Best imaging software

[wanamingo]

I need to clone a hard drive to another drive.

The current drive is on its way out, randomly stops detection I want to image the failing drive onto a new good drive.

Im only familiar with using acronis which i was very happy with.

Im curious about what others use though? Any suggestions?

 

[Emerald]

I used to use Ghost but like Acronis better

 

[wanamingo]

Danka Emerald.

Also, I have a copy of Acronis 9 that I never installed just used the boot feature to clone discs. Does this feature still exist in the newer versions? Not that I want to steal software but Acronis technically never asks for a key when using as the boot agent and not as an exe in windows.

 

[Hawkeye22]

I have acronis 9 and acronis 2009. All versions of acronis allow you to create a bootable CD. This makes sense since you will need it to restore with if your OS drive ever dies. The bootable disk allows for backing up, cloning, and restoring of drives.

 

[fzabkar]

You need to clone your drive sector-by-sector using a tool that knows how to work around bad sectors, and then use data recovery software on the clone.

Some freeware cloning tools are ...

dd_rescue: http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/
ddrescue: http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ddrescue.html

Comparison between ddrescue and dd_rescue:
http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/Ddrescue

Ddrescue can perform multipass cloning. It clones the easy sectors on the first pass, and attempts the more difficult ones on subsequent passes. It can also clone your drive in reverse, thereby disabling lookahead caching. It keeps a log, allowing it to resume after an interruption.

The following thread discusses various freeware and commercial cloning tools:
http://forum.hddguru.com/the-best-disk-cloning-hardware-software-t10396.html