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XXClone, a free cloning tool for Windows
By Michael Pietroforte | 7 Comments | Permalink | Trackback | Previous | NextThere are two versions of XXClone, a free one and a pro edition. The pro edition has some additional features which are useful if you want to be able to schedule the creation of images.
Most imaging tools, I know, can only create an image of a Windows installation in offline mode. This means, you have to boot up from DOS diskette or from Windows PE CD. XXclone creates images while the OS on the source drive is online.
I must admit that I have my doubts if this works reliably. However, in my test, I had no problems with the tool. I tried XXclone on a VMware Workstation VM. The cloning tool copied the complete Windows XP installation to my second virtual disk. XXclone changes the boot.ini for you, if you want to boot up from the destination drive. In my test, this worked perfectly fine.
You can’t use XXclone to create image files. It clones hard disks in the literal sense, i.e. you will get 1-1 copy of your source drive. So its purpose is not to deploy Windows. XXclone is a backup tool. It also supports USB and Firewire devices.
With the free version, you have to backup your system manually, the pro edition allows you to schedule imaging and it supports incremental backups. XXClone Pro costs US$ 40 for every machine. XXclone prices start at US$ 40. (See the comment section for more information.)
Any idea how this compares to DriveImage XML (http://www.runtime.org)?
I didn’t try DriveImage XML, but I think it is quite similar to XXClone. DriveImage XML has the advantage that it supports Windows PE.
I have not compared XXClone and DriveImage XML either, but would like to one very nice feature that XXClone in the free edition has. The ability to copy a small partition to a larger partition. Most other free tools I have used for similar tasks requires payment as soon as the partition sizes are different – XXClone does not
Michael wrote:
“XXClone Pro costs US$ 40 for every machine.”
This is not true.
The price chart at the XXClone site says:
Host Count Unit Price Total License Fee
————————————————–
1 $40.00 $40.00
2 $30.00 $60.00
3 $25.00 $75.00
4 $22.50 $90.00
5 $20.00 $100.00
————————————————–
That’s $40 for the first computer and thereafter,
you pay more or less $20.00 for each additional
computer.
Kan, thanks a lot for the hint. I corrected the text.
Might wanna try clonezilla… its free and fully GPL
http://www.reviewingit.com/index.php/content/view/54/1/
This is actually just a “WISH-LIST” type of remark. I already know that xxClone will make a perfect copy of my “C” drive to an external hard drive. What I think would be extra great is a CD that would allow the external hard drive to be copied BACK TO THE C-drive. In that way I would not have to remove my internal hard drive and install the external drive….just a thought. Thanks for listening. John