HDD backup terminology

If you're still using XP, get a hold of an old version of Ghost. I'm trying to remember what version it was that allowed you to make a bootable USB drive or whatnot, but it's easy enough to make a bootable CD from it.

Just make sure it's the "good" Norton Ghost. I think Norton Ghost 2003 was the last decent, off-line, disk imaging software. Back in my Windows XP Days, I was using this. No doubt it will still work with current versions of Windows - but it's a great imagine software and never let me down - but saved a lot of tears and time.

It is getting old though, and support had severely waned since. For a modern piece of software True Image is probably the Ghost replacement for nowadays. Go with that if you don't fancy using outdated Ghost - although sometimes you get the odd silly bug where it'll hang on the boot screen if you move the mouse before you make a selection using the keyboard (I had this error, it took me ages to find out that it was the mouse input that was causing a crash).

Does Norton Ghost 2003 not require .NET Framework? I don't recall which versions I researched (probably more current ones), but those I saw did require .NET. If Ghost 2003 doesn't need .NET, I would be willing to give it a test drive, if I can find a download source.
 
I'm pretty sure he knows that at this point, and it does require .net in the newer versions. It also sounds like he has the extra drive in a mobile rack.

I did some quick googling on the 2015 version of true image. Overall the reviews seem pretty good
Acronis True Image 2015 review: Easy to use, at last
Acronis True Image 2015 - Free download and software reviews - CNET Download.com

Worst case, it looks like there might be a free trial of it.

At the moment I'm stuck between Aomei and True Image. Both look to do what I want done. Both have good user reviews. Guess the tiebreaker question is which is easier for a non-techie to use?
 
I'm not sure that's something any of us here can give you a solid answer on as that is 100% subjective to the user.

I've never heard of Aomei before so I looked that up. It looks like their free version does drive cloning and the few screenshots I saw looked simple so being free that might be worth a shot on your end.
 
I used to have a portable HD (Long story as to why I do not have it anymore excluded...), and I did regular imaging of my main drive to it.

Now, I found that pretty much any problem that can be solved with regular imaging can be solved with standard backup software, and learning how to create your own custom install disk. With a custom install disk, your drivers are all set and ready to go. With regular backups, besides the norm of having your standard folders backed up, you also have the ability to backup the installers for any software that you need (I use mostly free software, and custom solutions for things like keeping my Palemoon browser profile as well as other things backed up {Learning scripting at an early age proved far more useful than just a hobby as it turns out...} ), and a reinstall every once in a while proves useful no matter how well you take care of your OS. Most of the installers can be written into the windows install as well, but to make sure that you have what you want means learning how to develop software to deal with that. This way, you can choose what you want at install time.

That was a long way for me to say the same thing that celegorm said, but elaboration never hurts.


EDIT
I guess I should also say that I have to do this for everyone in the house (4 people using the desktop 2 of us using the laptop at the same time. If you enjoy solving mazes or playing chess, this is the thing for you).
 
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