Is Disk Clone Right for the Job?

All I want to do is once a month copy my entire system and software to an external hard drive, replacing the one from the previous month. What I want is insurance so if my system hard drive breaks I can just copy the clone from the external drive back to a new hard drive and go from there.
I have created a restore disk. Do I have to go through the secure site stuff? The external drive will be off all month.
I back up my data files daily to a dvd so data is not the issue. I would just hate to have to rebuild my system in the event of a failure. Thanks.

 

Hello gesully,

Thank you for your interest in Acronis Disk Backup Software.

First of all, please note that there are two approaches available:

Clone Disk - moves 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, I 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 more information on how to use Acronis True Image 9.0 in the respective User's Guide.

As for your main question, I would recommend you to do the following to be completely sure that you will be able to restore a backup in case of the system crash:

1.) Make sure that you use the latest build (2337) of Acronis True Image 9.0 which is available at: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/support/updates/

To get access to updates you should create an account at:
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/my/
then log in and use your serial number to register your software.

Please uninstall any previously installed build by following Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs -> Acronis True Image, prior to installing build 2337.

Please also note that you should create new Bootable Rescue CD after installing the update.

2.) Verify your image archive by means of the embedded Check Archive Tool both when Acronis True Image 9.0 is running from under Windows and when your PC is booted from Bootable Rescue CD created using the latest build (2337) of Acronis True Image 9.0. It shoud verify successfully in both cases;

3.) Boot your PC from Bootable Rescue CD created using the latest build (2337) of Acronis True Image 9.0, start Recovery Wizard and see if it recognizes your external hard drive.

In case the above points are successfull then there should not be any problems with restoring the image.

You can also find this instructions posted earlier by Menorcaman helpful.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

Sure you can use disk clone to move the entire system to another drive, just make sure you do not delete the orig. drive contents. After disk cloning, shut down system, switch jumpers unplugging orig. drive and test new drive on starting the computer and running the system. Should work fine. Save old drive and next month have new cloned drive to do the reformat & clone of the orig. drive you now have, swapping drives monthly. Or use a new 3rd drive, etc. sometimes a disc cloned drive will not recognize the other drive to allow you to access its data unless you go thru computer management-storage-disk management and change the drive letters on disk 0 & disk 1 . alphablets cannot be the same. you may need to change the alphabets to higher values to use the drive if needed or problems. Also make sure bios is correct for jumper drive designation as boot drive. (As long as you save your orig. drive without deleting until you try your new drive - the worst you can do is waste 30minutes trying this and if it fails switch jumper back to orig drive) Just remember do not delete orig. drive during disk clone.