[REQUEST] HDD Imaging Software

[Rob de Vries]

Hi Everyone. Again iv been tasked with doing the research.

As the title says Im looking at HDD imaging software. we are currently using R-Drive Image but mostly getting by with trial versions. However R-Drive and a few of the other options but they lack on bare metal restores.
I know Todo Backup Technician does offer all the same features as R-drive but does allow a bare metal backup. or restore to dissimilar hardware option as they call it. However at $999 per year seems a but much. We are looking for something with those features but has a once of cost. and is able to backup drives that may have bad sectors basically a failing drive something R-Drive does well.

I do appreciate everyone's feedback.TIA

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

https://www.technibble.com/guide-using-ddrescue-recover-data/

 

[Rob de Vries]

https://www.technibble.com/guide-using-ddrescue-recover-data/

Thanks will have a look at that

 

[Markverhyden]

http://clonezilla.org/

 

[Altster]

2 thumbs up for clonezilla. I use it all the time and the best thing about it is its price!

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Clonezilla is great if the drive is in good shape and you don't plan to restore the full image to a smaller drive.

 

[johnrobert]

I don't think it can be used in Windows like True Image
booting from CD's is getting more difficult.

 

[labtech]

Despite the potential criticism coming: please, try to stay away from imaging degraded drives with bad sectors and whatever other issues under OSs, especially Windows. It is poor practice and simply jeopardizing the customer's files. Best software imaging tools (again, which are still very limited in their own right) are GNU ddrescue and hddsuperclone, both Linux based.

 

[GTP]

For drives in good shape, I use a licensed version of EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard + Partition Master.

Have a look at ReDo Backup, (Linux based) its free but has limitations.

 

[Markverhyden]

Despite the potential criticism coming: please, try to stay away from imaging degraded drives with bad sectors and whatever other issues under OSs, especially Windows. It is poor practice and simply jeopardizing the customer's files. Best software imaging tools (again, which are still very limited in their own right) are GNU ddrescue and hddsuperclone, both Linux based.

I may be mistaken but I seem to remember clonezilla's core is dd. You are correct about the failing drive thing. If there is any suspicion of hardware/firmware issues and the data is life or death it must be bumped up to the next level.

 

[lcoughey]

Hi Everyone. Again iv been tasked with doing the research.

As the title says Im looking at HDD imaging software. we are currently using R-Drive Image but mostly getting by with trial versions. However R-Drive and a few of the other options but they lack on bare metal restores.
I know Todo Backup Technician does offer all the same features as R-drive but does allow a bare metal backup. or restore to dissimilar hardware option as they call it. However at $999 per year seems a but much. We are looking for something with those features but has a once of cost. and is able to backup drives that may have bad sectors basically a failing drive something R-Drive does well.

I do appreciate everyone's feedback.TIA

Most software imaging programs do not handle bad sectors well. They read sectors in fairly large blocks and a single bad sector results in the entire block not being read which, in turn, results in more data being lost. They also don't log the unread sectors so that you can go back and retry them afterwards.

If the data to your client is not worth the few hundred bucks that it would cost to outsource it to a professional lab with the tools to get the best recovery results without risk of further data loss, then I suggest that you take a look at ddrescue (as was already mentioned) or the new kid on the block (arguably better than ddrescue), hddsuperclone.

But, don't think you can try everything you can first with software and assume that you have a professional data recovery lab as a backup. If you are able to access the sectors of the drive, the odds are, it is recoverable within a few days at a lab like mine (your price after exchange and reseller discount would likely be our minimum price of about $210USD (based on exchange rate right now). After you try things to the point where the dive stops responding or you give up, you could find that the cost of recovery will more than double and the percentage of files recovered decreased.

I'm not trying to discourage in-house recovery attempts. But, it is important to provide your client with accurate information and allow them to decide on the risks involved.

 

[labtech]

I may be mistaken but I seem to remember clonezilla's core is dd.

Could be, not sure, I never used it. If so, that is great.

 

[Altster]

Taken from: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-desktop-74/clonezilla-via-command-line-4175554168/

Is CloneZilla just an interface for "partimage" and "dd" tools?

No "partimage" is another program, separate from Clonezilla. Clonezilla will revert to "dd" if it fails to work otherwise.

 

[Markverhyden]

Clonezilla will revert to "dd" if it fails to work otherwise.

That must be why I remembered dd and Clonezilla.

 

[Diggs]

I still use CloneZilla (Linux syntax understanding required to be comfortable) and ReDo (one-click too easy) for specific things, my workhorse on the bench remains Lazesoft Recovery Suite. It'll clone, image, restore, etc. either as a compressed image or sector-by-sector. The bonus is I can go into any of the images and extract a file or a folder without having to restore the image. Not too sure how many other imaging programs do that but it's a first for me. Then there are the other tools (password reset, key finder, one-touch boot restore, etc.) that make this economical ($27.95 as of this writing) program one of my favorites. (Interface is a bit dated....)

 

[NETWizz]

ImageX

 

[NviGate Systems]

ImageX will only work for Windows 7 & lower, on Windows 8 & up it chokes on the xml structure for Metro/Modern Apps, especially since each user has a unique copy of each app, based on a per user, not system-wide.

For Windows 8 & up you would want to use DISM.

But each of these tools is only operating on a top level as far as disk access is concerned and will have issues with bad sectors just like most typical programs.

 

[Diggs]

ImageX

I was going to say... Command line tool is your first choice? Hmm.... I have enough problems with DISM.

 

[NETWizz]

ImageX will only work for Windows 7 & lower, on Windows 8 & up it chokes on the xml structure for Metro/Modern Apps, especially since each user has a unique copy of each app, based on a per user, not system-wide.

For Windows 8 & up you would want to use DISM.

But each of these tools is only operating on a top level as far as disk access is concerned and will have issues with bad sectors just like most typical programs.

It actually works perfectly fine if you get a newer version. DISM just calls it, but yeah.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

I personally like a combination of AOMEI Backupper and ddrescue. In other words, for drives that are healthy, AOMEI works ok, and is decently priced I think. For drives that are suspect, go to dd/ddrescue.