Windows Forum / Windows XP / Hardware / February 2008
Clone Additonal Hard Drive for Back Up
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ColTom2 - 12 Feb 2008 23:46 GMT Hi:
I have a Sony VGC-RA716G desktop computer with a WD2500BB 250GB hard drive and have purchased another exact WD hard drive. Windows MCE(2005) OS.
I want to clone the new hard drive and keep it as a back up in case my original hard drive ever fails.
My question is what is the easiest method and recommended software to clone this new hard drive?
Also do I have to internally install the new drive or can it be done though external means, i.e.USB etc?
If I add it internally are there sufficient cables to add an additional hard drive already available?
As you can tell by my questions I am into an area that I know nothing about and will be most appreciative for instructions on how to proceed.
Thanks
Ghostrider - 13 Feb 2008 01:00 GMT > Hi: > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > Thanks Acronis TrueImage is about one of the simplest and best to use for cloning hard drives. Unless the new hard drive is planned to be used immediately after the cloning, the better approach would be to put it into an external USB/Firewire external drive housing or use one of the better "bare" 3.5-inch adapter kits (e.g., Wiebe Tech, Bytecc, etc.
ColTom2 - 13 Feb 2008 01:20 GMT Hi:
If I purchased a housing or kit can I clone the new hard drive through a USB connection without having to install internally?
Thanks
ColTom2 wrote:
> Hi: > [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > Thanks Acronis TrueImage is about one of the simplest and best to use for cloning hard drives. Unless the new hard drive is planned to be used immediately after the cloning, the better approach would be to put it into an external USB/Firewire external drive housing or use one of the better "bare" 3.5-inch adapter kits (e.g., Wiebe Tech, Bytecc, etc.
Andrew E. - 13 Feb 2008 06:07 GMT Youre new & existing hd has IDE+usb hookups....Youre present hd is internal & runs thru an IDE cable,set new as slave on same cable (original at farthest connection),in xp,format the new hd (run,type:diskmgmt.msc),once thru,close msc,go to run,type:XCOPY C:\*.* D:\ /c/h/e/k/r Agree to all in the DOS window, once its thru,youre finished,all of C: is now on D: & can/could be ran solo....Also, D: being the new hd,but if asigned diffrent letter,then use the other letter....
> Hi: > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > Thanks ColTom2 - 13 Feb 2008 14:53 GMT Hi Andrew:
Thanks so much for your most informative info and from what you have said I now have an additional question or two.
First does my current computer have the cabling and connectors, as you mentioned, without having to acquire additional IDE cables?
Also if you could explain further about "original at farthest connection". Farthest from where and how do I tell this?
Again thanks so much for your help.
ColTom2
Youre new & existing hd has IDE+usb hookups....Youre present hd is internal & runs thru an IDE cable,set new as slave on same cable (original at farthest connection),in xp,format the new hd (run,type:diskmgmt.msc),once thru,close msc,go to run,type:XCOPY C:\*.* D:\ /c/h/e/k/r Agree to all in the DOS window, once its thru,youre finished,all of C: is now on D: & can/could be ran solo....Also, D: being the new hd,but if asigned diffrent letter,then use the other letter....
"ColTom2" wrote:
> Hi: > [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > Thanks DL - 13 Feb 2008 16:36 GMT You purchase a housing / kit and simply plug in to your usb port, whether the kit has a usb cable depends on the kit. Your existing IDE cables will probably be ok, but you would have to eyeball to confirm If you are going to use internal, disconnect this drive as soon as clone is complete & dont reconnect until you want to use this driva as your boot drive, in that case you would need to disconnect the origonal first. Acronis True Image is your best bet and not the xcopy as proposed by AndrewE
Whatever option you choose in a clone it is imperative you shutdown immediately the operation has completed & remove your backup hd. Failure to do so will mean your clone wont work as a boot disk when the occasion arises.
> Hi Andrew: > [quoted text clipped - 49 lines] >> >> Thanks Anna - 13 Feb 2008 17:39 GMT >> "ColTom2" wrote: >>> Hi: [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] >>> >>> Thanks
> You purchase a housing / kit and simply plug in to your usb port, whether > the kit has a usb cable depends on the kit. [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > to do so will mean your clone wont work as a boot disk when the occasion > arises. ColTom2... I would agree with DL that you not consider the DOS XCOPY command to routinely clone the contents of one HDD to another HDD in order to establish & maintain a comprehensive backup system now & in the future. There are so many downsides to using that DOS command for disk-cloning purposes that it's hardly worth discussing.
The Acronis program mentioned by DL is a fine program and worthy of your consideration. A free trial version is available from http://www.acronis.com so you should avail yourself of the opportunity to using that program and see how you like it.
We have worked with a fairly large number of disk-cloning programs over the years. By far our favorite one is the Casper 4.0 program. It is quite simple to use, relatively quick in operation and very effective. A trial version (slightly crippled) is also available from its developer at http://www.fssdev.com so you might want to take a look at that program as well. And if you need more details about using that program I could furnish such in a subsequent post.
A couple of other things... 1. Western Digital has a disk-copying utility freely available from its website. Its main, if not exclusive, use is generally for a one-shot copy of the contents of an old HDD to a new HDD. It's really not designed as a routine, systematic disk-cloning type of program, although we know more than one person who uses it for such.
2. You mention that you've already purchased another HDD that is "another exact WD hard drive". Bear in mind (for the future if need be) that it is unnecessary to use the same make/model for both your "source" drive and your "destination" drive for disk-cloning operations. All that's really necessary is that the disk capacity of the "destination" drive be sufficient to hold the contents of your "source" drive. There's no reason why you couldn't use a Hitachi, or Seagate, or Maxtor HDD as the "destination" drive.
3. As DL mentions you should consider a USB external enclosure to house your new (destination) HDD. There's obviously an add'l safety factor when using such an external device since it can be disconnected from the system following the disk-cloning operation. While the USBEHD will not be bootable under those circumstances, you can clone back its contents to an internal HDD.
On the other hand we know of many users who use another internal HDD as the recipient of the clone and rarely run into any problems simply because the system contains two internal HDDs. But if the data is important or vital to you it's best to use an external device as the recipient of the clone.
Incidentally, one of the very major advantages of the Casper program we've mentioned is that should you use another internal HDD as the recipient of the clone it is unnecessary to disconnect the cloned HDD following the disk-cloning operation. Heretofore with other disk-cloning programs this has been a real booting problem involving the cloned HDD when that drive was not disconnected from the system following the disk-cloning operation. Naturally there's no problem along these lines with any disk-cloning program when using a USBEHD as the recipient of the clone. Anna
JohnO - 13 Feb 2008 20:20 GMT > On the other hand we know of many users who use another internal HDD as > the recipient of the clone and rarely run into any problems simply because > the system contains two internal HDDs. But if the data is important or > vital to you it's best to use an external device as the recipient of the > clone. To expand on this idea, if your power supply goes nuts or a major surge hits, it's likely to take out all the drives if it takes out one. Also, the advantage of having the drive external is that it can be in a different place. If the backup is sitting on a nearby desk and the place burns down...any legitimate backup plan requires an offsite copy.
> Incidentally, one of the very major advantages of the Casper program we've > mentioned is that should you use another internal HDD as the recipient of [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Naturally there's no problem along these lines with any disk-cloning > program when using a USBEHD as the recipient of the clone. Sata makes this a little easier because the cable is easy to remove, but you still have to open the case to pull the cable out of the backup drive or mobo. eSATA is an option, but not many mobos have this and it would require a PCI or PCIe card if you don't have it. Actually, IMO when eSATA becomes standard on mobos this will be the best way to attach external drives...you get internal speeds on an external drive, at no real cost. USB....hah! :-)
-John O
Anna - 13 Feb 2008 21:06 GMT Anna wrote...
>> Incidentally, one of the very major advantages of the Casper >> program >> we've mentioned is that should you use another internal HDD as the [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >> with any disk-cloning program when >> using a USBEHD as the recipient of >> the clone. (SNIP)
> Sata makes this a little easier because the cable is easy to remove, but > you still have to open the case to pull the cable out of the backup drive [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > -John O I would agree that as a backup device an external SATA HDD having SATA-to-SATA capability is a most desirable hardware arrangement even aside from the ease of eliminating the potential of a boot problem following the disk-cloning operation as John points out.
Another important advantage of SATA-to-SATA connectivity is the high speed of data transfer using such a device as compared with USB devices (at least until USB 3.0!).
More & more motherboards are coming equipped with eSATA ports which makes this type of connectivity easily available and a number of desktop PC cases also come equipped with SATA or eSATA ports as well - the SATA data cable permanently attached to the port is simply connected to one of the motherboard's SATA connectors.
In addition, there are many adapters on the market having an eSATA port that is fitted to the backplane (slot) of a desktop's PC case - again, its SATA data cable simply connected to one of the motherboard's available SATA connectors.
And where laptop/notebooks are concerned it now appears that the eSATA ExpressCard device can provide this SATA-to-SATA connectivity together with external SATA HDD "bootability". Anna
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