Making Bootable clone of C: drive to an external USB HDD

[baweeks]

Mac person here with question #2. My Vista box, I want to do what we Mac people call "cloning" the C: drive to an external USB HDD that's formatted using the Vista GUI in NTFS. I can have Retro Express 7.6 for Windows duplicate all the files over, and I can set the BIOS to look first to boot from the external USB device, but it won't boot. I think this is a Vista question, but must I do something after the formatting of the external drive, something about creating boot blocks, before I do the duplicate of all files using Retrospect? The format utility in the Vista GUI has a dimmed-out option to make a bootable MS-DOS disk. Or, is there a free utility that will make a bootable clone including whatever boot blocks needed, onto my external USB HDD and not use Retrospect? I trust EMC/Retrospect to make a perfect clone down to the pixel and would like to use it if possible. I do have EASUS partition manager, free version, FWIW.

-Thanks in advance to who ever replies

-baweeks

[Mayoff]

Retrospect does not support making bootable duplicates under WIndows

[baweeks]

Thank you, Robin, for your answer. I'm using Express 7.6 Windows for my one Vista (soon to be W7) box until I can get 8.1 Mac to back it up as a client with decent speed (that's an issue for the 8.1 Mac forum).

 

I'm taking it from your answer that the new Retro Professional for Windows will also not make a bootable clone, correct?

 

From looking at the upgrade matrix for Windows, is Express being end-of-lifed at Vista, and if I wish to continue backing my soon-to-be-W7 box with an EMC Windows product and not in client mode, my move would be to upgrade to Professional at 29.00, correct?

 

Will 8.1 Mac make a bootable clone of my Windows box in client mode? I know it will make bootable clones of Mac boot volumes; maybe Windows is different.

 

Any ideas of utilities for Windows similar to SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner for the Mac?

 

Thank you, Robin.

-baweeks