How to Disk Image/Copy/Clone?

I just received my new Laptop (VAIO SZ330). I am planning to do a clean VISTA install.

How I can make a perfect copy of the the entire hard-disk into a USB Drive(I have 500GB USB Drive) with all the hidden restore partition intact. What SW I need to do this? Is there any
"How-To" guide available somewhere here in the forum to do this.


Thanks All

 

The guides listed below is one method of achieving your goal.

 

Yes, the True Image program will do it. And in case you overlook it in Grover's Guides, be sure to make the bootable CD media which will allow you to restore the backup in case Vista doesn't work for you. And equally important, after you make that CD, do a dry run and make sure it sees your usb drive.

 

Thanks All..

Let me follow the guides.

2 question though..

1st: I read in this ongoing thread (https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=170616)
When you Clone a drive the destination drive becomes an immediately bootable drive, if all goes well, that is just like the original.

However I want my current drive to be the bootable drive once the cloning is done...What do I need to do to achive this or after the cloning this will be done by itself.


2nd --- The files wihich windows/syste/os locks are going to be safly backed-up as well?

I never used Acronis so I am not sure about that.All I need is valid clone/copy Image of my entire dive with all the restore and hidden partition included.

Thnaks,

 

Just remove the cloned drive, leaving the original in the system.

In Acronis you can do a Clone or an Image - which do you prefer to have? Either will have the hidden partition included.

 

DwnNdrty and Everyone..Thanks a lot for helping me.

Now to answer the question

1st--After the cloning is complted I should let the PC reboot ( I assume its going to reboot from the new cloned disk, 500GB Capacity Drive ,As it is still attached) just to make sure every thing is coming nice and clean and If all is fine...
(A) I shutdown the PC..
(B) Remove the USB Drive (500GB Capacity) and
(C) start the PC ..

At this point it should start from the original drive and every thing should come just like nothing happend in between..Is that true?

2nd--
I prefer the CLONE as I really want a perfect Image of my current entire C Drive.

Thanks Again

 

You will not get Windows to boot off a USB drive - at least I have not come across a motherboard whose Bios will allow that.
Try not to confuse the word Image with Clone. The way Acronis uses them, Clone is a direct copy of your original. The Clone has to be put in place of the original in order to boot.
A whole disk Image is a compressed backup of the original. The Image has to go through the Recovery process where it is restored to a hard drive in order for it to be bootable like the drive from which the Image was made.

 

Thanks for making that clear. As advised in the guide gh-acronis-backup1.pdf I should do the Archive Validation.

Archive Validation: It is important that archives are validated after they are created. This can be carried out as part of the backup task by ticking the Validate box in the Backup Creation Options.

After the Cloning is done if I don't get any error message I can safly assume I have good Restorable Clone of my Original Disk..Right?

 

This is only for Images ... wait ... I take that back. I'm not sure since I'm not a fan of Validation because of too many false positives. But I do test my Images by doing an actual restore to a spare hard drive.

You better not assume that ... worse mistake you can make. Run that Clone to make sure it boots up just like the original. To make this an easy thing to do, some users here, including myself, use a removable rack/tray device to hold the hard drives. When the Clone is made, it is easy to swap the drives around. In my case all I do is turn power off to the original (the rack has a key - so I don't physically remove the drive) power back up the computer and let the Clone boot. Most motherboard bioses can be set to boot any internal bootable device it finds. My motherboard is about 6 years old.

 

I am doing this for my SONY VAIO Laptop computer so I am not sure how I can use any kind or Rack.

 

Ahh .. sorry, forgot this was on a laptop. In that case then, I wouldn't do Clones at all, but Images. You can keep several Images on that 500Gb external. But you should still test the Images by doing an actual restore of the Image. Which means that you'll have to know how to remove the drive in the laptop - usually not difficult. Then you will have to get a spare laptop drive. What is the size of the drive in it and how much space is actually used now?

 

My VAIO is just 3 days old. I don't want to open and void the warranrty at this time. I have 120GB HDD out of that 10GB is used.That's all.

 

3 days ... if you haven't installed much of your own stuff on it and if you have the Sony Recovery cds, you can test the True Image Recovery process without risking too much then. That's what I would do. So before you go further, make a Backup Image with True Image then do the restore right back on to the hard drive. You will have to make the True Image bootable CD though, in order to do this.
But in most laptops, the hard drive can be removed without breaking any warranty seals.

 

Hello msvista,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

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. However, the final choice is always up to your needs.

You can find the detailed instructions on how to use Acronis True Image 10.0 Home in the respective User's Guide.

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov