help for new user - image or clone?

hi, i've just purchased true image 9 and am unsure which is the best way to backup my laptop pc. Do i IMAGE or do i Clone?

My main concern is being able to have a backup available to install on a new PC should my laptop "die".

I have a number of important software applications on my laptop that i need to run everyday for my work. I would like to have the right backup in case i have to rush out and buy a new PC in case my old machine breaks/gets stolen/gets smashed etc.

I have bought an external 80G USB hardrive to use as my backup medium, and am unsure whether i should be making an image or if i should make a clone. Additionally if i do 1 day need to use this backup on a new machine, what do i do? do i need to make a bootable CD?

I have read through the FAQ and help files but still find all the various options rather confusing and would appreciate any help.

thanks

v

 

Neither just an Image or Clone would work correctly without some initial preparation IF you want to restore to an entirely different laptop. In this situation you have to use something called sysprep BEFORE making the image - Image is preferable to Clone here. I have never used sysprep so don't know the details. Search this forum or the MS knowledge base for more info.

However, if you want to guard against the hard drive going bad (a more likely scenario) then an Image would be the way to go so that when you install a new hard drive (in the same laptop), you can Restore the image and in theory that's all that would be necessary.

Yes, it is better to make a Bootable Rescue TI cd, whatever course of action may eventually be needed.

On the external usb drive, definitely save Images and not Clones. Cloning will be an identical copy of the original drive. An Image will be a compressed identical copy of the original drive and you will probably be able to save more than one Image, depending on the size of your external.

The Cloning feature seems to present problems when cloning to an external and when the drive sizes differ greatly. Just last night I tested cloning a 3-gig to a 160 gig. With the 160 in an external I got a Disk Read error when booting the clone. This is on a desktop, btw, and using ver. 9 build 2323.

Also with cloning via the Boot CD, a problem with the Progress bars being invisible has not yet been solved. I don't know if it has been solved in build 2337.

For laptop, what I do is save Images to an external USB drive. And I have restored these Images successfully.

 

thanks for the quick reply.

If i understand correctly, Using images and a bootable TI CD is the way to go in the event of a hard drive failure on my laptop. Old hard drive files, buy new hard drive. Boot from CD and restore image from USB hard drive. (really hope that its that easy....)

However if i want to guard against my laptop being "run over by a car" then i would need to use the clone feature and the "sysprep" utility. is that right?

thanks

v

 

From what I read on this forum in the last three months I can conclude that even sysprep is no definitive solution if you have to switch to another computer. It depends on the amount of difference between the old and new configuration. The two computers need to be "nearly identical" for the switch to work.

 

I agree. But if you want it to work and cost is no problem...

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