Best First Date Ever - Easy, Free, did what I told it to do, didn't complain, and made me so happy.

I needed to migrate my laptop SSD to a slightly smaller msata drive. I first used the Microsoft Disk Management to shrink a partition of the existing operating system drive. I then used a program that is the best backup and recovery program I have ever used. The learning curve is ZERO. This program is simple to use. intuitive, and fast. I don't see anything it can't do. Most of the application walks you through what you are attempting to do. It really is the complete package and just works no questions asked.

Why you pay for Norton Ghost when there is a free alternative?

Why pay for something that is likely going to frustrate you. Will become outdated with the next release of windows with the offer to buy their new version after you just bought the old version a month ago. No I'm not bitter but there is finally a beautiful alternative to Norton and Acronis.

The biggest issue is the software prompts you periodically through services and startup applications with a S.
Get the job done and uninstall or run it in a VM or dual boot to be safe.

EaseUS Free Backup Software

http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software-features.htm

• Efficient system backup & recovery. No need to reinstall OS or applications to get everything back.
• Backup data, system, hard disk, partition or individual files to a safe destination for disaster recovery.
• Disk clone, disk upgrade and SSD migration solution.
• Directly recover individual files from disk/partition backup image, no need to recover the whole image.
• Every free user also can enjoy free automatic updates and version upgrades.
• Our technical support team is ready to answer questions and guide you to complete repair with 24/7 email support.

My migration from a 128G SSD to a 120G msata SSD was as simple as selecting the clone option and then selecting the target and destination.

Later I wanted to backup my 320G multi partitioned original OS hard drive. This had 3 partitions set up this way to allow for recovery of the original Lenovo image. This is typical for many PCs and Laptops to come with recovery partitions.

I simply selected the 3 partitions and then selected backup and all 3 were stored in a dated folder under a single backup image. The tool provides a data verification which would be most useful with a offsite backup via a network connection or to a wireless NAS. 

I was able to later mount that image where, once open in the tool, I could select which partition to mount. You also have the ability to explore files and folders.

Checkout the full list of features from the link about. The shorter list would be what can't this do. 

Nothing

The Gremlin that is no trouble at all, unless you pour water on it - GIZMO

http://arainia.com/software/gizmo/

Gizmo is a toolbox of utilities most important of which is a free virtual drive manager.

You can mount and unmount ISOs to your virtual drive. The utility lets you create the ISO and load and run the ISO.

Gizmo Drive v2.7.9

•	Mount ISO, BIN, CUE, NRG files to a virtual CD-ROM drive
•	Mount VHD files, used with Microsoft Virtual PC
•	Mount password protected images to a virtual hard drive
•	Encrypt HD images using a passphrase
•	Protect vital files from hackers using encrypted HD images
•	Mount IMG files to a virtual drive
•	Mount and unmount files from the Windows Shell
•	Mount and unmount files from the command line
•	Support for compression and sparse HD images

Supported Platforms:

I'm using it on windows 8 on a laptop with no issues.

• Windows 7 (32-bit/64-bit)
• Windows Server 2008 (32-bit/64-bit)
• Windows Vista (32-bit/64-bit)
• Windows Server 2003 (32-bit/64-bit)
• Windows XP (32-bit/64-bit)
• Windows 2000

Windows 7 can't fail? Well back it up anyways for free.

Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Edition

NEW 10.2 Edition - Total PC Protection for Serious Users!

Take complete control of your PC’s safety. Based on solid commercial backup and recovery software from Paragon, the new Backup & Recovery 10.2 Free Edition will give you a rich set of features that you can trust.

Smart people backup; Backup & Recovery is smart backup.

A professional backup solution for home/non-commercial use for free and it supports Windows 7.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/

File System Management Super Compilation

Have you ever seen a kid who lost his parents in a large store. That's how I feel every time I tackle a disk partitioning project or problem. I have a simple one stop shop that simplifies the process but might not make it any easier.



http://partedmagic.com/programs.html

About Parted Magic

The Parted Magic OS employs core programs of GParted and Parted to handle partitioning tasks with ease, while featuring other useful programs (e.g. Partimage, TestDisk, Truecrypt, Clonezilla, G4L, SuperGrubDisk, ddrescue, etc...) and an excellent set of documentation to benefit the user. An extensive collection of file system tools are also included, as Parted Magic supports the following: ext2, ext3, ext4, fat16, fat32, hfs, hfs+, jfs, linux-swap, ntfs, reiserfs, reiser4, and xfs.

Parted Magic requires at least a i586 processor and 256MB of RAM to operate or 128MB in "Live" mode.

Features

• Format internal and external hard drives.
• Move, copy, create, delete, expand & shrink hard drive partitions.
• Clone your hard drive, to create a full backup.
• Test hard drives for impending failure.
• Test memory for bad sectors.
• Benchmark your computer for a performace rating.
• Securely erase your entire hard drive, wiping it clean from all data.
• Gives access to non-booting systems allowing you to rescue important data.
• Runs from the CD, no install required.

Why does it have to be so hard? Or does it?

Windows Vista’s hard disk imaging utility, Complete PC Backup, allows users to create an image file that contains the complete contents and structure of a hard disk.

I have tried free utilities such as drive image XML but I never seem to get a working bootable image written back in Windows XP. Norton Ghost works real well and is a bit pricey. It's probably worth it just for the time savings. So what other options do we have?

If you have a Seagate or Maxtor hard drive, you can get a free OEM version of Acronis True Image. Seagate makes available a tool for migrating your files from an older Seagate or Maxtor hard disk to a new one. You can also use the tool as backup utilities simply by downloading either the Seagate DiscWizard or Maxtor MaxBlast software.

After you complete your XP build and apply all patches, updates, and drivers as well as any software you always install (not including games), you need to make a disk image. The games put too much data on your hard drive which prevents you from storing your disk image to DVD.

In a previous but not so obvious article I mention CloneMaxx:
http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/clone_maxx/info.htm?Language=1

Data can be copied from hard drives in high speed mode with speeds up to 3.3 GB per minute.

I saw a post: "SATA drives are not supported...damn!"
I'm not sure if this is true. It may be the motherboard manufacturer. Another option would be to get a SATA to ATA converter which run about $12. I'm not sure if at that point you are better off buying Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image. Your best bet would be to buy a Seagate or Maxtor Drive to begin with.

************************

Professional hard disk cloning HDClone 3.2 Copy. Backup. Rescue.



Free Edition
Download


http://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html#free


The Free Edition of HDClone offers all necessary abilities to copy a entire hard disk onto another, larger hard disk. This can be utilized to migrate an existing installation to a new hard disk as well as for data rescue. The Free Edition is real freeware without obligation to buy and is intended for the short-term usage at no costs. But in case of more frequent usage, we recommend using one of the higher editions since they offer higher performance in the first line but also support a wider range of hardware as well as additional options which are optimized for regular or professional usage. HDClone Free Edition supports IDE/ATA
and SATA/eSATA hard disks and is able to copy up to 300 MB/min.




Notice this says larger disk. What the hell. Well what if we partition our current drive to be a bit smaller. (more headaches)

**************
So if you don't have a Maxtor or Seagate then it is worth the few extra dollars to get the real deal.
http://store.purplus.net/actrim90cd.html

Acronis True Image 9.0 CD
UPC: 625904487506 Mnfg. Part No: PCO48750MB Manufacturer: Acronis Packaging: CD w/ Key Platform: Windows Availability: Out of Stock Product ID #: 9530
Regular price: $29.95Sale price: $9.95


Two things to comment on:
1.) The home edition doesn't support dynamic disks.

This is bad if you like to make a software raid which I always do. The good news here is the way I build my PC. I use 2 drives of equal size.
I partition 25% for the OS on one drive, a 25% partition on the other drive for important data. Then I partition the rest to be used in a software raid. The software raid is done with the Windows XP disk manager. You set both disks to dynamic then create a striped array with the remaining 2 partitions. If you create your OS image before you start the dynamic process you can restore it as a non dynamic and complete the same process after you get your OS up and running again.

2.) The home edition lets you exclude folders which would mean you could do a backup anytime avoiding those huge game directories.