Newbie: What is the difference between a backup and a clone ?

I am trying to work out what the difference is between a backup and a clone.

I have already made a bootable Acronis T.I. v11 CD from the Acronis Utilities.
I have also made a full Hard Disk backup (tib file) onto an external USB hard drive.

My understanding is that if my hard disk fails or breaks, then I can install a brand new unformatted hard disk, and using the bootable CD, restore from the tib file on the external hard drive. Is this correct ?

If this is the case, why would I need to clone ?
Thank you all in advance or your understanding and assistance.

 

Hello derekp,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Backup software.

You have correctly described the scenario you should use in case of the disaster. So the main purpose of backups is to restore the data if something goes wrong. As for cloning, originally it was implemented to make it easier to transfer your system from one hard disk drive to another (for instance if you've decided to replace existing drive with one having larger capacity). So the cloning is easy way to migrate from one drive to another. Some people using cloning for backing up purpose also (in case of the disaster we can just replace the drive with one we have cloned original disk to) but I think backing up is more convenient as you can use schedule, Backup Locations, etc.

Thank you
--
Nikita Sakharov

 

Hi

Thank you very much for your very lucid reply.

Just one more question if I may ?
If my hard drive breaks, and I install a brand new drive with a larger capacity, and I restore the backup (tib) file as mentioned above, does this mean that I will 'lose' the additional capacity on the new hard drive ?

In this scenario, would a clone be better ?

Thanks again ...

 

No, you can restore a backup to a larger harddisk and not lose any space. There are several ways to handle this but easiest is to restore not using the automatic setting and you specidy the size of the destination partition -- then you just tell ATI to use all the available space. Generally, since you can have as many backup image files on a disk as can fit, you can have a history of backups. With cloning it's only one image per disk.

 

Thank you very much.
Much appreciated.

 

derek,
You might find some additional help by reviewing the guides listed in my signature--particularly 2nd & 3rd line below.

 

Thank you GroverH.
These are very informative and useful guides.
very much appreciated.