[Channeal]

Hello again Phillpower2,

I have been thinking more about what I said in my last message. I am not at all sure that using Reflect to clone from C to D is going to be any more successful than when I did it using Acronis (I checked and the Acronis clone files were also marked 'active').

I am buying into the idea of trying to clone from C to D with Acronis again, but this time doing it by booting from the CD, so that I am not cloning from a drive that is in use. Does that sound feasible? Am not really familiar with booting from a CD, so am not sure if it is going to be straightforward. - but I would like to try it!

Bye for now,
Chris.

Edited by Channeal, 29 June 2014 - 12:56 AM.

[Advertisements]

Hello Channeal,

 

Unfortunately I cannot advise on booting from the Acronis disk, the clone from C: to D: makes sense but you know more about Acronis than I do I`m afraid 

[phillpower2]

Hello Channeal,

 

Unfortunately I cannot advise on booting from the Acronis disk, the clone from C: to D: makes sense but you know more about Acronis than I do I`m afraid 

[donetao]

Hello! Macrium Reflect is my best friend and I have been using it for years. Although I'm not sure what your trying to do. To me a clone is just a waste of space and a good HD. A back up image will restore a OS on a brand new HD. Why have a cloned HD setting around with a OS on it waiting to replace a dead drive when you can have hundreds of images on a external HD and also other data on that drive. A cloned drive can only have the OS on it. Also you can up date the image any time you want and replace the old image with a new image. I have never understood why people are so determined to clone a drive when a image serves the same purpose. I can mount any back up image as a virtual drive  that I have created with Macrium Reflect and copy and paste or drag and drop just about any thing on that image. Sorry if I'm not understanding what your trying to do. I can tell you that there isn't muchthat I don't understand about making a back up image of my OS. I have at least 8 images on two external drives and I can recover and be back up and running in a hour. I know a clone would take 5 minutes, but I'm just not in that big a hurry.

If you have a question,I will be glad to try to answer it.

I'm sure phill power won't mind. He's my friend!!

[phillpower2]

Thanks donetao 

 

I am sure Channeal will appreciate another pair of eyes looking in, I may have overlooked something obvious   

[Channeal]

Well, what a surprise to have somebody else join us here!

Thank you very much for your comment, donetau. You and Phillpower2 seem to have a bit of a difference of opinion over the cloning versus image question though! I myself do not have enough technical knowledge to be in a position to make a judgement about this issue. I am very grateful to you for taking an interest in my topic, but Phillpower2 has been helping me for such a long time now and I am going to continue following his advice.

In any case, I seem to be in line for the world record for the largest number of unsuccessful cloning attempts - and it would be such a shame to spoil my fun! :-)

Thanks again,
Chris.

[phillpower2]

Good to see that you have kept your sense of humour Channeal 

 

I am happy to work with you whichever method you decide upon 

[donetao]

Well, what a surprise to have somebody else join us here!

Thank you very much for your comment, donetau. You and Phillpower2 seem to have a bit of a difference of opinion over the cloning versus image question though! I myself do not have enough technical knowledge to be in a position to make a judgement about this issue. I am very grateful to you for taking an interest in my topic, but Phillpower2 has been helping me for such a long time now and I am going to continue following his advice.

In any case, I seem to be in line for the world record for the largest number of unsuccessful cloning attempts - and it would be such a shame to spoil my fun! :-)

Thanks again,
Chris.

I would never want you to stop taking Phillpower's advise.

I just have my thoughts and wanted to share them. I sure don't want to mess up your world record and I personally  think Phillpower is the best thing sense buttons on a shirt!

So what are the advantages of each?

Should your primary hard drive crash, a clone will get you up and running quickly. All you have to do is swap the drives.

On the other hand, if your drive crashes and you've backed it up to an image, you'd have to buy and install a new internal hard drive, boot from your backup program's emergency boot disc, and restore the drive's contents from the backup.

So why image? An image backup provides greater versatility when backing up. You can save several images onto one sufficiently large external hard drive, making it easier and more economical to save multiple versions of the same disk or back up multiple computers.

You can find several programs that can do these chores, including the backup tools in Windows 7 and 8. But I recommend Macrium Reflect Free, which is free for personal use. It's easy to use, can clone and image, and in my experience, is extremely reliable.

[donetao]

Hello I hope I'm not being pushy. Creating back ups is my specialty. Here is a screen shot of my working C drive on the right and a mounted virtual drive of a image of my OS on the left. I could drag and drop or copy and paste any thing from my back up image to my working C drive. I also could replace my working C (if it broke)  and use my Linux disk that Macrium Reflect has you make to restore my back up image to the new HD and it will boot windows and be exactly like it was the day I created the image

Can I use the back up image to boot into windows?? No I can't because it has to be restored to the working C drive or a new HD through the restore disk in order to install the boot process. Not the best computer language, but I hope you understand. Macrium Reflect also has a clone option. I have never used it and doubt if I ever feel the need to.

I hope I have helped and not confused. If I have confused anyone, that would make me feel bad.

I was a very early user of Macrium Reflect and it is one of my favorite Apps. Probably have been using it for nearly 10 years. I have the free version and it does every thing I need!

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[Channeal]

Thank you for your two messages, donetau.

I think you are preaching to the converted in so far as Phillpower2 already uses Macrium and we have, in fact, been using it on my computer - but only the cloning facility. Although I actually told Phillpower2 that I was going to try Acronis again now, I decided later (just before you joined us here) that I would have another attempt with Macrium  - probably later today. So you have no need to worry that we are missing out on the wonders of Macrium!

Chris.

Edited by Channeal, 30 June 2014 - 04:20 AM.

[Channeal]

Hello Phillpower2,

 

Thank you for your last message.

 

 

Good to see that you have kept your sense of humour Channeal 

 

It always helps to retain a sense of humour! I am lucky in that I often actually quite like it when things go wrong; it makes things far more interesting! In this case, it has really given me something to think about and given my brain a very-much-needed spring clean!!!

 

 

I am happy to work with you whichever method you decide upon 

 

Thank you very much. As always, I am extremely grateful for your help.

 

As I told donetau above, just after telling you that I was going to try Acronis again I decided to have one more try with Macrium (probably later today). Who knows, it may even work this time as I now know about making the clone 'active'..... and if it fails, it will assist me in my world record attempt!

 

Bye for now,

Chris.

[donetao]

Thank you for your two messages, donetau.

I think you are preaching to the converted in so far as Phillpower2 already uses Macrium and we have, in fact, been using it on my computer - but only the cloning facility. Although I actually told Phillpower2 that I was going to try Acronis again now, I decided later (just before you joined us here) that I would have another attempt with Macrium  - probably later today. So you have no need to worry that we are missing out on the wonders of Macrium!

Chris.

I like to think that I'm teaching and not preaching. I'm no stranger to cloning or disk imaging. I will leave you and Phill to your topic and will not interfere any further.

[Channeal]

I am very sorry if I upset you, donetau...... I really did not intend to. 'Preaching to the converted' is a commonly used phrase which means that you are trying to explain something to somebody who already understands it..... but I certainly did not mean to imply that I thought you were actually preaching!

 

I am very grateful for you for trying to help; I was merely trying to point out that we have already been using Macrium, but I am sorry if it came across the wrong way.

 

Thank you very much for your interest in my topic.

 

Chris.

[donetao]

N/P and you are very welcome. My hobby is passing on things I have learned from others. There should not be a problem cloning your working C drive to a new HD as long as the new one is the same size or larger.

I don't want to spoil your world record, but it's fairly simple to clone a drive with Macrium Reflect unless you chose to make it hard. Macrium has hundreds of tutorials explaining any thing you want to know. They have however went to using a Down Load Manager for their free version and that has just about turned me off of recommending their software to my friends. If you have not heard of a Down Load Manager; they are software used by CNET and others to load PUP's on your PC(Unwanted Programs). It's all about greed and $$$$

Here is a tutorial from MR explaining how to clone a drive. I wish you the best.

donetao!

http://kb.macrium.co...ticle50081.aspx

[Channeal]

Thank you, donetau. It is always good to try to help other people.

 

Cloning is - as I have now discovered after a great deal of practice - extremely easy to carry out! There have been other complications with my computer though..... although I actually think we may be close to cracking it now!

 

Chris.

[donetao]

Thank you, donetau. It is always good to try to help other people.

 

Cloning is - as I have now discovered after a great deal of practice - extremely easy to carry out! There have been other complications with my computer though..... although I actually think we may be close to cracking it now!

 

Chris.

Whether you chose to clone or create a image, is every individuals choice. It's great that you have chosen to have a plan to recover from a catastrophe. Most people never plan and then end up on a forum like this crying for help, with no way to recover when Windows won't boot.

Now that you realize the importance of having a back up plan you are obligated to pass your knowledge forward.  

Happy computing!!