Crackles McFarly said:
I have partitioned my drive into two sections. One very large section
and another much smaller one.
The smallest partition is 3x [three times] the size of the OS and
every currently on the drive. In other words, the smaller partition is
more than big enough to accept the data.
Question:
Can I CLONE the main drive on to the other partition?
It is assigned drive letter Z, so would this work or am I just plain
crazy?
thanks.
Crackles McFarly:
What you really want to do is - using a disk imaging program such as Acronis
True Image or Norton Ghost, or similar disk imaging program - create a "disk
image" of your system and store that image in the second partition you've
created on your single HDD. The disk image is, in effect, a "snapshot" of
your system and is a single, usually compressed file. Most of these disk
imaging programs also allow you to create subsequent incremental disk images
so that you can keep your backup system up-to-date.
But what you want to do is *not* a good idea, at least in terms of storing
the disk image(s) on the same physical HDD that you're backing up.
It is *always* best to store the disk image(s) on another HDD. What would
happen if your single HDD became defective either physically/electronically
or the OS became so corrupt that you could not boot to it and access the
second partition where your disk image(s) were stored? These are real, not
theoretical concerns. Then too, most disk imaging programs will not permit
the recovery process to be undertaken where the disk image is contained on
the *same* drive that user wants restored, notwithstanding that the disk
image(s) are stored in a separate partition.
So use the disk imaging process as a comprehensive backup system if you
want. It's most certainly fine to do so. But store the image or images on a
different HDD - either another internal HDD or an external HDD.
Just one other thing - you've used the term "clone". These disk imaging
programs such as the ones I mentioned also have the capability of creating
disk-to-disk clones in addition to creating disk images. A "clone" is just
that. For all practical purposes it's a bit-for-bit copy of the HDD you're
copying. So that the recipient of the disk clone - another internal or
external HDD - would, in effect, be a duplicate of the HDD that has been
copied with all the programs & data accessible as individual files &
folders. It's something you might want to look into in lieu of the disk
imaging process. Again, you'll be using another HDD - internal or external -
as the recipient of the disk clone.
There's a wealth of information on the web re the disk imaging/disk cloning
processes. Might I suggest you do a bit of research on these topics?
Anna
