Free hard drive copy software?

I think you mean Cloning or Imaging, right?

I use Acronis. Windows-7 has an Imaging function now, but I've never used it.

This looks good, but again ... I only use Acronis (and Ghost before that)

http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

If there is a "verify backup after creation" option, be sure to use it.

Not wishing to cast any doubts on what you said there Tesla however, after looking at Runtime's site it appears to indicate that it images logical drives only. Now I may be confused by terminology here so please excuse me if this question seems stupid but isn't backup of the primary drive equally as, if not the most important?

For what it's worth, I'm currently in the process of switching from RAID 0 to non-RAID. To achieve that I need to image the contents of both drives as a whole to an external drive and then change from RAID 0 to AHCI in the BIOS. After reformatting I can then restore the backed up image to the primary drive. I was going to do this with Acronis TI but after researching the best way to do it I found many people claiming that Acronis TI 2010 and later are buggy and are causing problems for this particular operation. Surprisingly, the advice given by all of them was to use Windows 7's own backup utility as it appears to be 100% reliable. Apparently, it is so good that it will even allow you to backup and restore a system that already has Rollback RX or similar installed on it.

Now I should also point out why I said "I'm in the process of" rather than "I did it with..."
Windows backup is extremely simple to use. It looks at all your data and tells you what size your backup will be and how much space is required on the destination drive. In my case it was 109 GB. I have a 1.5 TB external drive with 495 GB of free space so I used that as my target. The backup failed because, according to the Windows utility the target drive needs to have enough free space to accomodate the entire contents of the original drive/s. In my case that's 2 x 500 GB. So I have ordered a 2 TB drive to achieve this with.

I find this story rather perplexing because I do not understand why I need 1 TB of space if I'm only backing up 109 GB???

Paragon software has a free to download cloning program. Also as said above windows has one built in, i have used it to back up but have never used it to put back on so cannot verify it.

I have in the past found acronis to be very good but i dont think you can get that for free.

Don't forget the difference between cloning and imaging. In my case it has to be an image because in a RAID 0 configuration the data has been striped across 2 dynamic drives and needs to be restored to a coherent single image in order to restore the recompiled data to a single drive.

Paragon software has a free to download cloning program. Also as said above windows has one built in, i have used it to back up but have never used it to put back on so cannot verify it.   I have in the past found acronis to be very good but i dont think you can get that for free.

Thanks ... I knew there was another popular free one.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/comparison.html

I'm always leary of these limited versions, but it looks like it might do "the basics" properly. I would be interested in hearing how this or DriveImage-XML works.

That's why I only recommend Acronis ... I have done everything with it (the full cycle) and it works. I paid $10 for Acronis 2010 from NewEgg.

Not wishing to cast any doubts on what you said there Tesla however, after looking at Runtime's site it appears to indicate that it images logical drives only.

I'll say it again ... I only use Acronis. I only mentioned the others in case people wanted a free solution.

I am only familiar with how Acronis works. I have used it before to restore a RAID-0 to a non-RAID. I recommend you use Verify option in both directions. I only trust Acronis because I have used it many times over the years and IT WORKED. Backups, Restores, Bare Metal, File Browse Restore ... all of it works.

It sounds like you have discovered and important limitation of Windows 7 Image Backup.

You can backup your partitions using more than one way or program for extra insurance. An "emergency backup" of just data files (done with a normal file copy) is also nice. Even in case you had to clean install from scratch, you would have your data.

Thanks guys, I appreciate all of the info.

I will look into Acronis and maybe even the paragon.

I can see where it would be very handy to have a bought program to use anytime I needed.

@ Tesla

While I fully appreciate that Acronis TI is an excellent backup solution, perhaps even the best available, I have to confirm it does not work alongside Rollback RX.

Last night I installed the latest version of Acronis TI as you felt it would be able to backup the entire contents of my RAID 0 drives to a single image. The install went perfectly and then I was asked to reboot to complete the changes. On reboot, the machine reported it could not find any operating system and asked me to use the Windows repair CD or reinstall Windows completely.

Fortunately, I could still access Rollback's subsytem which allowed me to restore the machine to its state prior to installing Acronis.

Acronis aside, the 2 TB external drive I ordered arrived yesterday so I after recovering from the Acronis fiasco I attempted to back up with Windows backup utility again. You may remember the last time I tried this Windows reported the backup would be 109 GB and despite having 465 GB free space available the backup failed because according to Windows, the target drive has to be at least as large as the drive/s being backed up (2 x 500 GB). With the new 2 TB drive, this should be a breeze.

Well guess what, it failed again with Windows reporting there was not enough free space on the target drive to accomodate the backup which is of course total nonsense!

I don't know what to do now.

@ Tesla   While I fully appreciate that Acronis TI is an excellent backup solution, perhaps even the best available, I have to confirm it does not work alongside Rollback RX.   Last night I installed the latest version of Acronis TI as you felt it would be able to backup the entire contents of my RAID 0 drives to a single image. The install went perfectly and then I was asked to reboot to complete the changes. On reboot, the machine reported it could not find any operating system and asked me to use the Windows repair CD or reinstall Windows completely.

Either use one or the other. I wouldn't try to install both in the same Windows environment.

If you want to keep using RollBack-RX, I think you have to use their own compatible cloning/imaging product.

You can use Acronis without installing it. From your Acronis Account, DL and burn the ISO (or create it on another machine). Actually, Imaging from outside the OS is often more fail-safe.

Be sure you main "data files" are backed up to external media in case you are forced into a clean install.

Acronis aside, the 2 TB external drive I ordered arrived yesterday so I after recovering from the Acronis fiasco I attempted to back up with Windows backup utility again. You may remember the last time I tried this Windows reported the backup would be 109 GB and despite having 465 GB free space available the backup failed because according to Windows, the target drive has to be at least as large as the drive/s being backed up (2 x 500 GB). With the new 2 TB drive, this should be a breeze.   Well guess what, it failed again with Windows reporting there was not enough free space on the target drive to accomodate the backup which is of course total nonsense!   I don't know what to do now.

All versions of Windows Backup have had limitations over the years. It seems to do the bare-minimum backup. It's always been a backup tool for in-place hardware ... not a migration or repair tool.

The Microsoft Forums or Microsoft Tech Support would be a better place to get questions about Microsoft Backup answered. Google seemed to return some pages as well.

The fact that you are using an USB drive (as opposed to an internal or eSata drive) might have something to do with the error. Or, the obvious case is the RAID config. Just speculation on my part ... I don't use it.

I use Carbon Copy Clone, but Clonezilla is supposed to be another good free drive cloning tool.