About the clone thing

  • Thread starter Thread starter inkleputDEL
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inkleputDEL

I saw a thread here asking whether you could clone a system to another
drive. From what I could see, there was no discussion of actual cloning.

On another OS I used I could do a true clone of the disk at any time onto
another disk and boot that disk at will.

Is the discussion of other methods based on a fact that there is no such
thing as a true clone utility available or does micro$oft put in special
killer programs designed to detect cloning and destroy any attempts to
move to a bigger drive?

JimL
 
You might wish to check out Acronis or Paragon -

Acronis for all your backup and data recovery needs - easy to use
http://www.acronis.com.sg/
For advice you can contact them:
http://www.acronis.com.sg/company/contacts/?s=GeneralRequest


Home and Office, Small Business & Medium and Large Business Utilities for hard disk
management etc
http://www.paragon-software.com/
Forum: http://support.paragon-software.com/


--

TaurArian [MVP] 2005-2008 - Update Services
http://taurarian.mvps.org
======================================
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
Computer Maintenance: Acronis / Diskeeper / Paragon / Raxco


|I saw a thread here asking whether you could clone a system to another
| drive. From what I could see, there was no discussion of actual cloning.
|
| On another OS I used I could do a true clone of the disk at any time onto
| another disk and boot that disk at will.
|
| Is the discussion of other methods based on a fact that there is no such
| thing as a true clone utility available or does micro$oft put in special
| killer programs designed to detect cloning and destroy any attempts to
| move to a bigger drive?
|
| JimL
|
| --
|
| America always does the right thing, but only after exhausting all other possibilities,
Winston
| Churchhill.
 
I saw a thread here asking whether you could clone a system to another
drive. From what I could see, there was no discussion of actual
cloning.

On another OS I used I could do a true clone of the disk at any time
onto
another disk and boot that disk at will.

Is the discussion of other methods based on a fact that there is no
such
thing as a true clone utility available or does micro$oft put in
special
killer programs designed to detect cloning and destroy any attempts to
move to a bigger drive?
Click to expand...

Anna does a good job describing cloning in this thread:

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/msg/c9776fcc963dc18e

You can certainly use a cloning program like Casper (which does cloning
exclusively) or Acronis True Image (which also does imagining) to clone
your hard drive, using XP.
 
Jim,

To add to what the others have said here, I have used Norton Ghost's
various versions for many years. Ghost will clone, image and do incremental
backups. Currently, people seem more satisfied with True Image than Ghost
though. (Ghost is clunky and takes a while to learn to use. But it has always
worked successfully for me.)

Please be aware that most hard drive manufacturers provide free
utilities to migrate your hard drive contents to a new drive too. I've used
Western Digital's utility a couple of times with no problem.

So, if you're just looking to migrate your old hard drive contents to a
new replacement drive, I'd say that the free utility provided by the drive
manufacturer works well enough. But if you're going to use it for regular
incremental backups, look at True Image, Ghost, etc.

Milt
 
TaurArian said:
You might wish to check out Acronis or Paragon -
Click to expand...
Acronis for all your backup and data recovery needs - easy to use
Click to expand...

I agree. I have Acronis. Acronis is a very powerful and simple system
for people who are highly (excessively) trained or highly oriented, very
well read, technologically apt and bordering on genius.

For normal people who eat tomatoes and squash they've raised in their
gardens (as opposed to eating integrated chips, circuit boards and
algorithms) and/or those who don't have photographic memories it is hell.

The fact that you cannot dump outdated files without completely deleting
the Acronis setup and starting over from scratch has its own rewards.


JimL
 
Thanks

JS said:
Not true, no killer programs.
I've used Disk Imaging tools to move Windows to larger drives a number of
times without any problems.
Click to expand...
Norton Ghost
http://www.symantec.com/norton/products/overview.jsp?pcid=br&pvid=ghost12
Click to expand...
True Image (has a 15 day trial version also)
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/
Click to expand...
Also copying disk to disk with Norton Ghost
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...hot&prod=Norton+Ghost&ver=10.0&csm=no&seg=hho
Click to expand...




JimL
 
Daave said:
Anna does a good job describing cloning in this thread:
Click to expand...
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/msg/c9776fcc963dc18e
Click to expand...

There's a very interesting sentence in this post, saying the clone is
"potentially" bootable.

That could mean you need a click or two or you need to slay monsters and
dragons or sacrifice virgins to get your bootable drive. Any specific
comments on this?

BTW, it has the statement that Casper 4 is more expensive. I paid over
$60 for Acronis, so the $49 for Casper 4 isn't so bad.

Thanks

JimL
 
Thanks. I'm not quite sure what to make of this post. My goal is a
bootable copy of my current system drive. Period.

Milt said:
Jim,
Click to expand...
To add to what the others have said here, I have used Norton Ghost's
various versions for many years. Ghost will clone, image and do
incremental backups. Currently, people seem more satisfied with True
Image than Ghost though. (Ghost is clunky and takes a while to learn to
use. But it has always worked successfully for me.)
Click to expand...

If it's clunkier than Acronis it is clunky indeed.
Please be aware that most hard drive manufacturers provide free
utilities to migrate your hard drive contents to a new drive too. I've
used Western Digital's utility a couple of times with no problem.
Click to expand...
So, if you're just looking to migrate your old hard drive contents
to a new replacement drive, I'd say that the free utility provided by
the drive manufacturer works well enough. But if you're going to use it
for regular incremental backups, look at True Image, Ghost, etc.
Click to expand...
Milt
Click to expand...

Is all this about content backup or an immediately bootable hard drive?

BTW, the system I used to have could boot from any partition at will,
assuming it had a system installed. Possible in XP?

"(e-mail address removed)" wrote:
Click to expand...


JimL
 
There's a very interesting sentence in this post, saying the clone is
"potentially" bootable.

That could mean you need a click or two or you need to slay monsters
and
dragons or sacrifice virgins to get your bootable drive. Any specific
comments on this?
Click to expand...

Anna would have to answer, but I suppose she means if the drive you are
cloning is faulty and not bootable, then the clone would also not be
bootable (but at least the data and settings should still be there!). By
definition, if you are cloning a bootable drive, then the clone must be
bootable, too.
 
My goal is a bootable copy of my current system drive. Period.
Click to expand...

In that case, cloning isn't absolutely necessary, You may choose instead
to image your working, bootable hard drive. Once you restore the image,
the contents of the drive will be the same (including being bootable).
But cloning will give you the same result, just in a different way.
 
"Daave" <[email protected]> said:


Anna would have to answer, but I suppose she means if the drive you are
cloning is faulty and not bootable, then the clone would also not be
bootable (but at least the data and settings should still be there!). By
definition, if you are cloning a bootable drive, then the clone must be
bootable, too.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I once had a cloner that made a bootable clone on another hard
drive - then proceeded to completely wipe the rest of the target drive.
Do you know if Casper does this? Or can I send a clone (image?) to a
partition large enough to hold the original and leave the rest of the
target drive alone?


JimL
 
In that case, cloning isn't absolutely necessary, You may choose instead
to image your working, bootable hard drive. Once you restore the image,
Click to expand...

Restore? That sounds like going back to mere backup as opposed to making
a bootable drive.

Thanks

JimL
 
Thanks. I once had a cloner that made a bootable clone on another
hard
drive - then proceeded to completely wipe the rest of the target
drive.
Do you know if Casper does this? Or can I send a clone (image?) to a
partition large enough to hold the original and leave the rest of the
target drive alone?
Click to expand...

I think you should ping Anna in microsoft.public.windowsxp.general since
she uses Casper.
 
Daave said:
No, I didn't say to restore the backup; I said to restore the *image*!
This page might be helpful:
Click to expand...

My concern is not so much restore _from_ what as restore _to_ what. My
base question is about moving to a different hard drive and ditching the
old, small drive. To me the word "restore" has always meant fixing the
old one. If you have created a bootable drive there is nothing to restore
- only to use. My whole clone question is about making a bootable clone
of the system, assuming that can be done, not fixing the old one. Fixing
up the old one based on a _backup_ of _any kind_ is totally beside the
point to me. "Can you make a new bootable system on a different HD in
minutes" is my entire question.

JimL
 
My concern is not so much restore _from_ what as restore _to_ what.
My base question is about moving to a different hard drive and
ditching the old, small drive. To me the word "restore" has always
meant fixing the old one. If you have created a bootable drive there
is nothing to restore - only to use. My whole clone question is
about making a bootable clone of the system, assuming that can be
done, not fixing the old one. Fixing up the old one based on a
_backup_ of _any kind_ is totally beside the point to me. "Can you
make a new bootable system on a different HD in minutes" is my entire
question.
Click to expand...

Did you read the linked page I gave you? That answers all your
questions.

Bottom line: There are two ways to accomplish what is in your question.

1. Clone the drive to a new (larger) drive. Then swap drives whenever
you need to.

or

2. Image your hard drive to *any* destination (even a series of CDs or
DVDs will do the trick). Then if you need to, put in your new, larger
drive, and then restore the (bootable) image, using the new drive as the
destination. Note that your definition of "restore" is not the one in
use here!

Casper does cloning only. Its advantage is that it allows you to do
incremental cloning (again, I refer you to Anna's post). Acronis True
Image does both cloning and imaging. Although it allows you to do
incremental imaging, you won't be able to do incremental cloning.
 
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