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Cloning my internal HDD

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Hi Guys:

My knowledge is quite basic, so forgive my ignorance, please. I want to clone my current internal disk to an external one as a precautionary measure, in case of failure. For your information, the external disk is a Western Digital Elements 1TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive and I'll be using a rather old version (2008) of True Image: Acronis True Image 11

I'd appreciate your help with the following: I understand that I can clone my internal HDD (i.e. all its information, including the installed operating systems, data, etc.) using two methods: manual and automatic. The manual method gives the option to remove or keep all information from the internal disk but what about the automatic method: will it keep it (or remove it) automatically?

Thanks for your help!

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Garvaluk,

If you want to be able to restore your disk on the same disk or a new disk, you need to backup your disk using a disk and partition backup.
This will create a TIB file on your backup disk. This TIB file contains the sector-based image of your disk: everything your need to restore your computer.
When you create this backup, make sure your select all partitions to be included in your backup.
Once your backup is done, use ATI (Acronis True Image) to validate it.
Also, create an Acronis recovery CD/Flash drive, and try to boot your computer on it (make sure that your BIOS settings allow to boot on a DVD/CD or USB flash drive). When you have booted, verify you can access your backup, your main disk, mouse and keyboard normally. This will be the method you use to restore.

This way, you can easily update your backup by adding the changes.

A clone is something different in ATI land. The result of cloning is an exact copy on your disk: the result is a disk, not a file. If you want to update it, you have to rewrite a new disk. Don't go there unless you are absolutely positive you want to clone your disk.

Pat L,

Many thanks for your reply. Just to be sure, could you confirm for me please, that using partition backup will allow me to restore all the information stored in the internal HDD — that is, installed operating system, data, software, etc. — in case the internal disk fails?

Thanks again.

Yes, it will. Make sure you select all partitions and/or the entire disk checkbox when you select what to backup.