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Can I clone HDD to HDD through USB?

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Because I want to be very safe I weekly use True Image 2014 to clone my C drive to HDDs in two places. First to another HDD within my desktop. The second to a HDD in an enclosure attached to my desktop thru USB. I hope that if my C drive fails that I can throw it away and replace it in its bracket in my desktop with either of the 2 cloned HDDs created as above.  [Note I do NOT intend to try to boot up using the cloned HDD while it is still attached by the USB port]. Are both of these created HDDs bootable when put inside the desktop?

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Greetings,

Safe is great.  Good idea to keep more than one back up of your data.  However, there are inherient risks when cloning.   You can also run into problems cloning from one disk to another in the same machine, if you leave both disks connected and boot into windows.  Additionally, cloning to a target connected via USB is not recommended.   

What we recommend:  Full disk image back ups to another internal disk or to a USB device.  Disk image back ups are preferred to cloning.  They are safer and offer greater flexibility to manage and recover your data.  Why not use both methods for even greater piece of mind.  If you do clone, please follow the recommendations in this video and KB article.  This should ensure the highest probability of success and protection of your data.

https://kb.acronis.com/content/44741

 

 

 

Thank you for your prompt and knowledgeable answer.

But is not the difference between a clone and a "Full disk image back up" that the latter copies only the data and does not copy the operating system?

Greetings,

A full disk image will copy the entire disk, its partitions, and all data, including the OS.

Just to give you a bigger picture.

You have one disk, OS installed (example) windows 8

The disk contains 3 partitions

System Reserved, C:\ (windows partition) and D:\ (Data Partition)

You create a full disk image back up

You can restore an individual partition

You can restore all partitions on the disk

You can restore an indivudual file contained in any one of the partitions

You can mount and browse the image (and copy files) to and from it

These are just a few of the benefits of disk images offer over cloning.