drive from the boot/recovery media, and the key is not currently available. And the drive is quickly deteriorating so while the computer can still boot Windows, Macrium won't install and run inside the OS so I can't use it to make a backup that way either.

Clonezilla said that it made a backup image without asking for the Bitlocker key, but the image as restored to the new drive doesn't even register as a bootable disk.

Right now I'm backing up what I can of the user's data and he'll probably just have to deal with reinstalling software on a clean OS install since it's possible that corruption on the drive is interfering with the cloning process.

 

[lxskllr]

You could try using dd to clone the drive. It'll hammer the drive, and maybe kill it in the process, but if successful, it'll be a bit for bit clone of the original. Use any gnu/linux live disk.

 

[tcsenter]

Understanding Disk encryption and Macrium Reflect

Adding BitLocker support to Windows PE

 

[John Connor]

You might be able to use AOMEI Backuper and create a USB backup stick and clone that way. I do this with a Dell netbook.

As to corruption and depending on what type of corruption I have successfully ran HDD regenerator with several passes and that was enough to get back most of my data. Encryption though is a whole other animal.

 

[Towermax]

Macrium is my imaging software of choice. :thumbsup:

Yup. Same here.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Thanks for posting those links. I really like Macrium myself.

Have you had any experience with backing up encrypted drives w/ Macrium?
Just curious to hear about them...

Understanding Disk encryption and Macrium Reflect

Adding BitLocker support to Windows PE

 

[tcsenter]

Have you had any experience with backing up encrypted drives w/ Macrium?

Nope, sorry.

 

[Fardringle]

Turns out the drive deteriorated too quickly to make a valid image with any tool. When I gave up trying, CHKDSK reported almost 20K bad sectors so the computer just got a fresh install of Windows on the new hard drive. I do appreciate the suggestions, though, and hope they are useful for someone else.

 

[Beer4Me]

I use EaseUS Todo Backup Free edition for making images of my disks.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I built all our machines to allow cloning to a hot-swap drive, or to make Windows backups locally to the hot-swap. But for about the last three years or so, I haven't needed local backups because our WHS-2011 server does it.

I've had to make three bare-metal restores over that time, all of which proceeded "smooth as silk."

Now I wonder if I'm locked into a mindset of "needing" a server for this purpose. But I have plans for serv-ers (plural) because I have plans to web-host my own web-site.

I'm not sure a NAS does that sort of thing for you, though.

 

[yinan]

Still, why aren't you just using folder redirection, and then just backing up the server? it doesn't really make sense to backup endpoints in a business environment.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

I agree, backing up server is your best bet. Although for certain complex software configurations that can't easily be restored with a system image, it may be a good idea to do full backup of those endpoint PCs.