Cloning vs drive imaging

[ittiandro]

Is it possible to copy ( clone) the content of an entire H.D. directly onto another HD without creating first an image to be recovered?
Sometime ago I had made a Drive Image on one computer and tried to restore it to another computer, by using Paragon and Acronis. It didn't work. People I talked to told me that drive images cannot be restored on a different machine, period. I could do this only if the two computers were exactly identical.
Acronis T.I. has a special add-on feature which is designed to do just this ( according to them) , but it does not work. I thought may be I can solve the problem by cloning and then removing the cloned drive and install it on another computer. Any ideas?

Thanks

Ittiandro

 

[ss202sl]

Look at UIU . http://www.uiu4you.com/Products/ProductInfo.aspx . They do exactly what you're looking for. In the places I have used it, we have taken a number of images(one for each Dell model) down to 1 image. This image works for laptops as well as desktops.

 

[Kursun]

Whether you clone or take the image, a boot disk in one computer won't work on a computer with different hardware. The drivers needed for that computer will be different. How you restore it does not matter.

Acronis True Image Plus Pack should do it. I don't know how it works. You should download and read its user manual pdf.

 

[fzabkar]

Here is a freeware tool (ddrescue):
http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ddrescue.html

Ubuntu Rescue Remix:
http://ubuntu-rescue-remix.org/

Ddrescue knows how to work around bad sectors whereas Paragon and Acronis do not.