Macrium Reflect Free seems to be the most popular choice for this. There will be no more updates to the Free Edition, but for now it works very well under the latest version of Windows 11. Yes, it's fast, yes, it's proven reliable.
It doesn't seem to save image in .iso or .img format. Does it do so ? It isn't free, is it ? Thanks for the responses.
Acronis True Image 2019 17750 I only use that, I once had a computer from the neighbor, I could not pull an image with it am almost desperate. also capture did not work, constantly canceled, umpteen things tried. whole parts were moved. Letze option Marcrium Reflect, and see everything perfect, but I Personally use only Acronis 2019 17750
No it is not free but it is a super backup software never catering error its price and justify you must support the devastating and hdclone of myrai also paying
No, Macrium Reflect (free or pro) saves a file with the extension "*.mrimg". You can built a bootable WinPE disk image from within Macrium Reflect (free or pro), write that to a flash drive, and then add the .mrimg file which will give you a 1 piece USB flash drive for recovery.
I didn't ask before and no one else asked before either: why do you insist/need an imaging software saving files to ISO or IMG?
Wow, both tools are very good and just what I needed. One click (almost). I don't have much confidence in me typing long command lines or exploring options (for example, maximum compression, which I always want). So easy. I created an image in 3 minutes, haven't tried restoring it yet until I replace the disk... It created a file significantly smaller than Ghost 12.0.0.11531 with maximum compression. Also, I can mount the images and pull individual files out, again a must for me. And 7zip opens them, of course. Thank you!
Ok., now that you finally understood that dism is all what you need to do old school imaging, just go a small step further. Use native vhdx (you can restore your captured images there, using dism). Than all you will need to do a backup/restore is copying one file using explorer or the copy command.
Yeah, you can tell I'm lagging behind with some lessons, can't you? If 'native vhdx' is what I think it is (partition as a file), I don't want that because of write amplification and possible performance loss on SSDs. It might come in handy (I considered it) for some edge cases (like Win7 on 4k sector drives), but that's far into the future / when I have time.
Disk on a file (which obviously can have just a single partition inside it). Write amplification? Where you got that idea? The theoretical performance loss is low on vhd and almost nonexistent on vhdx. Perhaps if you compress them (I mean the filesystem inside them) you save 2/3 of the space while gaining performances Edge cases? I don't have a single system installed like in 1995 at my place or on system of my clients, since a decade Not even systems that don't have the native support, like XP/Vista/Linux.... It was far in the future in 2003, now it's just one thing of the past that is time to understand (native vhds are with us since the release of Win7) P.S. Another word about SSDs... I was an early adopter of them, I remember when I spent an arm and a leg to get my first 32MB one. Now, after 15 years or so, I can say one thing. I have yet to see a single SSD drive broken because worn out. NOT A SINGLE ONE over hundreds I used/sold/bought/touched, no matter if top notch brand or cheap chinese no brand. I broke one because a failed firmware update, and another one was DOA. In the same timeframe I spent my time (as usual) replacing/recovering data from HDDs with bad sectors, or just completely dead because a broken motor/logic board/head(s) In short, in my experience the concerns about the longevity of SSD is the biggest lie I heard in 30 years.
It's another translation layer. Instead of writing a single small file and MFT entry, it must also update the .vhd's structure to know where it is. I'm not saying it's rewriting the whole .vhd(x) for a small file, but there must be some structure of the .vhd, otherwise it's just a filesystem, and I don't think it is. I'm also still using Samsung 840 Pro as my primary drive and have no worries about it, but newer SSDs, especialy TLC and QLC have much lower quality and smaller longetivity. I've read that some have a hard cut-off (making them read-only) when they reach the declared TBW, I can't find an example now, maybe it's just a rumor, but it wouldn't surprise me. In any case, I don't want to ride a bicycle while being in a bus (my lame analogy of layered filesystems).
Well, while I'm not a guru of such low level details, yes is another layer, but a layer transparent enough to be negligible, especially in more modern formats like vhdx. Who project SSD and nand flashes aren't idiots TLC and QLC NAND are obviously more delicate than MLC and SLC, but that's taken in account in the overprovision of spare cells. The data on The RAM survives just for millisecons (I mean while powered ON), something that sounds terrifying but that is taken in account and the data are continuously refreshed and from the user's POV they are just rock solid. In short you're not buying NAND cells or FLASH memory, you're are using a black box that does what's advertised in its specs. What happen inside it is not a business of the end user (aside the "academical" curiosity). The concern about QLCs should be the performances, but no one advertised them as OS/application drives, they are mostly meant as HDD replacements, which usually means low traffic and performances adequate for the job. Then you should buy a ZX spectrum or a Commodore 64, everything else is a bike, inside a box, inside a shipping container, inside a train wagon, which is loaded on a trailer, hauled by a truck, in the belly of a big boat.... Everything is a layer, since almost three decades, nowadays even nested virtualizzation is mainstream. If you install VMware or Virtualbox in a recent windows you are already doing that. You are running a virtual machine that is running inside vmware, which is running inside Hyper-V, which is running on bare metal, let alone the path each single SW needs to follow before reaching the machine code level....
Well, just boot with any bootable media, and use diskpart to make partitions and the format command to format them. If you're scared by the command line you can use something like "strelec" which is a fully graphical Win8/10 OS Also you can use any bootable media created by any partitioning SW Like Acronis/Paragon or similar. Also you can use a bootable GParted media Also you can use a random Live Linux distro Also you can boot a Win7/8/10 Setup media, use it once it ask how partition your disk, then exit the installation. Not really short of options.
Which simple software could you recommend doing a full windows-dual-boot backup? No updates needed, just a once-off backup, which is easy to restore (2x Win OS, each on separate HDDs, 1x rEFInd bootloader partition)
Move your OSes on native vhds then while you're on OS A use explorer (or the copy command) to copy the OS B vhd/vhdx somewhere when you you're on OS B use explorer (or the copy command) to copy the OS A vhd/vhdx somewhere And don't forget to say goodbye to traditional backup SW