Cloning vs Imaging

[Cigarguy]

A good cloning software should allow you to clone drive A to B and can restore from drive B to X irrespective of where or what the machine environment is.

I've used Clonezilla for many years for this purpose. For many years I've been involved with a charity educating victims of landmines in my native country of Cambodia. We teach kids who've been victims of landmines a trade in order for them to make a living of some sort. The school that we set up are really appreciative of computers, especially laptops. Most of the T61 that have passed my way are sent on to Cambodia for this purpose. The schools have a particular need, software wise, and setup that they want. I would set everything up here, clone the HDD and send the HDD to Cambodia. They take the drive and pop into their T61 and away they go.

The school use T60, T61, T400 and X201. I have images for all of these machines. Whenever they need one I'll simply restore the image here onto a HDD and forward it on. I have an external USB drive caddy that takes two drives for this purpose.

As others have said, always check the restored drive after the cloning process.

[RealBlackStuff]

I reread your post, RBS, and now see that you are saying that the Thinkpad image can be restored to any Thinkpad.
I took from your clarifying second post (hopefully correctly) that the Thinkpad image can be otherwise restored onto any other Windows computer.
Have you ever used Rebit software?

Partly correct, you can restore to ANY HD. But you have to put that HD in a TP that more or less matches the TP the image was taken from. E.g. a T40 image won't work in a T60 and v.v., but a T60 image might work in a Dell D620.
I have successfully used the same W7 image from a T410 in T400/R60/T61/R61/X60/X61 machines.
Works in all of them after W7 self-adjusts a few drivers. The above TPs are similar enough in hardware.

Never heard of Rebit.
I don't do backups, I take images instead.

[ch27]

I used the Linux based Redo Backup and Recovery (redobackup.org) to create images for my T60p, T42, and R50p all using the same ultrabay adapter (from Tuus and I removed the extra tab) and sata drive. Boot from CD, choose backup or recovery, then source and destination drives.

[Paul Pavlik]

I use Apricorn EZgig to make Clones of my HD.

I have found that if I clone From Internal to External (Drive in USB Enclosure), the resulting Clone (after mounting it in the internal Drive Bay) is not reliable. About 20% if the time, it will not boot, just a blinking cursor.

If I Clone from External to Internal, the Clone is 100% reliable.

Apricorn states that the Thinkpad requires Ext to Int Cloning for Reliable Clones.

I also make Image Backups (of the Internal Drive) to a External Drive in USB Enclosure.

The one time that I restored a Image from the External Drive to Internal Drive, it was a Success. Haven't tried it since.

[taichi]

I use Apricorn EZgig to make Clones of my HD...

...If I Clone from External to Internal, the Clone is 100% reliable...

...I also make Image Backups (of the Internal Drive) to a External Drive in USB Enclosure.

The one time that I restored a Image from the External Drive to Internal Drive, it was a Success. Haven't tried it since.

When you clone external to internal, how do you first boot your system to do the clone, and what software so you use?

If I recall correctly, i do not need any caddy or device if I pull my drive from the Thinkpad and insert it in the Apricorn.

Do I need anything other than a bare drive (another 500GB Scorpio Black) to insert the drive internally?

The caddies and adapters are for the Ultrabay, correct?

And what do you use to image and restore?

Thanks

[Paul Pavlik]

I use Apricorn EZgig to make Clones of my HD...

...If I Clone from External to Internal, the Clone is 100% reliable...

...I also make Image Backups (of the Internal Drive) to a External Drive in USB Enclosure.

The one time that I restored a Image from the External Drive to Internal Drive, it was a Success. Haven't tried it since.

When you clone external to internal, how do you first boot your system to do the clone, and what software so you use?

I boot from the Apricorn CD.

If I recall correctly, i do not need any caddy or device if I pull my drive from the Thinkpad and insert it in the Apricorn.

Correct, you put it into the USB Drive Enclosure.

Do I need anything other than a bare drive (another 500GB Scorpio Black) to insert the drive internally?

No.

The caddies and adapters are for the Ultrabay, correct?

No. You remove the Drive from the ThinkPad and put it into the USB Drive Enclosure. This will be the SOURCE Drive.

Then. you put the New Drive in the Thinkpad Regular Drive Bay, using the Drive Caddy. This will be the TARGET Drive. You do NOT have to use the UltraBay.

And what do you use to image and restore?

The Apricorn CD has a Program that you can load on the PC that you run to create a Image.
Then, you can boot from the Apricorn CD if you have to restore the Image

Thanks

[robert213]

When you clone external to internal, how do you first boot your system to do the clone, and what software so you use?

1) Most folks have purchased True Image Home.

2) True Image Home has a feature which creates Acronis Windows Bootable CD.

3) Then, they place the CD from step 2) into the DVD/CD player in the UltraBay.

4) Press [F1] to update BIOS to place DVD/CD ahead of HD in boot start-up sequence

5) Their machines boot from the CD in UltraBay.

6) They connect the USB HD Enclosure to machine.

7) They run True Image Home located on Acronis Windows Bootable CD.

Then they either choose Create Image or Clone HD.

[jedisurfer1]

has anyone mentioned clonezilla, f12 to boot from cd and clone.

[ch27]

Many software solutions have been mentioned but has anyone used these dual bay hard drive docking stations with clone functions? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 1DS0CD0642
Most are about $50 or less. It says it doesn't even require a PC to clone the drive.

[taichi]

ShadowProtect, which an earlier poster mentioned, looks interesting because of the apparent high level of restore success, the high level of support, the ability to restore to different hardware, and the ability to run the image as a virtual machine.

It is not inexpensive, though, and it requires that it is always connected (it continuously updates the image, like a backup). This means that the Thinkpad always has a little companion...a little external drive!

[cadillacmike68]

Many software solutions have been mentioned but has anyone used these dual bay hard drive docking stations with clone functions? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 1DS0CD0642
Most are about $50 or less. It says it doesn't even require a PC to clone the drive.

I prefer the ThinkPad Advanced Dock. It has an Ultrabay that you can use to eliminate any need for a USB enclosure. You can get a used dock for ~$50 from this forum (from TuuS), and it is much more versatile.

My preferred setup is boot CD in the advanced dock, original HDD still in the original / primary / main / internal bay and the new clone HDD in ThinkPad's UltraBay in a 2nd HDD Adapter tray.

That way, if the new drive is intended for a different machine I don't have to move things around in the original ThinkPad.

Other than a few early learning experiences, I have not had any problems cloning with the original HDD in the primary bay, and I've done a lot of cloning, on a variety of ThinkPads.