The "END ALL/BE ALL" DiskMan tool...

[mykalcook]

This question is for all of those who use software on a routine basis to manage hard drives, by either copying/cloning, migrating from one size drive to another, using multiple operating systems, and backing up all files to images or otherwise.

 

I am looking for the best utility in the industry, I am sick of having to resort to using multiple tools to accomplish what I try to do when it comes to managing hard drives for my clients. Basically, I use the Disk Management tool by Microsoft extensively, however it has it's limitations and does not do a hell of a lot when it comes to resizing, cloning, and etc. If I can't do what I'd like to do with DiskMan, I will use either Minitool Partition Wizard, or EaseUS Partition Master. I have also used Macrium Reflect (i like this one a lot), Acronis TrueImage, Norton Ghost (11.5 seems to be the best version), and even Carbon Copy Cloner and Super Duper! However, when it comes to migrating a certain size HDD that is larger than a destination SSD, I seem to have issues. Like for instance, I'm working on a clients Macbook pro and it only supports up to OSX 10.6.8 which is not only lame, but frustrating because I can't for the life of me get any of the clones working with any combination of utilities that I use. I do happen to have some hardware cloning tools, where I can put the master disk in the first slot and then the destination drive in the 2nd, then hit the clone button... but that doesn't work when the drive is smaller than the original drive. (I know I didn't put clonezilla on here but I just dont like it. I really don't dive deeply into too many Linux programs although I do use LCMint or Ubuntu a lot to recover data from 'failed' drives)

 

That's where this post began to formulate in my head. Why not ask Linus and friends what they think is the best of the best when it comes to migrating larger sized hard drives to smaller ones (especially an OSX drive)

 

There's a good chance that I'll finally get this working at some point, maybe even after I hit the post button... but either way, I think this would be a great discussion to have with all of you and i'm looking forward to hearing some of your input. Thank you very much, hope to hear from you soon!

[mykalcook]

Just so you're aware, I do know how to resize partitions and clone a drive that way. It's just not working in this particular instance and Macrium just isn't working out for me like it usually does...

[jared404]

You are asking for a very niche product. I find myself using Disk Management for all of my basic needs and the cli diskpart for any advanced needs on windows. I always use clonezilla for cloning due to it's reliability and speed. Clonezilla would fix your disk sizing issue on migration, just clone the used sectors to the new drive and use disk management to expand the disk. On linux I love using gparted, and on OSX I just use the builtin Disk Utility.

Why don't you like clonezilla?
It can be a pain to boot if you do not know what you are doing, but after it is booted it just works everytime

The only solution I see to your problem is an expensive hardware solution that will be out of date the day after you buy it

[mykalcook]

Clonezilla requires either a reboot to a thumbstick or having a dedicated workstation. It also does not allow me to use the plethora of useful windows software/tools that we use on a regular basis, so I find myself only using it when all else fails.

 

Over the past few years I've been studying what each program is able to do and even finding ways to make multiple programs work together to accomplish some very cool stuff... but ultimately it would be great to have a tool that does it all. Need to check a slow/faulty drive? HDTune. Need to clone a larger drive to a smaller one? Use Minitool to resize then macrium to clone it over. Need to pull files from a drive that Windows no longer recognizes? Load up LCMint and throw the files on the network raid.

 

It may be a very niche project, but I know I'm not the only one asking for a tool that does it all. Would be awesome if I could get our software developer to make something that does all of this but he's spending his time doing some more important stuff that I can't freely comment on.

 

I guess I admire those who still like to use the CLI and console based versions of OS/Tools these days but honestly, the easier tools do a great job at freeing up my time for other things like talking to clients on the phone or in person, ordering parts, or even communicating with the rest of my team in hangouts.

 

One guy that works with us swears by testdisk but that's also a lot like clonezilla in it's need to reboot/be-run-from-a-thumbstick aspect. 

 

Thanks for your input though, I appreciate it.