Re: Casper 5 - One for Anna

"Richie Hardwick" <richiehardwick@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:mvqtm4pqkt3n1q9o4elbnmdv3ufome2r1v@xxxxxxxxxx
On Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:59:25 -0700, "Bill in Co."
<not_really_here@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Can't do that with Casper, because it only has ONE "backup" to
restore
from.


OK, I'm STILL confused about some of this, even after all the
discussions
we've had here before on this, including some with Anna. You say
Casper
has only ONE backup to restore from, but I thought with Casper you
could
also make multiple, partition type clone backups to the backup drive,
storing several different partition copies over there, so that you
could
choose which one (somewhat analogous to which image) to restore from.

More...

Your being "confused" seems to be a consistent element in your past
discussions involving Casper and ATI. I think part of that confusion
is related to your not properly differentiating between the terms
"image" and "clone".

It's very simple: an "image" is A FILE - a compressed snapshot of
whatever has been "imaged".

A "clone" is HARD DRIVE or a PARTITION that has been made to be an
exact copy of a different hard drive or partition.

One way for Bill to hopefully better grok this concept is to recall the
replicator from Star Trek TNG. Just imagine replicating the hard drive.
(For now, let's keep it simple: just one physical hard drive.) You start
off with one hard drive. Now, after the replicating, you have two hard
drives: the original and its clone, which is *an exact copy.* If you
remove the orginal hard drive and replace it with the clone, for all
intents and purposes, the system is exactly the same.

Another way:

You purchased a CD. You can make a "clone" of it. That is, you can
create another CD, which is an exact copy. If someone else were to place
the copy in your CD player, you wouldn't be able to tell if it was the
original or the copy. You can also make an "image" of this CD.
(Actually, you can; it's called an .iso file.) This is only a file. You
cannot place the file into a CD player! But it still serves the purpose
of completely backing up everything you need from this CD if you want to
*eventually* create a CD with the same songs in the same order with the
same spacing (or perhaps place certain tracks on an iPod or file-share,
etc. -- with some manipulaiton). You can make images of many CDs and
store all these files wherever you like. You may even store them all in
the same location (e.g., an external hard drive).

Getting back to hard drives...

Unless you need to boot up from a cloned hard drive *immediately*, there
is no advantage to using the cloning method. Imaging a hard drive (or
partitions) -- if done regularly -- is fine to recover from a disaster.
Just restore the image and all is well. Sure, if you decide to clone
your hard drive to an eSATA drive (or to another hard drive in your PC),
as long as it is physically connected and you configured your PC to
easily boot off of the clone, you will be up and running much quicker
than if you restore an image. But seriously, for the average user, we're
just talking about recovering from a disaster, which is very rare. For
people who frequently test programs or work with viruses, etc., I can
see the appeal. Or for people who are day traders or for whatever reason
*must* be up in running within seconds, yes it would make sense. But not
for the average user.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Casper 5 - One for Anna
    ... has only ONE backup to restore from, but I thought with Casper you ... also make multiple, partition type clone backups to the backup drive, ... I think part of that confusion ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: Casper 5 - One for Anna
    ... has only ONE backup to restore from, but I thought with Casper you ... partition type clone backups to the backup ... storing several different partition copies over there, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: Move OS to SATA drive?
    ... You probably want the "clone" feature. ... confusion later on, down the line. ... partition only to another partition. ... I do not know Acronis software - I usually use BootIt ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: Wanted: Freeware drive image/cloner
    ... Ideally I`d like the program to let me create a boot CD/DVD of the image, ... Failing that a hidden partition on the machine that is read ... by a boot CD to restore the drive would be good. ... The clone is on a Logical ...
    (uk.comp.homebuilt)
  • Possible to restore a boot partition without overwriting the whole disk?
    ... I've been using Ghost 2003 successfully to clone a bootable partition ... If I try restoring the partition to a partition on a disk, ... I can restore the partition to a whole ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment)
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