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Up to Discussions in Windows
5 Replies Last post: Jun 27, 2007 12:07 PM by clay2k  
Click to view rgreen4's profile Member Moderators
rgreen4
4,205 posts since
Oct 22, 2006
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Jun 22, 2007 11:38 AM

Why I Clone Drives

After reading and working with various disc problems and re-installing windows, several times I have mentioned I clone my drives.

I thought the forum might be interested in a problem that occured on my Vista Desktop the other morning. When I get up and come in, I usually start the Vista PC not my XP PC. This morning I started the XP PC and at a certain point needed a file that was on my Vista PC, so I booted it up. The screen resolution was way out, give me an image that was squished down in the vertical mode making circles oblong. A windows download had redone my video drivers. (Update was on automatic - a mistake)

I attempted to roll back and got a black screen with the monitor image saying resolution was out of bounds. Forcing a reboot, I go the same screen. I turned off the PC, swapped the cables on the two hard drives, rebooted and was on my backup drive.

That night after I got home, I briefly tried a few corrections, gave up and cloned from my back up drive back to the operating drive and went on. Very little fuss very little muss.

Murphy's law is alive in well in computing and a cloned backup is a good insurance policy.

RGreensig2B
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Click to view AuroraDizon's profile Member Moderators
AuroraDizon
4,237 posts since
Jul 30, 2006
1. Jun 22, 2007 1:38 PM in response to: rgreen4
What software do you use to clone your hard drive?

Free RiceLIron Mini
Read the latest DigiYumi cartoon "Kellie Parker Interview" here
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Click to view rgreen4's profile Member Moderators
rgreen4
4,205 posts since
Oct 22, 2006
2. Jun 22, 2007 1:52 PM in response to: rgreen4
Clonning HD's
Acronis True Image 10. I used to use Ghost on my older machines, but even the latest version did not work with the Intel ICH8 drive controller in my Vista machine, or USB drives (necessary for my laptop). That's when I went to Acronis and have found it easier to use.

After installing and starting Acronis, on the main menu there is a left sidebar with categories listed. One of these is Hard Disk Management. Clicking on that brings up two options, clone disc or add new disc. Just click on clone disk, select the source drive, the target drive, set it on automatic and let it work.

There is a slight glitch with Vista (isn't there always) in that after clonning, the drive won't boot until you do a repair. However, the Vista repair is FAR SUPERIOR to that in XP. Its an option on booting from the Vista disc, and takes about two minutes max. Then the clonned drive works flawlessly.

To me it is really cheap insurance considering the cost of moderate size drives these days, and the time and effort involved in restoring a drive from scratch.

RGreensig2B
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Click to view AuroraDizon's profile Member Moderators
AuroraDizon
4,237 posts since
Jul 30, 2006
3. Jun 22, 2007 2:42 PM in response to: rgreen4
it sounds interesting, I actually haven't heard of ghosting until now. I've been meaning to back my stuff up lately maybe I can just do this instead. I got to see how much space I have left on my drive. I already have Linux dual booted.

Free RiceLIron Mini
Read the latest DigiYumi cartoon "Kellie Parker Interview" here
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Click to view rgreen4's profile Member Moderators
rgreen4
4,205 posts since
Oct 22, 2006
4. Jun 22, 2007 6:32 PM in response to: rgreen4
Clonning Drives
Actually thats where clonning got its start. Upgrading from one hard drive to a larger one. The one thing that makes it possible to swap back and forth, is to keep your data which changes over time on a second drive.

Before XP that was the preferred method, programs on one drive, data on a second. Win95 and 98 were not paragons of stability and WinME was even worse. Microsoft in their move to try to make the OS so easy to use, they invented MY(insert topic) to store the data. That of course brings up its own set of problems.

RGreensig2B
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Click to view clay2k's profile New Member
clay2k
6 posts since
Jun 27, 2007
5. Jun 27, 2007 12:07 PM in response to: rgreen4
cloning is goooooooood. Especially if you are running windows. I use clones so that i can have multiple boot partitions that cannot see each other (boot partition manager for partitions, ghost for cloning... i do not use vista... no m$ products for me until at least the 1st service pack). Sure it is a waste of hard drive space to some, but i like a fresh OS dedicated to gaming (nothing else installed except drivers and updates) and an OS for toying and an OS for apps... i know i could virtualize on a base install for gaming and just use the virtualization for the later two but i do not want to for various reasons.

You should definitely get into cloning, it can save your touche so many times over. Plus you can easily dump it to a dvd or other media and store it safely away.


cloning is also good if you setup multiple like pc's, prior to entering in your key and activating you can clone the drive, dump it to the other systems and put in their unique codes and you'll have x amount of setup pc's. Couple this with M$ oem products and you can fully setup the os, install updates/updated drives, software and rollback the key/activation and you have a fully setup and updated os to dump on any like pc you want just like all the big players in the pc market.


ps at work i use paragon products. I have added new drives to raid arrays (dell) with larger capacities and this product re-mapped the partions perfectly. I assume their vista compatible drive backup program is just as great. the products that i have used have simple interfaces, the hardest thing is getting over the fear of "what if it screws things up".
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