Can I use Hard Drive Cloning as a backup option?

[baertracks]

I have two hard drives (Momentus 7200.4 500 GB) for my T500. I am planning to clone my primary drive to the identical secondary hard drive located in the ultrabay. I have a third hard drive (250GB) that I am planning to use for frequent data backup.

From other posts related to cloning/imaging I see that this is possible. However, the cloning process seems designed primarily for "moving" data/applications from a smaller to larger hard drive, and then immediately moving the newly cloned drive into the primary drive slot.

However, I simply want to keep that second cloned drive on hand so that in case of a catastrophic failure of my primary drive, I can quickly plug in a fully functional and identical spare drive (identical as of the last back up, of course).

In Acronis 11 the cloning option says, "Automatic mode is used for hard drive cloning... Note that you have to remove the old hard disk when data moving is completed." That's not really what I want to do. Will the cloning process in Acronis somehow "tag" my existing primary drive is such a way that I will be forced to switch drives?

If there is that kind of limitation with Acronis, is there another cloning software that would be a better match to the kind of cloning that I want to do, e.g., HDClone?

Also, as I am working in a Vista 64-bit environment, I am wondering if anyone running 64-bit Vista has an experience in running Acronis or HDClone to do this type of backup cloning? Is the swapping of hard drives really "seamless" or are there some additional gymnastics that will be required in order to make up the backup drive fully functional? For example, will I need to carry around the original Vista installation disks with me in order to complete the swapping process?

Thanks
FRANK,
Baertracks

[rkawakami]

Well, I suppose it's a matter of semantics... "clone" implies that you are copying the entire contents of one drive, byte-for-byte, to another. That cloned drive can immediately be used when installed in a system; i.e., it's bootable. An "image", on the other hand, can be a file (or files if it spans multiple disks), which can contain some or all of the files from the drive (and compressed to save space or not), that requires usage of the program that created it in order for it to be restored back upon another hard drive. For my money, a clone would be (and is) the preferred method of having a backup. As you said, if anything goes wrong with the original drive, simply swap it out with the backup.

I'm not sure exactly why Acronis tells you to remove the old drive when transfer is complete. Perhaps it is because you shouldn't have two identical bootable drives in the system when it is started up. I did that once using Ghost (re-booted the system with the original and clone drives connected) and it hosed both disks. Apparently Windows got confused as to what disk was really the main drive and wrecked the login routine. As far as any tagging goes, there is an option in Ghost which is supposed to "mark" the drive as being usable by Ghost. I generally don't allow the program to do this and it does not seem to affect any clones or images that I've made so far. What can happen however, is that Windows will see the cloned drive as being different than the original and could force you into a reactivation mode. That also holds true for any programs which are tightly licensed; e.g., Adobe Creative Suite. If those program(s) detect that you have changed hard drives then you may have to contact the company for another license or activation. At a minimum, Windows will probably detect that the cloned drive is running with "new" hardware and will tell you to re-boot. At least that's the extent that I've had to deal with when first booting a cloned drive (the original drive was created using the IBM recovery disks).

However, if you attempt to install the cloned disk into a totally different system, then all bets are off. You might get a blue screen. If you are able to get the drive to boot into Windows, it may only be in Safe Mode. Or you may need the original Windows installation disk(s) so that all of the proper drivers are found for the changed hardware.

[bill bolton]

However, I simply want to keep that second cloned drive on hand so that in case of a catastrophic failure of my primary drive, I can quickly plug in a fully functional and identical spare drive (identical as of the last back up, of course).

That's exactly what I have been doing for several years now, through successivle release of Acronis True Image, and it works well for Windows XP, Vista x86 and Vista x64.

Just install the clone copy drive if you ever need to, and it will boot right away.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[archer6]

That's exactly what I have been doing for several years now, through successivle release of Acronis True Image, and it works well for Windows XP, Vista x86 and Vista x64.

Just install the clone copy drive if you ever need to, and it will boot right away.

Do you clone the HD in the mainbay to a hard drive in the ultrabay? I would be interested in knowing the specifics.

Also do you clone to a HD that is exactly the same capacity as the main HD?

Thanks....

[PhilD]

Do you clone the HD in the mainbay to a hard drive in the ultrabay? I would be interested in knowing the specifics.

i have done this with a T61 running Vista Business 32 using Acronis True Image 2009. after cloning to the new drive in an ultrabay adapter, i then installed it internally to test - it booted just fine. both drives were identical in size. after cloning, do not reboot the machine with both drives installed.

when i run Acronis for cloning, i boot from a USB flash drive with the Acronis Bootable Rescue Media installed.

[rkawakami]

Do you clone the HD in the mainbay to a hard drive in the ultrabay?

For my usage with Ghost 2003, I always clone the main drive onto a drive mounted in an Ultrabay adapter. I don't have a external USB optical drive, nor would I use one since most of my systems only have USB 1.1 ports. I boot using a Ghost floppy so this means that I have the laptop connected to a port replicator with an external floppy drive (for two spindle machines). Wth the A2 and A3 systems I simply use the built-in or Ultrabay floppy. Generally the cloned drive is the same capacity or larger, although I used to use a smaller drive to save a copy of the system when it's been freshly restored with all my standard applications.

This is straying a little bit OT, but now in those cases, I write an image of the system onto CD-RW or DVD+RW media. It's both slower to write and slower to restore but it doesn't "waste" a hard drive. It's basically like creating my own restore disk set. During the imaging of the system onto optical disks, Ghost allows merging a copy of the boot floppy with the image, making the CD or DVD bootable into the Ghost program. When restoring the system, you just boot from the first optical disk and start the restore from image operation.

ref: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=58123

[baertracks]

Thanks for all that have responded to my original question. Sorry, I was off line for a day and am just now seeing your answers.

Your explanations were very good, and just what I was hoping to hear, i.e., that I shouldn't worry about the Acronis warning, and that this will be a valid approach to doing a regular cloned backup of my system and one that others are using. It sounds like the key to this approach is immediately removing the hard drive from the ultrabay after the cloning process is completed.

The only lingering question that I have is with Phil's statement that

when i run Acronis for cloning, i boot from a USB flash drive with the Acronis Bootable Rescue Media installed

I recall seeing someone else mention something like that in another forum. This gave me the impression that I should be running Acronis from a USB flash drive "external" to my primary OS to clone my "primary" laptop drive to the "secondary" drive in the ultrabay (rather than running Acronis from within the primary drive). Is that really how Acronis needs to be run to perform correctly? Or, is this simply an alternative approach? And, if so, what is the advantage.

Thanks
FRANK
Baertacks

[carbon_unit]

If you boot to the acronis bootable media you are not trying to copy a "live" file system and you are not subject to windows crashing in the middle of the operation.
I always make a bootable cd to clone with.

[bill bolton]

Do you clone the HD in the mainbay to a hard drive in the ultrabay?

Yes.

Drive capacity for the clone destination doesn't matter as long as it at least as large as the source drive.

Within some constraints, the destination drive can be lower capacity than the source drive if you have the source drive fragmentation under good control, but given the relatively low cost of HDDs now a days, that's not something I've needed to do for quite a while now.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[bill bolton]

If you boot to the acronis bootable media you are not trying to copy a "live" file system and you are not subject to windows crashing in the middle of the operation.

When cloning with TI from within Windows, its only the set up of the clone parameters that occurs under Windows per se.

The actual clone copy operation requires a reboot into the minimal command-line-only OS environment that underpins boot loading of Windows, so the risk of it crashing is essentially no different to the minimal OS environment created by booting off an Acronis bootable media image.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[carbon_unit]

I have seen at least one version of Acronis make an image while windows was live. It was the Seagate Disc wizard version. I expected it to reboot to do the image but it did it from within windows.

[bill bolton]

It was the Seagate Disc wizard version.

Seagate Disc wizard is an Acronis OEM product, not True Image.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[carbon_unit]

OP said Acronis, but never specified True Image. Only you and PhilD specified True Image.