Given the times we live in, creating a backup of your data is very important. You can never predict when your system might crash or get infected, and you lose your entire data to it. Now backing up data saves us time and efforts to redo it later, it can be crucial at times. However, just copying or moving the data to other locations will not cut it.
That is where the disk image/ cloning comes into the picture which can help you create an exact replica of a storage device. For that, you need best disk image software or cloning software; however, continuous backups are also important.
Before going ahead, first, let’s understand what Disk Image and Disk Cloning mean:
Disk Imaging: The process of making an archival or backup copy of the entire contents of a hard drive is Disk Imaging.
Disk Cloning: The process of creating a one-to-one copy of a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD), not just its files. It may be used for upgrading a disk or replacing an aging disk with a fresh one.
Please note that both are slightly different processes but serves the same goal. That is why we have enlisted below the software that can help you with either disk imaging or disk cloning or both.
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Factors To Consider While Choosing The Best Disk Imaging Software (2024)
Keep the following selection criteria in mind before you invest in the right disk image software for your Windows PC/Laptop.
- Tool to easily make a perfect copy of your computer’s hard drive.
- Ability to take a snapshot of the entire disk.
- The disk imaging software should work flawlessly across the network.
- It should be reliable & versatile. Go through the user reviews before buying.
- Easy-to-use & seamless navigation is the key to getting started with the software.
- Powerful enough to allow you to customize automated images.
- Ability to schedule automatic backup.
- Allows you to copy, format, partition, or delete a hard drive image.
- Value for money & budget-friendly disk image software.
These are the basic set of features that every good disk imaging software should offer. Keeping this in mind, let’s take a look at the following tools that include features, pros/cons, cost so that you can choose the one that suits your needs.
So, let’s discuss some of the best disk image software for windows that helps you to get a secure and safe backup of your data for Windows:
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Best Disk Image Software For Windows
Here’re the top 10 disk image software with their respective features, pros, cons, and pricing models, listed in no particular order.
List of Contents
Top 3 Recommended Table:
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EaseUS Todo Backup |
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Acronis Disk Director |
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Macrium Reflect |
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1. EaseUS Todo Backup
Featuring perks more than what other disk programs are offering, EaseUS tops the list. A disk imaging/cloning software, EaseUS Todo comes up with different imaging activities, such as hard drive, system, or partition imaging. Similarly, the backup mode in this program is customized such as full, scheduled, and incremental.
This is a best disk image software also has a home tier that adds some extra features, such as email notifications, file exclusion, and offsite copies. You can also have a backup of the Outlook account only.
The home tier costs for the individual as well as enterprise purposes (with more features). The individual plan for this drive cloning software is available for $29 and for an Enterprise, you need to pay $39, and it will include advanced features as well.
Keep your disk images up-to-date.
Supports full, incremental, differential backup options.
Ability to migrate OS to SSD/HD.
Easily create a bootable drive for disk imaging.
The free version can be configured in a limited way.
| PRICE: Free/$39.95 per year |
2. Acronis Disk Director
Alike EaseUS, Acronis Disk Director is also one of the most popular & trusted best disk image software. Offering a combination of different disk management tasks that include formatting, creating, and labeling partitions, resizing, splitting, and merging of volumes. This hard drive clone software can be used for volume recovery as well.
The latest update on the software has added extended hardware support which supports 4K native hard disks, as well as an updated Linux kernel version in its bootable media, delivering greater support of most modern hardware.
The disk image software has been updated to be compatible with Acronis True Image, meaning that we can operate both products on the same machine back up the volumes that we create and manage.
The hard drive cloning software can be bought at $39.99 using the below link.
Ability to replicate local backups to the cloud automatically.
Suitable disk imaging software for both Home & Business users.
Runs silently in the background without affecting PC performance.
Capability to restore OS to the same or a new device.
Lacks the support for network drive backup.
No free version available.
| PRICE: Free Trial/$49.99 per year |
3. Paragon Hard Disk Manager
Paragon Hard Disk Manager is no less than a Wizard of Disk Management and is probably one of the most feature packed solutions on our list of Best Disk Imaging Software. It contains various features that make it an appealing solution to use.
Paragon Hard Disk manager, to begin with, works as a full-fledged Partition Manager with all the required features packed inside a pleasing to look at interface. In addition to that, it offers a wide range of Backup/cloning and recovery options along with live backup and transfer.
Among other important features, it offers a dedicated disk wiper which can be essential in cases where you want to delete some sensitive data for good and forever. Disk Wiper makes it impossible to recover the deleted data back. Email Notifications is another feature that contributes to its awesomeness. With all the features mentioned above and more, Paragon Hard Disk Managers is one of the best Disk Imaging Software.
Easily clone a drive to another disk.
Support full & incremental backup of target disk and partitions.
Allows users to create, format & convert partitions.
Effectively transfer files between storages.
Relatively expensive than other disk imaging software.
Lacks support for cloud and network backup.
| PRICE: $79.95 per year |
4. Clonezilla
One of the free disk imaging software, Clonezilla has a clunky interface. If you can get past that which looks too close to the ‘Blue Screen of Death’ as seen in the screenshot below, there is quite a bit of functionality at no cost.
Clonezilla can be run from a Clonezilla Live CD, or thankfully from a more modern approach of a USB stick. In addition to disk cloning, the disk drive image software offers additional functionalities such as disc imaging, and disc partitioning duties.
Open-source & free disk imaging software.
Supports solid image encryption.
Allows users to clone over 40 computers parallelly.
Ability to restore one image to different devices.
The dashboard may seem pretty overwhelming to some users.
| PRICE: Free disk imaging software for Windows |
5. Macrium Reflect
One more addition to the best disk image software, Macrium Reflect is free to use to create an image for individuals as well as businesses. The software supports the ultimate goal of direct disk imaging, and its free tier of features support for the restoration of non-booting systems. It also schedules backups with flexible templates and creates live images of a running Windows OS.
The software also comes in paid versions for home as well as enterprise purposes. The Home tier comes with a cost of $69.95 that adds an option to encrypt backups, create incremental backups, and have ransomware protection. The workstation tier is for $75 per PC, which has some additional features like central management using Macrium Site Manager with volume discounts available.
Supports fast incremental & differential backups.
Ability to clone drives and partitions.
Tools for backup scheduling, encryption & reporting.
Good customer support.
No stand-alone application.
| PRICE: $69.95 per year |
6. AOMEI Backupper
With the free home version, AOMEI Backupper is a disk imaging software that is compatible with windows X till Windows 10. Supporting English, Turkish, and Danish languages, the software can be downloaded from the official website. With the tool, you can make a window disk image for further copying, sharing and restoring.
Once the disk imaging task has been completed, the log files are generated automatically.
The free edition of the hard drive cloning software is very limited, yet the pro versions start from $49.95 to $199.00.
Supports full, incremental, and differential backups.
Doesn’t eat much system resources.
Provides real-time syncing & remote backup capability.
Schedule backups effortlessly.
Occasional glitches.
| PRICE: Free/$49.95 per year |
7. MiniTool Partition Wizard:
MiniTool Partition Wizard, unlike all the previously mentioned Disk Managers, is more focused towards the Partition Management Part rather than Backing up part. Though the software is beautifully designed to provide all the functionality that you would want from a Free Disk Imaging Software. Mind you, it doesn’t provide the Cloning facility.
Download MiniTool Partition Wizard
However, you can still create Disk Image but that too partition wise and not for the whole drive at once. It offers very effective Disk Management Features like Move, Resize, Extend, Merge, Split, Format Conversion, etc. The Pro Deluxe version of the software also allows Data Recovery and offers Disk Benchmarks. With all the features given for free and worthy paid versions, it is one of the best Disk Imaging Software available.
Tools to create, remove & format partitions.
Fast drive conversions from FAT to NTFS are supported.
Easily merge two partitions into one.
Demo version available for a limited
Free version can be used on non-system disk drives only.
| PRICE: Free/$59 per year |
8. Acronis True Image
Acronis True Image is another backup solution from Acronis on our list of Best Disk Imaging Software in 2024. Acronis True Image, like Acronis Disk Director, comes feature packed. The easy to use interface makes it more fun to use.
Acronis True Image allows you to create full system images as well as the images of Particular drives. The Intuitive Interface actually takes you through the whole process of backing up. In addition to Disk Imaging, It also supports Disk Cloning for the people who are interested.
Along with these, it also offers a powerful data recovery option which makes it one of the best Disk Imaging Software in 2024.
Intuitive & modern-looking UI.
Equipped with reliable ransomware protection.
Supports both incremental & differential backup.
Best disk imaging software to clone disks.
Slow performance.
| PRICE: $50 per year |
9. Active@Disk Image
Last but not least in consideration, our list of Best Disk Imaging Software is concluded with Active@Disk Image. The application is an excellent disk cloning software that allows you to create an image of the data stored on the partitions of the hard disk or the entire storage media.
Besides the ability to create and restore a disk image, Active@ Disk Image supports creating an ISO image from CD/DVD/Blu-ray disk and burning them back. Additionally, the software allows users to create an image of several disk partitions at the same time and store them in one archive.
Talking about the features set, the disk imaging software comes with the ability to schedule incremental backup, copy partitions, create an ISO image, create sector-by-sector image for data recovery scenarios. Additionally, the tool provides the ability to split a disk image into several files for better management and supports password protection as well.
Create an exact copy of any PC disks (Blu-ray, CD, DVD, HDD, USB, etc.).
Provides different levels of compression.
GPT disks support.
Supports both incremental & differential backups.
Requires registration.
| PRICE: $39 per year |
10. Iperius Backup:
Iperius Backup is one of the most focused solutions on our list of Best Disk Imaging Software. Iperius Backup allows easier Disk Cloning and Imaging capability. The software is designed to provide the Disk Imaging and Cloning facility packed into an easy to use interface.
The software also allows Automatic Incremental backups which helps backup all the data in real-time while you are making changes by storing and/or deleting files and folders.
You can easily store the cloned drives and Disk Images on the cloud storage. Iperius supports OneDrive, Google Drive, Amazon Cloud, and other various popular cloud storage solutions.
The software offers you various paid and free plans. With all the amazing features, Iperius Backup is definitely one of the best Disk Imaging Software.
Create a copy of complex disk images.
Supports incremental & differential backups.
Automatic backup to cloud storage.
Centralized management.
UI may seem overwhelming at times.
| PRICE: $69 per year |
FAQs:
Are Disk Imaging and Disk Cloning the same?
No, they are two different methods of backing up the data useful for different purposes. While the Disk Imaging provides a great option to backup the data to offer protection in case of sudden data loss while Disk Cloning provides the exact replica of the drive including all the settings and everything.
What to look for in a Disk Imaging Software?
In a Disk Imaging Software, the consumer should primarily look for the ease of use in the most basic functioning of the software i.e. Disk Imaging and cloning. The next most useful thing is Encryption which provides a peace of mind that your backed-up data is safe. All the other features are subjective.
Which is Better – Cloning or Disk Imaging?
They both serve different purposes. Cloning can be beneficial if you are looking to make a big change in the PC Settings or hardware that can help you reinstall and rebuild things quickly in the new hardware. On the other hand, Disk Imaging can be helpful if you are looking to manage a steady backup of all your data. Disk Imaging provides a lot more options to let you easily backup all your data like Automatic Incremental Backup, etc.
Wrapping Up
Best disk image software is a must-have as it is useful to create a backup of your hard drive along with the security factor so that you don’t lose your data. There are many imaging software in the market, and all of them are best as they claim. However, we picked these above top five for you to check out.
Let us know if the article was helpful for you? If you are using some other disk imaging software that is working for you quite good, share it with us in the comments below, and we will share it with our readers.
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Chris Smith
Can you please help me with the manual processes?