This particular take on the cloning process is more like a bootable Linux distribution that can do bit-by-bit copying, and it supports a ton of file systems (including FAT32, NTFS, HFS+, UFS, NetBSD, OpenBSD, xfs, jfs, btrfs, f2fs, nilfs2 and even LVM2). ClonezillaĬlonezilla is one of my favorite HDD cloning tools. SEE: Software usage policy (TechRepublic Premium) 1. In the end, what’s important is that you use the tool that best suits your skills and needs. Some are Windows specific and others don’t care what operating system you’re running. While some will do a-bit-for-bit copy, others create a full ISO image of your running system. Some of these hard drive cloning apps are more powerful than others.

When you don’t have the budget, what do you do? You a disk imaging utility listed here, all of which do an admirable job of cloning a hard disk drive at an unbeatable price…free. Unfortunately, retail hard disk imaging software, like Acronis Backup and Restore, may not be in everyone’s budget. When this occurs, if you happen to have a backup image or clone of the damaged or corrupt source drive, recovering your data to a new drive will be far easier. You’ll have an old hard drive fail and either you’ll lose valuable data or the machine will refuse to boot. It’s inevitable: At some point you’re going to need to recover from a disaster. TechRepublic Premium editorial calendar: IT policies, checklists, toolkits, and research for download Top TechRepublic Academy training courses and software offerings of 2022 For more info, visit our Terms of Use page. This may influence how and where their products appear on our site, but vendors cannot pay to influence the content of our reviews. We may be compensated by vendors who appear on this page through methods such as affiliate links or sponsored partnerships. Image or clone your hard drives for free with the help of one of these reliable tools. 5 free and reliable hard disk drive cloning and imaging tools

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