Hard Drive Backup or Clone?
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Hard Drive Backup or Clone?
I want to backup my computer hard drive in case of major failure. I have purchased an external hard drive to use for backup. Now I am not sure if I should backup or clone. Does a backup just save files, or does it save programs too? I was told a backup can not be moved to another computer. Is this correct? If I clone, can the external drive be moved to other computers and run the programs? What is good cloning software?
"The world runs on radio."
Re: Hard Drive Backup or Clone?
"Does a backup just save files, or does it save programs too?"
Programs ARE files. The only issue is that under Windows, programs need the correct registry entries to operate, but backing up the Registry is a part of a good backup program.
"I was told a backup can not be moved to another computer."
That depends upon the software. Some operating systems (e.g. Linux) can deal with different hardware. Some *cough*operating systems*cough* (Windows) do NOT deal with significant differences in hardware. Some software (e.g. copy protected software) also will detect hardware changes and refuse to run.
"If I clone, can the external drive be moved to other computers and run the programs?"
Again, that depends upon the software and OS - but in general, for Windows, no.
To clone or to back up: that is the question. The answer is "what are you trying to protect against?" If you are trying to protect against drive failure or catastrophic virus infection, a cloned drive acts as a snapshot in time, and allows you to quickly recover. If you are trying to protect against "oh $4!&! I shouldn't have deleted that file" then backups are better because they tend to be much quicker to do - cloning takes a great deal of time and thus you won't do it often, backups *can* be quicker and thus you are more likely to do them on a regular basis.
One solution to the "I want to be able to move my programs to another computer" is to use a virtual machine image. Get a copy of VMWare player, Virtual Box, or QEMU, and create a virtual machine on your current computer. Install ALL software into the VM image. The VM image is (largely) independent from your real computer, and can be used on other machines. Good VM software will also allow you to make snapshots of the image before and after anything significant (e.g. installing software) and allow you to easily roll back to a previous snapshot if Something Goes Terribly Wrong.
There are legal issues on VMs - some software is not licensed for a VM, or requires a special license for a VM install. Some software won't run in a VM (e.g. any old DOS type radio software that requires bare metal hardware access to run).
As to the software to use: Given that Windows doesn't like accessing system files that are in use, you CAN clone your drive using a Linux Live CD + the "dd" command, or get some GUI software that will wrap around it. Generally, trying to clone a drive you are running from won't work - you will need to boot from something else to get a good clone.
Programs ARE files. The only issue is that under Windows, programs need the correct registry entries to operate, but backing up the Registry is a part of a good backup program.
"I was told a backup can not be moved to another computer."
That depends upon the software. Some operating systems (e.g. Linux) can deal with different hardware. Some *cough*operating systems*cough* (Windows) do NOT deal with significant differences in hardware. Some software (e.g. copy protected software) also will detect hardware changes and refuse to run.
"If I clone, can the external drive be moved to other computers and run the programs?"
Again, that depends upon the software and OS - but in general, for Windows, no.
To clone or to back up: that is the question. The answer is "what are you trying to protect against?" If you are trying to protect against drive failure or catastrophic virus infection, a cloned drive acts as a snapshot in time, and allows you to quickly recover. If you are trying to protect against "oh $4!&! I shouldn't have deleted that file" then backups are better because they tend to be much quicker to do - cloning takes a great deal of time and thus you won't do it often, backups *can* be quicker and thus you are more likely to do them on a regular basis.
One solution to the "I want to be able to move my programs to another computer" is to use a virtual machine image. Get a copy of VMWare player, Virtual Box, or QEMU, and create a virtual machine on your current computer. Install ALL software into the VM image. The VM image is (largely) independent from your real computer, and can be used on other machines. Good VM software will also allow you to make snapshots of the image before and after anything significant (e.g. installing software) and allow you to easily roll back to a previous snapshot if Something Goes Terribly Wrong.
There are legal issues on VMs - some software is not licensed for a VM, or requires a special license for a VM install. Some software won't run in a VM (e.g. any old DOS type radio software that requires bare metal hardware access to run).
As to the software to use: Given that Windows doesn't like accessing system files that are in use, you CAN clone your drive using a Linux Live CD + the "dd" command, or get some GUI software that will wrap around it. Generally, trying to clone a drive you are running from won't work - you will need to boot from something else to get a good clone.
This is my opinion, not Aeroflex's.
I WILL NOT give you proprietary information. I make too much money to jeopardize my job.
I AM NOT the Service department: You want official info, manuals, service info, parts, calibration, etc., contact Aeroflex directly, please.
I WILL NOT give you proprietary information. I make too much money to jeopardize my job.
I AM NOT the Service department: You want official info, manuals, service info, parts, calibration, etc., contact Aeroflex directly, please.
Re: Hard Drive Backup or Clone?
I am running Windows XP. I just want to be able get this computer or another up and running after major problems. There are no accounting files, just a lot of everyday shop stuff.
"The world runs on radio."
Re: Hard Drive Backup or Clone?
Then I would suggest getting:
1) A USB to SATA adapter.
2) A disk imaging program that can boot and run from CD. (Since I am a Linux user, I'd just use Puppy or Knoppix and the "dd" command, but if you are NOT a Linux person that may be a bit complex).
3) A hard disk of the same make as the one in your computer.
Image your current machine over to the hard disk using the USB to SATA adapter (or USB to PATA if your computer uses parallel ATA a.k.a. IDE).
Put the external HD back into the static shielding bag. and tape it up. Put a label with the date of the backup.
Put a sticky note on your calender to do this again in a month, assuming your aren't having problems.
In the case of problems, boot from the CD, copy any data files off your computer to a flash drive, then copy the contents of the external drive back to your internal drive. Do NOT use the external drive to replace the one in your computer unless you absolutely must (e.g. the drive in your computer had physically cratered).
If you MUST replace the drive in your computer, try to keep the external drive as a master, and get a new drive for the computer.
1) A USB to SATA adapter.
2) A disk imaging program that can boot and run from CD. (Since I am a Linux user, I'd just use Puppy or Knoppix and the "dd" command, but if you are NOT a Linux person that may be a bit complex).
3) A hard disk of the same make as the one in your computer.
Image your current machine over to the hard disk using the USB to SATA adapter (or USB to PATA if your computer uses parallel ATA a.k.a. IDE).
Put the external HD back into the static shielding bag. and tape it up. Put a label with the date of the backup.
Put a sticky note on your calender to do this again in a month, assuming your aren't having problems.
In the case of problems, boot from the CD, copy any data files off your computer to a flash drive, then copy the contents of the external drive back to your internal drive. Do NOT use the external drive to replace the one in your computer unless you absolutely must (e.g. the drive in your computer had physically cratered).
If you MUST replace the drive in your computer, try to keep the external drive as a master, and get a new drive for the computer.
This is my opinion, not Aeroflex's.
I WILL NOT give you proprietary information. I make too much money to jeopardize my job.
I AM NOT the Service department: You want official info, manuals, service info, parts, calibration, etc., contact Aeroflex directly, please.
I WILL NOT give you proprietary information. I make too much money to jeopardize my job.
I AM NOT the Service department: You want official info, manuals, service info, parts, calibration, etc., contact Aeroflex directly, please.
Re: Hard Drive Backup or Clone?
What David said. I use Norton Ghost(runs under DOS) to image the existing hard drive, sector by sector, to a spare identical HD. Then put it in an antistatic bag for a while. Ghost 2003 which I use has been replaced by Symantec with something newer. With the version I'm using, I can clone the HD or create a clone on CD that's bootable. In that case, when the HD fails, replace it with your spare, insert the bootable CD and do a sector-by-sector restore.
If you use System Commander as a boot manager, you can use the USB to SATA/PATA adapter and do the HD clone directly from the System Commander menus without using additional software.
If you use System Commander as a boot manager, you can use the USB to SATA/PATA adapter and do the HD clone directly from the System Commander menus without using additional software.
Re: Hard Drive Backup or Clone?
Acronis TrueImage is an excellent backup & disk imaging software for Windows XP. It can also do incremental backups, and can do it all while Windows is running. It also has the facility for you to make a boot CD so you can restore from your backup disk image during boot up. I normally make a second partition on my hard drive and simply store the disk image there. 95% of the time that's sufficient, since OS corruption is far more common than complete hard drive failure. If you want greater redundancy, you can put it onto a second internal/external hard drive. This program has saved my bacon a few times, and I can't recommend it highly enough. Worth every penny.
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/pr ... 5QodTQUe9Q
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/pr ... 5QodTQUe9Q
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Welcome to the /\/\achine.
Welcome to the /\/\achine.
Re: Hard Drive Backup or Clone?
I second the Acronis recommendation.
I used to have a Lenovo X41 tablet at work that our IT folks didn't bother to make an image for because there were only 2 or 3 in the agency. (For the 1,5000 Dell computers everyone else had, IT had a stock image with all of the software installed.)
After going through the process of having to reinstall everything once on the X41, I used my personal copy of True Image to back it up and to create an image. It saved days of effort in reinstalling the O/S and coordinating with IT to reinstall the applications when I needed to.
Now, the first thing I do when I get or build a new machine is to make an image of the clean O/S, a second image after installing applications, and periodic backups thereafter.
The Acronis Disk Director is also highly useful in working with disk partitions. They should put both tools in one product.
I used to have a Lenovo X41 tablet at work that our IT folks didn't bother to make an image for because there were only 2 or 3 in the agency. (For the 1,5000 Dell computers everyone else had, IT had a stock image with all of the software installed.)
After going through the process of having to reinstall everything once on the X41, I used my personal copy of True Image to back it up and to create an image. It saved days of effort in reinstalling the O/S and coordinating with IT to reinstall the applications when I needed to.
Now, the first thing I do when I get or build a new machine is to make an image of the clean O/S, a second image after installing applications, and periodic backups thereafter.
The Acronis Disk Director is also highly useful in working with disk partitions. They should put both tools in one product.
Re: Hard Drive Backup or Clone?
While I'm all for a good command-line Linux solution... Acronis TrueImage just farking works.