Duplicating Files on Two Hard Drives to Make a Backup

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by bryant

I see. I plan on doing it to this machine here. A desktop 40 gig HD. It is now cloned 32 of 40 gB onto a 250 external HD. Thatext. can't be used for anything else as when I clone it it says I have to delete everything off the drive first.

My question: Is how do I get that cloned material back on a newly installed HD(in the case of a failure or when I simply install a larger one)?

If it is a desktop computer just install the new drive as there should be room for another drive in the case. Clone C: drive directly to that one. Shut down, remove the old drive and plug the cable that was in the old drive into the new one. If it is cable select you are done if not then set the drive jumpers to make it a Primary. Fire it up and it should come up.

[bryant]

Originally Posted by ddouglass

If it is a desktop computer just install the new drive as there should be room for another drive in the case. Clone C: drive directly to that one. Shut down, remove the old drive and plug the cable that was in the old drive into the new one. If it is cable select you are done if not then set the drive jumpers to make it a Primary. Fire it up and it should come up.

And what if there isn't enough room for another HD?

[bryant]

Originally Posted by bryant

And what if there isn't enough room for another HD?

Also, this question remains "When you install that new larger internal HD ", it will have nothing on it. Will the computer automatically look for the USB HD with the cloned material, in order to get the computer running."?

[billyo]

Originally Posted by bryant

Also, this question remains "When you install that new larger internal HD ", it will have nothing on it. Will the computer automatically look for the USB HD with the cloned material, in order to get the computer running."?

Bryant.. no it will not look for it, first of all it will not run if you have an empty drive,you have to cloned ( copy ) your old hardrive first, after cloning removed the old drive and install the new ( cloned ) bigger drive,

[bryant]

Originally Posted by billyo

Bryant.. no it will not look for it, first of all it will not run if you have an empty drive,you have to cloned ( copy ) your old hardrive first, after cloning removed the old drive and install the new ( cloned ) bigger drive,

Yes, but the new bigger HD is an external one. How do I get that copied to a new larger internal one that hasn't been installed yet?

[bryant]

Also, I thought it was mentioned here before that if an internal "C" drive fails, but you have it cloned to an ext. usb HD, all you need to do is to plug it (ext usb HD) in and your back in business.

There must be some way to get an ext. HD (with a clone in it) copied to an internal HD that has nothing on it yet?

Or what would be the purpose?

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by bryant

Also, I thought it was mentioned here before that if an internal "C" drive fails, but you have it cloned to an ext. usb HD, all you need to do is to plug it (ext usb HD) in and your back in business.

There must be some way to get an ext. HD (with a clone in it) copied to an internal HD that has nothing on it yet?

Or what would be the purpose?

Do you understand that an external drive is nothing more than an internal drive in a case that has a power source and a USB controler? If you don't have room for a second drive in the desktop (I can't imagine a case not big enough for at least 2 drives) then Clone to the External drive. Then physically remove that drive from its external case and install it in the desktop in place of the C: drive. And your done.
Now you can put a new drive into the external case and still have that too.

[billyo]

Originally Posted by bryant

Also, I thought it was mentioned here before that if an internal "C" drive fails, but you have it cloned to an ext. usb HD, all you need to do is to plug it (ext usb HD) in and your back in business.

There must be some way to get an ext. HD (with a clone in it) copied to an internal HD that has nothing on it yet?

Or what would be the purpose?

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..