Windows 10: Recommendations on Cloning Software

Hello, I am a Mac person, but trying to learn more about supporting Windows.

I am looking for recommendations on finding good cloning software for PCs.

On Mac, we have CCC which is a dream to use!

Also, I am looking for a solution that is stable, idiot-proof, and could be used to clone/backup client's data.

Thanks.

:)

 

portable hard drive

Yes, but it is rather complicated, and more a backup, then a clone.

Better use a recommended software of some thirdparty.

 

Cloning an external HDD

I do not recommend so-You should entirely avoid cloning C: in my opinion.

You can gather setup media of different softwares from the manufacturer so that you can install them after a clean install.

 

Best and easiest to use with Windows. Can be setup to make it auto or basically idiot-proof. Recommended by virtually everyone here. Free and paid Pro versions, depending on your needs.

Macrium Software | Your Image is Everything




Backup Restore Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect - Windows 10 Forums


A good tutorial here on TF about it.

 

How does Macrium compare to things like Acronis, CLonezilla, EaseUS ToDo Backup, etc?


What exactly do you use Macrium for? To do cloning? Backups? Something else?

And do you just use it for personal use, or do you use it to backup client machines?

 

Macrium will do backups and cloning, if you clicked on the 1st link that f14tomcat gave you it will display all the features of the different versions. As far as backing up client machines, not sure how the free version would work in that area.

Programs like Acronis are very much bloated software, I used to run it for years, until it kept getting more and more bloated.
Its your choice what you end up using of course.

 

I've never used any of the other products you mention, so I can't speak for them. Maybe someone else who has can give you some insight.

I use it to backup/restore several physical OS's and VM's. Also have used it to clone from HDD to SSD, and between dissimilar hardware. Also use the Folder/File backup for certain directories I want kept separate and available.

Personal use only. My only client is me! *Smile

Others will pop in here and give some thoughts and comments. I think one is now...............

 

So are you implying that Macrium is not bloated?

 

But it sounds like you are happy as a personal user.

BTW, I want to make sure everyone understand my terminology...

When I talk about using CCC to "clone" my Mac, I mean that it copies every single file on my hard-drive and copies it to another drive. So after I clone my Mac to say a blank disk, I can boot from that cloned disk and it is like I never missed a heartbeat.

That is what I have come to expect in the Mac world!

To me, backups are useless if they are "incremental" and if they are not bootable.

So does my definition of a "clone" and "cloning" match your use of those terms?

 

Yes I am, its the most popular Image Backup app that a lot of us use. I bought my copy, after running the free version for a while.
Takes up very little HD space, its fast, you can run it from a USB Stick if you prefer. Has lots of features, I only bought the version for Home personal use.

As far as Cloning your bootable hard drive, YES it does an excellent job, also can repair boot problems too IF needed.
Have to install Macrium to a usb stick (bootable) in order to do any boot repairs or restores.

 

One more think using Macrium, you should keep all your complete image backups on an external drive, if you have one, if not on a 2nd internal drive, and always make your Macrium Rescue Recovery on a usb stick. Macrium once you install it, has the option for you to make this recovery disk. Also imports any drivers needed to boot.

 

No.

For the simple reason that without a bit of faffing windows will not boot from an external drive. I used CCC until you had to pay for it now I use SuperDuper. The facility to boot from a backup doesn't exist on Windows (at least not simply).

What all these products do is make an image. This can either be a compressed image (in their own proprietary format) or a sector by sector copy to another disk. The second will be an exact copy (including other OS they don't know about like MacOS, Linux, Encrypted volumes).

What you can't do in Windows though is boot it by plugging your backup into USB and running it from there. You need to either physically swap the disks so the backup is seen as internal or use the (again proprietary bootable USB stick) to restore the image you made.

It is just how it works.

I use both Macrium and Paragon for backups. Acronis I stopped using even though it is faster and makes smaller images as the UI was bugging me.

 

When I say "clone" I mean an exact copy of the entire hard-drive and that is bootable. So, yes, when I clone my Mac it has to be an external HDD.

What is the purpose of that?

 

So Macrium will make an exact copy of a PC's hard-drive, it just won't be bootable, right?

However, if you "cloned" to an external-drive and then installed it as the primary, internal drive, then it would boot right?

And once you booted to your clone, it would look just like the drive you cloned, including all OS and data files, right?

 

Correct. You can't boot Windows from external drive without some playing around. MacOS will boot from any connected drive as you know. In Windows it can be done using a separate bootloder (I use rEFInd to boot Windows) but by default, no, it will not boot.

Yes, absolutely. The disk is identical.

Yes. Again - the disk is identical.

The only difference (I use a Mac too) is that Windows doesn't boot from external drives. So you have to physically put the drive inside or restore the image from your external drive to internal.

You can make Windows boot external drives but this is another story and too long winded to go into at this point.