OT: Searching for best free Image backup software?

Good afternoon all, hope you guys are doing well! I'm searching for a free image backup software to backup the hard-drive on my laptop. I would like to transfer this image to a brand new laptop so all my files and programs would be readily available on the new hard-drive / laptop without having to reinstall any programs or transfer any files manually via flashdrive. Does anyone have any experience with a good free software that can do this? I believe my company uses Acronis Image, but looking for something free for my home laptop.

Thanks!

I used CloneZilla for a while. I would not call it easy though. It is free to use.

Many of the drive makers have free tools to do this. Western Digital uses Acronis as long as it detects a WD drive. Seagate has their DiscWizard tool. I suspect Seagate also checks to make sure it is detecting a Seagate drive.

Of these I have only used CloneZilla. I ended up going back to my 2003 edition of Ghost. CZ worked, but it was more complicated.

OG

I recently asked a question in this thread:

http://www.plctalk.net/qanda/showthread.php?t=90546&page=3

Also see here:

https://www.techradar.com/best/best-disk-cloning-software

A lot of people recommend Clonzilla but I found it to be difficult to use and even more difficult if the drive are not identical.

I need a software that's very easy to use, just one click to back up my laptops internal hard-drive, then whenever I get my new laptop setup, I would download the same software and do one click where it clones the new hard-drive to match up with the old one. My old and new hard-drives are completely different in terms of mfg. and size of drives as well (newer one has more memory), so I don't want to deal with any compatibility issues from one drive to another.

I needed to upgrade my PCs system SSD from 256 GB to a 1TB SSD. We used EaseUS. It cost $40 but was relatively easy compared to Clonezilla which didn't work for me.
My IT guy bought the EaseUS. I don't know if it has a scripting capability but obviously it can clone to same or bigger drives.

https://www.techpout.com/best-disk-cloning-software-for-windows/

In your search you will find products that are
-cheap
-easy
-good

You only get to pick 2 of those three for any product you find.

I use AOMEI free version.

alive15 said:

I need a software that's very easy to use, just one click to back up my laptops internal hard-drive, then whenever I get my new laptop setup, I would download the same software and do one click where it clones the new hard-drive to match up with the old one.

Click to expand...

I think the hard drives are the least of your worries here (other than the size). You can't assume that taking an image from a Dell and sticking it on a Lenovo is going to work as the OS will have all sort of configurations that are bound to give you grief.

What I found a lot of people doing to overcome this (with some side benefits) is to create a virtual image of the old laptop and use that image on their new laptop. This has the benefit of being able to copy the image around to how many computers you like (do have to be careful with licensing) and as a side benefit you won't have automation programs bogging down your main OS for every day use. It also lets you choose between a wider range of computers and operating systems to use.

I remember one particular Rockwell Field Service engineer with 4 of his old laptops as VMs in his current one. I joked about it until his oldest came out to save the day with an internet explorer version that worked with the ghastly network switches used on that system.

I have used Acronis in the past. I think it is the most widely used and maybe the best. But not free, also not free for personal home use.
I have also used Clonezilla, but yikes. Very non user friendly. But did work for backing up and restoring where some other software that I tested didnt work reliably.
I now use Aomei which is free for the personal use, very easy to use, and seems reliable.

Macrium Reflect is free for personal use, very simple to use run it, tick the partitions you want to back up & select image, that simple, if you need a boot disk or USB again simple to do.

+1 for AOMEI

Thanks guys, I'll try AOMEI out and see how it works.

With regards to creating a VM app on my new laptop, what all do I need from my old laptop to create a VM app? Am I able to download a free VM program and create some type of file from it, then use that file on the new laptop and run it as a VM app? Is that kind of how that works?

alive15 said:

Thanks guys, I'll try AOMEI out and see how it works.

With regards to creating a VM app on my new laptop, what all do I need from my old laptop to create a VM app? Am I able to download a free VM program and create some type of file from it, then use that file on the new laptop and run it as a VM app? Is that kind of how that works?

Click to expand...

I've used acronis to make a vm and it worked ok.

But vcenter converter standalone works way better and I've used it to snag old laptops to just have the info if its ever needed.

I think the vcenter converter standalone is free, you just need to get it to work. I don't recall how from memory but it was simple enough that I didn't commit to memory.

https://my.vmware.com/en/web/vmware...ent/vmware_vcenter_converter_standalone/6_2_0

+1 VMware, l have cloned numerous laptops of mine then gone back and used the clone on another laptop, very easy to use and l have had no problems.

Saw this today. It is a few years old, actively developed and I've heard a lot of good things about it. Should do exactly what you want with a nice shiny GUI. And you can direct copy the image rather than copy-->restore. I'm pretty sure you can do that with Clonezilla as well, but I agree with others that you have to RTFM to use it, even though it is by far my favorite disk imaging software.


https://github.com/rescuezilla/rescuezilla/releases/tag/2.2