Free HDD cloning software

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Davros

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Since I'm just about to join the ranks of those who use a ssd as their o/s drive - yay me...
does anyone have any recommendations for some free cloning software.
Also is it possible to tell it to clone my C: partition but not to clone the c:\games folder as it wont fit n my ssd.

Tnx in advance....
 
If you buy an Intel drive, they at least used to give away a re-branded/OEM drive cloning utility, free for personal use.

Of course, Intel drives aren't as hot as they used to anymore so this (perhaps no longer valid) offer might not be enough to steer you in their direction. :)
 
Since I'm just about to join the ranks of those who use a ssd as their o/s drive - yay me...
does anyone have any recommendations for some free cloning software.
Also is it possible to tell it to clone my C: partition but not to clone the c:\games folder as it wont fit n my ssd.

Tnx in advance....

If you have any WD drive then from WesternDigital website you can download full version of Acronis TrueImage software. That's what I used when cloning my drives.

Software will clone or create ISO/Backup of any drive in your system provided at least one connected drive (even USB HDD) is from WD :smile:.

Link:
http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119
 
If you just want true cloning, the MAME CHDMan tool is perfect. It can read from a HDD of any format and create a compressed image of it, and if you want, write that image to a new drive. Since it's part of the MAME toolkit, it's free.

I used it to backup a HDD from a machine at work and transfer it to a newer drive.

The limitation is that it only works on a full drive image, not selective backups.
 
Ok that has me worried.

It's only failed once out of using it many times. And the drive just didn't boot, no data was lost and it only takes a half hour to clone...so no biggie. For the partition, I think you can work around that but not 100% sure.
 
Thats what I need to do clone the active C: partition but I have nowhere to move the c:\games folder to so i need it to clone the partition except for that folder.

Out of curiousity - why don't you just delete the games? I mean chances are that if you move them to another partition, the installation paths will break anyway.
 
Surprisingly often, PC games just won't care if you simply copy the installation folder somewhere else. I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but in my experience I've never heard of a game that breaks by doing this...

A friend of mine kept a fileserver at his house exclusively to host his PC game folders, save games and some other stuff so that he wouldn't have to re-install them every time he nuked the OS - which was frequently. In fact, he may still have this setup to this day, I'm not sure. Whenever he reinstalled, he'd just copy the game folders across from the server and it would work straight away.

You wouldn't have the uninstall option in the control panel since the original installer never ran, but that's not an issue when you can just straight up delete the game folder instead...
 
Out of curiousity - why don't you just delete the games?
How dare you... I take my religion very seriously and will not commit such a heinous sin against the gaming gods.
Also being the Guardian of the Bodacious Two Point Four Terabytes of Gaming Goodness™ would just be silly wouldn't it.

This reminds me of Noah (since a film of him has just been released)
Like Noah I too have been tasked with building a sanctuary to protect the deserving when the apocalypse to wipe out the unworthy strikes.
I can imagine him asking you for advice on a similar problem
Noah "hey smw I'm having trouble fitting in all the animals any ideas ?"
Smw "just throw the elephants overboard that will free up some space"

the installation paths will break anyway.
Those that follow the path of righteousness have experience of dealing with such things.
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=49502
 
Surprisingly often, PC games just won't care if you simply copy the installation folder somewhere else. I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but in my experience I've never heard of a game that breaks by doing this...

A friend of mine kept a fileserver at his house exclusively to host his PC game folders, save games and some other stuff so that he wouldn't have to re-install them every time he nuked the OS - which was frequently. In fact, he may still have this setup to this day, I'm not sure. Whenever he reinstalled, he'd just copy the game folders across from the server and it would work straight away.

You wouldn't have the uninstall option in the control panel since the original installer never ran, but that's not an issue when you can just straight up delete the game folder instead...

It is possible, I guess, although I have definitely run into that problem before. Maybe bad luck on my part :)

This reminds me of Noah (since a film of him has just been released)
Like Noah I too have been tasked with building a sanctuary to protect the deserving when the apocalypse to wipe out the unworthy strikes.
I can imagine him asking you for advice on a similar problem
Noah "hey smw I'm having trouble fitting in all the animals any ideas ?"
Smw "just throw the elephants overboard that will free up some space"

I like how totally not overly dramatic you are ;)
 
Also being the Guardian of the Bodacious Two Point Four Terabytes of Gaming Goodness™ would just be silly wouldn't it.
Interesting aside, but I've actually never seen the word "bodacious" used in any other context than in association with busty females... I should therefore assume that PC games pushes your buttons in that way...? :)
 
As for moving your steam games, just create a folder in the root directory on whatever drive you are going to use for your games called "SteamLibrary", drag the "SteamApps" folder into it, then restore one game you have backed up using steam backup and restore. All the games in that directory will now show as installed in steam. Just remember to backup atleast one game before doing this.

Works for me every time.
 
True cloning ? as opposed to what ?

The tool works as a disc image, not just a software backup. I backed up a 2.1GB hard drive that was dying, and then imaged it to a 30(?)GB drive that was still good, and put it back in the same machine. Windows still sees it as a 2.1GB drive since the partition didn't change.
 
I like how totally not overly dramatic you are ;)
overly dramatic, These are important religious artifacts you are talking about
say to the pope "You can just get rid of the dead sea scrolls" then you'll see overly dramatic

What you may not know is i have had a vision, a vision of the future.
The world has suffered a nuclear catastrophe, and is in the grips of a nuclear winter.
The few remaining survivors eek out a living in the ruins, life is hard, cold and grimm.
There is no joy in the world, people are depressed no one wants to bring children into a world
like this and therefore the human race is slowly dying out.

But one day a child playing in the rubble discovers an unusual object, he takes it to one of the
elders who tells him it is what was known as a hard drive. curiosity drives them to seek out an
old computer from within the ruined houses.
They connect it to an old generator, install the drive and switch on the pc.
This is an important time in world history for they have discovered "The Holy Ten Exabytes Of

Gaming Goodness.
No longer is the earth a dull and dismal place for they have discovered colourfull new worlds,
worlds filled with dragons, spaceships and giant robots.They can walk in the footsteps of great
hero's like Gordon Freeman and J.C Denton, they can uncover legends and great mysteries.
Suddenly the people have something to live for, for they have discovered the majesty of P.C
Gaming.
With life now being wonderfull people see a bright future ahead of them,people start to hope
start to live again they now have a reason to bring children into the world.

Yes I am the future Saviour of the human race...
 
This is mega Davros!
Someone should make a movie based around your visions!


ps.You are still quite a way from 10EB of Gaming Goodness so it's safe to assume we have still few years to live before earth near destruction ;]
 
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