I have a full copy of Windows 7 Ultimate.
Since I'm old school I am going to wipe the drive and upgrade it from
scratch. Before I do that I would like to back up the entire drive in
case something goes wrong and I have to go back to Vista.
What is the best free Drive imager out there?
My plan is to back up the entire drive onto a network drive or external
USB2/Firewire/esata drive.
I would rather not have to install the OS to restore - but if I have to
I'll do it.

J

If you can get Acronis True Image from somewhere such as giveaway of the
day, it's great. I have also had good luck with Macrium Reflect.

<justin@nobecauseihatespam.com> wrote in message
news:u7X1GCYYKHA.4704@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> I have a full copy of Windows 7 Ultimate.
> Since I'm old school I am going to wipe the drive and upgrade it from
> scratch. Before I do that I would like to back up the entire drive in
> case something goes wrong and I have to go back to Vista.
> What is the best free Drive imager out there?
> My plan is to back up the entire drive onto a network drive or external
> USB2/Firewire/esata drive.
> I would rather not have to install the OS to restore - but if I have to
> I'll do it.
>
> J[/color]

Acronis True Image work great
also if you buy another HD a lot of them come with cloning software
or downloadable from the manufacturers website.

peter

--
If you find a posting or message from me offensive,inappropriate
or disruptive,please ignore it.
If you dont know how to ignore a posting complain
to me and I will be only too happy to demonstrate :-)

<justin@nobecauseihatespam.com> wrote in message
news:u7X1GCYYKHA.4704@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> I have a full copy of Windows 7 Ultimate.
> Since I'm old school I am going to wipe the drive and upgrade it from
> scratch. Before I do that I would like to back up the entire drive in
> case something goes wrong and I have to go back to Vista.
> What is the best free Drive imager out there?
> My plan is to back up the entire drive onto a network drive or external
> USB2/Firewire/esata drive.
> I would rather not have to install the OS to restore - but if I have to
> I'll do it.
>
> J[/color]

> What is the best free Drive imager out there?


Hi,

If it's for an image backup, there are tools provided by drive
manufacturers:

Seagate:

[url]http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/discwizard/[/url]

As far as I know, Seagate also uses Acronis's engine, and for more
information: [url]http://www.seagate.com/support/discwizard/dw_ug.en.pdf[/url]

Western Digital:

Acronyms True Image WD Edition:

[url]http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&type=download&wdc_lang=en[/url]

Hope this helps and good luck,



<justin@nobecauseihatespam.com> wrote in message
news:u7X1GCYYKHA.4704@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> I have a full copy of Windows 7 Ultimate.
> Since I'm old school I am going to wipe the drive and upgrade it from
> scratch. Before I do that I would like to back up the entire drive in
> case something goes wrong and I have to go back to Vista.
> What is the best free Drive imager out there?
> My plan is to back up the entire drive onto a network drive or external
> USB2/Firewire/esata drive.
> I would rather not have to install the OS to restore - but if I have to
> I'll do it.
>
> J[/color]

<justin@nobecauseihatespam.com> wrote in message
news:u7X1GCYYKHA.4704@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
>I have a full copy of Windows 7 Ultimate.
> Since I'm old school I am going to wipe the drive and upgrade it from
> scratch. Before I do that I would like to back up the entire drive in
> case something goes wrong and I have to go back to Vista.
> What is the best free Drive imager out there?
> My plan is to back up the entire drive onto a network drive or external
> USB2/Firewire/esata drive.
> I would rather not have to install the OS to restore - but if I have to
> I'll do it.
>
> J[/color]

True image has saved me many times. It may be worth the money as it's
really something good to have. I have all three of our machines backed up
to a usb drive. Well worth the money and it's not very expensive anyway.

Thomas

Just watch out for the 2009 version--The later version or earlier version
seems to be better.
"Thomas" <nonegiven@none.com> wrote in message
news:%234pbxtaYKHA.5620@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
>
> <justin@nobecauseihatespam.com> wrote in message
> news:u7X1GCYYKHA.4704@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...[color=green]
>>I have a full copy of Windows 7 Ultimate.
>> Since I'm old school I am going to wipe the drive and upgrade it from
>> scratch. Before I do that I would like to back up the entire drive in
>> case something goes wrong and I have to go back to Vista.
>> What is the best free Drive imager out there?
>> My plan is to back up the entire drive onto a network drive or external
>> USB2/Firewire/esata drive.
>> I would rather not have to install the OS to restore - but if I have to
>> I'll do it.
>>
>> J[/color]
>
> True image has saved me many times. It may be worth the money as it's
> really something good to have. I have all three of our machines backed up
> to a usb drive. Well worth the money and it's not very expensive anyway.
>
> Thomas[/color]