A reader we will call John L dropped me an email yesterday and pointed out the Western Digital has an older version of Acronis True Image available for free download for Western Digital drives. The only catch here is that I was able to clone my Hitachi hard drive because I had a second WD drive installed. It will also work with an external WD drive. So it turns out that you do need a WD drive of some sort attached. I have used Acronis for years and it appears to be the full program.

If you have visited Majorgeeks more than a few times then you know we are always screaming at people to back up. Beyond the basics of making sure that you back up all your important data I also swear by cloning your hard drive. I like to get a clean install, customize Windows just the way I want it and finally clone the drive. By doing this, I can easily go back to the image and start over rather than re-install Windows. This saves you hours of time and frustration. It is essentially a custom restore method. Many of us find that Windows can slow down over time so why not do a simple 10 minute restore every so often? Typically if I do a restore I will update all my drivers, Windows Updates and other software and make a new image to save time next time I reinstall Windows. Pretty awesome.

The full blown retail version of Acronis offers a lot more features including a 30-day trial, incremental backup of specific files and folders as well as a more up to date Drive Snapshot technology and Windows System Restore Management but if you simply want to clone your hard drive, you can’t beat the ease of use and price tag!

The retail version of Acronis True Image costs $49.99 and we even get a little commission if you decide to buy it later so bookmark the Majorgeek promo page. I can buy a double cheeseburger instead of the 99 cent value menu burger and you get good kharma. Everybody wins!


Update: We have also posted a version for Seagate drives at http://www.majorgeeks.com/Acronis_True_Image_Seagate_Edition_Software_DiscWizard_d7715.html