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Very innocent user: is a CLONED drive the same as a DRIVE IMAGE?

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I see within Windows I have an option to make a Drive image. From my WIndows rescue disk, I then have an option to restore a drive from a drive image. So assuming my Drive C is still intact and working, and I restore the image, I imagine I get back where I started at the time I made the image of the drive..

Is this the same result exactly as using eg Acronis to CLONE a drive, and then copying (or restoring?) that cloned drive back onto my Drive C

So I suppose eventually my question comes down to a confusion of the semantics of

full restore of drives and partitions,

putting back a cloned drive, and

restoring a drive image..

 

I am happy to read any article to clear my muddled thinking!

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Grahame, there are a number of different points in your questions above.

In Windows Backup (typically shown in the Control Panel as Back up and Restore (Windows 7)) there is an option to create a System Image which can then also be used via the Recovery Environment options to recover the system.

A System Image in this context is a snapshot of your Windows OS drive / partition including any user data & applications stored on the same.

See webpage: How to Restore System Image Backups on Windows 7, 8, and 10

An Acronis Clone should be a 1:1 duplicate copy of an entire disk drive created on a second disk drive of equivalent size.  I use the words 'should be' as there have been posts in the forum where this has not been the case due to Acronis Universal Restore being invoked during the clone process, where this in turn makes changes to device drivers on the target clone drive due to hardware differences being detected.

With a cloned drive, there is no need to restore or copy the drive contents back to the original drive - the process here would be to swap out the original drive and replace it with the cloned one.

An Acronis Backup creates a backup image .tib file with a compressed copy of the source data but here there is a choice of the type of backup image to be created.  For Windows Recovery, you need to create a Disk & Partitions type backup as otherwise essential system files & programs will not be captured in the backup due to OS locks.  The alternative backup type is to create a Files & Folders type backup, which does exactly what it says, but is not suitable for using with protected System files or folders.

See KB 1540: Difference between Backup and Disk Clone for a more detailed description of these two methods of backing up your data, including video tutorials and also links to other resources on associated subjects.

I think that is clear..but I suppose in all cases, if the drive totally failed and I replaced it with a different one, that different one might need different drivers or configuration.. would that confound both Acronis and the Windows Image?

 

Grahame, if you recover your backup image (Acronis, Windows System or other backup software) to a new disk drive that has replaced the original drive physically inside the computer then provided you are using the same drive mode there should be no need for device drivers or configuration.  Example: both old & new drive connect via SATA using AHCI.  It doesn't matter is the old drive is a HDD and the new one is a SSD, as this is a common scenario where Acronis and other backup tools are employed.

very concise, and clear. Thanks bye