Check out DiscWizard at Seagate. It works with any brand of hard drive and uses the Acronis engine. It's free and easy to use.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?loca...000dd04090aRCRD

--

Rijb

I recall this was a special (older) version of Acronis True Image customised for Seagate,

which mainly works with Seagate Discs. If non-seagate disks (Hitachi, WD, Fujitsu etc) YMMV

(your mileage may vary). Suggest caution if non -seagate discs.

Indi

It's been updated, per the Seagate site. Also see: http://www.tipandtrick.net/2008/seagate-di...-free-download/

-Reliability: Winners are Drive Snapshot, Image for Windows, Paragon Drive Backup & Shadowprotect.

-Speed: Drive Snapshot, Shadowprotect and Symantec Backup Exec.

-Speed & compression:Drive Snapshot & Shadowprotect. (in default settings these 2 provide most balanced compression +speed).

-Differential backups: Drive Snapshot, Paragon Drive Backup , Shadowprotect and image for Windows.

-No services or startup entries running all the time: Drive Snapshot , ParagonDriveBackup.

-no drivers installed: Drive Snapshot

I recommend: Paragon Drive Backup / Shadow Protect /Drive Snapshot

Indi

Glad to see Drive Snapshot rated so highly. I have been recommending Drive Snapshot for over two years in this forum. I first read about it from someone else here.

side-by-side feature comparisons

http://disk-imaging-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

Rice King

Thanks for your very interesting thread- glad to know Drive Snapshot has users here.

Webfact -I am reluctant to believe toptenreviews. They voted Acronis as "Gold" but in my post above I did link to official Acronis Support forum, where many users related bad experiences on v11. Older version 10 seems stable, but not v11 or 12-beta 2009 (yet).

Indi

Edited September 23, 200817 yr by Indi

Rijb

This link:

http://www.tipandtrick.net/2008/seagate-di...-free-download/

does mention: "To use Seagate DiscWizard or Maxtor MaxBlast, your system MUST HAVE at least one Seagate Technology or Maxtor hard disk installed."

Good to keep in mind,

Indi

Edited September 23, 200817 yr by Indi

After reading the above posts, I went and bought Acronis True Imager Home V11 here in Chiang Mai. I paid 100bt so it of course was an original program. What surprised me most was how easy it was to find. Many other Acronis products also available.

It installed without a problem. I backed up my entire hard drive to an external drive and made an emergency boot disk. I was surprised at how quick the backup process was. So far I am impressed. Thanks to those that suggested the program.

After reading the above posts, I went and bought Acronis True Imager Home V11 here in Chiang Mai. I paid 100bt so it of course was an original program. What surprised me most was how easy it was to find. Many other Acronis products also available.

It installed without a problem. I backed up my entire hard drive to an external drive and made an emergency boot disk. I was surprised at how quick the backup process was. So far I am impressed. Thanks to those that suggested the program.

If you can afford a second C: drive, you could swap it for your current one and do a restore from the image on the external drive. That's what you would have to do if (IF) your C: drive did fail one day.

It's always a good idea to do a practice run from start to finish, rather than assume your C: drive image is going to work perfectly. It's what I do every three months or so.

After reading the above posts, I went and bought Acronis True Imager Home V11 here in Chiang Mai. I paid 100bt so it of course was an original program. What surprised me most was how easy it was to find. Many other Acronis products also available.

It installed without a problem. I backed up my entire hard drive to an external drive and made an emergency boot disk. I was surprised at how quick the backup process was. So far I am impressed. Thanks to those that suggested the program.

If you can afford a second C: drive, you could swap it for your current one and do a restore from the image on the external drive. That's what you would have to do if (IF) your C: drive did fail one day.

It's always a good idea to do a practice run from start to finish, rather than assume your C: drive image is going to work perfectly. It's what I do every three months or so.

Thanks, good idea. I may try that in the near future.