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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Alternative to Macrium Reflect?
| Author | Message | ||||
Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9063 |
I've used MR several times, and it really IS an excellent bit of software. But they have now put it behind a pay-wall, and a technician's license is now $1,200!!! F that! Can the members recommend anything else? Happy to have something based on a Linux Live USB that you boot to clone the Windoze drive to something else. I'm only interested in cloning a Windoze drive - usually to a SMALLER CAPACITY drive of the SSD flavour. Windoze does not need to be running for the clone - happy to have a live-USB type solution. Edited 2024-03-05 16:00 by Grogster Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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SimpleSafeName Senior Member  Joined: 28/07/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 286 |
I've had great luck with Easeus products (Partition Master and Todo Backup only), and they have a disk cloning product, "EaseUS Disk Copy" which is USD $59.90 lifetme. |
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| greybeard Senior Member Joined: 04/01/2010 Location: AustraliaPosts: 157 |
clonezilla, can be slow but still faster than reinstalling. Linux based and can run from cd or usb |
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atmega8 Guru  Joined: 19/11/2013 Location: GermanyPosts: 712 |
Clonezilla, or for purists just dd. |
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| SimpleSafeName Senior Member Joined: 28/07/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 286 |
LOL! |
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| VK2CBH Newbie  Joined: 18/08/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 10 |
I have in the pass upgraded my old laptop HDD to a Crucial SSD. When you image a drive to a new Crucial SSD you can use Acronis True Image. See this web site ACRONIS Cheers Brett |
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| atmega8 Guru Joined: 19/11/2013 Location: GermanyPosts: 712 |
And if the destination is Samsung, you can use Samsung tool for free. As said above, the free swiss army knife is clonezilla / dd. Without any "LOL"  Edited 2024-03-05 20:17 by atmega8 |
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Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3165 |
I use Casper and it does a great job. At US$60 it is good value. Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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| atmega8 Guru Joined: 19/11/2013 Location: GermanyPosts: 712 |
Geoff, but this License is only valid for one PC? Thats why thy all sell "unlimitetd Administrator" Edition for approx. up to 1000€ |
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| SimpleSafeName Senior Member Joined: 28/07/2019 Location: United StatesPosts: 286 |
What made me laugh was the dd part, lots of tears have been shed using that command. Have I used it?, yup, plenty of times. In a few cases it's the only game in town. Would I use it as my first choice? Heck no. I also don't start my fires by rubbing sticks together either. Clonezilla is okay, I've used it. It's a good solution for Linux, since most cloning software for Windows doesn't grok EXT4. Don't just take my word for it (from Wikipedia): Eric S. Raymond believes "the interface design was clearly a prank", due to the command's syntax resembling a JCL statement more than other Unix commands do. And: "dd is sometimes humorously called "Disk Destroyer", due to its drive-erasing capabilities involving typos." |
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| mclout999 Guru Joined: 05/07/2020 Location: United StatesPosts: 430 |
https://www.diskgenius.com/ I use diskgenius for most things. It is free. |
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stanleyella Guru Joined: 25/06/2022 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1643 |
I used macrium but now said it's not free what to do , keep as is?. my version on win10  |
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bigmik Guru Joined: 20/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2870 |
Grogster, All, I have been using "Paragon Hard Disk Manager" for years now, It does many things but I always use it for cloning SSD/HDD, My backups are always an image backup so that if my drive dies I can simply pop in the copy and resume from the date of the last backup usually 1 month or ago (checks last backup date and it was 18/2/2024). I have a 1TB NVME in an external USB3.2 case and I simply clone the drive (takes roughly 1 hour) and unplug it and sit it on the shelf for next time. It will certainly clone to a larger size drive but I have never downsized clone but I assume it would work if there was sufficient space to accept the data. It works so well I haven't looked at other options. Kind regards, Mick Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<< |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9063 |
Wow... Way more replies then I thought I would get.   I will look into all the options, and let the thread know what I decide. Perfectly happy to support software development via the purchase of a license, but I have limits to what I will spend. MR's $1,200 technician's license is crazy, as there ARE other products that can do what MR does. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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vegipete Guru Joined: 29/01/2013 Location: CanadaPosts: 1082 |
Yesterday I used DiskGenius to successfully clone my Win10 boot disk. Seems to be working fine (although spinning platters are WAY slower than NVME.) Edited 2024-03-07 03:06 by vegipete Visit Vegipete's *Mite Library for cool programs. |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9063 |
This one looks good, and has excellent tutorial pages. The GUI is nice, and it looks like you can clone from a large HDD to a smaller SSD, so long as all that is on the HDD, will fit inside the capacity of the smaller SSD - which is exactly what I want and need, and was what I used MR for. Every now and again, I would get a person with a snail-slow laptop come to me to see if there was anything that could be done to make it faster. Clone the(usually 5400RPM) HDD to a modern SSD, and increase the RAM normally results in some startling performance increases. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9063 |
I can now report that Disk Genius is a brilliant replacement for MR. Works well, is easy to use, clones fine, the likes of a Windows partition on a 1TB HDD, can easily be cloned to a smaller SSD without any issues, and it works perfectly. DG even gives you the choice of a "Hot Migration" - involving Windows Snapshots in the usual MR way, or you can reboot into Windows PE - as a dedicated OS to clone the "Real" Windows drive. Very nice bit of software.  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| atmega8 Guru Joined: 19/11/2013 Location: GermanyPosts: 712 |
Really Free!!!! Rescuezilla Download |
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