Cloning Hard Drive Qs

[kevh]

Hi everyone

 

Just about to order a 1tb WD hdd and usb caddy and use WD 's free Acronis True Image WD Edition Software to clone my main drive on my work Pc which is around 6 years old...

 

A couple Qs i have are :

 

1 1tb new drive to back up 300 gb of used disk on a 640gb , ok?

 

2 How long to copy.

 

3 How long to update (subsequent copies of same disk)

 

4 If Pc completely redlined would clone copy work in new pc?

 

Cheers Kev :cool:

 

 

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Kev, firstly I have never used Acronis, however cloning a hard drive is basically the same thing whichever program is used to do it.

 

A clone is a complete and full copy of everything on the original drive, that means all partitions, all data, the operating system and including unused space on the original drive if the clone software is set to do so. In most cases complete partitions can be turned off or ignored and will not be copied to the destination drive.

That means that a partition that is selected to be cloned will be transferred complete, say for example the partition is 200GB with only 100GB used, the copy on the destination drive will also be 200GB with 100GB used and the spare unused 100GB will also be there, as I said the complete partition.

So, whatever the size of the original drive, the destination drive has to be the same size in GB or larger, as far as the sizes of the cloned partitions.

It makes it easier if all the original drive is to be cloned, so if the original drive is your 640GB and the destination drive then has to be 640GB or larger. If larger, the extra space on the new destination drive will be unallocated. The unallocated part has to be allocated and formatted for it to be useful, existing partitions can then be expanded into that space at a later time.

 

So to answer your questions now, yes indeed the entire 640GB drive can easily be cloned onto the new 1TB you intend buying.

 

Now for the possible problems, if for example as you asked, the rest of the computer died on you, we still have the problem of the operating system may be reluctant to boot if the drive is put into another computer, unless the other computer is exactly the same make and model.

 

The last question to answer being how long will making the clone take, depends on both the software in use and how quick it is at making the clone, and also how much data it has to make a copy of.

A broad example being that I keep regular cloned backups of my system on spare hard drives, that is so I can just install the spare with the clone on it and I am back up and running again. In my case I have a 500GB hard drive and I clone to 500GB spare hard drives. Although I use the free version of Macrium reflect rather than Acronis, it usually takes a little under three hours to clone over around 270GB of data, programs, and operating system, plus the 230GB free space that hasn't been used yet.

 

Any other questions after that please do ask them.

However I will recommend that you ignore the so called free Acronis (I have heard of problems with it) and try using the Macrium Reflect. For help in that I wrote a tutorial on making a clone to a spare or other drive using Macrium and it is in the forums magazine pages, here :-

 

http://magazine.freepchelp.uk/making-a-cloned-hard-drive-using-macrium-reflect/

 

I have no connections with Macrium, I merely suggest using that as I at least know how to use it nearly backwards, therefore I can help easily with any questions before you start.

 

Nev.

[kevh]

Hi Nev

 

Thank you for your reply with some great information and links.

 

Just one thing I wasn't sure of is , each time you do a new (update) clone of the disk does it start from scratch or does it add to the original ?

 

Will take a look at Macrium Reflect as I could be back for more help ... ;)

 

Cheers Kev :cool:

[Plastic Nev]

Same question as asked by Norman Kev :D

In short, each time you make a clone to the spare hard drive, it automatically reformats the drive and wipes the old clone, it actually asks if it can go ahead and do so as there won't be space for two clones unless there is a large amount of disk space available.

 

I am not sure if Macrium can format a brand new hard drive, so you may have to do that first, however Macrium will ask if it requires to be done and maybe the latest version may actually be able to do it for you.

 

One good thing about doing a clone is that you can reconnect it to the computer at any time and inspect the contents to make sure all is OK, also you can add or remove data from or to it.

However Windows updates, and any new program installs to the original drive on the computer can only be copied as a fresh clone. You cannot copy over installed software or updates as they do require the full installation process.

 

Nev.

[KenB]

Nev wrote this:

Now for the possible problems, if for example as you asked, the rest of the computer died on you, we still have the problem of the operating system may be reluctant to boot if the drive is put into another computer, unless the other computer is exactly the same make and model.

 

What Nev says is correct.

However, more recent OS's are a little more tolerant and may - and I stress "may" - boot up from the imported drive.

It all depends on the motherboard and if it is nearly compatible.

Older OS's ( XP for instance ) were very intolerant to change and the MB had to be exactly the same.

Basically it is pot luck - and if you were buying a MB you obviously would not wish to chance it.

 

If it did boot up there would ,more than likely, be driver issues anyway that would need sorting.

[kevh]

Hi Guys , hopefully going to do the cloning at last , some time this week...

 

Just one thing , am I able to use the pc while cloning is be done or is it completely out of action during the process??

 

Cheers Kev :cool:

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Kev, yes you can continue to use the computer while the clone is being made, though if you can set it up and then do something else you will then be sure nothing will interrupt the process.

However I will ask that you clear out any junk before you start, empty the recycle bin, delete temporary files etc, no point in cloning them over is there!

Use the Windows own disk clean up tool, it is more than good enough.

 

Nev.

[kevh]

Thanks for reply Nev , would I be better to leave running over night or does it need some intervention now and again...

 

Cheers Kev

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Kev, unless you have a drive of over 1TB and full, it shouldn't take too long to run, as an example I have roughly half of a 500GB drive as data and a clone takes around two and a half hours.for me. So I wouldn't go leaving it on over night for no real reason.

 

Initially it needs attention in setting up, however once you actually start the clone by clicking on that finish button, other than accepting the box for telling you it will overwrite everything, it looks after itself till it is finished, there is no need of further input till then.

 

Nev.

[kevh]

Clone complete but a little worried as the original is 90gb larger than the clone...is this normal or should it be exactly the same ??

 

approx 300gb used off 640gb original drive to 207gb of 640gb (1tb drive ) clone drive.

 

took 2hr11mins usb 2.0

 

first couple levels of folders seem to be all there...

 

Cheers Kev

[kevh]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1450.vB5-legacyid=2534[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]1449.vB5-legacyid=2533[/ATTACH]

[kevh]

Could it be any of these settings cutting it down in size??

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1451.vB5-legacyid=2535[/ATTACH]

[Plastic Nev]

Basically your last post does hold the answer Kev, I found the same thing as to the size of the finished clone in comparison to the original, and as yet have not found anything missing on this SSD drive that I am running now, which I cloned from the original ordinary mechanical drive.

It does use some intelligent system to not clone over the useless rubbish that inevitably accumulates.

 

You should find everything works OK just as it does on the original.

 

Congratulations by the way for completing your first clone.

 

Nev.

[kevh]

Thanks Nev , just a tad worried that it was 90gb ! But I don't tend to delete stuff until I really need to so possible I suppose

[Plastic Nev]

Have a look at post #7 Kev, I suggested using the disk clean up tool there for that reason, it is surprising how much unwanted crap can build up if not cleaned out of the way, and it is wasting disk space at that too.

 

For any other members not familiar with it, Disk clean up tool can be accessed in Windows 7 from "Start Orb", > All Programs > Accessories folder > System tools folder > Disk Clean up.

 

Or Start orb, type in Disk Clean up. It then says "Disk clean up", or "Free up disk space by deleting unnecessary files"

 

Once the window opens, select which drive to clean if you have more than one. The next window, after it has calculated how much can be cleaned, then has a button for cleaning up system files, click that one and it goes through the calculation again. It then gives you a list of all files that can be deleted including the temporary operating system junk as well.

Just click OK, it may ask if you are sure you wish to delete these files, OK for that too and let it get on with it. It closes itself when it is finished.

 

Nev.