Does anyone know of a utility to create a bootable clone of a Windows system?

BlackScarlet

Posts: 105   +0
I want to create a bootable clone of my windows drive. I want to reinstall my whole system then clone it, so the next time I do a clean reinstall I can just go from this clone instead of having to actually reinstall and reconfigure everything. However I do not know of a program that can clone my drive and be bootable. I have tried Acronis true image, I have tried driveimage xml, I have tried paragon and a couple others, but none of them have produced a cloned drive which is BOOTABLE. Boot fails every time, and certain programs like acronis don't even make a cloned drive, they make some proprietary backup file which needs to be decompressed, and therefore is fundamentally useless, since I can't access any of the data without having that original program to decompress it. I want a program that will create an exact copy of my windows drive, so that I, theoretically, can remove my original windows drive from the machine, and still be able to boot from this clone in a perfectly seamless and functional manner.

Does anyone know of a software which can do this? Thanks!!
 
I don't have much faith in software imaging solutions either after simulating an emergency with Acronis and finding that it didn't work. Maybe I did something wrong but this type of software is not something most people are going to be practised at using. I have a hard drive copy station and made a direct copy to an extra hard drive for my main system. Occasionally I connect up that drive and make sure Windows is updated then revert to the original drive. It's not perfect but I feel more secure knowing that I can switch the connectors in my desktop and engage a useable drive if disastrer strikes. A copy station will only work to mirror a hard drive to another hard drive of at least equal storage capacity to the first one.
 
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