Imaging software recommendations?

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I’ve bought an external hard drive, but choosing the imaging software is proving difficult. A search in WS comes up with plenty of results, in no apparent order, but everything on the first two pages is 5–10 years old – prehistoric in technological terms. To read the other 364 pages would take months.

There must be an easier way to find the pros and cons of the various products available, if only someone could direct me to it.

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Suggest you give a look at Acronis True Image Home ($). Free backup programs include: Easeus ToDo Backup and Macrium Reflect. All three of these programs have been mentioned many times in this forum.

https://www.google.com/search?q=review+Acronis+Easeus+Macrium&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

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https://www.google.com/search?q=review+Acronis+Easeus+Macrium&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Many thanks! That is just what I was looking for. I didn’t really consider Google, not knowing how to express the query without being swamped by results relating to photography.

I can see this needs a lot of serious reading – on the initial perusal it looked as though the choice would be Macrium Reflect, until seeing comment 58 on the review of Paragon and the others, where the writer had used Macrium for years, but it had never managed to restore his PC after a crash. Not much use really!

George

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Whatever software you decide on, make certain that you will be able to create a bootable restore disk and that it will recognize your external drive.
The chioce of application need not be anymore complicated than what your needs are.

Some of the top software imaging applications:
Acronis TI
Macrium ReflectNorton Ghost
Paragon
TeraByte Unlimited: Image for Windows

Disk Imaging Software Review:
2012 Best Disk Imaging Software Comparisons and Reviews

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Whatever software you decide on, make certain that you will be able to create a bootable restore disk and that it will recognize your external drive.
The choice of application need not be anymore complicated than what your needs are.

Thanks. Is there any way of determining before installation whether the software will recognize the WD My Book Essential drive?

My needs are fairly basic;
a) it must restore my system when required,

b) it must work with XP, that being the oldest machine, therefore most likely to fail, and also the one with the most applications and data. If it can also handle Vista that would be a bonus, although my wife doesn’t really keep much on her PC except for hundreds of old emails.

George

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I would have to second the list supplied by Clint. I presently use Acronis True Image Home 2010 and 2011 on our 2 laptops.

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Ted. You use Acronis, which many rate the best, but there seem to be just as many who say it is buggy and unreliable. In posting #6 I refer to being inclined to Macrium Reflect until coming across someone who claims it never works when needed. This seems to be the major problem with this type of software – one can’t rely on it working when necessary.

It’s often said that one should test an image after producing it, but how is this possible without wiping the existing hard drive and seeing if it can be restored? Rather an extreme measure if it doesn’t work – and all one’s data is lost if not backed up separately.

Does Super Sarge have the answer – triple images using three different sets of software?

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It’s often said that one should test an image after producing it, but how is this possible without wiping the existing hard drive and seeing if it can be restored? Rather an extreme measure if it doesn’t work – and all one’s data is lost if not backed up separately.

George,
Hello… In this Post Some of the “in’s and out’s” are discussed about Macrium Reflect… I use both Macrium Free and Acronis 2010 V7046… on XP Pro, Vista and “7” with a mix of 32 and 64 bit OS’s…I would guess that at some point you will be “testing for real” whatever Imaging program you choose. Best to do it before you have to…I suggest one method that isn’t so scary….

1. Purchase a duplicate HD (same size and brand ) as the one you have now….Format it exactly as your main one is now (partition wise etc.)

2. “Image” your OS, and store it somewhere off you PC (like a flash drive…DVD’s etc.) shut down.

3. Remove your original HD and replace it with the new one…Boot from the “Recovery disk and recover the OS to the new…Using the Image on the Flash Drive DVD’s , 2nd internal HD.. etc..

4.You could also “Clone” the original, but it wouldn’t test the Imaging function.

5. As far as Acronis…Have a read through their forum[/url] ….My 2cents is i would stick with 2010 @V 7046…The rest are horror stories:cheers: Regards Fred

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George,
1. Purchase a duplicate HD (same size and brand ) as the one you have now….Format it exactly as your main one is now (partition wise etc.)
:cheers: Regards Fred

It is MUCH easier than that.
There should be no need pre-format the new drive.

Simply create :-
A Boot Rescue CD ; and
an image of your system.

Then power down and install any old suitable HD (could be duplicate but could be different)
Pop in the Rescue CD and restore the system image to the new HD.

My Laptop had a 30 GB HDD, and the Rescue CD put the image on a new blank 160 GB HDD which immediately booted.
Had it failed the old 30 GB would have gone back in and I could then assess alternatives.
No operating system could have been harmed.

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It is MUCH easier than that.
There should be no need pre-format the new drive.

alan,
Hello.. not knowing how George’s HD is set up….. as i said “Partition wise”… It would be easier to make it the same..Before recovering the image to it not after…Regards Fred

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I use Acronis Version 5.0 EaseUs version 4.0 and of course I also use the one that comes with W7 pro

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I really couldn’t disagree more with the choices of imaging software. My one true backup program has been drive snapshot for years. It’s a little known program, sadly – but it works a charm for me.

It’s:

Cheap.
(Free to try.)
Tiny.
Portable
Works like a charm.
Works on every version of windows I’ve tried from XP to 2008 server. (Website says windows NT 4.0 SP3 or later, and it understands some linux partitions, so can back them up from windows as well)

Also, it’s a snapshot image – so you run it, and then carry on working as normal, while it creates an image of your disk at the instant you pressed the start button.

About the only downside is that it needs an OS – probably windows running to do a restore – which isn’t so awful. You can, I understand, run a restore from DOS, if you had to, or run a windows PE disk, or even a quick and dirty no-license-key install and then get the executable to over-the-top overwrite that install with your drive image.

Oh, and you can mount old backups to a drive letter and dip into them to your heart’s content, or do faster incremental changes-since-last backup backups as well.

It does everything I’ve ever wanted in a backup imaging product, including split output to file sizes and on the fly data compression.

Not bad for a 280Kb executable. Awesome for leaving a copy on a usb stick.

Completely worth every penny.

http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/

[Edited to add website. That might be handy ]

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…….My one true backup program has been drive snapshot for years. It’s a little known program, sadly – but it works a charm for me.

I too used Drive Snapshot some years ago – to get me out of a hole on a robot machine that ran NT4 SP3. It did exactly what it said on the tin, but if I recall correctly (it’s a while ago now), I had to enable some OS extras to configure a schedule.

Nonetheless, an excellent little program that may be worthwhile looking at again.

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I too used Drive Snapshot some years ago – to get me out of a hole on a robot machine that ran NT4 SP3. It did exactly what it said on the tin, but if I recall correctly (it’s a while ago now), I had to enable some OS extras to configure a schedule.

Nonetheless, an excellent little program that may be worthwhile looking at again.

I’ve had a look at macrium as well now. Not bad for personal use; and if you want imagine backups on your own computer, almost certainly the one to go for.
Anyone doing anything in a professional market – ie on a windows server – will find drivesnapshot much cheaper than macrium, though. The macrium server version is quite expensive, it turns out!

Scheduling drivesnapshot is pretty easy – you just use the windows own scheduler. I’ve seen things far more fearsome than that

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Zig,
Many thanks. Your PS was very reassuring, as I had assumed it should be done after every image, probably because I religiously checked 1% of every folder when backing up to DVD, even though any corrupted files found were invariably from corrupted originals. Despite beginning to think it was wasted time, I was still reluctant to rely entirely on the burning process.

I had come to the conclusion that the outer cage must be glued or welded in during assembly, but a new posting has revealed the secret – there is a screw from outside the PC case.

Fred,
So I have your recommended version after all. No idea why I thought it should be Macrium 4.2.4093, must have written it down somewhere – perhaps I’m becoming senile.

dg1261,
I’m unable to express how grateful I am for your diagram, it should be plain sailing now. It is really amazing that you could identify the tower from 2 views of part of the interior, considering they must all look pretty much alike.

Thanks to all.

George

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George – I’m guessing for dg1261 the green plastic casing which directs the fan output gave it away that it was a Dell tower (plus the words Dell on the power supply)

You asked which text file – the answer was any text file you create. You’re just trying to ensure that a file you created after the backup/image does not exist after the restore.

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George,

Having been burned once by Acronis, I’m now using EaseUS Todo Backup v.4.0. free. It’s got everything you want, and can be run under a schedule, in case you forget to make a periodic backup.

Zig

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George:
We all have different hardware/software configurations. Unlike whoever posted and said Macrium didn’t work for them, I had the opposite experience (detailed on this forum.) I had been using Acronis (paid) on my older, single disk system.
I added a 2nd, newer disk to my desktop. I tested my Acronis restore disk (always a good idea, before you REALLY need it), and Acronis wouldn’t work (where it had restored perfectly on my one-disk system.) I spent weeks working up the chain of Acronis support people, and never got the problem resolved.
While working with Acronis support to try to fix the problem, and at the suggestion of a helpful poster here who suggested I try Macrium Free, I installed Macrium, created a Resue CD, and it worked right out of the box.

Because I wanted the additional capabilities, I paid for the $ version of Macrium, and have been happy with it since.

Everybody’s mileage varies.
best,
Dick

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I’ll second the use of Macrium Reflect Free edition. It works well enough.
Ensure that you make the (Linux) rescue disk and do a full image, then use the (Linux) rescue disk to restore the image you just created.

After you are done creating the image close Macrium and create a text file to place on the desktop.
Then boot with the rescue disk and run the restore, after completion the text file should be gone.

The rational for testing is as follows:
1 To ensure you have BIOS setup so that you can boot to CD/DVD ROM
2 To verify that you are able to access the stored image on your external drive.
-If you are not, then you will need to tweak your BIOS to ensure that you can. On my system I would have to reset the BIOS anytime
I wanted to restore an image this way because my BIOS had been set for optimal/fast booting.
3 To verify that the image restore proceeds smoothly by being present during the operation.

Give it a runthrough and we’ll be happy to answer any questions after that.
CLiNT

Avoid any and all such imaging applications that do not alow the user to create some sort of bootable disk. This should be very rare.

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The person that had a problem with Macrium may have had other problems his crash may have been from a bad HD or such
I have used Macrium many times to restore an image with no problems

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I got an external HD about a year ago and have been quite happy with Clonezilla. It is probably not the easiest to learn, but it does what I need it to.

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Here’s something that’s worked so often for me that it’s the first thing I think of: I have both a floppy disk and a CD setup to be bootable into Win98 and then there’s a copy of the old Symantec Ghost program, which will image and burn to/from any device recognized by your bios. You can also resize the partition up if you are writing an image to a much larger new drive. It uses a mouse and is easier than easy. I don’t know if it’s available anymore but you might find it on Tucows or try googling it. It doesn’t get much simpler than this.

Win7Pro, I5 CPU, 8Gb RAM, SSD boot drive, external 4Tb SSD storage

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It looks as though I won’t be getting an extra hard drive after all. Perusing the Dell site there were two sizes available, 2.5” and 3.5”. Not wishing to take out the existing drive to check the size and then replace it until I have obtained a new drive, I rang Dell and asked which was the correct size for a Dell Dimension 2400, but was told they did not have that information. Unbelievable! Clearly they are only interested in selling new systems.

Then when I remarked that I could not find any IDE drives on the site, the reply was they only have SATA and SS nowadays. I know from recent experience when trying to buy a new DVD writer that IDE seems to be a thing of the past.

If Dell do not stock IDE any more, I would be unlikely to find it elsewhere – after all, it’s not as though they made them themselves. Plus my only previous PC was stolen, so I do not have an old drive to use.

Furthermore, the price of internal drives seems quite steep, being higher than the cost of my new 2TB external model – especially when it will be used very rarely. So I shall make an image and try to install it, if that fails it will be back to a clean install – rather a bind, but at least the PC is running well at present, so it should not be like the two previous occasions when I had to remove serious problems.

One question. When installing an image does first one erase the old drive completely, including the master boot thing, or just load it on top?

Hopefully I’ve not tested everyone’s patience too much with this topic.

George

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I tried EaseUS Todo V3.5 and had a very poor experience, so I haven’t tried the new version yet. Others have said they had problems with Acronis, but my experience is that I have had good success with both Acronis TIH 2010 and 2011 (haven’t tried 2012, and have no reason to upgrade at this time). As I have stated on many occassions, I have restored from my Up To Date Images more often than most others here in the Lounge, except perhaps Fred or DrWho, :rolleyes: . I like to “play” with my OS and PC and assorted apps.

I guess the bottom line is you try them until you find an app you like and which works for you then that’s the app you stick with. In my case I like Acronis and I have chosen it. I have tried others (Macrium and EaseUS) and still use Acronis. These apps are just like all other apps in that no one app fits all uses. All our systems are set up differently with different hardware and different software combinations, so different apps will work differently.

Darn, that’s a lot of differents. sorry. :o:

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I have actually the default one that comes with with my W7 64 Bit Pro, it works quite well. However the one I use the most for restores is Macrium Reflect

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I still think drivesnapshot.de is a win, though I hadn’t looked at macrium. Can’t seem to find a free version, though – just a trial.

It’s hard not to be fond of snapshot – as I said before it’s so darned tiny. And has, so far as I can tell, every feature Macrium lists quite possible, except possibly vbs scripting. But I’m old school, and batch file or powershell scripting is just peachy for me Macrium’s personal use version seems to be $45+vat (which means, as it’s a UK company, it is charged at 20% tax on top). So $54? having just found it’s in the UK, I feel I ought to support my fellow countryment

Anyway, snapshot is 39 euros. Current exchange rates put that at $49.70. Plus any conversion fees. Really, it’s basically in the same price bracket. You can pay a little more for a bootable CD if you wish, or download and build your own tools.

I wish I could find something this neat to image linux drives for linux users. (drivesnapshot will image linux drives if you’re running windows, of course).

I think some people may be put off by the fact it’s just this guy and his program, rather than a corporation. *shrug* ymmv – but I’ve been using iterations of it for some years now, and it’s run on everything, and always worked. I tried acronis once, last year thinking to beef up backups and was er…horrified by how rapidly it crashed my machine. It didn’t stay long… – I was wrong. I spent five minutes adding drivesnapshot to the windows scheduler instead, and plugged in an external USB drive. And it’s been backing up on schedule quiet as a mouse, ever since.

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I still think drivesnapshot.de is a win, though I hadn’t looked at macrium. Can’t seem to find a free version, though – just a trial.

britlion,
Hello….Macrium Reflect is a good backup program , which now is in version 5. You can get the Free version Here …just remember to burn the “Recovery disk ” try to do both Linux and the WAIK WinPE (The plain jane Linux wouldn’t boot my OS’s) …. and test it ..to make sure you can boot from it. If you don’t …when your OS HD crashes … your “dead in the water”:cheers: Regards Fred

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Thanks for all the advice guys. However, Fred and Clint have convinced me that it is almost certainly beyond my capabilities to get imaging to work.

It is probably too late to return the WD drive now, so I will download Macrium Reflect and make the odd image – without being able to test it – in the hope that if it’s ever needed the boot disk problem will have been resolved and that the image is OK. At least it should be possible to back up my data files and photos to the drive and access them as required. A 2 TB drive to store what fits on 2 DVDs may be somewhat excessive, but at least the drive will be there for use with the next PC when this one expires.

The major problem is the need for a boot disk. The main reason for buying an external drive now – apart from the desire to avoid any more horrendous experiences reinstalling Windows – was the fact that my DVD Writer has ceased to function correctly. It stills plays prerecorded DVDs, and I can access files on old back-ups without trouble, but it refuses to recognise a blank DVD as other than a CD. I can load up the files to burn to the disk, but after a minute or two it aborts.

Writers seem to have a life of c2-3 years, and this one must be that old, so I bought a replacement, which proved to be a SATA drive, not IDE, now renamed PATA. I took it back to exchange, but they were out of stock and I had to accept a refund. Extensive searching on the web reveals that they are no longer being made, suggesting all PCs now come with SATA connections. And where I did manage to find one in stock, it listed under requirements a Pentium 4 processor. This PC mentions only ‘genuine Intel’ and I’m fairly certain it is Intel’s cheaper model. So for the last few months I have been transferring my backups to the laptop in batches via a USB stick – a laborious business.

So, unless the boot disk will fit on a CD, or can be produced on a Vista machine to boot XP, I’m stuck.

The other stumbling block is testing the image. Fred advises buying another HD of the same size and brand for this. Where can one find a 120 GB drive these days? 250GB seems to be the minimum, at least on the Dell site. Then there is the question of the actual switch. I am not even sure which is the HD, although suspecting it’s the box like structure in one corner of the casing.

Opening up the PC and judging how difficult replacing it will be must wait till the weekend, but on past experience, doing anything inside the case is difficult due to the cramped conditions. Even adding memory was tricky due to part of the cooling system overhanging one end of the memory slots, and the need to keep one’s fingers of the main part of the memory. Furthermore, this is a critical part of the whole PC, unlike replacing a DVD writer or adding memory, and I’m not confident about managing it properly, especially as it’s not a once only operation. Every new image would entail removing the existing drive, inserting the replacement, testing the image, then presumably restoring the original drive if restoring is a cut & paste operation rather than copying.

There are also a couple of minor issues raised by Clint. He mentions putting a text file on the desktop after creating the image and before restoring it, but fails to mention WHICH text file and its function. He also raises the possibility of having to alter the BIOS, something else of which I know nothing.

All things considered, it doesn’t look as though the new drive will get much use before I have to replace the PC

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Thanks for all the advice guys. However, Fred and Clint have convinced me that it is almost certainly beyond my capabilities to get imaging to work.

The major problem is the need for a boot disk. The main reason for buying an external drive now – apart from the desire to avoid any more horrendous experiences reinstalling Windows – was the fact that my DVD Writer has ceased to function correctly. It stills plays prerecorded DVDs, and I can access files on old back-ups without trouble, but it refuses to recognise a blank DVD as other than a CD. I can load up the files to burn to the disk, but after a minute or two it aborts.

I only have used True Image, but instead of having TI writing to a DVD or CD, it also did it for a flash drive and then I used that drive, several times, to boot computers who had no DVD drive. Maybe that can happen with Macrium too.

Also, the size of the boot disk is very small. It will fit a CD without any issues.

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Thanks for all the advice guys. However, Fred and Clint have convinced me that it is almost certainly beyond my capabilities to get imaging to work.

The major problem is the need for a boot disk.

So, unless the boot disk will fit on a CD, or can be produced on a Vista machine to boot XP, I’m stuck.

The other stumbling block is testing the image. Fred advises buying another HD of the same size and brand for this. Where can one find a 120 GB drive these days? 250GB seems to be the minimum, at least on the Dell site. Then there is the question of the actual switch.

Opening up the PC and judging how difficult replacing it will be must wait till the weekend, but on past experience, doing anything inside the case is difficult due to the cramped conditions.

All things considered, it doesn’t look as though the new drive will get much use before I have to replace the PC

georgelee,

Hello…sorry if i was confusing.and i apoligize … I will try to explain

1. If you download Macrium Reflect 4.2.3638 (does not have the “Cloning” option) and install it you will be able to “Burn the Linux” recovery disk to a CD.. The later versions (5) do not work for me with the Linux recovery disk option… had to ues the “WinPE” option which involves a 1.7GB download.

2. If you can’t get a duplicate HD that size …it’s not a problem go… for the larger.

3. Remember the reason to replace the HD was to test the Image (recovering)…. without risking your original OS ….

4. I have done scores of recoveries with Macrium and Acronis, with several versions of Macrium Reflect…both have never let me down,even once! As far as being cramped for space ….welcome to my world…see screenshot..If i can help you get through this just post back and we all will try our best to do so.. don’t give up!:cheers: Regards Fred

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1. If you download Macrium Reflect 4.2.3638 (does not have the “Cloning” option) and install it you will be able to “Burn the Linux” recovery disk to a CD.. The later versions (5) do not work for me with the Linux recovery disk option… had to ues the “WinPE” option which involves a 1.7GB download.

2. If you can’t get a duplicate HD that size …it’s not a problem go… for the larger.

Thanks for that Fred, it’s fairly reassuring. However, how can I obtain Macrium v4?

Google found an old entry offering M4, but it installs M5 now. Perhaps I must look for another free programme which allows a recovery disk to fit on CD, as I don’t wish to pay for anything until I have ensured it will work for me.

Looking at the features of the free version, unlike the paid version, it omits files and folders from the image, so presumably one must remember to back them up separately, then restore to the original drive at the end.

Your photo was interesting – my PC is kept on the lower shelf of the computer desk – but I was referring to the cramped conditions inside the PC case, not external space.

Regards
George

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Thanks for that Fred, it’s fairly reassuring. However, how can I obtain Macrium v4?

Looking at the features of the free version, unlike the paid version, it omits files and folders from the image, so presumably one must remember to back them up separately, then restore to the original drive at the end.

Georgelee,
Hello…you can get Macrium Reflect FileHippo…Just pick the version that you want… from the right side of the screen…

Also if you do a “Full Image” it will include everything. Just can’t do a “stand alone” File Folder backup with the “Free”..All Files and Folders and the complete OS will be backed up no matter which “Free” version you choose…. After the Image is made you then can “Browse” (mount) the Image and copy anything out of it, Or restore the complete OS. :cheers: Regards Fred

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[/QUOTE]

Just an F.Y.I.: operating hard drives vertically stresses the drive bearing and increases the probability of premature drive failure.

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Just an F.Y.I.: operating hard drives vertically stresses the drive bearing and increases the probability of premature drive failure.

cloudsandskye,
Hello… Thanks for the tip… Kinda thought about that , but figured that my HP came originally with “Vertically” mounted HD’s …so i thought no problem.. Going to remedy this soon ( think that you are correct) …As my modified case is way too small for what i have stuffed into it…Just received my new Corsair 650D … will be “updating” as soon as i can find the time…:cheers: Regards Fred

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Progress Report

I downloaded what was supposed to be Macrium Reflect 4.2.4093 as recommended by Fred, but it’s labelled Macrium 4.2 build 3638 – presumably an earlier version. It wanted to download v5 and a slew of updates in the 4.2 series, which I ignored.

Created the Linux recovery disk, whilst noting they said the alternative, with the funny name, was likely to be more successful with XP. However, that is too large to fit on a CD, and as explained previously this machine no longer has any means of creating DVDs.

That’s it so far, apart from trying to decide which is the PCs hard drive.

29810-Haberdashers-Hall-001
This one should be easy to remove, appears to be held in place soley by four screws in the base, so easy to remove, but label says 200 Watts output, so unlikely to be the drive.
29811-Haberdashers-Hall-002
This is probably the target, but impossible to remove. There is one screw fixing it to the base, but removing it makes no difference. Deciding it was probaly just a frame holding the actual drive in place, I removed the single screw at the top of the assembly, but still no movement. So far I have not unplugged any of the cables entering at the side, not feeling that is going to make much difference when everything feels so solid, and fearing not getting them back correctly.

Hopefully soneone can give some guidance on how to proceed – or perhaps it is designed not to be replaced.

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I downloaded what was supposed to be Macrium Reflect 4.2.4093 as recommended by Fred, but it’s labelled Macrium 4.2 build 3638 – presumably an earlier version. It wanted to download v5 and a slew of updates in the 4.2 series, which I ignored.

Created the Linux recovery disk, whilst noting they said the alternative, with the funny name, was likely to be more successful with XP. However, that is too large to fit on a CD, and as explained previously this machine no longer has any means of creating DVDs.

Georgelee,
Hello…Macrium Reflect provided in the link should allow you to download the older version that i suggested 4.2.3638 …from “FileHippo” see screen shot… The Recovery Disk can fit on a CD …If for some reason it doesn’t you need another CD. ( might have to be erased formatted, or is no longer viable) As my recovery disk for that program 4.2.3638 only uses about 8MB out of a possible 700MB (Its the Linux Version you need for that version) And have done this many times with a CD.:cheers: Regards Fred

PS: See Hitachi Hard Drive Photo

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29811-Haberdashers-Hall-002
This is probably the target, but impossible to remove. There is one screw fixing it to the base, but removing it makes no difference. Deciding it was probaly just a frame holding the actual drive in place, I removed the single screw at the top of the assembly, but still no movement.

George,

In your post #25, that’s a regular Dell Dimension minitower case from the mid-2000’s. The second photo is indeed your hard drive. The hard drive is attached to the bracket (the perforated steel part), and the bracket is anchored to the chassis. To remove the hard drive you must first remove the drive+bracket assembly, then detach the drive from the bracket. The “top” screw you removed holds the drive in the bracket, so removing it was premature. There’s no harm in that (so don’t bother putting the screw back in), but it’s not going to help you get the bracket out.

The bracket is anchored at four points: two finger tabs hook into the back side of the front panel, one screw holds the bracket to the case side (toward the bottom of your photo), and a second screw comes in from the outside, through the bottom of the case (on the right, in your photo). This illustration from a representative Dell manual should make it clear how the bracket is attached:

29819-dimension-drive

With the computer on its side, remove the two screws, then swing the computer around 180 degrees (from the orientation in your photo) so the front panel is toward your chest. See those two vertical, free-standing U-tabs on the bracket? Grab those tabs and pivot the bottom of the bracket (where you removed the interior screw) away from you, swinging it toward the rear of the tower. Once it is loose, you should be able to unhook the two finger tabs from the slots in the front panel. Carefully remove the two cables, and then you can remove the drive from the bracket.

Installation is the reverse. With the bracket angled, hook it onto the front panel, then swing it in place so you can insert the screws. Note the two cables are keyed and will only go in one way.

FTR, note this tower can take two hard drives, but you’d need a second bracket. (The brackets are identical, with no difference between the first and second brackets.) The manual illustration shows how the second bracket piggybacks on the first, with its finger tabs hooking into those two free-standing U-tabs on the first bracket.

FWIW, the Dimension 4600-4700 series cases came with both brackets, even if one was left empty. The Dimension 2400-3000 cases were identical to these except they only gave you one bracket, so if you wanted a second hard drive you had to find the extra bracket second-hand somewhere.

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George,

The top photo is your power supply, the lower photo likely your HD. It got installed SOMEHOW – it wasn’t welded in.
There are 2 screws on the top of the drive, as shown (it’s actually the side of the drive). Unscrew these, and slide the drive to the left (back) out of the cage. It’s possible there are 2 more screws underneath (on the other side) of the drive, as well; if so, it won’t slide back when the first 2 screws are removed & you’ll have to figure how to get to THOSE screws. It may involve removing the metal cage from the frame to get to the other screws, or there may be a way to remove the panel under (on the far side of) the drive. There may be access holes on that panel, as well, allowing you to get to the screws. Good luck.

P.S.:

Every new image would entail removing the existing drive, inserting the replacement, testing the image, then presumably restoring the original drive if restoring is a cut & paste operation rather than copying.

That seems a little excessive, though making sure it works ONCE is a good idea.

Zig :crossfingers:

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George,

Google “IDE HARD DRIVES” you’ll find all the major sellers have them. As for size the Dimension 2400’s have 2-5.25″ and 1-3.5″ drives bays. You can use smaller drives with adapter kits. Here’s a link to the Specs for the 2400’s. :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Thanks RG.
I found a seller with stock, and a phone number so that I could check it is suitable. Should arrive next week.

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In my experience the first test for any imaging program is whether you can boot from a CD-DVD or other device. My experience with Acronis has been that when I boot from the DVD drive, my mouse is frozen on the screen that comes up. If the mouse is frozen on the tab that starts Acronis, then the program can proceed. If it is not, and that has happened, then Acronis simply reboots Windows. Of course if Windows is bootable, I would not be trying to boot from a disk, would I? Some versions of Acronis work and some do not, and I cannot tell in advance. The moral is take advantage of a free trial if there is one, and that applies to many other programs as well.

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Some versions of Acronis work and some do not, and I cannot tell in advance. The moral is take advantage of a free trial if there is one, and that applies to many other programs as well.

elikam,
Hello… sound advice …with one caveat.. Acronis free trial, will install It , and everywhere … One thing that i have found out about Acronis … You can never remove it ! I don’t care what removal tool you use ..(theirs or a 3rd party) forget it. Over the years i have used TI 10, 11, 2009, 2010.. if something goes wrong …even with their removal tool ..hidden pieces are always be there to remain to vex you forever.. The only way to remove it, is to go back to a time before you installed Acronis…” Kind of a catch 22″ . I would suggest using Windows Backup, Macrium Reflect , or EASEUS Todo backup, making a Full OS image before trying Acronis True Image Home ..any version. ..Don’t get me wrong …I use Acronis 2010 V-7046 along with Macrium Reflect… But …If something with Acronis goes wrong or doesn’t work … the only fix ( even trying their repair) is to go back in time before it was installed … My2¢… :cheers: Regards Fred

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elikam,
Hello… sound advice …with one caveat.. Acronis free trial, will install It , and everywhere … One thing that i have found out about Acronis … You can never remove it ! I don’t care what removal tool you use ..(theirs or a 3rd party) forget it. Over the years i have used TI 10, 11, 2009, 2010.. if something goes wrong …even with their removal tool ..hidden pieces are always be there to remain to vex you forever.. The only way to remove it, is to go back to a time before you installed Acronis…” Kind of a catch 22″ . I would suggest using Windows Backup, Macrium Reflect , or EASEUS Todo backup, making a Full OS image before trying Acronis True Image Home ..any version. ..Don’t get me wrong …I use Acronis 2010 V-7046 along with Macrium Reflect… But …If something with Acronis goes wrong or doesn’t work … the only fix ( even trying their repair) is to go back in time before it was installed … My2¢… :cheers: Regards Fred

I’ve had the same experience with Acronis True Image (the Seagate DiscWizard version). When I tried to uninstall it, it could not be dislodged. I tried the Acronis Cleanup Utility, along with several other things their support forum suggested, but nothing worked. Finally, I came across a free software product called Revo Uninstaller (http://www.revouninstaller.com) and that worked. It completely stripped every bit of Acronis True Image from my computer. I didn’t think if it at the time, but it occurred to me that CCleaner might also have worked since it has an uninstaller function in its Tools section, so if you already have that on your computer, you could try that.

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Do you have a USB mouse? If so perhaps you have to go into your Bios and enable legacy support. This will allow your USB ports to be enabled during the early boot sequence. Hopefully this will allow you to use your mouse during this Acronis boot. I use Acronis and have never seen this problem. I have a wireless mouse that has a mini USB adapter (receiver) that I have to plug in to use my mouse. Works great with Acronis.

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Just Plain Fred gave us a detailed recipe for testing whatever imaging sw we chose, but it seems to preclude using an external HD as the storage for the image. Isn’t that how most people save their backup image?

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True Image has always been buggy, mostly with the extra bells and whistles they put in it.
But, I have been using it for years and it has never failed me when I needed to restore an image.

I just stay away from using the ‘extras’..

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Fred, Is there room on your bench for that monster. looks pretty large. LOL Knowing you, I’ll bet eventually you’ll just stuff more into it so at some point in time it will be just as full as the old case! :rolleyes:

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Fred, Is there room on your bench for that monster. looks pretty large. LOL Knowing you, I’ll bet eventually you’ll just stuff more into it so at some point in time it will be just as full as the old case! :rolleyes:

Hi Ted,

No …I have to get a larger desk as well, not kidding..(and the case is only a “mid size” ) Had no choice really …have been keeping watch of my HD temps (via Hd Sentinel) and were getting out of control. Using an external fan to help out…Just don’t have the time now to switch…Regards Fred

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I have an Antec server case and I have 5 drives in it now.
The front of the case has fans that blow directly over and between the drives.

It’s a big case with plenty of room…

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