DiscWizard : An "Acronis Clone" - But Freeware !

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anandk

anandk

Distinguished Member
Most know of Acronis True Image, which is a popular hard-drive backup software. But you can get a Vista compatible, re-branded version of True Image with the name DiscWizard as a free legal download from the Seagate website. Its a 104 MB download.

See details and download from Seagate.

DriveImage XML is another freeware. This ones A "Norton Ghost Alternative" !
DriveImage XML is a HDD backup and restoration software similar to Norton Ghost but FREE, the software enables you create a complete backup image of any drive or partition, You can restore later restore the image to same or another partition, you can also clone a drive to another. The program also includes an image explorer similar to Norton Ghost Image Explorer that lets you explore previously created backup images and extract individual files. Its a 1.61 MB download. Images and details at Source.
 
utsav

utsav

damn busy...
cant download it becoz then my net charge will be 250Rs for this download only.i pay 2Rs/MB data transfer
 
OP
anandk

anandk

Distinguished Member
discwizard is a big download, whereas driveimage is a very small download.

shud be able to back up acronis files, as i PRESUME they would be using the same formats. bettr u pls check up on the site.
 
Ponmayilal

Ponmayilal

Attitude matters
Thanks for the info. Will save quite a few US$ for many.The minimum system requirement says " atleast one Seagate Technology or Maxtor disc drive." So will it work with other brand drives like Hitachi, Samsung,Western digital?
 
A

Ash HFZ

Techno Enthusiast
It will work only with Segate hard disks and not with any others... The disc wizard software has been available for a very very long time and is most commonly used in corporate installations where you need to setup the same hard disk image onto many systems easily and fast...
 
casanova

casanova

The Frozen Nova
^^
It works with others I guess. I backed up my Samsung HDD to Seagate.

BTW, I think it doesn't work if disc has bad sectors
 
Ponmayilal

Ponmayilal

Attitude matters
casanova said:
^^
I backed up my Samsung HDD to Seagate.

What exactly do you mean by this? Do you mean you have two internal drives one samsung and one seagate? If so that condition is satisfied. You must have atleast one seagate drive.




]
Click to expand...
 
casanova

casanova

The Frozen Nova
@Pomayilal

However, did it knew while backing up that I would be using a Seagate harddisk to restore the backup on. Nopes.

offtopic: I had Seagate and Samsung. Now I only have a Hitachi Dextar HDD
 
Ponmayilal

Ponmayilal

Attitude matters
Well, I think if the Diskwizard is Seagate/Maxtor specific (if it were not Acronis won't be able to sell their True Image), it is definitely going to check whether you hava a Seagate / Maxtor drive before performing a backup or restoration.Wait for a while. I am gonna install it on my desktop which only has Samsung drives and check whether it works.Incidentally I have a Maxtor external drive and so I will try with and without the external drive plugged in and then report.( I am using a purchased copy of Acronis True Image 10. I wanted to upgrade to Vista compatible Acronis True Image 11 and before that I want to try out this any way. If it recognises the Maxtor External drive and works I won't buy the upgrade. Keeping my fingers crossed for now)
 
Ponmayilal

Ponmayilal

Attitude matters
And here is the story after testing.
Part 1.Installed Seagate Diskwizard on the Desktop with only two Samsung drives. When I started the program it analysed the partitions in the PC and gave out an error message " atleast one Seagate/Maxtor drive is required "

Moral: If you do not have a Seagate/Maxtor drive you cannot use the program for backup or restoration.

Part 2: I connected the Maxtor External Drive to the firewire port switched it on and then opened the Disk wizard. It analysed all the partitions including that in the Maxtor external drive and then was ready to take further commands.

Moral: If you do not have Seagate/Maxtor internal drives in your system, go and buy any Seagate/Maxtor External drive, plug it into your system and then enjoy the backup and restore power of the Vista compatible Seagate Diskwizard.

So no doubt you can use it for free but conditions apply.

Happy backups :)
 
anand1

anand1

In the zone
I have used Norton Ghost it works nice. But i will have to try out Acronis True Image i think so.
 
NucleusKore

NucleusKore

TheSaint
anandk said:
DriveImage XML is another freeware. This ones A "Norton Ghost Alternative" !
DriveImage XML is a HDD backup and restoration software similar to Norton Ghost but FREE, the software enables you create a complete backup image of any drive or partition, You can restore later restore the image to same or another partition, you can also clone a drive to another. The program also includes an image explorer similar to Norton Ghost Image Explorer that lets you explore previously created backup images and extract individual files. Its a 1.61 MB download. Images and details at Source.
Click to expand...

Hi
I bumped this thread to share my experience with DriveImage XML. I had backed up the C system partition, by shadowing, of an install (OS and 3rd party applications) I had done to the D partition of the same laptop. I then did not find an option to restore from the image as it is not possible to restore to a system drive while it is in use.
So I downloaded [size=+2]Ultimate Boot CD for Windows[/size]
It has DriveImage XML, and I was able to boot from it and restore the system partition. It works beautifully. May I add that to create the Ultimate Boot Cd you require a Windows XP SP 2 CD.
 
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Ponmayilal

Ponmayilal

Attitude matters
Good info. Thanks for sharing.
With Drive Image XML you do need to boot from an external CD to access the image and to restore you do need to run that program from the CD.When Windows does not start at all you have no other option except running the program from a bootable CD in case of other imaging programs too.
One can also create a BART PE CD with Drive Image XML plug-in and accomplish the task.But that requires quite some work.
I presume that with UBCD it is simpler to create the Boot CD since you just burn the ISO image.But I am not sure whether it will recognise the raid configuration. I presume not. I may be wrong.
Quite sometime back I considered various options of creating a boot CD and finally decided to go with Boot CD Wizard with multiple boot options considering my requirements..(Partition Magic 8 (PQ),Emergency Boot CD, and Bart PE with Sata raid drivers integrated plus Acronis true Image, Drive Image 2000(PQ) and drive Image XML plug ins.But OOOpps, I spent nearly two months starting from scratch trying to research and build the CD.
 
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