Update on my Disk Imaging Woes

So, here’s where I’m at. Acronis has offered me a product, but unfortunately not the “server” product commented on in my prior post. They say wait a couple of weeks. Meanwhile I’ve been trying other products.

I’ve tried Paragon Software Groups Drive Image Professional. It also uses Linux and what they call PTS-DOS for their boot CD so I’m leery of this. And my trials have not been too successful. So that I could try restoring a drive with it, I tried imaging an external USB drive. Not something I would normally do, since they are mostly for backup, but I tried it anyway. I/O fault both times. Either from the boot CD or from Windows. And there’s nothing wrong with the drives, since I checked them and I used Norton Ghost 9 on them (more later).

I also tried DriveImage XML. This is freeware. It images from Windows just fine, but in order to create a boot CD you either have to use Bart’s PE or the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows. If I then boot with the created CD one of my systems will crash. Otherwise, it works. This is a possibility, but I’m still stuck with one system (of course, it’s my lamest system) that I couldn’t use it on.

I had a copy of Norton Ghost 9 that I had used at work previously. I had purchased it with my own funds and hadn’t had the company reiumburse me so when I left the company I uninstalled it and took it home. I tried this.

Unfortunately, it’s the most successful thing I’ve tried so far. I say unfortunately because I hate activated software will generally refuse to use it. But in this case I bought it for work since TI8 wouldn’t work on that hardware. So right now Norton Ghost 9 (yes, I know there’s a 10, but from what I read its only advantage over 9 is encryption) is in the lead, DriveImage XML second, and I await for the next TI9 update. Still more later.