Cloning Questions

I am accustomed to very simple backing up by cloning to a USB drive in Windows 98 with a program called Flipback. I am new to XP and Acronis TI, and see that there are issues with cloning in XP. I also see that people with TI 9 have had problems backing up, and quickly restoring images with external drives.

I like the idea of quickly replacing a destroyed hard drive with a clone, without having to have a spare drive on hand to which a image has to be restored. Also replacing a lost or damaged file by a simple copy from the clone would be nice.

As I understand it: When my c: drive is cloned to my USB drive (now j, both drives will look like c: drives to XP. If I remove the USB drive before turning my computer off, XP is happy when it next boots up. If later, I connect the USB drive after booting up, to make a new backup clone, or to replace a lost file, are there any problems? Is the USB drive reassigned as j: or does it still look like another c: partition?

If the main hard drive fails, I would like to take the USB drive from its case, and physically put it in the failed drive’s place. It seems like that should work fine if the USB drive still looks like c: to XP. If it looks like j: what then?

There seem to some savvy people on this forum. I would appreciate some words of wisdom.

 

Problems most people have are not related to using a External USB 2.0 HD.
In fact,... most folks on here will strongly recommend you use an External USB 2.0 HD for Backups, and Restores.

Why not have a Spare on hand? You can get a WD 80gb Internal HD for $43.00 (plus tax & shipping) HERE at Newegg.
You can install it as "Slave", and save your Backups to it, and...also, you can store other files to it. You could also TEST your Acronis Backup files on it.

You want to make a Full Backup IMAGE file of your Primary HD, and save it to your External. Not "Clone" it to your External.
Turn ON the External HD.... BEFORE loading the Acronis Recovery Boot CD.

I recommend you get another Internal 7200rpm HD like the one you have, and keep it on hand. It's not recommended you open a USB case and remove the HD inside. I don't think it will work anyway because USB External HD's are set up differently than Internal HD's.

 

I clone my laptop to an external USB drive regularly. Absolutely no problems physically removing it and placing it in the laptop. XP assigns the correct drive letter automatically (ie. C regardless of what it may have assigned when you plugged the external USB drive in post clone.

Cheers.

 

I wasn't suggesting that you couldn't put an OS on a USB External. I know people do this, but however, data is being tranferred through a USB cable. The speed is just not as fast & reliable as an Internal HD.
To me, USB Externals are for Storage, not an Operating System and Programs.

But "different strokes for different folks".

Now, as far as "Cloning" goes. Check out what I discovered about it.
Restoring a FULL Image, I think ....is better than "Cloning".

 

This post summarises clones and images (reply #7). With exceptions, folks new to backup software seem to be keen on clones. I agree with starsfan09.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/YaBB/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1132968474;start=7#7

 

You've picked me. Being fairly new to backup software I am fairly keen on cloning, but not exclusively. I also make regular image backups and park them on a server at the office.
I also spend a lot of time beating around the Australian bush and what with the rigours of airport security these days, laptops take a bit of a hammering. Call me old fashioned but I'm somehow comforted by having a clone sitting in my luggage poised for action so to speak. All I need is a jeweller's screwdriver (and in my case a Linux rescue disk) 5 mins later I'm up and running.

I do swap the disks over periodically just to check that TI is playing the game, but so far so good. The USB clone disk is also quite handy in that I have instant access to my files and folders by plugging into someone else's system should anything unspeakable happen to mine.

However, if there's a better way, I'm all ears. I've been boring my colleagues at work with how handy TI has been and now they all want to do it.