OK-Whatever. I am just speaking from experience and a long conversation with a tech at Casperxp about image versus cloning. I won't interfere again.

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per Lighten up, I was trying to point out that both will work. You did make an erronious statement about imaging though. We all make occasional wrong steements here. I do it more than I care to admit. You have made many helpful responses here that I have seen. Cloning is a perfectly acceptable method of backing up but does have the downsides I mentioned.

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Actually if you have a Seagate, or Maxtor hard drive, I don`t know why you would want to pay good hard cash for a copy of Acronis. The link I gave at the start of this thread is to the Seagate "Free" DiscWizard download link. Actually Seagates DiscWizard is a rebranded version of Acronis True Image. All that is required is to have at least one Seagate, or Maxtor hard drive for DiscWizard to achieve functionality.

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OtherHill-Please explain this. i use cloning all the time and reboot the disk and use it as I want. "First of all if cloning disk to disk the target disk cannot be used for anything else, regardless of the size relitive to the host disk."

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If the OP uses thier external drive as the target drive to clone thier boot drive then that external drive is locked up with the cloned image on it. Cloning software uses the whole partition. In hindsight I guess you could partition the external to free up any excess capacity on the external. Hope I have explained what I mean. In sum I guess the point is the external can't be used for anything else if you cloned to it.

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Here is the difference. Take it for what it is worth. For all practical purposes, an image and a clone are identical - it's just a clone is an exact copy where an image is an exact copy compressed into a single file or set of files. A clone can be installed and booted up, an image would have to be restored to a blank drive using the imaging software's restore process, which can usually be run from a bootable CD. The advantage to images is you can store more "stuff" on the hard drive you are using for storing images, or you can use alternate media (CD, DVD, etc.) for the image.

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per, you are correct on most points. An image can be applied to a partition that has data on it too. The image will simply replace whatever is currently on the partition, just like a clone does.

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BUT-You have to restore it from another bootable media. It will not boot from its own MBR.

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per One other thing I just thought of. Some folks have tried to simply copy a boot partition to a different partition. When doing that is when some files are not copied and therefore the copy will not function like the original. Perhaps that is what you were originally thinking of.

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No, I became aware of that years ago with the advent of XP from 98. An image has to booted from a CD or a floppy. You cannot image a drive and just stick it in the IDE and boot. You must have a bootable media to restore the MBR.

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Read post 12. It explains it.

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Well, Nick should have a good understanding of the various methods of backing up your boot partition, or even an entire drive.

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Does that mean you agree, or are you just being condescending? LOL!! I am trying to explain something here but get nothing but rebuttals.

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I basically agree with you. Wheather you use clone or image depends on what you are trying to accomplish. There are pros and cons to both methods. I use imaging because I feel optical disks are more reliable that harddrives. I have multiple computers at my disposal so if one if down it isn't the end of the world. I am typing from my home built TIVO in my home theater right now. The reason I responded to this post at all was you comment that you couldn't use imaging to restore a partition. Ike Peters mentions using cloning utilities from the HD makers. They are an example of what I was saying about locking an entire drive up with a clone. You could have an 80GB drive with 30GB of data on it and clone to a 320GB drive and you have tied up the entire drive in order to preserve the clone. Imaging would only use something in the neighborhood of 20GB of the 320GB drive.

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This is becoming really dumb. If you use a clone program to back up a 50 gb hdd to a 500 gb hdd you will still have all the remaining space to use. You don't lock up the remaining 450 gb. You obviuosly have never used ghost or any other cloning program. I have been using them for years. You really need to educate yourself before posting on something you know nothing about.

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per, I have used Ghost for years but will admit I never cloned a disk with it. I have used disk cloning tools that the drive manufacturers provide and they work just as I described. I would guess that is why Ghost isn't free.

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I rest my case.

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Hi to All, Iam the originial poster on this topic Nick and I want to thank everyone who replied to my ? ,I definitly did not expect so many replies ! On the needing a bootable CD or DVD with cloning my internial can I assume the OEM copy that came with my PC of WinXP would work for that ? Or do I need to create one ? I have a DVD+-RW and a DVD-ROM both a LG product. Also Iam curious about the WinXP built in backup utility I just found out yesterday that WinXP even had a backup system built into it ,whats your opinion of this for backing up and can I place the Windows XP backup on my externial drive ? So far my H.D. (internial) has 212G.B. available ,its a 250G.B. H.D. however for drive C there was a total of 227 G.B. .There is also a partition drive D on the internial which is 5.22G.B. with 5.18 used, I had this partition on my internial drive B/4 I had to perform a fresh install of O/S I was told I could just delete that partition which suppose to hold the factory restore ,however when I deleted it many of my apps would not work , restored it back from the recycle bin and the apps that where effected went back to working correctly. Is it common for the partition drive to have many of the same folders such as the control panel etc ,also when I do a H.D. search on my PC it list C,D as the drives to search ? I always change it to drive C only B/4 proceeding ? I apoligize I have gone off the subject at hand .I have googled the back up ? and came accross many options from shareware to freeware and then the good advice of those here at computing.net. After I check into the WinXP backup utility ,I will make a decision on which way Iam going to use for backing up .Also its true what one reply said about Seagate having a free backup application as long as you have the information from your purchase they allow you to download ,my problem is Iam on a dial ISP and since I may be moving soon Iam not going to switch over to cable internet yet and the download its aprx. 92M.B. which Iam sure the ISP will disconnect B/4 completing a download this size ! I want to thank everyone of you again ,and I will let you know the outcome ,also any input on the useless partition and how I can delete it without removing the files that somehow ended up on the partition ,perhaps dragging and dropping them onto drive C ? Well take care and have a relaxing Sunday . Best Wishes ,Nick

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Nick I have no experience with Acronis but I have read it works like Ghost. Here is how Ghost 2003 or newer works. First of all you can create an image to most any media, including over a network. If you create an image to Optical media Ghost can automatically make the disk/s bootable. Ghost can span multiple disks as long as Ghost can identify the drive. Ghost CDs from 2003 on are bootable and you can use that CD to start the restore process. You can also create a restore disk if that works better fro you. Can be on floopy, CD, DVD, zip disk, whatever you can boot to. That disk just loads drivers to access the image you wish to access. Some older computers can't necessarily utilize some of these features. In that case you can use PC DOS (maybe DR DOS) which is on the Ghost CD to get a usable command prompt and restore from there. I use Ghost 2003 but newer versions of Ghost can also perform intregal backups. That simply means Ghost only writes the changes to the partition/ disk since the last backup. As far as Seagate cloning software goes, all the major drive makers have cloning software available for free. Many are bundled with retail drives. These utilities are primarily intended to copy your existing drive contents to a new drive. They can be used for cloning a drive but they would be more cumbersome. If you intend to regularly backup/ image your system then dedicated software is the way to go IMO. None of the free cloning tools can clone just one partition on a multipartition drive, for instance. Ghost can do that and you will find that feature useful. Your boot/ OS drive may need imaging at a different frequency than say your programs partition or your music partition. Partitioning allows you to restore only one partition without affecting the remainder of the drive. I have not tried to restore from a WinXP backup. I am not sure how you are to access the backup file if WinXP is down. Guess I should investigate that. I have tried using the WinXP backup and it seems to work OK. I am not sure what the intended use is for that backup utility.

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I use NTbackup. You have it already. It has worked for years. It is one of the best choices. There are plenty of backup ways. Everything from rsync, to dd, to cat and others that can be used on windows, and *nix's. I used to love ghost until version 9. But I did buy version 10 anyway. Acronis is nice in many respects. We use g4u for odd OS's but ghost can other could do it if you use the correct switches. I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.

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