How to make a disk clone. How to make a backup of a disk, files and folder

Good day!

Unfortunately, many users do not think at all about the safety of their data, even sometimes when they work on a document for days and weeks! But even a simple virus infection (or a failure in the disk file system) can cause files to disappear...

I hope that you came to this article not when everything was already lost, but prematurely, in order to do it in time backup copy (in English - backup (backup)) your important data.

In this article, I will show, using the example of one fairly convenient and functional program, how you can easily and quickly make a backup of your folders, files, and even an entire disk. Moreover, you can configure it so that it is created automatically, without your participation!

In general, a backup made on time keeps a bunch of nerve cells in place, saves time, and makes you calmer ☺.

So, let's begin...

Advice: by the way, if we are talking about ordinary files, then it is enough to simply copy them to a third-party storage device as a backup copy. This, of course, has its inconveniences - but that’s something!

What you need for work

1) Special program(s)

EaseUS Todo Backup Free

Official site:

A free and very convenient program that allows you to easily create backups of anything and everything (documents, folders, disks, etc.). The program captivates with its simplicity and reliability: in just a few mouse clicks, you can arrange everything (below, in the article I will show examples of how all this is done).

Additional features: cloning disks (including system disks), the ability to configure schedules, creating an emergency flash drive (if Windows OS suddenly fails to boot), viewing and selecting files that you will restore from a backup.

Among the shortcomings: there is no support for the Russian language yet (although the developers are expanding the language environment, soon it will be our turn ☺).

2) Flash drive or external hard drive

It’s best to make a backup on some external storage device (which will sit quietly away from the computer/laptop and will help out if something happens). Just imagine - if you make a backup copy on the same disk that you use - then if it breaks (for example) - this backup will not help you in any way.

A flash drive or external drive (even better) should be of such a size that it can accommodate all your documents and files that you want to save. Let's say, if you have a 60 GB system disk and you want to make a backup copy of it, then you need a flash drive (disk) of at least 80-90 GB!

Making a disk backup

The first thing you need to do is click the "System Backup" button, located in the top menu of the program (see screenshot below).

EaseUS Todo Backup: making a backup of the system disk

select your system drive (number 1 in the screenshot below);
indicate the location where you will save (number 2 on the screen below. Personally, I recommended and recommend that you always save to a third-party storage device, for me it is an external hard drive);
Plan name: here you can set the name of your backup: it can be anything, as long as you remember what you have saved there, for example, in a month or two;
Description: description of your backup (same as the previous one, can be anything);
Schedule: if you need to make backups regularly, you can set it up once, and then the program will do it automatically. By the way, a screenshot of the schedule settings is given below;
Proceed - button to start the operation.

System Backup - settings (description, see screenshot)

As for the schedule, the program implements it quite well. You can set everything in 2-3 mouse clicks: specify how many hours you want to do it (daily, weekly, monthly), then select the days and select the time. In general, everything seems to be simple...

Schedule (for those who want to back up regularly)

After setting the basic parameters, in the next step, the program will ask you to specify the drive (and folder) where the backup will be saved (by the way, it will be a regular file).

Afterwards, the program will begin creating a backup copy. Pay attention to "Estimated time remaining" - this is the remaining operating time. In my case, for a ~60 GB disk the program took about 16-17 minutes of time. Pretty fast.

Note: The external drive was connected to a USB 3.0 port.

The disk backup is ready: the name of your backup copy will now be displayed in the main program window, opposite it there will be a button for recovery (Recover, see screenshot below).

EaseUS Todo Backup - system disk backup is ready!

Backup folders and files

This is done, in principle, in the same way as creating a copy of the disk (which was made in the previous step). To get started, launch the utility and click the button "File Backup" .

Select the file or folder: Folders (or even entire drives) you want to add to the backup. For example, I selected the "My Documents" folder;
Destination: where to save the backup (preferably on a third-party storage device);
You can set any name and description ( Plan name, Description);
Schedule: if necessary, ask (I usually never specify - when I decide to make a backup, I do everything manually ☺);
Proceed- start of the operation.

In general, the program quickly created a backup of my documents. By the way, the backup file itself can be recorded later on another medium (or even uploaded, for example, to a Yandex disk, somewhere in the cloud).

Reference!

Cloud storage: what, how, why? How to connect a cloud drive to Windows, Android - secure file storage in the cloud, available anytime, anywhere -

Recovery example (and overview of files in backup)

And so, you lost some file (or even a folder), and you decided to restore this data from backup.

Launch the EaseUS Todo Backup program and click on the button "Browse to Recover"(view backup).

EaseUS Todo Backup - see what is in the backup

Browse to Recover - select the backup you want to open

Next, you can view your backup: folders, files, everything is shown in a tree view (clear and simple). All you have to do is check the boxes which folders you want to restore (number 1 on the screen below), select the folder where you will restore the selected data from the copy (numbers 2, 3 on the screen below), and, in fact, start the process - by clicking on the button "Proceed" .

After some time, the folders and files will be restored. Convenient and fast...

Well, the last thing I wanted to dwell on in this article. I recommend that you create one more thing: an emergency flash drive, in case your Windows suddenly does not boot. After all, something needs to be loaded, where you press a button and the system disk will be restored ☺!

In this case, EaseUS Todo Backup provides for the creation of an emergency disk/flash drive. The whole process is very simple and does not take much time (in my case it took about 10 minutes).

Click tool "Tools", and select "Create Emergency Disk"(creating a rescue disk).

choose to create a WinPE disk (compatibility of the Linux version of the bootloader is much worse: your mouse may not work, USB ports will not be visible when you boot from this emergency flash drive);
indicate the correct letter of the flash drive (see screenshot below);
press the "Proceed" button (start recording).

By the way, the program will automatically download the required disk image from the official Microsoft website and write it to your flash drive. Convenient enough.

The flash drive was successfully written!

How to boot from this flash drive and work with the EaseUS Todo Backup program

Well, in general, in most cases it is enough to call the so-called Boot Menu, in which you can select the device from which to boot. As another option: you can configure the BIOS accordingly (which takes longer and creates some difficulties for beginners).

Information!

The topic of setting up the BIOS and calling the Boot Menu is quite extensive. Most often, it is enough to press the F2, or Esc, or F10 button (these are the most popular) immediately after turning on the laptop/computer. But the treasured menu does not always appear...

Therefore, in order not to repeat myself here, below are several articles that will help you!

How to configure the BIOS to boot from a flash drive or disk (CD/DVD/USB) -

How to enter BIOS on a computer/laptop e -

Hotkeys to enter the BIOS menu, Boot Menu, restore from a hidden partition -

Depending on the device: the call can occur in different ways: on my laptop there is a special button for this - you turn on the laptop by clicking on it, and the desired menu appears. Comfortable!

An emergency flash drive should appear in the boot menu (which we created a little earlier in the article). Select it and continue downloading.

If the flash drive was written correctly and there were no problems with the BIOS settings, then you should see approximately the same EaseUS Todo Backup program window as if you had launched it from Windows. To get started, click the button "Browse to Recover" .

Browse to Recover - browse connected drives and view available backups

Actually, all that remains is to start the recovery (example below in the screenshot).

To start recovery, click the "Next" button.

It is worth noting that if we are talking about a backup copy of a folder (files), then you can also view the contents of the backup and restore not the whole thing, but only certain data (example below).

View files in backup - can only be restored selectively!

Actually, that’s all I wanted to tell you today ☺.

PS: all users are divided into two types: those who have not yet made backups, and those who have already started making them...

Since I heard the good news about the existence of an operating system called GNU/Linux, which all real programmers use, I have tried several times to replace Bill Gates' brainchild with it and failed several times.

There were no gurus nearby, access to the Internet was severely limited, and therefore any non-trivial task became completely unsolvable in those days.

Then, when unlimited Internet appeared, as a result of which it became much easier to obtain software and knowledge, I set up a dual boot for myself and began to master Ubuntu.

The main difficulties in the moving process were created primarily due to the need to abandon programs familiar almost from childhood, which are simply not available in the operating system for real programmers.

In most cases it was not fatal. Instead of the usual foobar, you can always listen to music on Rhythmbox. Instead of Microsoft Office there is OpenOffice. Yes, its compatibility with the product of an evil corporation sometimes leaves much to be desired, but it can be used to solve the everyday problems of the average user. I’m generally silent about all sorts of Firefox, Opera and Chrome.

But in some cases, I had to restart the computer, select Microsoft Windows from the bootloader menu and do everything the old fashioned way. Such a task was, for example, taking an image of a logical disk in order to transfer it to another physical medium, because the current one was already pretty worn out.

The program that was used in such situations was Acronis. My intuition suggested that figuring out how to do without it would take at least a week, and the result was usually needed within half an hour, so figuring out how to do without it would take at least a week.

But after another friendly joke about Linux being useless and incapable of anything, and therefore free, I decided that next time I wouldn’t need anything more than a bootable flash drive and a command line to create a disk image. And I went to Google.

Google created the clear impression that every dog knows how to clone disks using open source OSes. Alas, clear instructions for implementing well-known and elementary things are usually the most difficult to find. As a result of persistent searches, some manuals were eventually discovered, but it was still a little difficult to work with them, because they were clearly written by literate people who have been fiddling with the topic for more than one or even two days, and simply do not remember that the knowledge they revered for the required minimum, not everyone owns it.

Now that the horrors of googling are behind me, I understand that everything is really quite simple and I want to present the results of my research in the form of a short guide to working with disk images in GNU/Linux, addressed primarily to those who are accustomed to Acronis or something similar to it program. At one time, such a document would have helped me a lot, and I hope that it will help someone else.

Acronis

In Acronis, everything was simple and clear: the window interface, prompts and previous experience working with CD images made the process uncomplicated. I removed the image, inserted a new screw, turned the image onto it - there’s not even anything to talk about. In the case of Linux, the process bogged down at the stage of removing the image - it was absolutely unclear how to do this. There was no special program with hints, or a program that added a virtual DVD to the list of devices - like Daemon Tools too. And the list of devices itself turned out to be quite problematic, so you can start right there.

Viewing a list of drives

For each connected drive (hard drive, flash drive), you can find the corresponding file in the /dev directory. Its name consists of letters SD and a letter indicating the device number. That is, the hard drive connected to the first channel will correspond to the sda file, the second sdb, and so on. Accordingly, the easiest way to view the list of devices is ls -1 /dev/sd. This command will show a list of drives, but will not give us any information about them. And we need to at least see the list of sections.

Viewing a list of partitions on the drive

Each section in the dev directory also has a corresponding file. Its name is based on the name of the file corresponding to the drive and the partition number. That is, for an sda drive that has 2 partitions, 2 files will be created in the /dev directory - sda1 and sda2. You can view the list of partitions on the sda drive with the command ls -1 /dev/sda a complete list of partitions on all devices is obtained from the command output ls -1 /dev/sd, and if there is a need to include the devices themselves in the list, then you can simply write ls -1 /dev/sd*, which is much less meaningful, but short and most importantly works. Or, as the comments suggest, there is another option cat /proc/partitions

Often the owner can identify a disk simply by this list (this is when he does not have 452 disks), but if this is not enough, then you can use the program hdparm.

Specifically hdparm -I /dev/sda will display detailed information about the device /dev/sda.

The same information, but scattered across different files, can be found in the directory /sys/block/sda. For example, the disk model is in the file /dev/block/sda/device/model.

If this is not enough, then all that remains is to mount the devices one by one and see what is recorded on them. But that's a completely different story.

Removing the image

So, the device has been identified and the partition from which the image needs to be removed has been found. Now the actual process.

We usually call a disk image a copy of a disk at the partition or entire device level. And if a Windows user, in response to the question of how to make this copy, usually hears a recommendation to use specialized software, then in Linux everything is not so.

As I already said, here each disk and each disk partition is represented by a specific file. And, since the image is a file with a copy of the disk, it is logical to assume that the operation of removing an image and the operation of copying a partition file are one and the same.

The way it is. Let's say we need to take an image of the /dev/sda2 partition (Windows 7 usually stores the C: drive on it) and save it to a file called win_c.img. To do this, just write cp /dev/sda2 win_c.img . Or cat /dev/sda2 >win_c.img

. In short, you can use any program or combination of programs that copies files.

The right way As you probably already guessed, you can achieve what you want in more than one or even two, ingenious and not very, ways, but the most correct and easiest way, in my opinion, is to use the utility ddrescue . What is essential is meant GNU ddrescue

, and not the long-outdated original.

She, like cp, is engaged in copying files, but if errors are found, ddrescue will not interrupt the work with a happy message that the patient is more likely dead than alive, but will remember the place with the error in order to return to it later and try to read it again . Now it's slow and gentle.
Use ddrescue like this:<ключи> <файл который копируем> <новый файл, в который скопируем старый> <лог файл>

ddrescue

Ddrescue is not capable of accepting input data from the conveyor, or transmitting the result of work to the conveyor, which is not surprising. The ability to skip places with errors during the first iteration and return to them in subsequent loops implies the presence of output and input files.

A command that would perform an operation similar to the one described above would look like this:

By the way, at the moment I silently mean that the hard drive from which we are making a copy is more or less in good condition and does not throw tricks. If there are serious problems with the disk, then it is better to first familiarize yourself with the details of using ddrescue, for example. and apply this knowledge when shooting the image.

Wrong way

You can often find recommendations to use a program called dd to copy a device file or partition. As a rule, to remove an image it is suggested to do something like this:

dd if=/dev/sda2 of=win_c.img

Don't do this! Although the approach is semantically correct (one file will be copied to another), the consequences can be very sad. Yes, dd is superior to cp in the sense that if an error is detected, cp will stop working, but dd will not, but if there are bad or simply hard-to-read sectors on the disk, then dd will continue to try to read their contents until smoke comes out of the hard drive.

Yes, dd has an argument noerror, but when using it, copying may be performed with errors, attempts to recover which will not be made. ddrescue in a similar situation, after the first pass, will return to the missing places and try to read them in small pieces. And it will leave a log file, with the help of which you can continue trying to deduct bad places in the future.

In short, use ddrescue. And if there is nothing except dd, do not forget about the noerror argument.

The procedure described above can be used, for example, to save a disk image with a newly installed operating system for later recovery. Yes, a real Linux user will not do this, but among users of an operating system with a different name, this is a fairly common practice. And even penguin lovers can safely use it for periodic, thoughtful repairs of some pretty girl’s regularly broken computer. And if there are more than a certain number of girls, purely individual for each homemade product, then this method is simply irreplaceable. The main thing is not to confuse the names of files with images.

Viewing the contents of a partition image (logical drive)

Since each disk partition is represented by a file, it can be assumed that there must be a standard way to connect image files to the file system. From a certain point of view, this is true. The utility is used specifically for this mount, with which you can place the tree of files contained in the image in any directory of your choice. This process is called mounting.

So, we already have an image taken from the C: drive of the Windows 7 operating system. We named the image win_c.img and want to see its contents in a pre-created directory /mnt/win_c. To do this you need to enter the command mount -o loop win_c.img /mnt/win_c.

This is how you can make sure that the image that you are going to roll onto the hard drive of the next pink laptop is the image of the exact C: drive that you expect to see on this particular machine. Well, or you can simply copy files from it that you cannot do without and send this image into the outer darkness. And install the latest Ubuntu or Fedora on the laptop.

But we can go deeper.

Viewing the contents of a physical disk image

But mounting the entire disk image is not so simple. The terrible truth is that the kernel does not know how to mount files from an arbitrary location in the file system, and the -o loop argument of the mount command signals that you first need to associate the image with a virtual device file in the /dev directory, and then attach the contents of this devices to the file system.

Virtual device files are created in advance (at the system boot stage) and are named loop0, loop1, loop2, and so on in ascending order.

You can associate a partition image with one of these files with the command losetup. The mount command from the previous section is actually equivalent to the following two commands.

losetup /dev/loop0 win_c.img
mount /dev/loop0 /mnt/win_c

But in order to view the contents of an image that has several sections, this is not enough. The fact is that if you run the losetup command on such a file, then the entire image will be associated with the /dev/loop0 device. That is, this device will be the equivalent of /dev/sda, and we need the equivalents of /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2.

Owners of the latest versions of the losetup program (read gentushniks and archaeologists) can execute losetup with the argument --partscan, which will lead to the automatic creation of files in the /dev directory corresponding to the image sections. That is, /dev/loop0p1, /dev/loop0p2 and so on until the horizon. And now these files can be given to the mount command.

losetup --partscan /dev/loop0 drive.img
mount /dev/loop0p2 /mnt/win_c

Those who are not so lucky with the distribution can use the program kpartx, which will do the same thing, but will put the files corresponding to the partitions not in the /dev directory, but in the /dev/mapper directory, from where they can be mounted and viewed.

kpartx -a /dev/loop0 drive.img
mount /dev/mapper/loop0p2 /mnt/win_c

But we can go even deeper than that...

Automatic creation of partition files when executing the losetup command

Actually, the kernel (specifically the module loop) has been able to search for a partition table in an image file for quite some time and create corresponding files, but this function is disabled by default.

It turns on if the module parameter loop max_part not equal to zero. This parameter can only be set when loading the module, so if the system is already running, the module must be unloaded from memory and loaded again with the already specified parameter. To do this, you need to run the following two commands.

modprobe -r loop
modprobe loop max_part=63

However, in some distributions (for example, in Ubuntu), the loop module is tightly compiled into the kernel and therefore, to set the parameter, you will have to enter loop.max_part=63 to the kernel command line and reboot the system.

Deploying an image to physical media

And now about how to actually roll the image onto another disk. As before, you need to be guided by the fact that disks and partitions are presented in the form of files. And if to remove the image it was necessary to create a copy of the device file or partition, then in order to roll this image back you need to perform a copy operation in the opposite direction. That is, instead of To do this, just write write cp win_c.img /dev/sda2. Well, it’s better to remember the tips outlined in the image removal guide. Namely, use ddrescue and not use dd.

ddrescue --force win_c.img /dev/sda2 win_c_restore.img.log
Of course, we should remember that the partition into which we are restoring the image (in this case /dev/sda2) must be no smaller than the file with the image. If the partition turns out to be larger than this file, then there will be no problems during recovery, but there will be unallocated space in the partition. And you will either have to come to terms with this fact, or increase the size of the file system to the size of the partition using some specialized software (increasing, however, is usually much easier and faster than decreasing).

Compressing a partition image (logical drive)

A particularly nice feature of Acronis is the ability not to write parts of a disk or partition that do not contain files into the image file. This allows you to compress the image to the actual amount of data on the partition or disk.

The approach outlined earlier has fundamental limitations that do not allow implementing such a feature - sector-by-sector copy programs do not know anything about the structure of file systems and, even moreover, they do not know what a file system is.

However, there is a way out. True, to use it, the file system on which the image will be stored must support such a specific thing as sparse files.

Sparse files

A Sparse file is a file in which chunks containing zeros are not written to disk. That is, if half of the file is filled with data and the other half with zeros, only half of this file and additional information about the areas of the file filled with zeros will be written to disk. If the area with zeros is continuous and starts in the middle, then in reality the file on the disk will replace half of its theoretical volume.

Preparing a partition or device for compression

In order to take advantage of this opportunity to compress the image, you need to write zeros into the free space before removing it. This is not difficult to do - just mount the file system in a directory and create a file in this directory with binary zeros, the size of which will be equal to the size of the free space on the partition.

But fortunately, it is not necessary to find out the amount of free space and transfer it to the program that creates the file, and there is no need to look for a program that creates a file with zeros. In the /dev directory there is a dimensionless zero file, which, as you might guess from the name, is an inexhaustible source of binary zeros. All that remains is to copy it to the desired location.

Since the file is dimensionless, copying will continue until the copy fills all the space available to it, that is, all the free space in the partition, which is what we actually needed.

How to copy files using standard operating system tools has been written here so many times that the manual could well be called “The Art of Copying Files in the GNU Environment,” but since the truth does not fade with repetition, I’ll probably write it again.

To create a file with binary zeros, you can run the command cp /dev/zero zerofile or cat /dev/zero > zerofile.

Creating a sparse image file of a device or partition

Most file management utilities know about the existence of sparse files and can create them. The previously mentioned ddrescue, in order for the image to turn out to be a sparse file, you need to pass the key --sparse. Now the resulting file will take up as much space as it needs and no more.

What to do if you compress an image of a damaged disk

As you know, many disks are scary to even hold in your hands, so what can we talk about writing multi-gigabyte files on there. If you come across just such a disk, you should first remove the image and then make a sparse file from it. To do this, you need to mount the resulting image, then fill the free space with zeros and make a copy of the image, which will already be a full-fledged sparse file. The original image can then be deleted.

Copying a file can be done perfectly well by cp, which can do sparse files no worse than ddrescue. cp --sparse win_c.img win_c_sparse.img

Of course, these operations will require a lot of free space, but this is still much better than nothing at all.

Conclusion

And now, in a condensed form, what can be gleaned from this guide.

In Linux, each drive and each partition on the drive has a file.
Since the image is a byte-by-byte copy of the contents of a disk or partition, to create it it is enough to make a copy of the corresponding file with any program that can make copies.
The best way to make a copy of a file corresponding to a partition or drive is the GNU ddrescue program.
To restore the image, just copy it back.
To view the contents of the image, just mount it in a directory of your choice, just as the system mounts devices when booting.
Partition images and entire drive images are mounted differently and not exactly in the same way as real drives and partitions are mounted.
To obtain a compressed image of a partition, you need to copy a pre-prepared partition in a special way to a file system that supports sparse files.

And what cannot be gleaned from this manual.

There is a specialized software package called Clonezilla, as well as a distribution based on it, designed for backing up and restoring hard drive partitions.
There are utilities ntfsclone And partclone who have knowledge about the structure of file systems and use this knowledge, for example, to avoid writing empty space to the backup.

P.S. Just in case, I'm giving a link to

Often, when using a computer, there is a need to transfer all data from the hard drive to a new hard drive. This operation is necessary when there is not enough space on the hard drive or you want to save all the data from your computer before repairing or selling it. The first thing you need to do is purchase a new, larger capacity hard drive to ensure that you can clone the system onto it.

If your computer doesn't have a dedicated bay for another hard drive, you can temporarily mount it instead of the CD drive, or use the USB 2.0 port for an external target drive. Otherwise, you will have to clone the hard drive, creating an image and restoring it to a new hard drive that has a larger partition size.

It is convenient to transfer data from a hard drive to a new hard drive using the Acronis True Image program, which is rightfully considered one of the most powerful tools for cloning hard drives or their partitions. She is able to copy all data, including operating systems and applications, which will be instantly restored and will be able to work flawlessly on another computer in Windows, even without rebooting.

The final cloning window will show the disk structure; if you are satisfied with everything, you need to click the “Proceed” button, after which you will be asked to restart the computer. After cloning is completed, the computer can be turned off by pressing any button in order to change the slave/master switches, one of the hard drives can be removed. If the disk does not contain an operating system or it is not loaded at the time of cloning, the process occurs without a reboot.

It is worth remembering that before cloning a hard drive, you should check it with special tools to identify and eliminate errors. If you follow all the simple instructions, the new hard drive will save an exact copy of the original disk, and it can be used instead of the old one or used as additional media.

Cloning a hard drive is a very responsible, but sometimes necessary step.

EASEUS Disk Copy

Guarantees 100% identity of the clone disk with the original.

Using EASEUS Disk Copy, you can clone the entire disk, as well as individual partitions and even files, including deleted (if they have not been overwritten), hidden and copy-protected.

Features and benefits of EASEUS Disk Copy:

the ability to run from a bootable DVD or ;
independence from the operating system installed on the computer;
support for SATA I-II, SCSI, SAS, USB, IDE, Firewire and dynamic disk interfaces;
support for hard drives up to 1 TiB;
high cloning speed;
intuitive interface;
free license.

Flaws:

lack of Russian localization, which can make it difficult for inexperienced users to figure out how to use the program;
When installed on Windows along with EASEUS Disk Copy, advertising junk is installed.

Paragon Drive Backup Personal

Paragon Drive Backup Personal is a multifunctional data backup tool with which you can create disk clones.

It can be launched both from bootable media and from Windows.

Advice! To work with Paragon Drive Backup, you don’t need to read the instructions and understand the essence of the various settings - all functions are performed by “wizards”, each action of which is accompanied by prompts.

Strengths of Paragon Drive Backup:

many data copy modes;
support for any file systems;
the ability to selectively clone individual partitions and files;
high speed;
Supports all types of hard and solid state drives;
intuitive Russian-language interface;
Windows 8.1 and 10 support.

The disadvantages of this wonderful tool include its paid nature. The license cost is $39.95.

Macrium Reflect

Macrium Reflect is another convenient tool for creating copies of your hard drive for transferring to other media. Distributed free of charge.

In addition to cloning, it creates images of partitions and entire disks, which, after recovery, can be mounted in Windows Explorer and used as virtual media.

Functional features of Macrium Reflect:

full and partial disk cloning;
creating images on the fly - without rebooting the system;
verification (identity check) of ready-made images;
high speed;
the possibility of multi-level encryption of created images to ensure their security.

Flaws:

English interface;
installation of advertising modules along with the program.

Acronis True Image

Acronis True Image is a program similar in capabilities to Paragon Drive Backup and, perhaps, one of the most popular among its kind.

In addition to backup, it can create clones of a wide variety of drives with different file systems.

At the user's choice, it can clone individual partitions, files or the entire disk. Well compatible with both older versions of Windows and Windows 8.1

To create a disk clone using Acronis True Image, just boot the computer with or on which the program is recorded and run the Clone Wizard.

Advantages of Acronis True Image:

multifunctionality;
Russian-language interface and intuitive settings;
automatic and manual operating mode;
the ability to select data to transfer, including those that are invisible in Windows Explorer and protected from copying;
high speed.

The disadvantage of this program is the same as that of Paragon Drive Backup - it has a paid license. Its price is 1,700 rubles.

Farstone Restore IT Pro

Farstone RestoreIT Pro is primarily a tool for restoring system and user data after crashes, virus attacks, changes and accidental deletion.

This program does not create disk clones as such, but can create backups of any information on them.

The frequency of backups in RestoreIT Pro can be configured at least hourly. And restoration to a saved copy is done by pressing one button.

RestoreIT Pro features:

the ability to restore the system even after bootloader damage;
2 backup modes - full and cumulative (saving only changed data);
monitoring the entire disk or only selected partitions;
storing the entire history of file changes, not just the last saved version.

The disadvantages of the program are the paid license ($24.95) and the lack of a disk cloning function.

An easy way to clone a hard drive or SSD using Acronis True Image

This video shows a simple way to transfer information from an old hard drive to a new one using Acronis True Image 2013.

The main problem when changing a hard drive is the need to install and configure the operating system and programs from scratch. It takes a lot of time and effort.

The solution to the problem is automatic disk cloning (HDD, SSD) using special software.

Cloning is the process of sector-by-sector transfer of the operating system, software and personal files of the user from one disk to another. Unlike backing up or creating a disk image (ISO), cloning creates a 100% copy of the original media: the main partitions, structure and software are preserved.

The new cloned disk turns out almost identical to the old one. This means you don't have to re-configure your work environment, activate the system, or restore software licenses. The difference between it and the original media is that the operating system is removed from the binding to the computer hardware, but it also becomes impossible to roll back the system to its original settings while saving user data and reinstall it in update mode.

Preparing for cloning

Before you start cloning, make sure that nothing will interfere with the process:

If you are using a laptop, charge the battery;
Troubleshoot problems that cause your computer to reboot or shut down (if any).

It is also advisable to make backup copies of important data.

Connect the receiver disk via any available interface. The process will go faster if both media are connected to SATA 6 Gb or faster connectors, but if this is not possible, use, for example, USB (USB-SATA adapters are sold in computer stores).

Hard drive cloning time depends on the following factors:

Program capabilities.
Disk volume. The larger it is, the longer the utility takes to transfer files, partitions and structure.
Speed and type of source and destination drive: When working with SSD (solid state media), the process is faster than with HDD (magnetic hard drives).

Cloning utilities

We present to your attention the best, in our opinion, utilities for cloning hard drives.

Renee Becca

Macrium Reflect

The main advantage of Macrium Reflect is its simple and user-friendly interface. The program is also free for home use.

While the utility is running, disable heavy applications, as the program is demanding on computer resources.

To make a clone of a storage medium, you need:

Handy Backup

Handy Backup is an easy-to-use program for creating physical and logical copies of disks. The utility creates an exact copy of the HDD while completely preserving its structure.

Cloning is performed automatically: you do not need to manually clean up garbage, transfer files, or fix registry errors.

To use this software permanently, you need to purchase a license. A 30-day trial is available for free. It is sufficient to perform basic functions. The interface has been translated into Russian.

How to use Handy Backup:

HDClone

HDClone is another universal hard drive cloning tool that allows you to work with drives with a capacity of 137 GB or more.

Acronis True Image

A special feature of Acronis True Image is that the copies created in it can be stored not only on your computer, but also in the Acronis Cloud cloud storage. When storing data in the cloud, a copy of the disk can be accessed from any device connected to the Internet. To protect data, the program uses AES-256 encryption.

To use all the features of the utility, you need to buy a subscription. The cost of the standard version is 1,700 rubles. There is a trial version for 30 days.

It might be useful to read: