Duplicating Files on Two Hard Drives to Make a Backup

[bryant]

Originally Posted by billyo

if your cloned hhd. is bigger than the int. drive it wont work, it has to be the other way around, i haven't tried plugging in a cloned drive into a usb so i dont have an answer for that, are you asking about what the purpose of cloning? my purpose was to have a bigger space and also to have back-up just incase..

The cloned HD (250 gB) is bigger than the internal (40 gB), but only 32 gB are used up for copying the internal. Are you saying the only way to back up an internal HD is to clone it to an external HD that is exactly the same size. That doesn't seem to make sense, does it?

Shouldn't I be able to still use that as a backup in case the internal dies at some point?

Let me explain exactly what I have again so we can be on the same page?

Internal HD "C" is only 40 gB with 32 being used.

I have cloned that 32 gB onto a usb HD (250 gB) as a backup in case the internal HD fails one day?

Why would that not work?

And how do I get the USB backup recognized in case of a failure of the internal HD.

Or; how can I transfer all that cloned information to a newly installed larger HD in place of the 40 gB that is in there now? (Dale answered this question on his assumption there is another space for another HD there now, but there may not be).

I know I am appearing a little thick on this subject, but I just really really want to make sure I don't go ahead and replace things that won't work later in to it.