Free Symantec Ghost alternative?

[Tek7]

I'm seriously considering upgrading to Windows 7 soon. When I do, I'd like to do the base install plus a few key applications, then create a drive image and back it up to a few blank DVDs.

I know Symantec Ghost can do this, but it costs money. What are some viable freeware alternatives?

 

[Tek7]

Well, I may have found what I needed in Macrium Reflect. Has anyone ever used this software? If so, what do you think of it?

 

[Hescominsoon]

http://clonezilla.org/

 

[ewoksrule]

here are like 7 awesome choices on a fantastic website.
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-drive-imaging-program.htm

 

[Tek7]

Well, I may have found what I needed in Macrium Reflect. Has anyone ever used this software? If so, what do you think of it?

Okay, so after reading some articles, I decided to try out Macrium Reflect.

It's fantastic. I was able to build a disc image from inside Windows 7 and write it to an external hard drive in 4 minutes and 22 seconds. Creating and writing a disc image to DVD took just under 15 minutes.

With 15GB used on the drive, Reflect, using medium compression, created a 3.8GB image. Even removing 3GB from the 15 for pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys, that's quite impressive.

This is the program I'm going to be using to create a disc image after I format my wife's laptop hard drive and install Windows 7.