copying & replacing hd

[billyo]

i downloaded the trial version of acronis mirror image 11 ( 15 day full function trial ) and it wont let me clone destinaton drive
" has to be empty "..

[George]

Norton Ghost will overwrite.

Kinda surprised that Acronis wants an empty drive just to create a image file, even for cloning, for that matter.

Cloning does replace anything on the target drive, so one has to be careful, but imaging replaces nothing, simply creates a compressed image of the source drive.

[bryant]

Originally Posted by George

Norton Ghost will overwrite.

Kinda surprised that Acronis wants an empty drive just to create a image file, even for cloning, for that matter.

Cloning does replace anything on the target drive, so one has to be careful, but imaging replaces nothing, simply creates a compressed image of the source drive.

I use Acronis and the destination drive (mine is 250 Gb) has to be completely empty and/or erased prior to cloning. I only clone a 40 Gb HD on this 250 Gb, sheesh.

george, I'm still confused about image and clone differences. Why one and not the other? Why have a choice of both, what difference does it make?

[hwheeler43]

When you Clone a drive you are making a boot drive copy of your existing drive. It cannot have other files on it. When you create an image you are taking a snapsot of your entire hard drive to an image file that can be restored to a new hard drive by booting your computer from a cd that you create and then restoring the image to the new hard drive. This image can be used much like a restore cd except you have all your settings and software on it. I hope this explanation is not too confusing. Also, Acronis does not need an empty drive to do an image. Just for cloning a drive.

[billyo]

Originally Posted by hwheeler43

When you Clone a drive you are making a boot drive copy of your existing drive. It cannot have other files on it. When you create an image you are taking a snapsot of your entire hard drive to an image file that can be restored to a new hard drive by booting your computer from a cd that you create and then restoring the image to the new hard drive. This image can be used much like a restore cd except you have all your settings and software on it. I hope this explanation is not too confusing. Also, Acronis does not need an empty drive to do an image. Just for cloning a drive.

acronis has both clone and image, so what would be the best and easy way of doing it..

[George]

It all depends on what you want.The cloning results in a fully operational drive without having to use a boot disc to restore the data on it to a working state.

Obviously since it seems Acronis needs a wiped drive to clone to, Norton Ghost would be the way to go if one elects to use cloning, as it will overwrite the target drive.

If one elects imaging, I guess it wouldn't matter, but I'm hard pressed to see why anyone would use imaging if they are going to use two hard drives.

I believe we've beat this horse to death, and it's getting very redundant, making the same points over and over.

It's all explained here:

http://www.ctpc.org/nltr1007/ae1007.htm

[billyo]

Originally Posted by George

It all depends on what you want.The cloning results in a fully operational drive without having to use a boot disc to restore the data on it to a working state.

Obviously since it seems Acronis needs a wiped drive to clone to, Norton Ghost would be the way to go if one elects to use cloning, as it will overwrite the target drive.

If one elects imaging, I guess it wouldn't matter, but I'm hard pressed to see why anyone would use imaging if they are going to use two hard drives.

I believe we've beat this horse to death, and it's getting very redundant, making the same points over and over.

It's all explained here:

http://www.ctpc.org/nltr1007/ae1007.htm

thanks for your suggestion, thats true we kinda beat this thing to death, but i was just trying to figure out what would be the best and easy way of doing it, kinda like taking a poll, what im trying to do it to replaced my laptops internal drive,( i have all my itunes music on this drive approx. 5,500 ) since i'm kinda running out of space, (19 gb left ) with a bigger one. i only have 1 ext. drive where all my kma files are stored..but anyway thanks..for everybody's suggestion..