Duplicating Files on Two Hard Drives to Make a Backup

[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.

[bryant]

Originally Posted by ddouglass

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.

Oh, I finally read this after writing the post below. Thanx Dale. However, I thought that in the event of a failure I could just plug in the USB and be off and running as a backup at that point. But I guess not???

[madjim- with the Lord]

I'm getting ready to clone the hard drive in my backup computer. It's my wife's computer that she had before we met and she does not have the original Winodws disc. Also the drive is relativly small.

I have Norton Ghost but have never had success cloning with it. The help files are little help and I can't find much help on the web. From what I have read on the forum, everybody that uses Acronis is very happy with it. I also looked on YouTube and found many good videos for Acronis and few for Ghost and the few I found were no help to me

Which one of these version of Acronis do you reccomend I buy?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc..._-NA-_-NA-_-NA

Thanks for everybodies help!

Jim

[Beavis]

bryant you have to take the cloned hard drive and put in place of the 40gb hard drive. that means physically take it out of the usb case.

you also have to change he jumpers to master if it has them.


what you really want to do is set up a raid with 2 drives. if one fails the other takes over. then you run to the store and get a replacement drive to replace the bad drive.

[billyo]

Originally Posted by madjim

I'm getting ready to clone the hard drive in my backup computer. It's my wife's computer that she had before we met and she does not have the original Winodws disc. Also the drive is relativly small.

I have Norton Ghost but have never had success cloning with it. The help files are little help and I can't find much help on the web. From what I have read on the forum, everybody that uses Acronis is very happy with it. I also looked on YouTube and found many good videos for Acronis and few for Ghost and the few I found were no help to me

Which one of these version of Acronis do you reccomend I buy?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc..._-NA-_-NA-_-NA

Thanks for everybodies help!

Jim

i would suggest the acronis true image retail ( 8 )

[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..

[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.