[zorro51]

Hello

I have several questions for you over HDClone Standard:

First is it possible to use the Windows version of HDClone Stand-Alone under BartPE or VistaPE? I ask because I use BartPE on USB key to do maintenance on Windows ...

Secondly, HDClone allows it to do incremental cloning? I ask because I'll get my new computer soon, and I would use two hard drives of 500 gigabytes ... Containing the first three partitions: the tiny boot partition created automatically by Windows 7, Windows 7 itself, and a data partition. I clone the entire first hard disk on the second.
But then I would not repeat the cloning total each time. Or at worst is it only possible to clone the partition containing Windows 7 at each time? In fact I want a equivalent to SuperDuper, but Windows-compatible ...

Third, do the french version of HDClone is coming soon? For I have asked Colok HDClone translate in french, and the latter said he had sent you the translation.

Thank you

Cordially

[Alex]

Yes, HDClone works with BartPE and VistaPE, we suggest it to anyone that needs the Windows drivers on a self-booting capacity.

Incremental cloning is not possible yet, unfortunately.

We'll release a new version 3.9.5 (with a few bug fixes in the NTFS driver) somewhere in October, which will also include the french translation.

[nick]

may i ask something?

is there any way to export hdclone image to another format?

i use the program to image my hard disk partition (windows 7 x64) to an iso file, but the program which runs from the boot cd, cannot restore the drive for some reason. its stucks.


is there any way i could be able to export the files from inside the iso ? (it has files named like data, data1, data1a, but they are not zip/rar files).

will i have a change if i use acronis or any other commercial software to restore the drive or not/

plz any help will be appreciated as i haven't made any other backup, for that drive :(

[Alex]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "export the files from inside the iso".

A short overview over the imaging format of HDClone follows here:
if I create an image, say test.img, in reality HDClone creates a folder named test.img in the root folder \HDClone Images. It sets the folder's permissions to System, and stores the files desktop.ini and hdclone.ico in it, which now makes the Windows explorer show the file hdclone.ico instead of the normal folder icon.

You still can enter the directory, there you find the control file test.img. This file describes all parts of the image, which are to be found in the same directory. Each partition of an image is stored in a separate file, so if you imaged a drive with two partitions, you'll end up with three files, which take a random hexadecimal number as name. two files will represent the two partitions, and one file (typically 32KB-1MB in size) is the boot part of the hard disk.
If one of these files gets larger than 2GB, it gets split, and a new file with the same name, but the suffix .1 is created, and so on.

If you selected RAW images, these files are simply the raw contents of the drive, you could simply concatenate all files and write them en block to a new disk and have a perfectly restored image.

If you used the smartcopy feature, then there are markers in the file (starting with the string BLOCK) that have length and offset information. In theory, one could write an easy converter for these files, but HDClone does not offer (yet) one.

[nick]

well tnx for your answer.

its the 10nd time i am trying to restore my system partition but the ntfs , boot loader failing.

i was wondering if i could convert the img file (thought it was iso), with another program or at least view the files in order to copy them in a directory and install the operating system again.

something is wrong with the restoration process, i can't regognize the cylinder values or something and everytime i stuck with a hd failing to boot but also with a ntfs volume full of errors which cant be read by any program or linux live cd.

tnx again:)

etc (iam trying the last 5 days...)

[Alex]

A driver for Windows is on the way, with it you'll be able to mount a HDClone image as a drive and access the files in it. It will be released around November.

[nick]

what should i/ do until November ?

i did backup the first partition of a hard drive with 3 partitions (the rest was unallocated space).

but the program denies to restore the backup.

i did try to increase first drive's size, no luck.
i did delete the second partition (in order to gain some space from it if it was demanded by the program), no luck.

i did a format on that hard disk drive (to let the program use all the space it may require), no luck.

any suggestions? should i try a restore without alignment eitheir manual or automatic?

should i uncheck any other program option before the restore? (i left all the options checked).

[Alex]

In theory, you should simply restore the image back to a disk (Image->drive), select the adjustment accordingly, and at the end select automatic adjustments.

The target drive should preferably be larger than the image to avoid any problem in downsizing, but that should be it.

[Nick]

I ll try again later in yhe day.

I made numerous tries yesterday.

The image itself is around 70gb and i format the whole drive, a 2tb wd, with the hope of a succesfull restoration.

Should i check the 4k alignment, or uncheck io .
.. Etc options?

[Alex]

4K alignment yes or no does not really matter, it's more of a performance issue with newer discs that have internal 4K sectors.