My laptop HD is failing, so I want to create an image of the NTFS partition before the drive fails completely. I tried using partimage, which appears to work fine, but the "experimental" status of NTFS support makes me somewhat nervous.

Then I found out about ntfsclone, which would seem to do what I want. However, the the website is marked unmaintained, so I don't know how outdated the info I read would be.

What I need is the ability to restore the saved partition onto a new HD, swap the new HD with the old failing one, and have the laptop boot as if nothing has happened. The new HD would be of the same or larget size than the old HD (though in the latter case, I'd want the extra space be usable as well).

Any suggestions as to which tool would work better?