Drive clone software recommendations (preferably free)?

[gadgetman]

Need to upgrade a 320Gb laptop drive to a new 500Gb one and then backup a 500Gb in a different laptop to the 320Gb drive (there's only about 200Gb used on the laptop #2).

So I need something that supports drive cloning with both compression or expansion.

Used loads of different stuff in the past, I even bought a Paragon app which was absolute tulip.

Any current recommendations?

NB I'm not looking for something to create an "image" file, this is straight drive to drive clone with expansion or compression.

[Fred Bloggs]

If you go to the drive manufacturers website, it is likely that they will have a free customised version of Acronis True Image to down load. I have used the Seagate and the Western Digital flavours without problems.

[gadgetman]

Thanks - nothing on the Hitachi site though.

[TestMangler]

Go on Softonic. There is a free one but can't remember the name of it. Might have been XClone or something.

[Clippy]

If you go to the drive manufacturers website, it is likely that they will have a free customised version of Acronis True Image to down load. I have used the Seagate and the Western Digital flavours without problems.

Another vote for Acronis True Image Home 2011.

I'm sure if you do a search, you should be able to find a 'free' copy of the 2010 version which will do what you need.

Edit: Acronis True Image WD Edition Software.

[gadgetman]

Amazon average review rating 1 star:

"Very poor buggy software",
"Avoid this software!",
"Cannot rely on this software",
"unreliable",
"disappointing"
"keep your money"
etc

err thanks but no thanks!

Another vote for Acronis True Image Home 2011.

I'm sure if you do a search, you should be able to find a 'free' copy of the 2010 version which will do what you need.

Edit: Acronis True Image WD Edition Software.

[VectraMan]

Amazon average review rating 1 star:

"Very poor buggy software",
"Avoid this software!",
"Cannot rely on this software",
"unreliable",
"disappointing"
"keep your money"
etc

err thanks but no thanks!

It's okay until you want to do scheduled backups in my experience. I wish I hadn't bought it, and that was the 2010 version. However I did use the evaluation to clone a real machine into a virtual machine, which is something the OP could do.

[Fred Bloggs]

Thanks - nothing on the Hitachi site though.

And the other drive? You could even temporarily fit a drive from Seagate/WD to use their flavour of the software. The only criteria for using the software is that the machine has one of their drives installed. It doesn't have to be one of the ones involved in the cloning process (at least that's how it worked 6 months ago when I last used the WD version to migate a Seagate drive).

[Cliphead]

I use Clonezilla which is free and has never failed me.

[gadgetman]

Sounds good but under limitations:

"The destination partition must be equal or larger than the source one. "

I use Clonezilla which is free and has never failed me.