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Creating regular clones of SSD

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I'm now on the fourth SSD C: drive in the  Windows PC which I bought in 2013, so I plan to take regular (weekly?) clones of the SSD to my DROBO RAID disk array.

As I understand it, the clone is created by using a "Shadow Copy" (I'm unsure of the nomenclature; I'm sometimes unsure of my own name these days). The shadow copy is created on the source drive, and I don't think you can avoid this.

The thing that reduces the life of an SSD is multiple re-writes, and it seems to  me that by taking regular clones, I'd be reducing the life of my SSD, not exactly a good idea!

Have I got this strait,  so far?

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I'm now on the fourth SSD C: drive in the  Windows PC which I bought in 2013, so I plan to take regular (weekly?) clones of the SSD to my DROBO RAID disk array.

Please see the link in my signature that describes the difference between clone and backup in ATI.

Put simply, you cannot clone your SSD to your DROBO RAID disk array unless you want to risk wiping out everything on that disk array!  A clone is a 1:1 disk copy from source to target where the target is wiped as the first step!  Cloning cannot be scheduled, it is a pure manual operation.

You can make regular full disk & partitions backup images of your SSD to a location on the Drobo.

As I understand it, the clone is created by using a "Shadow Copy" (I'm unsure of the nomenclature; I'm sometimes unsure of my own name these days). The shadow copy is created on the source drive, and I don't think you can avoid this.

Shadow Copy (aka Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service / VSS) is used by both Backup and Clone operations as well as by many other functions on a Windows computer.  VSS uses space on any of the drives / partitions where it is needed.  The free Acronis VSS Doctor tool (link in my signature) can show you what VSS is using on your drive(s) and help ensure this is set to the optimum configuration and performance.

The thing that reduces the life of an SSD is multiple re-writes, and it seems to  me that by taking regular clones, I'd be reducing the life of my SSD, not exactly a good idea!

Most modern SSD drives should be capable of millions of read/write operations but you would need to consult the manufacturers support site for full specifications for your specific SSD drive model.

Clone or Backup is mainly a read operation from the source drive with the exception of snapshot data captured by VSS during that process.  The balance here is between making a regular backup image of your drive and the time it would take you to rebuild the drive in the event of a failure without a current backup to recover from, and the cost of any loss of important data.