Backup pgm to clone disk

Discussion:

(too old to reply)

ps56k

2013-12-04 21:17:56 UTC

I have used Acronis on my XP machines for years
to clone disks - to migrate to larger disks.
I'm lucky to have Dell laptops with modular bays
that can handle a hard drive bay module vs external USB drive.

Well - our latest Win7 64-bit Dell Latitude E6400 laptop
doesn't have any modular bays - but several nice USB ports.

I've seen several comments about the recent Acronis versions being buggy.

SO - suggestions for Backup/Clone software for Win7
to create the bootable clone using a USB external SATA drive as the target ?

--
/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/
No Good Deed -
Goes Unpunished

mike

2013-12-04 22:51:16 UTC

Permalink

Post by ps56k
I have used Acronis on my XP machines for years
to clone disks - to migrate to larger disks.
I'm lucky to have Dell laptops with modular bays
that can handle a hard drive bay module vs external USB drive.
Well - our latest Win7 64-bit Dell Latitude E6400 laptop
doesn't have any modular bays - but several nice USB ports.
I've seen several comments about the recent Acronis versions being buggy.
SO - suggestions for Backup/Clone software for Win7
to create the bootable clone using a USB external SATA drive as the target ?

look into ESATA.

I've used older versions of Acronis.
There are some gotchas.
Win7 puts that small hidden partition at the front.
That messed up the drive numbering, so my version of acronis
wouldn't restore properly.
I used Gparted to partition the drive without the hidden partition
and reinstalled the OS.
After that, backup/restore worked for the same drive interface.
But I never was able to backup an IDE drive and restore it to SATA.
Had to reinstall everything on SATA. Then Acronis worked for SATA.

I have had instances where the restore seemed to work, but wouldn't boot.
Booting the recovery drive and letting it automagically fix the
boot problem usually worked.

There may be activation issues. Most of my machines are Dell, so
I wouldn't see them.

I never tried to boot from USB because of the speed issue.
No advice on whether restoring to USB would be bootable.

Might be interesting to google sysprep.
I managed to get a drive moved to a different machine with it,
but you'll need a license that permits that.

...winston

2013-12-05 00:45:06 UTC

Permalink

Post by mike

look into ESATA.
I've used older versions of Acronis.
There are some gotchas.
Win7 puts that small hidden partition at the front.
That messed up the drive numbering, so my version of acronis
wouldn't restore properly.
I used Gparted to partition the drive without the hidden partition
and reinstalled the OS.
After that, backup/restore worked for the same drive interface.
But I never was able to backup an IDE drive and restore it to SATA.
Had to reinstall everything on SATA. Then Acronis worked for SATA.
I have had instances where the restore seemed to work, but wouldn't boot.
Booting the recovery drive and letting it automagically fix the
boot problem usually worked.
There may be activation issues. Most of my machines are Dell, so
I wouldn't see them.
I never tried to boot from USB because of the speed issue.
No advice on whether restoring to USB would be bootable.
Might be interesting to google sysprep.
I managed to get a drive moved to a different machine with it,
but you'll need a license that permits that.

I've restored using Acronis (version 10, 11, 13) Win7 Pro with and
without a System Reserved (no drive letter) partition as the first
partition to IDE and SATA drives. Image creation and restoration using
the bootable media or the desktop Acronis version have been successful
with one sole failure.

That failure, my fault, was when I inadvertently created the the image
for both drives (both Win7 Pro) on a dual boot (2 drive system) from the
second booting operating system drive and later initiated the
restoration from the first bootable operating system drive which mixed
up the correct drive letters (since the active booted o/s was always C:)

Running Windows repair would have taken care of it but fortunately it
was only necessary to rebuild the boot manager using EasyBCD edit
assigning the correct drive letter C and D to the first and second o/s.

--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

J. P. Gilliver (John)

2013-12-06 07:39:04 UTC

Permalink

[]
[]

Post by mike
There may be activation issues. Most of my machines are Dell, so
I wouldn't see them.

[]
Why - do Dell use volume licencing or similar, and you have a Dell
restore disc?

--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)***@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

the plural of 'anecdote' is not 'evidence'. Professor Edzart Ernst, prudential
magazine, AUTUMN 2006, p. 13.

Paul

2013-12-06 17:15:48 UTC

Permalink

Post by J. P. Gilliver (John)
[]
[]

Post by mike
There may be activation issues. Most of my machines are Dell, so
I wouldn't see them.

[]
Why - do Dell use volume licencing or similar, and you have a Dell
restore disc?

On the older OSes, an OEM installation uses SLIC activation.
That means, activation is handled transparently.

Windows 8 changes that.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Windows-8-OEM-OA-3.0-Piracy-Genuine-Microsoft,16636.html#Windows-8-OEM-OA-3.0-Piracy-Genuine-Microsoft%2C16636.html?&_suid=138634944974103446689018832034

"To crack down on piracy, manufacturers will be required to write
a unique Windows product key -- which is associated with the
hardware hash -- into the system's BIOS instead of using the same
product key for every shipped desktop or laptop."

On the older OSes, a table in the BIOS called SLIC, was
the authorization for OEM activation. You might even find
that a number of "Dell" installation CDs or DVDs, could
work because the SLIC was effectively saying "this is a Dell".
In other words, your Dell computer with Dell motherboard,
might be able to run a Dell WinXP CD or a Dell Win7 DVD
(plus or minus drivers). The Windows 8 scheme, by comparison,
sounds more specific.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS#SLIC

Paul

Philip Herlihy

2013-12-05 14:05:48 UTC

Permalink

Post by mike

look into ESATA.

+1

If using USB, put the disk to be cloned in the USB enclosure (or
adapter) and the disk to be written-to in the PC. I've found that
prevents a proportion of failures when trying to write large volumes of
information to USB devices.

--
Phil, London

c***@snyder.on.ca

2013-12-05 00:29:08 UTC

Permalink

On Wed, 4 Dec 2013 15:17:56 -0600, "ps56k"

Both EasyUS and HDClone work well.

c***@snyder.on.ca

2013-12-05 02:19:23 UTC

Permalink

Post by c***@snyder.on.ca
On Wed, 4 Dec 2013 15:17:56 -0600, "ps56k"

Both EasyUS and HDClone work well.

It's EaseUS, by the way. EaseUS ToDo backup. HDClone is from Miray.

The self booting disk from EaseUS is a windows disk. Miray has a Unix
style boot (non-windows anyway). Both work very well - can clone from
any drive type to any drive type, doesn't matter what size, or how
many of what kind of partitions, as long as there is enough space on
the drive. Can clone drives, image drives, image partitions - you
name it.

And both of them are one heck of a lot less expensive than acronis

Sir_George

2013-12-05 01:45:20 UTC

Permalink

I use IFL (Image For Linux) from TerabyteUnlimited. They, also, have a
IFW (Image For Windows) package. Visit there site for more information.

--
Sir_George