Clonezilla and GParted have recently been released as a multi-boot Live CD.  This means that you don't have to have Linux installed on your computer in order to use either one.  

http://clonezilla.sourceforge.net/gparted-clonezilla/

For those that aren't familiar with either one, GParted is a GPL (free) program similar to Partition Image.  Clonezilla (also GPL) provides functionality similar to Ghost 10 but has support for a wider varitey of file systems (including NTFS, FAT, ext2, and riserfs.)  It also has support for multicasting and other features included in Ghost corp. edition.

I noticed that Clonezilla is mentioned in the Ghost guide as an alternative but it says that it only runs on Linux (a major disadvantage for many users.)  Now that they provide a LiveCD, a Linux install on the computer is no longer necessary.  In fact, there is virtually no Linux knowledge required.

That's good news (especially the *free* part).

Have you used these prgms?

Any caveats?

I will update the page in the guide where these prgms are mentioned, with a link to this page.

I've used GParted.  I've never used Clonezilla or either of the LiveCD's.  I'm thinking this weekend might be a good time to play with them.

update .. updated the 'alternatives' page:

http://ghost.radified.com/ghost_alternatives.htm

MrMagoo wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2007 at 2:52pm:

I'm thinking this weekend might be a good time to play with them.

MrMagoo,

I just tried the CD. I found GParted but I've no idea how to find Clonezilla. Any hints?

My impression from reading the site was that it is a multi-boot CD, and that both GParted and Clonezilla were available from a GRUB boot menu.  I'll give it a try later.

MrMagoo,

I guess we both forgot about this. Did you get it working?

I found the boot menu. Had to scroll down. But I'll be on the old age pension before the CD completes booting. I gave up.

I used the GParted Live CD this weekend to resize an NTFS partition to make room for an EXT3 partition so I could dual-boot the box.  Worked well.  Admittedly, the interface wasn't nearly as professional looking as Partition Magic, but it worked.

I still haven't tried CloneZilla.  I have my own tools for backing up a Linux box, so I just haven't gotten around to it.

GParted 347 works well on my computer. GParted 348 doesn't.

Parted Magic 1.8 uses GParted and I like this app even better than the above CD. Loads faster.

Interesting.  Thanks for the tip.

Ran into a little issue with GParted this weekend.  I was trying to resize an extended partition so I booted up GParted.  The boot sequence hung while attempting to detect Adeptice I20 Raid controllers, which I do not have installed.  I think someone else on this forum mentioned having trouble getting the LiveCD to boot, and I wonder if they might have been having the same issue.  I can't find the thread anymore.  

A little googling showed that others have had the same issue, and the advice is usually to use PartedMagic instead of GParted.  Both take you to a desktop environment where you can run GNU Parted, which is the program that actually does the partitioning.

PartedMagic worked well for me.  Not much of a solution, but a perfectly acceptable work-around for anyone having issues with GParted.