Satellite P870 - simple image backup & restore software required

Question

Does anyone know of simple disk imaging software to back up and restore C: drive including the OS and every file.
I used to use BartPE which had the shell of Windows XP on the CD and booted from the CD and allowed an image to be made or restored. It didn't matter if the PC's OS was broken was a simple OS on the CD plus Norton Ghost 8.
My Satellite P870 can only boot from a USB (selected in the BIOS) and I've been unsuccessful getting my BartPE to boot from a USB. Similarly I installed Odin Imaging software but it doesn't boot from the USB either, though I can run it from Explorer (but relies on Windows 8 loading properly).
I also downloaded Paragon Free Data Recovery but it wants to install the program on the laptop. I want a purely portable drive/image copying program.
Message was edited by: Hanlen

Answer 1

> {quote:title=peterk_1 wrote:}{quote}
> How about " Regardless of your operating system, file system and partition scheme, through creating a bootable CD it can sector-by-sector copy you disk to assure you a 100% identical copy of the original one."
> [http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/home-edition/]
>
> And it's free
>
> Just noted your comment about booting - Your P870 won't boot from the optical drive???
>
> Message was edited by: peterk_1
Firstly, I have to correct where I said the P870 does not boot from the optical drive. Both USB and ODD are options. In the process I managed to create a bootable USB with EaseUS and a bootable CD with Paragon Backup & Data Recovery 2013 (free version). However the laptop would not boot from the USB or CD despite setting USB or ODD at the number 1 position in the BIOS.
The following changes to the BIOS (version 2.30) does cause the laptop to boot from the USB or CD as the case may be, however it is not a permanent solution as the laptop will not boot into Windows even if there is no USB device attached or a CD/DVD in the ODD.
Set Secure Boot to disable. Set Advanced System Configuration Boot Mode to CSM Boot.
When the job is done Boot Mode will need to be put back to UEFI Boot. If there is a better way whereby the settings do not have to constantly be changed, Id be interested but its not important for my needs.
On using EaseUS to back up C: drive, I could not see the 2 partitions I had created from splitting C drive so I put it aside and tried Paragon Backup & Data Recovery 2013 (free version). I had to download the install the program on the laptop and from there, create a bootable CD (or USB).
That all worked smoothly as did running the program.
There is no need to keep the program on the laptop once the bootable USB/CD is created though I have not reviewed it for other useful operations.
The commands are relatively intuitive and the help answered one question I had along the way.
The only confusing thing I found was when restoring the data and being confronted with a string of drives to copy the data back to. Following the process of elimination I chose F drive in my case based on the drive size. The only odd thing was the cursor; each time I touched the track pad with a second finger, the cursor flew to the left or right.
That might be peculiar to the P870 and Windows 8 its pretty much straight out of the box with virtually no software installed by myself (yet).
As for my old BartPE, it caused the blue screen of death twice in succession so it is relegated to use only with my old XP laptop.