cloning to older disk

Hi, this is completely new to me so I am probably being very stupid. Is it possible to clone from Windows XP back to a hard drive with Windows 98 and if not how can I save my cloned disk to the other? I need to keep this information safe and this would be the easiest way?

 

When you clone a drive, the target will be a copy of the source - what was on the target to begin with is irrelevant - it's all gone.

 

The problem is that the target on the older machine where I want to copy the drive to is showing as a USB and not as an external hard drive

 

I’m afraid you’re going to have to provide more details. Provide a list of the hardware and exactly what it is you’re trying to do. Your first post made no mention of a second system, just an older drive.

 

Sorry - I am cloning my C Drive with Windows XP.

I have this second computer which has Windows 98 installed and I wondered if I formatted that drive could I clone the contents of my C Drive directly onto the older drive?

 

A USB drive IS an external hard drive.

We also need to know the sizes of both drives and how much space is used on the newer system, since the older hard drive must have enough space to take what's on the newer system.

 

I have saved 27.3 gigs to a 150 gig usb drive. I am attempting to transfer this to a hard drive of 37 gigs and am unable to do so without Acronis seiving up - where am I going wrong?

 

What’s 27.3 GBs? An image file, perhaps created with compression, which when uncompressed may be larger than 37 GBs?
How are you “attempting to transfer this”?
I hate to keep harping on this, but you must really provide more information if you expect any real help.

 

Sorry to be so vague. I have used the Clone disk command to clone my entire hard drive of which 27.3 gigs have been used and what I am attempting to do is transfer the entire contents onto another hard drive which has 37 gigs free space - it has Windows 98 loaded on it and my cloned disk is Windows Xp - is this possible?

 

If I understand this right, you used the Clone feature, rather than the Image Backup, to clone your XP system to an external 150gig usb drive, . The Xp system has 27.3 gigs of used space and now you want to transfer those 27.3 gigs to a Win98 system with a 37 gig hard drive.

You realize that if you do this successfully, you will lost that Win98 operating system and it will become WinXP. Further, is this Win98 hard drive going to be used in the system that now has the WinXP hard drive or are you keeping it on the old Win98 system?

 

Yes that's right. The hard drive at the moment is not in use and I am practicing getting it right for when I do upgrade to a better machine it doesnt matter what happens to the hard drive - also I thought it would be a way of learning more about Acronis - have I been going about it the wrong way?

 

If you are doing a clone to another disk what you will get will be an exact copy of your source disk. What ever was on the target disk will be erased and will be gone. Is that what you want as the end result ?
It would be helpful if you described exactly where you are starting from and where you want to get to.

Xpilot

 

Okay, you want to use the drive from the Win98 system on the XP system as a backup. The picture is clearer.

You have a couple of options:

1. Put the 37gig drive in the WinXP system and carry out the Clone i.e. you don't have to use the USB drive. When you do the Clone, shutdown the system, remove or disconnect the original and boot from the Clone to test that it works.

2. Make an Image Backup of the XP system on to the USB drive. Then remove the original drive, connect the old Win98 hard drive in its place and Restore the Image from the USB drive to that old win98 drive. You will need to make the bootable Acronis Rescue CD to do this.

I would go with #2 first because with Cloning you have a better chance of running into problems when trying to boot the clone.

 

Excellent - thanks for being so patient.

 

2nd option worked beautifully.

If I were to buy a new computer would I be able to clone my present hard drive and clone it on to the new system or is there a better way to do that?

 

Did you actually test the old drive to make sure it booted up just like the original?

As for the new computer, since it will be an entirely different set of hardware, you have to jump through a few hoops to make this work. I wouldn't advise you do this because after time, any WinXP system accumulates unnecessary junk in its Registry which slows down the computer in spite of however many registry cleaners you use. And to clone this to a brand new system you will just bring over all this junk.

Better to start afresh - reinstall your programs. Any documents or data files can be copied using Windows Explorer to an external drive/flash drive or burned to a cd/dvd then transferred to the new system.

 

Yes - it does and I'll take your advice re my new computer. Thanks for all your help