Single partition clone

Hello,

Is there a way to clone a single partition? If I remember I could do this with driveimage back in the 1990's.


Here's why:

disk1-partition1 = os (winxp-sp2)
disk1-partition2 = data

Disk2 is complete clone of disk1:
Disk2-partition2 = os (winxp-sp2)
Disk2-partition2 = data

Now when backup time comes:
1-os partition --- can't do a simple copy, because of system files/registry/metafiles etc, so I'll have to use a cloning/copy partition thing.

2-data partition-- do a simple copy (only changed files)



That way When disaster strikes on disk1, I throw disk1 to the garbage then plug disk2 and I'm ready to work immediately, "NO" downtime.
Then buy as quickly as possible a new backup drive.


Full disk clone each time is no good, takes to much time. Currently 1.5 Hours and will increase as I'll get bigger drives.

Drive Image files are better but not by much because there would be a downtime (who knows how long) while I get a new "production/main" drive to restore the backup to.


Thanks.

 

How big are your drives now? 1.5 hours seems rather long for cloning. Is the second drive internal or external? What version and build number of True Image are you using?

 

Hello,
drives are now 180GB. Will soon change to 1TB.

disk1=master, primary channel,internal, udma5
disk2=slave, secondary channel, removable tray(internal enclosure), udm5

TrueImage is Home-version 10.0 (build*4.940)

 

Well, I've never yet gotten anywhere close to filling up a 180, , so maybe 1.5 hours is correct. Let's see if someone else can verify that.

 

you can't clone a single partition but you can backup a single image partition , that's how I do all my backup's on windows xp pro with true image 9.0 , and it's going to recover your system or let you upgrade to a larger hard drive with no problems. I never do full hard drive backups or cloning operations. I only backup my c: drive partition on my 2 partition hard drive. This morning I downgraded from a 400gb IDE to a 300gb SATA hard drive just using my c: drive 20gb partition image. After the recovery I removed old hard drive install new hard drive and computer booted normally.
My old system winxp pro 400gb IDE = 2 partitions c:20gb d:380gb
My downgrade to 300gb SATA = 2 partitions c:20gb d:280gb
I always keep my c: drive small for quick backups about 5 minutes and the recovery to a larger drive took less than 10 minutes. For me it's proven reliable and quick as for the larger partition I never back that up, I just copy that to an external drive as needed, I only worry about my c: drive. In your system from what I see, all you would have to do is restore your disk1 partition 1 image backup into you disk2 partiton 1. The only problem that might occur would be that if your disk 2 is seen and recognize by windows xp on your disk 1 partiton 1, during recovery it might change the drive letters and give boot hanging problems. (drive letter changes have happened to me in 2 out of 6 recoveries but it's an easy fix.)

 

Hello sp139,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please be aware that currently there is no option to clone a single partition available. That option might be added in the future builds of Acronis True Image, however, the timeframes are not decided yet.

Also please be aware that there are two approaches available:

Clone Disk - migrates/copies the entire contents of one disk drive to another;

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

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

Actually, 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, we 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, images are ordinary files and so they can be stored on any type of the supported media, etc (1.5 hours is quite normal time for a 180gb drive with your setup, notice, however, that image creation would likely take less time). However, the final choice is always up to your needs.

You can find more information on how to use Acronis True Image 10.0 in the respective User's Guide.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov