Need advice re disk cloning

I've just reformatted n installed the XP op system n programs. Now I want to clone the boot/programs drive.

I would appreciate clarification on the following -
The boot drive is 80gig SATA and using 12gigs at the moment
I'd like to use a 60gig ATA 133 as the BU drive

Am I right in assuming I need to partition the 80gig so it is not larger that the 60. Or should I clone the whole 80gig drive tr a spare 120gig SATA drive.

I have partitioned it to be just under 60gigs -58 to be precise. As a consequence of partitioning, there is a remaining 19gigs now called F drive - I want to hide that or somehow make it invisible. How to? I just want the cutdown 80gig to register - the 19 gigs is of no importance to me at all.

Should I have partitioned this drive or not have bothered?

Your advice is welcomed. Thx
BTW, where do I put in my system specs on the forum. I couldn't find it.

 

penandme,

You are correct in that you cannot copy a larger partition to a smaller one, so shrinking that partition was correct, you could copy it to the larger drive as you mentioned, but this is unnecessary since you've already shrunk the partition to fit on the smaller one. There are several ways of hiding that partition, firstly you could simply delete the 19GB partition leaving it as unallocated space, you could also remove the drive letter, or mark it as hidden. All of these options are also available in Windows.

 

Thx Paragon Matt

Points taken...one more thing - should I need to use the cloned/backup as a C / boot in case the primary boot fails, I will need another backup/clone. As i mentioned in the previous post, the clone is a 60gig ATA, the healthy master is a cut down 80 to 58gig. After the crach precipitating the use of the clone [60gig], I now need to use the cutdown 80/58gi as a new clone.

That would mean the new backup won't fit right? I can UP the size of the 58 to just over 60gigs but how many times can i afford to up the size. Whats the best way to ensure I can always make a new clone on these two drives of very similar size.

...but now something else, something spooky!
Just been reading on another forum that using Paragon might cause trouble - "I humbly suggest that you do NOT use Paragon. I know professionals who have gotten in trouble with it, because it does not always do what you think it will with a particular option. " [dated Sunday 17th Jan 2010]
...that True Image is safer....what do you reckon?

 

When you copy a partition with out software, it will only copy to unallocated space, meaning that the 60GB drive should not contain a partition when you do the copy. That being said, when you copy the partition it will be exactly the same size, in this case it will be 58GB (leaving 2GB unallocated) so you won't have any issues with the partition size. Just remember to remove any and all partitions on the target drive when copying the host.

Hope this clarifies things.

As far as the comment about Acronis True Image, many of our customers are former Acronis users and find our software to be more reliable and easier to use, I can't say for certain why this person posted what he did, but I can say that we at Paragon will always be willing to help customers at any time and provide excellent technical support, which you will not get from Acronis.