Acronis True Image and Norton Ghost are two popular commercial software for creating a full backup (or disk image) of your hard drive or partition. They back up your entire PC, including the Windows operating system plus your data, applications, pictures, video, financial documents, settings and everything! With the image, you can always restore back to the state your Windows was when you created the backup.
Re-installing Windows from scratch is so yesterday. You can forget all the troubles to re-install Windows hardware device drivers and software applications, as you can now save a lot of time using disk imaging. With just a few mouse clicks, your system can be restored back to the image in just minutes. The latest version of Acronis True Image Home 2010 costs $49.99 per copy while Norton Ghost 14.0 is worth $69.99 per license.
If you can’t afford such money to purchase either Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost, there is always free alternative to the software. Check out these 3 4 freeware alternative to Norton Ghost and Acronis True Image.
1. DriveImage XML
DriveImage XML enables you to backup logical drives and partitions to image files, restore images to drives without having to reboot, copy one drive to another and schedule automatic backups.
Images are stored in XML files, allowing you to process them with 3rd party tools. DriveImage XML offers two different compression levels.
File Size : 1.8 MB
Supported OS : Windows XP, 2003, Vista, 7
2. Macrium Reflect
Macrium Reflect is the only free XP and Vista compatible disk imaging software with BartPE and Linux based recovery options. It creates a disk image while running Windows using Microsoft Volume Shadow copy Service (VSS). Plus, you can backup image to network, USB, Firewire drives and DVD. It comes with built in scheduler for automatic backups.
File Size : 28.1 MB
Supported OS : Windows XP, Vista and 7
3. EASEUS Todo Backup
This freeware disk imaging tool backups the system or important data to an image, clone disk, upgrade small disk to bigger one. You can also backup your data into hard drive or CD/DVD. In addition, you can mount the backed up image file as a read-only virtual physical partition to explore and copy. EASEUS also provides a serial of options for the users’needs: Priority, Compression Level, Image Splitting, etc.
File Size : 35.3 MB
Supported OS : Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Server 2000/2003/2008
Updated :
4. Paragon Backup & Recovery
Paragon Backup & Recovery backups an image of either your entire hard drive or a partition to any backup destination including external storages, CD/DVD/Blu-ray discs, network as well as the secured hidden partition (Backup Capsule). Notable features are allows you to create bootable USB drive to restore your PC on demand plus supports Linux/DOS bootable recovery enviroments.
File Size : 102 MB
Supported OS : Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7
Download Paragon Backup & Recovery
Any free disk imaging software for Windows that I’ve missed out? Let’s me know in the comment.
