To those of you who dual boot Windows and OSX

lend27 said:

I would like to be able to clone my windows drive the same way I clone my OSX drive with Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner.

What is the windows equivalent to these programs?

I have searched and have found a few but they are priced around $50.00. I don't want to spend that much for cloning software. I have found Casper 8 but didn't really like the interface. Looking for something simple.

Any advice is appreciated!

Len

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Going Bald said:

Try the Windows disk management tools - you can create an image of the HDD and restore it to a new HDD/SSD same as you can with OS X Disk Utility.

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lend27 said:

I would like to be able to clone my windows drive the same way I clone my OSX drive with Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner.

What is the windows equivalent to these programs?

I have searched and have found a few but they are priced around $50.00. I don't want to spend that much for cloning software. I have found Casper 8 but didn't really like the interface. Looking for something simple.

Any advice is appreciated!

Len

Click to expand...

neilhart said:

There is another alternative that not many here talk about. It is true disk cloning, bit by bit, a true copy.
If it is a Window drive, the copy boots just as the original did. Only intervention is starting the process and then taking the drive off the duplicator.

The unit that I have is a "Cavalry Standalone SATA HDD Duplicator" and it accepts 2.5 inch and 3.5 inch drives in each of the two slots. I have cloned most ways: SSD to HDD, HDD to SSD, HDD to HDD, SSD to SSD. I have done, Win 8, Win 8.1, Win 7, OS X and LINUX drives.

Also, the duplicator can be used as a USB3.0 drive hub... I don't use it that way ever so don't know about how well it works in that mode.

There are or have been a number of these duplicators on the market, however the one that have is still available from newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=cavalry&N=-1&isNodeId=1

I purchased my uint 3 or 4 years ago for $15 on sale. While not as convenient at SuperDuper! or the like, it does something that those softwares don't... which is a true bit for bit clone of the entire drive. It does not care what is on the drive.

Again it is an alternative.

Good modding,
neil

Edit: And if you have a dual boot single drive, this duplicator is a perfect way to produce a single backup drive.

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neilhart said:

There is another alternative....

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Going Bald said:

Another alternative (free) is booting a Linux distro on a live DVD/CD and using terminal to run the dd command.
Where most make the mistake if in the order of the "if" and the "of" parts and wind up copying the target drive to the source drive.
dd =disk duplicator = disk destroyer, also
Best reason I know for not mentioning it to noobs.
See http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/learn-the-dd-command-362506/ if interested

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