Re: Backing up entire system partition : image or clone ?
- From: sai.an <saian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 13:10:01 -0700
"Jim" wrote:
"sai.an" <saian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5E2C8687-CF02-4924-844C-F19296690CA9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I am operating a small home-office network, consisting of 2 almost
identical
PC's, both having work environments (XP + umpteen applications) that are
identical at this moment, but are likely to drift apart in the future.
In addition, I have an external HDD of 400 GByte capacity, just for safety
(it connects to anyone of the PC's via Firewire and for the moment hosts
only
data).
My goal is now to be protected against the failure of anyone of my 2
built-in HDD's : one of them has been running for 4 years...
I wish I could organize in such a way that -should one of these HDD's
break
down- I could rapidly configure a replacement HDD by plugging it as slave
into the healthy computer and loading it with the needed complete system,
which I would obtain from a backup in the external unit.
So, my question is : should I backup my "C" partitions into the external
unit by using an "image" process (with which software ? I have
Datakeeper),
which means having to do later a "restore" operation, or should I do a
cloning operation (I have Casper) and be ready for "cloning the clone" ?
And, last but not least, which type of ad-hoc partitions should I create
in
my external unit for receiving the backups ?
Many thanks to those who will have the patience to read me and to give me
advice.
--
From Claude, with greetings from Paris.
I usually associate "clone" with "make an identical disk". This is the
quickest way to replace
an entire disk. Quite a few programs can clone disks; the one that I use is
Acronis. It does
take a long time to clone one disk to another.
Another way to accomplish what I understand that you wish to do is to use a
backup program
to create a full backup file of the system partition. Such a file can be
placed almost anywhere
you wish. I do make a system backup, but the file resides on another disk.
My reason for not
using a partition on the system disk is that there can be no assurance that
such a partition can
be read on a disk with another partition failure.
Acronis contains a method for creating a CD which can recover Acronis backup
files. In addition,
Acronis (and perhaps others) provides a plugin for BartPE.
What I would do, and you may not be willing to do such, is to buy
replacement disks for each computer.
I would then clone the system disk for a given computer onto its replacement
disk.
Jim
Thanks, Jim.
I understand your explanations and I would say that your answer to my
questions (or my "dilemma") is "you can do it both ways, image or clone" ; am
I right ?
However I would like to pick your brains a little more :
- is an "image" of a complete system (OS plus...) reliable once it has been
"restored" into a new HDD ? I am afraid that the image+restore process might
introduce some errors that would defeat my purpose (not having to populate
the system partition of a replacement HDD with Windows XP and Office and apps
and recreate all personalized settings etc).
- if I clone my existing system into the external unit, cloning means making
an exact copy, bit for bit ; therefore, it seems to me that -when it becomes
necessary- I could clone from the clone into my replacement disk. Is this
baby talk or can it work that way ? If it is workable, do I have to place the
interim clone into a partition of the external HDD that would be configured
like a system partition (i.e. "primary") or can it be hosted by an ordinary
"logical" partition ?
Best greetings,
Claude
.
- Follow-Ups:
- References:
- Prev by Date: Re: Volume License Key Activations Lookup?
- Next by Date: Re: Backing up entire system partition : image or clone ?
- Previous by thread: Re: Backing up entire system partition : image or clone ?
- Next by thread: Re: Backing up entire system partition : image or clone ?
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
