Difference Between Cloning and Backup?
Hello,
I happen to be on True Image 2013, but I assume the questions remains relevant.
I want to be able to restore my hard drive to a clean config like the one after I just set it up.
What is the difference between cloning and backup?
I basically want the hard drive to look the same as when I installed it the very first time, regardless of added files. I back up files to the cloud so I really need my applications to come back to normal. I can scoot the files I back up like word and excel files back into the appropriate places. I just don't like reinstalling all my applications after a hard drive / windows failure/ virus infection.
So: should I clone or backup? And what are the differences/drawbacks?
Best,
Tom Claugus II

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To me, the biggest down side to cloning is the risk factor. Probably the biggest risk is a misake by the user. Either from inexperience or from being so familiar with cloning that is becomes second natutre and he gets in a hurry and fails to really pay attention to details. A mistake by the user or a program or power malfunction means the loss of all the data on the master disk. Some users can reover from backups but some have no other backups. So, I avoid cloning and do backups and use the backups for my recovery and I be sure that my backups incolude DISK IMAGE BACKUPs which include ALL partitions..
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When I clone, I name my disks SOURCE and TARGET, so there is no chance I will make a mistake. Not everone does this, but if u can it helps.
David
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