clone

[rob]

I would like the have a second drive in the system. Cloned and bootable.
Once a week I would like to update it by recloning. Can I do this with XP?
Suggestions for software otherwise? I have seen Acronis.
thanks.
rob

 

[Guest]

You'd like to re-clone it every week !!!! Huh,well,to clone C: drive to a
slave,
have the slave on the same IDE cable as C: (closest to MB),format the hd
in xp (diskmgmt.msc) or R.click in my computer,once formatted,go to run,
type:XCOPY C:\*.* D:\ /c/h/e/k/r Agree to all in the DOS window,once its
thru,youre finished.Also,D: being the slave,but if asigned diffrent
letter,then
use that letter.Cloning only takes 10 min or so,but you must format the hd
1st.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I would like the have a second drive in the system.
Cloned and bootable.
Once a week I would like to update it by recloning.
Can I do this with XP?
Suggestions for software otherwise?
I have seen Acronis.

No, you can't do it with WinXP. You have to copy
the registry, the boot sector, and the MBR as well.
If you want to clone the entire HD, use your Acronis
True Image.

But if you want to keep multiple clones on your 2nd HD,
you'll have to use Ghost or Casper XP. Casper XP
is dedicated to cloning, and it's cheaper than Ghost.
You can download a free 30-day trial copy of Casper XP
from www.FSSdev.com/products/casperxp/ . Unlike
Ghost, Casper XP doesn't require .NET Framework
to be installed, and Casper XP works in Windows
so it doesn't require any rebooting before or after the
cloning operation.

As with all Windows NT/2K/XP clones, don't let the
clone see is "parent" OS when the clone starts up
for the 1st time. You can isolate it from its "parent"
by unplugging the source HD's data cable before
the clone is booted. By removing the source HD
from the system, you also let the clone's HD move
to the head of the BIOS's HD boot order, so no
fiddling with HD jumpers is needed to boot the clone.
When you reconnect the source HD, it again will be
at the head of the HD boot order, and its boot files
will be given control again at boot time.

After the first startup of the clone in isolation, the clone
can subsequently be started with the "parent" OS visible
to it, and the clone will not be confused, but rather it
will just see the "parent" as another file hierarchy on
another partition.

If you add an entry in the controling boot.ini file, you can
dual-boot between the 2 OSes. But since your OSes
will be on different HDs, you could also just leave the
boot.ini file as it is, and adjust the BIOS's HD boot order
to effect dual-booting. The MBR of the HD which you put
at the head of the HD boot order will get control from the
BIOS at boot time, and the boot sector of that HD's "active"
Primary partition will pass control to the boot loader there -
which will boot the OS which its boot.ini file points to. By
putting the HD at the head of the HD boot order, you allow
its OS to think it's the original OS, and no software
intervention will be necessary to dual-boot.

If you want to keep multiple clones on the 2nd HD and be
able to boot any one of them, you'll have to learn the
syntax of the boot.ini file pretty well, and you'll have to
understand the boot procedure - which is a mini-course
in itself.

*TimDaniels*

 

[rob]

Thanks very much.
rob

No, you can't do it with WinXP. You have to copy
the registry, the boot sector, and the MBR as well.
If you want to clone the entire HD, use your Acronis
True Image.

But if you want to keep multiple clones on your 2nd HD,
you'll have to use Ghost or Casper XP. Casper XP
is dedicated to cloning, and it's cheaper than Ghost.
You can download a free 30-day trial copy of Casper XP
from www.FSSdev.com/products/casperxp/ . Unlike
Ghost, Casper XP doesn't require .NET Framework
to be installed, and Casper XP works in Windows
so it doesn't require any rebooting before or after the
cloning operation.

As with all Windows NT/2K/XP clones, don't let the
clone see is "parent" OS when the clone starts up
for the 1st time. You can isolate it from its "parent"
by unplugging the source HD's data cable before
the clone is booted. By removing the source HD
from the system, you also let the clone's HD move
to the head of the BIOS's HD boot order, so no
fiddling with HD jumpers is needed to boot the clone.
When you reconnect the source HD, it again will be
at the head of the HD boot order, and its boot files
will be given control again at boot time.

After the first startup of the clone in isolation, the clone
can subsequently be started with the "parent" OS visible
to it, and the clone will not be confused, but rather it
will just see the "parent" as another file hierarchy on
another partition.

If you add an entry in the controling boot.ini file, you can
dual-boot between the 2 OSes. But since your OSes
will be on different HDs, you could also just leave the
boot.ini file as it is, and adjust the BIOS's HD boot order
to effect dual-booting. The MBR of the HD which you put
at the head of the HD boot order will get control from the
BIOS at boot time, and the boot sector of that HD's "active"
Primary partition will pass control to the boot loader there -
which will boot the OS which its boot.ini file points to. By
putting the HD at the head of the HD boot order, you allow
its OS to think it's the original OS, and no software
intervention will be necessary to dual-boot.

If you want to keep multiple clones on the 2nd HD and be
able to boot any one of them, you'll have to learn the
syntax of the boot.ini file pretty well, and you'll have to
understand the boot procedure - which is a mini-course
in itself.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Timothy Daniels]

To make a backup I use 'Acronis True Image'
(http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/).
I create full hard drive image every month and keep it on an
external HDD (you can keep it on another partition), plus every
week I make a differential backup by special scheduler.
So I can restore my system at any time.
Once I tried to clone my HDD to en external drive for the backup,
but it's uncomfortable to switch drives. To my mind it's better to
make simple backup, as it's a really tried method.

It should be made clear that an "image" is a *file* that must
undergo a "restore" procedure to recover the exact copy of
the original partition. It can be compressed, and that is the
advantage of images - it can be put on one or several DVDs
or CDs or on an external USB drive for archiving.

A "clone", OTOH, can be booted immediately. I have my
clones on a hard drive mounted in a removable tray. To boot
any one of the clones on that HD, I just shut down, slip in the
tray, and reboot. I even keep the most recent clone on a 2nd
internal HD, and to boot it, I just restart the system. Having
to have a 2nd HD to hold the clone is not an imposition
because if you have to restore an image due to a crash of
the primary HD, you'll need another HD anyway. I got into this
cloning habit when I was day-trading stocks, and I couldn't
tolerate being down for long due to a disk failure. I even had
2 broadband services - cable and ADSL - which I could switch
in a few seconds.

The advantage of Casper XP over True Image is that Casper
XP can make a clone from a single partition on a HD that
may contain many partitions, and it can put that clone on a
HD that already contains other partitions. True Image can only
make an image of an entire HD and make that image the
*entirety* of the destination HD - good enough for upgrading
to a larger HD, but unable to do anything more complex than that.
OTOH, Casper XP can't do imaging or incremental file backups.
Casper XP is dedicated to just cloning, and for that it does a
good job.

*TimDaniels*