reformat HD before using TI ?

My first post to your forum.
I purchased a new Western Digital HD that came with Dantz backup software.
After installing the HD I used the Dantz software to backup my C drive.
I decided to switch over to True Image 9.0 based on a lot of recommendations. MY question is since I have data on the backup HD do I need to reformat it before I install and copy data using True Image.
Maybe I should have waited until I installed the True Image software before I asked this but am trying to avoid time and pitfalls.
Using Windows XP Home.

Thanks
Budo

 

May be best to post this question here- https://www.wilderssecurity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=65
I am still new to using the software but I can not see why you can't use the backup HD as long as there is enough room and you don't name backup files the same.

 

Hi budo, welcome to Wilders.

As your thread is in regards to Acronis True Image, I have moved it here where it should receive better attention.

Cheers

 

That was quick

 

AFAIK - You just can't use the Clone feature, you need to create image files. Cloning will wipe out the destination drive.

 

Hello budo,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please note that as TheWeaz has mentioned above there are two approaches available:

Clone Disk - transfers the entire contents of one disk drive to another;

In case of using Clone Disk approach the contents of the destination hard drive will be overwritten with the data from the source disk. You do not need to format the hard drive, since it will be done automatically.

Backup - creates a special archive file for backup and disaster recovery purposes;

In this case there is also no need to reformat the hard drive, since images are ordinary files and can be stored on any type of supported media (internal\external hard drives, CD, DVD, ZIP drives, network drives, etc.).

Please take a look at this FAQ article explaining the difference between Clone Disk and Backup approaches in more detail.

Please also note that Clone Disk approach is usually used to upgrade the hard drive (e.g. install a larger disk), while Backup approach is basically dedicated for the complete data backup and disaster recovery purposes. Since you are interested in backing up your hard drive for the disaster recovery purposes, I would recommend you to follow Backup approach.

Moreover, there are several advantages of creating an image over the disk cloning procedure such as: you can create an image without rebooting your PC, image creation can be scheduled for the particular point in time, Acronis True Image allows you to create incremental and differential images, image archive contains only the actual data and so it has a smaller size, etc.

However, the final choice is always up to your needs.

You can find more information on how to use Acronis True Image 9.0 in the respective User's Guide.

If you have any further questions concerning Acronis software, please feel free to submit a request for technical support or post any of them on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov