Phil:
Understand that the Casper 4.0 program is a disk-to-disk "cloning"
program.
It is not designed to create a "disk image" of your source HDD, rather it
will, in effect, create a bit-for-bit copy of the HDD you are cloning - in
your case your internal HDD.
It is true that if you would use the Casper 4.0 program to make that
disk-to-disk copy, *all* the data presently residing on your USB external
HDD (I'm assuming it's a USB device) will be gone, to be replaced by the
contents of the HDD you have cloned.
However...
The Casper 4.0 program does have the capability of cloning the contents of
your internal HDD to a specific partition that you designate on the
"destination" drive, i.e., the recipient of the clone. So if you set up
your
USBEHD with, for example, two partitions, you can use one of those
partitions to be the recipient of the contents of the drive you are
cloning.
Naturally this assumes that partition will be large enough to contain the
cloned contents of the source drive. And, of course, the other partition
large enough to contain the present data on that USBEHD that you wish to
retain.
Now I can't recall offhand whether the trial version of the Casper 4.0
program will allow this partition-to-partition disk cloning capability,
but
the full version surely does.
We consider the Casper 4.0 a superior disk-cloning program and assuming
the
disk-to-disk (or partition-to-partition) capability of the program meets
your specific needs, we highly recommend it.
Anna
Hi Anna,
If you recall, I brushed on the subject of creating an external hard
drive for my existing system which is a Dell Dimension 8200 with XP.
At the time you recommended getting a PCI card so that I would be USB
2 compatible and along with Casper XP is there anything else that I
should get or be concerned with?
Thanks,
Robert
Robert:
First of all, please note that the program we're discussing here is the same
one I previously informed you about in a different thread, i.e., the Casper
4.0 program, *not* the Casper XP program.
While I'm aware of some users who thought well of the Casper XP program, we
were *not* one of them. We worked with the Casper XP program for a time and
we weren't thrilled with that program for a variety of reasons.
We are, on the other hand, strong proponents of the Casper 4.0 program. We
find it to be a superior disk-cloning program for reasons that we have
indicated in our numerous postings to this and related newsgroups re this
program. In terms of a disk-to-disk (or partition-to-partition) cloning
program - (it is *not* designed for "disk-imaging") - we find the Casper 4.0
program considerably superior to both the Acronis True Image & Symantec's
Ghost program (at least through the latter's version 11 program - we haven't
worked with their latest version 12). The ATI program is a fine program, and
as you (and others) have probably noticed, consistently gets favorable
reviews from posters to this newsgroup as well as from the "professional"
reviewers. But as a disk-cloning program, our preference is most certainly
the Casper 4.0 program.
So I wanted to make the above clear to you as well as others that we're
talking about the Casper 4.0 program.
As I recall, we had a rather lengthy exchange of postings concerning your
particular objective re cloning the contents of your internal HDD to a
USBEHD. I believe you had indicated that your system supported only USB 1.0
(1.1) and I (and I believe others) recommended you purchase a PCI card
providing USB 2.0 capability. I believe I furnished you with step-by-step
instructions re using the Casper 4.0 program to undertake the disk-cloning
process. If not, I'm reasonably sure you've come across a number of my posts
in which I provided details (as simple as they are) re using the Casper 4.0
program. I don't believe there is anything else you should be "concerned"
with.
Anna