True Backup=Clones

[NighEve]

I had cloned a drive or two before using Clone-max, good program if you don't have multiple SATAs and IDEs on one machine, so it had it's limitations. I was running out of space on the primary drive C:. I needed to clone to a larger drive and of course back up the PC.
So I got Acronis True Image Home 2010 that said it can even clone from USBs. I had already had a Manhattan external enclosure for an IDE drive that connected via USB. Guess what Acronis does clone to or from USB.
It accomplished it in about 2 hours (160gigs)
Backing up data and saving images of your drives is a good thing. But there is no better way I think than cloning. If it works right you simply replace your drive. Occasionally Microsoft will ask you to authenticate windows XP but there is no problem, it authenticated itself over the net (after using clonemax.
I clone my main machine HD about every 3 months but since this works, I will probably do this once a month or so. I also use the external enclosure by copying other drive's data to a large drive for storage.

http://www.manhattan-products.com/en...rive-enclosure

http://www.acronis.com/promo/ATIH2010/ (probably several other brands out there that wil do the same thing)

You gurus have already done all this, I'm sure.. just thought that if I can do it anyone can.

If you put a new drive in the enclosure sometimes it needs to be initiated and formatted. Right click on [My Computer] click [Manage] then [Disk Management]

[NighEve]

Forgot to add that Acronis will back-up/clone from within Windows, but it better to boot from the Acronis CD and let it clone or back-up without Windows present.

[Omi]

I've only used Symantec Ghost and am an expert with it. Also used Microsoft Universal imaging utility.


Yes, coning is definitely a must!