Can you make a disk image including OS, programs, prefs, etc on a dvd?

As a safeguard to a bootable hard drive failure, can you make a exact clone of a good hard drive install including OS, programs, files, prefs, etc on a dvd rather than on another hard drive?

I'd like to have a good "clean" copy of my OS, programs, files etc stored away so that if my bootable main drive goes out, I can simply copy over the cloned dvd - Operating system and all - onto a new hard drive and be up and running in minutes rather than hours or days.

Is this possible on a dvd? If so....how does one accomplish that and how do you recover the OS and all the other contents of the dvd back onto a fresh hard drive that will then boot right back into windows ? Thanks.

 

Hi Todd
Yes this is certainly possible. True Image will burn the image onto DVDs for you or you can save the image as a number of split files, there is an option for this where you choose the size of the split files, on your hardrive which you can burn later yourself. You will need to create a bootcd which will provide the driver for the DVD when you boot from it. Then you can select your DVD drive and restore from that.

Another way is to buy an external USB hardrive and put your image onto that which is quicker and saves DVD swapping etc. You pays your money and makes your choice.
HTH
John

 

Hello Todd,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).

We regret to inform you that you cannot clone the disk to DVD or any other media except another hard disk. However you may store the image of your hard disk or partition on any media including CDs, DVDs, ZIP drives, hard disks, etc.

If you have further questions concerning Acronis True Image please feel free to ask.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Thanks for the responses.

What is the difference between a "clone" and an "image" of a hard drive? Can you create an image of a complete hard drive (OS, programs and everything) as you can a "clone" and then restore your complete system including the OS to a new hard drive?? thanks.

 

John...thanks for your reply. Is a "boot cd" of my dvd drive something that is on the "bootable rescue" cd I made during install of True Image?? If not, how does one go about creating this....

I seem to be having some trouble finding this in the users guide....thanks.

 

Hello Todd,

The image of the disk (partition) is a file that you can store where you want. When you restore it you will obtain the exact copy of the disk (partition) you imaged.

When you clone the disk you transfer the data to another disk so that this new disk is an exact copy of the old one.

Please see the following article for more information:
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/faq.html#9c

The bootable rescue CD is the one you created when installed the program. Please make sure this CD is created with the latest build of Acronis True Image.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Ilya - you say, "The bootable rescue CD is the one you created when installed the program. Please make sure this CD is created with the latest build of Acronis True Image."

What I am asking is what is this disk used for? And, do I need to use it to create either a disk to disk clone....or a "image" of a disk?

And is the "image" of a disk something that includes the OS, programs, and files that can be used to totally rebuild a new hard drive with the os from the "image" disk.....??

 

Hello Todd,

You need Acronis Bootable CD only in case your operational system doesn't boot.

An image of the disk contains all the information about the disk content including your operational system (if the disk contained it), applications and data. When you restore the image all this information is restored so that you can boot the operational system and use all the applications.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman

 

Thank you Ilya, I'm starting to catch-on.

So....making a image of my drive or a clone of my drive is done through the Windows Acronis dialogue box where you see such options as an icon for "Create Image" and "Disk Clone"? If that's the case...i'm ready to proceed.

 

Hello Todd,

You are absolutely right. That is why the procedure can be called as performed under Windows.

Thank you.
--
Ilya Toytman