Looking for good harddrive Imageing software

[#1]

hi,
I wonder can someone suggest some software I can use to image my whole system and allow me to restore everything back. About one and a half year ago I got a new PC from Currys everything was fine and one day I decided to create an image disk with the software on my PC, anyway it backed up my whole system to 3 DVDs,
So i decided to test it to see if it worked anyway I got to the this disk and it said there was an error. So I went back into windows and used the software from there, and said to it needed to restart to start the backup process, Anyway when it restarted it just loaded back into windows. I checked my computer and it does have a Recovery Drive but I cannot seem to get the software to work so I guess it broke or something. So that why I am looking for something else, I been using the PC for now over a year and thinking I should really back it up but I don’t know what the best software I am looking for something simple, and also free, or very cheap anyway ideas thanks.

[#2]

Acronis used to be good but some of the later versions have not got good feedback.
I Tend to keep a copy of all my important stuff on an external hard drive and DVD's just in case the back up program fails but I accept this may not be what you are looking for if you don't have a Windows Disk.
There are a number of backup programs available and some of the free ones seem almost as good as the more expensive ones, I guess a number of other forum members will be able to point you in the right direction.
Take a look here    http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-backup-program

[#3]

Ive used Paragon software, and Easus as well. Both seem to be fine, and I have used the versions on the cover DVDs of Computer Shopper.

[#4]

Thanks gleneagles and penfold for the info I have a look around.

[#5]

I use CloneZilla - a free Linux distro.

[#6]

Another is Macrium free reflect - I think the paid for version has more facilitiies for part/incremental backups etc rather than a straightforward disk image which the free ed does

[#7]

I agree with the comments re Macrium reflect free, which I've been using for over a year.
I have divided my laptop's hard disks in to two partitions - drive C with Windows, program files &c and Z with data files
I generally image the lot (about 150 GB of data) once a month, the C drive every couple of weeks and the Z drive once a week.
The data is imaged to an external 1.5 TB disk and the 150GB backup takes just under two hours.
A couple of months ago I was foolish enough allow Vista ro install a load of updates - it wouldn't boot afterwards, even in safe mode - therefore I wasn't able to try system restore. MRF was able to restore the last image of C in about 30 minutes and then it was only a matter of restoring the latest Z image. All I ended up losing were a few days of emails and I was abl to get the important ones sorted out by asking the people who had sent them to me to re-send them and asking the people I had sent messages to forward them back to me.
Happy is he (and, of course, she) who has good backups !

[#8]

Quote from: philrowley

A couple of months ago I was foolish enough allow Vista ro install a load of updates - it wouldn't boot afterwards, even in safe mode

A virus on your computer is a frequent cause of this type of problem - in which case you would have restored it from your back-up.

Quote from: philrowley

therefore I wasn't able to try system restore.

A better option with Windows Vista and 7 is to use the F8 key to select Start-up options, choose the Repair option at the top then run System Restore from the menu.  This may well work even when Safe Mode will not.

[#9]

I bought a portable hard drive some time ago and it came with Acronis - which I fortunately started using.
Earlier this year I suffered sudden catastrophic hard disk failure and had to replace the hard disk. I thought I'd risk putting in a 160GB to replace the 80GB original - got a secondhand one on eBay for £14.
I restored from my most recent mirror (I keep two just in case) and the result was absolutely perfect - nearly...
Everything was restored so that I couldn't tell anything had happened (except of course the missing files between the backup date and the failure). The start menu was all in place and virtually everything worked without a hitch.
The single failure was AutoCAD LT which had gone on my machine as a legitimate second copy from the office when we were on subscription but which wouldn't run presumably owing to the way the licensing works.
Fortunately my incoming emails were backed-up to by being mirrored to Yahoo so apart from a few missing files and AutoCAD LT I was back where I was before the failure - except I now have a hard drive with double the capacity!